i am an offering | blog tips for worship leaders in the local church

I’m really hoping with these posts to be very practical to musicians who might not have much training.  I love the fact that there are resources out there that are meant to help train church musicians, but the only problem is that you get these powerhouse players for these resources that make everything look so easy and perhaps brush over some of the basics that people don’t think about.

So, that said, today I would like to look at the basics of creating a bassline.  Are you ready?

Step 1: Learn music theory (or at least the basics of it).  There is nothing more important than understanding how the musical structure of a song works.  If you can learn basic music theory (such as knowing the I, IV, V, and vii chords in every key), you will be way ahead of the game.  If you understand musical structure, you will be able to anticipate where your next note should go, know how to fill within a chord, and much more.

Step 2: Practice.

Step 3: After learning music theory, don’t only rely on the bass note of the chord.  If you see something like G/B, don’t skip over the G!  Yes, you must first of all be solid on knowing that you as the bassist are supposed to play the B, but if you don’t know what chord goes over the B, how can you fill and make your baselines more intersting?

Step 4: Practice again.

Step 5: Learn style.  This one can be tricky.  Where do you start?  The best way to do this is first of all, learn step 1, then secondly, find some drum grooves that are written out.  For those of you who go to Lord of Life, I have a poster of them in my office.  Learn where the kick drum and snare drum are written on these drum grooves and match them.  A great way to practice this is by going to the Jam Zone at CyberFret Bass, choosing a style, and just plain doing it.

Step 6: Practice more.  Are you sensing a trend here?

The best things to do when learning how to create bass lines are to know the foundations of music theory, and to know style.

Next time we’ll look at how the drums and bass work together, utilizing these same concepts.