How to Beef Up Your Bass Notes on Guitar

Bass lines are fundamental in electronic and dance music.

Nevertheless, most producers woefully underuse this powerful element in their music.

They end upwardly with deadening basses that follow their chords, and that echo throughout the track.

I've even been guilty of this myself, merely today I'm going to show you nine tips that can aid y'all write better bass lines and spice up your low terminate.

Let'southward have a look.

Tip 1: Play with the Rhythm

Every bit previously mentioned, most producers but follow the root note of their chord progressions and end up with a safe withal boring bassline.

I style to switch it up without doing too much is just by adding rhythm to those notes, fifty-fifty if they play the same pitch.

Take this instance:

Sounds pretty stale, huh?

Simply by adding a second note in this pattern, you get something with a bit more 'movement' to it.

This works because, traditionally speaking, bass instruments wouldn't have a long plenty sustain to hold a note for every bit long as a synth bass would.

So instead, they just played an interesting rhythm. After all, the bass is technically a 'rhythm' instrument.

Even though genres like trance accept one notation held for long periods of time, information technology'southward the notation repetition that drives the tracks and adds interest.

And that'south only the basics.

Tip 2: Add Syncopation

Syncopation is a staple in many genres of electronic music for a reason – it adds such a nice groove to whatsoever drum blueprint.

Wikipedia defines information technology well so I'll evidence you the definition:

The simple formula for writing syncopation is as follows:

Syncopation every bit a like feel to using a triplet grid, merely information technology works with a 16th filigree, allowing it to sound interesting yet rhythmically tight.

Information technology gives it a experience that two different tempos are playing at the same time, but they're not, which is why it sounds then damn cool.

It can be done at half or double times this speed as well, and so feel costless to utilise it on other rhythmic elements other than bass, like fast hi-hats.

Tip 3: Play Notes other than The Root

Shock horror, but did you know you didn't have to follow the root note of your chords?

All jokes aside, I go the temptation to stick to what works. Playing the incorrect bass note, even in the right key, tin muddy up your low cease.

Simply if you lot stick to the chord tones (the notes belonging to the chord playing in a given moment), and so you lot're likely to come up with interesting notwithstanding applied results.

Take this bassline from before:

Nosotros can add some note changes towards the end of each chord, just to add some extra motion.

This sounds particularly cool when we combine information technology with some chords and drums.

Tip 4: Add together Octave Jumps

Octave jumps are one of my favorite tips, because they're unproblematic yet so effective.

Just motion between an octave on the aforementioned bass note to add motion and a different feel. Moving up tends to increase free energy, which can be peachy for builds, but moving downwardly tin can help innovate a new section or repeat.

See how it adds a greater degree of movement so easily?

Extra tip: If you're on Ableton Alive, a quick shortcut to motility notes up or down an octave is Shift + Up/Down Key.

Tip v: Rhythm and Timing (Swing)

We've already talked about playing with the rhythm, simply what if nosotros took it a step farther?

Permit's introduce the concept of swing.

A few musical devices you can use here are:

• moving notes off the grid
• silence
• annotation repetition
• offbeat emphasis
• notation slides

The combination of these tin be used to create a homo feel that is normally not achieved past programming in simple notes.

Take this example here where I utilize a combination of all four of these elements.

This tip varies betwixt genres, so it's worth doing some experimentation of your ain here.

For example, if you're making house or other 4-on-the-floor music, so using groove and swing presets are a great style to add a nice timing to your drum patterns.

Tip 6: Amp + Filter Envelopes

This is more of a bass audio design tip, just how your bass patch sounds makes a big difference on the feel of your bass line.

If you lot're new to the nuts of sound design, a synth envelope is usually fabricated upward of four parts:

Attack – Decay – Sustain – Release

Hence, the term 'ADSR Envelope' is used to depict them.

Attack controls the pluckiness or softness of the beginning of a sound.

Decay determines how long the audio will take to subtract in book after the attack stage.

Sustain determines the level of volume that the decay will driblet to.

Release determines how long the note volition take to fade to silence in one case the key is no longer being held.

A plucky bassline is going to require different note programming to a soft, sweeping bass.

Tip vii: Annotation Length

It'south not just most when yous play a note, but how long besides matters.

Almost producers tend to program in notes then they concur out the full length until the side by side note is played, with no silence.

There's no problem with this, but it doesn't get out much room for interest, so experience free to play effectually with this a flake more.

Dada Life have been quoted as proverb that they will spend many hours deciding on the length of their notes.

Detect when I shorten the notes in the previous bassline, how information technology affects the feel of the beat:

It feels a chip 'tighter' but emptier, as opposed to the previous one which fills out the mix a fleck more.

Tip viii: Introduce Melodic Fills

This is one of the most overrated techniques, but it works very well, especially if you want your bassline to be a focal point in your track.

Basically, you treat your bass like a tune (in certain parts) and let it to movement between notes faster and with feeling.

You may have to play in the upper registers in these parts in order to avoid mud, but it's a killer technique that traditional bass players use all the fourth dimension to add interest to a song, particularly when the melodic elements might be taking a break.

Tip 9: Subtle Development + Variation

So you've got a sick bass loop using all the techniques in this article, now do you just echo it over and over?

You tin, but you lot as well can make information technology more interesting.

For example, you could change every 2nd repeat to accept a dissimilar sense of call and response, or you could add a i-off magic moment, or fifty-fifty completely add a new pattern in a new section.

All of these are interesting techniques that tin can have your bass line farther in a macro sense, not just a micro sense.

Have this example hither:

All I've done is add a fleck of silence on the second repeat and an extra swung repetition on bar 4. Merely subtle changes similar this proceed things interesting.

Need More Tips?

Why not cheque out some of our other manufactures?

• How To Make Time to come Bass
• How To Make Lofi Hip Hop
• Mixing EDM

If you have any questions, please achieve out to me at [email protected].

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Source: https://www.edmprod.com/bass-lines-tips/

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