Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Charatan, and I'm a head of music at as school in North London.

Today I'm jumping in to teach you about basslines, and together we're going to create two contrasting basslines in today's lesson.

Let's get started! Before we move on, we need to get the following things ready.

A piece of paper and a pencil, as well as Digital Audio Workstation.

You should be getting up the track that you've been working on already with your chord sequence with Ms. Ahanish.

Pause the video, get those things out now, and resume when you're ready.

Great! So the demonstrations in this lesson use a free programme called BandLab.

BandLab is for use by over 13s only, and if you are over 13, you still need permission from your parent or carer in order to use it.

So, we're going to start by recapping our prior knowledge of chords briefly, and then we're going to introduce what a bass is.

We will explore how create a root note bassline and add it to your project.

And then we'll create more interest by creating a bass riff.

Let's get started by briefly recapping our prior knowledge about chords.

So here is a grid of all the chords in D minor, that is the key that you should be composing your EDM track in.

How do we label the pitches in a chord? So what do we say D is in a D minor chord? What about F? What about A? Pause the video very briefly, and decide, remember what do we label them? Okay, let's check! So, D is the root, F is the third, and A is the fifth.

And that is the case with any triad.

A root, a third and a fifth.

And it's going to be really important today to be confident labelling the pitches in a chord in order for us to compose a really great bassline that fits well with our chord sequence.

So, let's introduce this bassline, then.

What is a bassline and why is it really important in Electronic Dance Music? Well, a bassline is the lowest part in a piece of music, put simply.

And it's really important because it helps us to dance.

We can actually feel it, and if you've gone to somewhere with really loud music, you can actually feel that bass through the floor.

So it's so important for EDM.

We're now going to listen to two basslines, so "Faded" by Alan Walker, and the bassline from "Bounce" by Calvin Harris.

So you should be listening to that lowest melody, the lowest part in the track.

How are these basslines different, and are there any similarities? Pause the video and draw out a quick table in order for you to list your ideas, and resume when you're ready.

Great, so let's get ready to listen to them, then.

So let's hear "Faded" first, and write down any notes about what you hear about the bassline.

So that was "Faded." If you couldn't hear the bassline very well, it might be worth going to get some headphones to help you hear it.

We're now going to hear "Bounce" by Calvin Harris.

How is it contrasting? Okay, if you need more time or need to listen to them again, you can just rewind the video.

Let's now check our answers.

So, "Faded," the bassline there was one pitch per bar, and it was sustained, in that the note was held on for a long long time like this.

This obviously isn't the bassline, it's way too high on the piano.

And then "Bounce," was really different.

It had many pitches and many notes, it was a riff.

It was really syncopated so that had that drive, and it had two two-bar phrases.

Were there any similarities in the basslines? If you said they're both low in pitch, absolutely! And they both had a synthesised sound.

So they used a synthesiser.

The one in "Bounce," was actually even lower than "Faded," it was really at the very bottom of what we can hear.

So we've introduced that bass, and now we're going to learn how to add a root note bassline.

So let's now look at more in more detail at the bassline of "Faded." So "Faded," is in the key of D minor, and uses this chord progression.

D, and then F, and B flat, and C.

And it uses the following notes in the bassline what do we notice about the relationship between the notes of the chords and the bassline? Take a moment to look at that now.

Yes, if you said they are the same, you are completely correct.

They're the same as the names of the chords.

They are the root notes of the chords, because the root note is the name of the chord.

So root note of an F chord is F.

So, that is what root note bassline is.

It's one of the easiest ways to create a bassline, and can be found in many different types of music.

So we can play the root notes in a sustained way, like we heard in "Faded," like this.

Or we could play it more rhythmically.

What effect does this have on our music? That creates a real drive and it pushes that music forward.

So, you need to then open up your project, and you should have your drum machine or your drumbeat and your chords.

It'd be useful to label your tracks with the respective parts to help you organise your work later.

So, to record a new root note bassline, add another track.

I would then need to change the instrument to something a bit more EDM.

So, remember we used synths.

And I'm going to choose synth bass.

And a deep house one is absolutely fine for what I want, you can experiment with some other ones too.

So I then need to practise my part by typing it in on a computer keyboard.

So my bassline, remember that now, was D, C, F, and B flat.

I find it useful to keep this keyboard up when I'm recording cause I'm a little bit unfamiliar with it.

So I need to check my metronome is on, go back to the beginning, I've practised it and I'm going to record it.

So that's my root note bassline.

Once I've got that in, I then need to quantize it.

So I double click on it, I select all by doing Control-A, and I quantize it to 1 over 16, it's already there, so I click "quantize." So, another way I can do this is by clicking my bassline in.

I'm going to show you how to do that with a more rhythmic idea.

So you right-click on the area you want to create a part in.

Create region, and I'm going to double click into it.

So here's our media editor.

I then need to change the pencil tool, and then I need to find my first pitch.

So, mine would be D here, so then I'm going to create an interesting rhythm.

To make it syncopated, you don't pencil in on the beat, which is here, you do kind of in between.

So I'm going to try this one.

And then I might to make this one a bit longer, like this.

And if I play it to hear what it sounds like.

So that's actually the same rhythm as the chords, that's fine, for now you might want to choose something different.

And then, to make my work quicker, I highlight it all, I copy and paste with my notes and drag, and then do the same for my other two parts of my bassline.

So if we just hear it on its own, let's check that we're happy.

So you can see that I made a mistake, and I copied it to the wrong place.

So then what I'm supposed to do is select it, and drag it back.

The last thing you need to do is rename your track to "bassline root note bassline." Pause the video to complete your task, and familiarise yourself with these instructions again if you are not sure.

This should take you around 10 minutes.

See you in 10 minutes.

Brilliant, excellent work with your root note bassline! I'm sure that's sounding fantastic.

So we've done our root note bassline, and we're now going to create more interest by composing a bass riff.

So another kind of bassline you may wish to add is a bass riff.

And we heard one earlier, in Calvin Harris' "Bounce." so let's listen to Calvin Harris again.

What do you notice about his bassline compared to your own root note bassline? And I'm just going to stop it to remind you don't listen to that melodic riff up high in the texture, we really listen to that lowest part.

So, what did you notice? Well, as we said before, it had many pitches, so it was a riff.

We had two-bar phrases, so it actually mirrored that melodic riff, that melodic riff was , and that was the phrase , that was the second phrase.

And it was really syncopated as well.

So bass riffs, as we notice, are much more melodic or tuneful that root note basslines.

And they're using the root note as well as additional notes from the chord or scale, and will typically have very syncopated rhythms and phrases, which are one, two, or four bars long.

So I think we should be trying to aim for a two-bar phrase in our one to have it to have it nicely divided up.

So just like a root note bassline, bass riffs are low in pitch, and provide this real solid foundation on which other ideas sit on top of.

It really grounds the piece of music.

So there are many different ways to create a bass riff, But we're going to walk through one of them that you might find helpful.

So I'm going to show you with a slightly different example to earlier.

This is the chord sequence from "Free From Desire" by Gala.

So the first thing I need to do is find my root note bassline.

You've done that already.

So my root note bassline is D, A, B flat, and C.

Then I'm going to add in some additional notes from the corresponding chords and scales to create this riff.

So I look at my chord grid below, so my first chord is C minor, okay, so I can maybe use F and A, which I've actually done here, so I've added an F.

This C here is still from that D minor scale, so I can use it, it's absolutely fine, but it's not part of that chord, that's okay.

So my first bit and I've just decided to repeat that root note here.

And here we go, we've got another root note repeated.

And these two pitches together, not from the chord, that's fine, I used my ear to find something I liked, and I've jumped down to that C.

So you can see that I've used a combination of the root note itself just repeated a few times and some additional pitches to travel between these root notes.

So you can use a combination of this chord grid by looking to seeing what pitches you can choose, as well as your ear.

But here it is, a little bit bigger, in case you needed to have a closer look.

So, now it's a challenge for you, I'd like you to look and analyse my bassline up here.

I'd like you to tell me, is it the root, or third, or fifth in the chord, or is it a passing note to another note from the scale which isn't in the chord? Pause the video, take two minutes to just look at my bassline, and see what I've done, and resume when you're ready.

You might want to colour code, using the same colours up and down here.

Okay, so let's look.

So I've used loads of root notes, as I said, so that's the root notes of D minor, A minor, B flat and C.

And then I've had this F here is from the chord, and all the other notes, the other pitches, are actually just from the scale, and that's absolutely fine.

Let's now think about the phrases.

So remember, a phrase is like a musical sentence.

It's a way as a kind of natural break in the music, like if you were singing it.

So I'm going to play it, why not sing along with me? Where would you naturally take a breath? Where would you naturally take a breath? How long is each phrase? Yes, you would do the whole thing in one go, really.

So we've got two two-bar phrases, and keeping on that bass note, or sorry, the root notes creates a natural pause in that music, and that's a really good idea.

Okay, so you can follow my process of creating a bassline, maybe on a real keyboard and if you don't have one, we can do all of this in BandLab.

So the first thing you need to do is create a new track for your bass riff.

I'm going to label it straight away.

I'm going to change the instrument straight away as well to a synth.

Okay, so then you're going to do this similar thing with me with your own chord progression.

So you can even click to start with, and then, and then practise on the keyboard, and working out again which, what sounds good.

You might want to use your musical ear to really listen in.

To do this, you would then loop this section of your work, up to five, and from one.

You might want to turn down some of the other parts, so you can really hear what you're doing.

And then, you can experiment with some ideas.

I might actually mute my root note bassline.

So with your keyboard up, so knowing your root notes, and then press play.

Now a loop.

Once you're happy with whatever you've got, just going to turn it all down a bit.

Once you're happy, you are then going record in in very much the same ways you did before.

So you might want to mute some of the tracks so you don't get distracted.

Press record.

And so that's my bassline, I might then want to go into my media editor, and change some of the pitches.

You can see I made a few mistakes, so I sort these out like this.

It will take some time.

I would then maybe fix a pitch.

I think I actually went down to a wrong note here.

So I'll change that down to an F.

And lastly I'd need to quantize it.

So I select all of it, Control-A, and quantize it by 1 over 16.

If we listen to it, it might sound a bit better.

So I'd then fix that last little bit then, but I'm going to leave that now, for now.

The other way to create a bass riff is to click it in.

And the easiest way to do that is to get your root bass note as a foundation.

So you're going to right-click "duplicate track." And then you're going to rename it to "bass riff." I'm just going to do "bass riff 2." And delete the rhythmic one, and then use this as like, my drawing board.

So I would then shorten that first note, actually all of it.

Like this.

Get my pencil tool, and then maybe I've decided in advance what pitches I'm going to use, I will click in.

So then I would look really carefully.

Maybe repeat other one here.

And then up here.

That sounded a bit funny.

So then I've got a rough idea if we just listen to it on its own.

Again, not perfect, cause I would have spent much more time deciding it on BandLab itself.

So let's solo this.

And I can hear that this probably is not going to fit with my chords at all, this last bit.

So then I would fix those bits.

I don't actually need to quantize at the moment, because you can see I've clicked it all in exactly.

So now you are going to create your bass riff in one of the two ways I've suggested to you.

Make sure that you can loop the top if you're going to figure it out by ear.

Make sure you're adjusting the volume with the various tracks so you can hear what you're doing really carefully.

And feel free to experiment, you can also delete what you've done if you don't like it.

Just click on it, and delete it, and try again.

We're now going to pause the video to complete this task.

Read the instructions really carefully.

Take about 10 to 15 minutes this time to create your bass riff.

Resume the video when you've finished.

Great job! Today you've created two fantastic basslines.

So we had our root bassline, and our bass riff.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag LearnwithOak.

Even a work in progress is really, really interesting, cause it's lovely to see what you are doing.

Take care, and enjoy the rest of the project.

Bye!.