School of Rock – Day 6 – Bass Basics

SUMMARY

Write your daily summary last, at the end of the day here… Only one to two sentences. DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS DETAILED ABOVE AFTER COMPLETING THEM

CLASSROOM

Watch How Bass Works (47 minutes)

-The first bass instrument in western music was the organ

-There are many bass lines that go the opposite way as the melody

– bass line is usually the tonic

-Later inversion became more used in bass lines

-bass later in the 20th century became more prominent and the bass was no longer just a background instrument and sometimes had more space in the song to come out

-Bass became one of the most important things in dance music

LAB

Step 1: Watch How to write Chromatic Notes in Hookpad (some bass lines are based on chromatic scale)

screenshot from HookTab

Step 2: Watch 3 ways to use Hookpad’s MIDI drag-drop feature (you can create basslines and more and export to Soundtrap and other DAW – digital audio workstations)

Step 3: Try making a bassline to a chord progression or melody line.

Screenshot from HookLab

Good stuff. I don’t have much else to say.

PRACTICE ROOM

Step 1: Watch How To Add Bass Notes Guitar Strumming Lessons by Tomas Michaud

Screenshot from Tomas Michaud video

Step 2: Download the guitar TABS for his exercise (PDF)

Step 3: Practice one of the exercises

I have heard and played this in many songs. One thing that comes to mind is the intro to Country Roads

Profile in Excellence

Screenshot from Polyphonic at YouTube

Profile in Excellence

Image from Wikipedia

OUTSIDE / JOURNAL / IDEAS

Choice 1: Explore Carol Kaye and James Jamerson’s Profiles in Excellent.  These are two bass players are credited with creating some of the best bass lines!  Then go for a walk and think of the funky work they created.

Choice 2: Flip through the Quizlet on Bass Composition Techniques flashcards a couple times.

After playing with Quizlet, go for a walk and think about bass lines.  Think of songs that have great basslines.  When you are back from your walk, you might want to research more about the notes that make those basslines stand out?

Screenshot from Quizlet Bass Composition Techniques

In this time I worked on a song Andreas and I started yesterday after school.

STUDIO

Play around with playing the low E string (6th string on the top of the neck) on your guitar. Create a simple three note-ish bassline. Get funky with it.  Try different plucking tempos to great the groove. You can even try playing Smoke on the Water

Screenshot from Kidsguitarzone.com

I made a chord progression that I think I might use in a song. I also made a bass line to it but it needs to be developed more I think.

CONTROL ROOM

Record the bass line you developed in the studio.

Today in the control room all I did was try to hook up the drums with logic. I tried and tried and it did not work.

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

Tell your daily story here!  Highlight what you learned and enjoyed most and at least one problem you solved. Problem-solving is one of the most important skills you need in life. Employers want to know HOW you get stuff done as much as WHAT you got done. DELETE ALL OF MR. LE DUC’s INSTRUCTIONS DETAILED ABOVE AFTER COMPLETING THEM

DAILY ACTIVITY EVALUATION

  • Give feedback on the class Content and Process
    • Participation will be part of your leadership project due at the end of the course
  • Fill in the Daily Activity Evaluation

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