Top 10 Basslines
Top 10 Rock Bassists
Goal
- Convey knowledge of bass terms and concepts and use this knowledge to build bass lines in GarageBand
Bass Terms
- Tonality
- Everything that makes Western music sounds different
- keys/chords
- Everything that makes Western music sounds different
- Root / Tonic Note
- First note of scale/chord
- Contrary Motion
- Bass moves opposite of melody
- Walking Bass
- Takes steps down the scale
- Chromatic Scale
- Scale with every note (half steps)
- Inversion
- using a note other than the tonic in the baseline
- Bass Riff
- Bass filler/solo, often played as a transition in songs or as an introduction to a song
Product
- Create a blog post with embedded media from SoundCloud, YouTube, and Flickr of bass.
Examples
- Abby’s post
- Chase’s post
- Ben’s post
- Tristan’s post
- Riley’s post
- Phoenix’s post
- Michael’s post
- Megan’s post
- Alex’s post
- Ian’s post
- Hannah’s post
- John’s post
- Jared’s post
- Dillon’s post
- Joseph’s post
- Lucas’ post
- Lun’s post
- Alejandra’s post
- Liliana’s post
- Adam’s post
- Caleb’s post
- Josh’s post
- Phillip’s post
Steps
- Day 1 – Create Blog Post, Add Section Headings, and Define Terms
- Listen to 11:33 Life’s What You Make It – Talk Talk
- Great bass line hook
- Notes for guitar
- Listen to 11:33 Life’s What You Make It – Talk Talk
- Watch Queen – Under Pressure
- Another great bass line
- What are some great bass lines you like?
- Create blog post titled, Bass Recording Project
- Copy and paste the headings below
- Summary
- My First Bass Line
- One of My Favorite Bass Lines
- Second Bass Line
- Bass Terms
- What I Learned and Problems I Solved
- Under the Bass Terms heading
- Copy and paste all the terms
- Start writing the definitions in your own words
- Watch How Music Works with Howard Goodall – Bass
- Day 2 – Watch GarageBand Tutorial for Bass Lines
- Download and unzip Le Duc’s Sample Bass Line Midi file (zip file)
- Watch Le Duc’s GarageBand MIDI Bass Line Tutorial
- Recreate / modifiy Le Duc’s Sample Bass Line MIDI file in GarageBand 10 (zip file)
- Include under the Lesson Bass Line heading
- A screenshot of the tracks; uploaded to Flickr and embedded into your blog post
- The exported notes of the bass line as an mp3; uploaded to Soundcloud and embedded into your post
- Answer the questions (use compositional terms in your answer):
- How was working with the notation editor?
- What was challenging?
- What was revealing?
- How was working with the notation editor?
- Day 3 – Examine One of Your Favorite Song’s Bass Lines
- Find for MIDI file of one of your favorite bass lines
- midiworld.com/files/ is a good site
- Queen’s Under Pressure MIDI
- midiworld.com/files/ is a good site
- Include under the One of My Favorite Bass Lines heading
- Embed a YouTube video of your favorite bass line
- Find a .midi file of the bass line and download it
- Take a screenshot of the bass line tracks in GarageBand, upload to Flickr and embed into your blog
- Export the bass line tracks from GarageBand as an .mp3, upload to SoundCloud and embed into your blog post
- Describe why you like the bass line
- Answer the questions (use compositional terms in your answer):
- What did you notice about the note structure and rhythm of the bass line?
- Where was the tonic note and where are the tension building note(s)?
- What was revealing?
- Find for MIDI file of one of your favorite bass lines
- Day 4 to 2nd to Last Day of Project – Create a Theme with Bass
- Examine the onlinesequencer.net example with bass notes
- Share How to “speak” in odd time signatures
- Create a 8 measures theme that has a bass line that builds and releases tension with your melody and/or harmony tracks
- Remember that the note and chord progression should be in C Major.
- Use the bass notes that best support you melody line.
- Feel free to copy and paste the notes from Mr. Le Duc’s bass note progression sample (GarageBand 10).
- Remember to start on the tonic note/chord (C) and build tension in measures 4 and 5 with the Dominant / Subdominant note/chords (green) and end on the tonic (C) note / chord (red).
- Remember that rising notes support happiness and falling notes sadness.
- Remember that increasing tempo support happiness and slowing tempo sadness.
- Include under the My Bass Line heading
- Take a screenshot of the chord track notation; uploaded to Flickr and embedded into your blog post
- Export the theme as an mp3; uploaded to Soundcloud and embedded into your post
- Answer the questions (use compositional terms in your answer):
- How did you structure of the bass line?
- Where is the tonic note(s) and where are the tension building notes?
- Are you using Contrast, Repetition, and/or Variation? Which measures?
- Second to Last Day
- Create What I Learned heading
- Explain what you learned and at least one problem you overcame
- Include a link to a tutorial you used and describe how you used it
- Create What I Learned heading
- Last Day
- Present compositional themes
Tools
- GarageBand
- YouTube
- Soundcloud
- Flickr
Resources
- Free MIDI editor: onlinesequencer.net (with example bass line)
- Free MIDI files midiworld.com/files/
- Free chord MIDI files tabnabber.com
- GarageBand
- Music Theory
- Bass defined at Wikipedia
- How Music Works with Howard Goodall – Bass
- How to “speak” in odd time signatures – Adam Neely
- Bass Playing Tips
- Bass Guitar Tips from Leap Frog Studios
- GarageBand Basics Screencast Video Tutorial
Feedback Form
- Bass Recording Project Feedback Form (PDF)