Originally Posted By: Lucm
Hello, people. I am the original poster.

Just to clarify for those who asked, I don't have an actual bass. If I did, I wouldn't know how to hold it much less play it. I painstakingly enter each individual note into a MIDI grid and slowly build a song. I enjoy it a lot and I like the results so far. I had begun to make music five years ago but soon gave up on it due to personal problems. I am resuming it now because... well, it's some kind of relief or distraction from my worries. I definitely need the stress relief.

I guess I could call myself a composer, but not a musician. I couldn't "jam" in real time to save my life. My approach is to use the computer to slowly build something that can only be appreciated after it's completed. It reminds me a lot of my childhood, when I used to draw. A drawing can only be appreciated after it's done and you can... uh... hang it on the fridge? :-)

Whatever instrument is leading I find very easy to write. I also handle the drums pretty well. I only struggle with the bass. I guess that's because it's a lot like garbage collectors: people seldom notice it but its absence becomes instantly clear. Songs tend to sound hollow without the bass, but I am not used to paying attention to bass lines because it's always been a "background" instrument. Since I only "play" (with air quotes) by ear, i.e. 100% intuitively, my failure to properly listen to bass lines during my whole life is coming back to bite me in the [*****] now.

I am enjoying the comments, thank you very much, including those from people who play the actual instrument in a way I never will. I always enjoy reading discussions about music. I've been checking out the tips offered. This whole forum is very nice. Thank you for your current and future participation.



THis answers a lot of questions.

However, assuming that you have BB, bass lines should not be a problem as BB does the heavy lifting for you. I can play bass but don't currently have one.... so I rely on BB for 95% of my bass tracks. More on the other 5% in a bit.

BUT...assuming that you want to write your own bass lines...... Can you play a piano keyboard? If so... you can easily use it to play the bass parts using a synth and bass samples/libraries. Do you play guitar? If so, the bass is nothing more than the 4 lower strings one octave down.

On the 5% that I don't use BB on.... I can play a keyboard and have a few here in my studio. I use MIDI and a decent synth sampler with the bass guitar tone I want. It helps if you know a little bit about music and theory but that's really not essential. If you start playing it by ear.... play along to songs..... and if you sit down and take the time to really listen to what the bass is actually playing in the song.... then replicate what you hear if it's only a few notes at a time. IN a matter of a few weeks time you will be playing and able to come up with bass parts for the songs you're recording.


I played in several bands with the same bass player. He couldn't tell you the names of the notes, and he didn't know much about music other than to tell you he liked it, but he would sit down and work out the bass parts to the songs. He eventually got to the point where he knew notes and keys and could play fairly well. I recall showing him note by note the bass part to a complicated song. He learned it by memory and never missed a note once he learned a song.

It's all simply a matter of wanting to learn it and doing the things necessary, and spending the time working on it to accomplish the goal.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 05/12/22 05:17 AM.
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