How to Write a Melodic Bass Drop • Music Theory from Grabbitz "Hero"

 

How to Write a Melodic Bass Drop.

 

 

Free PDF Tutorial
includes multitrack MIDI file

 

If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:
https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2546081/melodic-bass-drop

 

 

 

 

 

Intro.

 

EDM producers didn’t invent the bass drop, but it’s easy to argue they perfected it!

Having said that, though, the bass drop has long since gone stale. After becoming so popular, it was sadly turned into a formulaic cliché. However, every now and then a creative producer comes along with a fresh angle. The recent single “Hero” by Grabbitz (who’s probably my favourite EDM producer), contains an exciting example of this. At 57 seconds into the track, he drops an absolute beauty!

So, inspired by Grabbitz, here’s our 5-step method for making melodic bass drops. But first… Tea!

 

 

 

Step 1. Implied Chords

 

To write a great bass line, you need to think about the accompanying chords. It doesn’t matter whether or not you have chords accompanying your bass line. In fact, in this example there are no actual chords, only implied chords. There are two ways to imply chords, without actually playing chords. You can either outline the chords in your melody, by incorporating the notes from each chord into the melody. This way is slightly more limiting, and if you’re not careful, it can result in melodies that sound more like arpeggios. So, we’ll rely on the second way of implying chords in our example, which is also the way Grabbitz implies them here.

 

In this way, there’s a completely separate bass track that only plays each chord’s root note. Some kind of sub bass sound works well for this, as you don’t want it interfering with your bass synth that’s gonna be in the spotlight for this drop. And to be clear, this track is not a bass line. Merely playing the root of each chord does not make a melody. And a bass line is a melody, hence why this is not a bass line.

 

The role of these root notes is to lay the harmonic foundation, which frees us up to do whatever we want in our actual bass line. Every note in our bass line will be heard in relation to the root being played on the sub bass track at that time, so it’s also a way to guarantee our listeners hear the implied chord we intend them to hear (the first way can easily result in ambiguity over what chord is being implied).

 

So, before you write your bass line, you need a chord progression. Set up four bars of 4|4 with an 1/8 note grid, and your tempo at 100 BPM. Grabbitz is in the key of E minor in this song, so we’ll use it too. The chords in this key are:

 

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