Chords for Reggae Bass Masterclass: Creating Bassline for Riddim

_ _ [E] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
In this lesson we're going to do something really interesting.
We're going to take one of the redeems, [E] redeem number one, Mel's redeem, and we're going
to see what we can do with it in terms of creating a baseline for it.
I don't know exactly what I'm going to do, what I'm going to teach, but the point of
this is to show you how I think, what is my thought process when creating a baseline.
And it's going to be based around the tools that you should already have an idea about,
which is the triads, the fifths, the octaves, the arpeggios, different variations in rhythm,
space.
So we're going to combine all of this to create something interesting.
Initially we're not really going to be thinking about, okay, I'm going to create a baseline
for this because I would have a certain mindset for that.
I'm just going to give you, okay, is this chord so we could play this?
Is this chord, we could play that?
So just give you the possibilities, which is like the foundation.
And then from those possibilities we would actually create the baseline, giving more
thought, more [D] attention.
Alright, so let's go straight into it.
So the rhythm, we start with the two chords in introduction, which are D [E] and E.
And then
[F#] we go to F sharp.
So the key of the song is F sharp minor, [B] is F sharp and B [F#] minor.
F sharp minor and B minor.
Those are the two chords.
It's chord one and chord four.
The F sharp [E] minor is chord one [B] and the B minor is chord [D] four.
And these are chord six, the D major, [E] and then the E major is chord seven.
[N] Okay, so we're going to start with introduction.
So what could we do with introduction?
So we have, it's going to go D and E.
So the most simplest thing that we could do is just
play those root notes.
[D] Just [E] that.
Okay?
[F#m] _ [D] So that would work perfectly.
You're not getting the song too busy.
You're already preparing for something to come.
But we could add something more.
We could play the octaves.
_ [E] Something like that, okay?
So now see what it would sound like with the octaves. _ _ _
_ _ [F#m] Okay?
So that's another idea.
We could play fifths, okay?
[D] _ So we're going to go the fifth and the root note.
That would be for chord D.
[Am] The fifth is just the fifth above, which is going to be A and
D and [B] then a [E] B and an E.
So we could do with this rhythm.
[D] _ _ _
[N] Okay?
So it would sound like this.
[D] _ _ [E] _ _
[D] Okay?
So I mean, we could complicate it more.
We could play a triad.
_ [E] _ _ Okay?
We could play the triads for each chord.
So [D] you're going to go root, [Am] major third, fifth.
And [B] then I would go to the fifth, for example.
Slide to the fifth of the next chord, which is an E, which is here on the ninth [G#m] fret.
And [F] you play the triad [E] backwards.
_ So [B] _ [E] _
[N] okay?
So let's see how it sounds. _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [F#m] Okay? _ _
So you see what we're doing.
We have two chords.
And what can we do with it?
And just experiment.
And we're not going too much in terms of rhythm.
[F#] So this is the basic idea when you're creating a song.
Is okay, what can I do?
What do I know?
What are the tools that I already have acquired?
And what can I try to do with it?
Okay, so that's enough with the introduction.
We would keep it simple.
And then we'd go to the actual song, the F sharp [B] minor and the B minor.
[F] Okay?
So we're going to start now very simple, actually, just playing root notes.
And we're going to focus on making something interesting with the rhythm.
Just playing root notes and trying to find a rhythm that is interesting.
Okay?
So we [D] have the introduction.
[E] Let's go to the E.
[F#m] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
So [F#m] listen.
_ _ _ _ What am I doing here?
[F#m] I'm not playing the one.
The one, if you hear there's a [Bm] kick.
Kick, snare.
[F#m] One.
_ _ _ _ [B] So you let [Bm] the [F#m] kick breathe.
So you let the kick through, [Bm] let the kick read. _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [Bm] One, two, one, two, [F#m] three, four.
Playing on the two.
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [F#m] Okay?
So this will be very simple.
So something else we could do.
We could play the fifth and [C#] going into the root.
So the fifth of F sharp minor would be here on the fourth fret on the A string.
So we play it twice.
We're going to do the same rhythm.
So we do.
[F#] _ _ [F#]
And then you do the same thing for the B chord, the B minor [B] chord.
And the fifth is there.
_ [F#] _ Like that.
[A#] Okay?
So when we put it together.
_ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ [F#m] Okay?
Simple. _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ Okay.
_ [F#m] _ Pause.
So now, instead of playing, starting the root [C#m] note and then the [F#] fifth, for the B, we're
going to start fifth, which is going to be our F sharp here on the second fret, [B] and going
to the B.
[C#] So putting the two together is. _ _
And then.
_ _ Okay?
[F#m] _ So let's play like that.
_ _ [B] _ _ [Bm] _ _ [F#m] _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [F#m] _
[F#] So you see, with just fifths, we can already start to do something interesting.
Now let's try and put an actual triad.
So keeping it simple, we're going to play the triads.
The F sharp minor triad and the B minor triad.
So like this. _
_ [Bm] So if you see, [F#] we're keeping the same rhythm.
_ _ _ _ Which is the same rhythm as before.
_ _ _ [B] So one, two, [F#m] three.
One, two, three.
Okay? _
_ _ [B] _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [D] _ [E] D, E.
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
[F#m] Now we can mix up a little.
So we could do a triad for one, and a root and a fifth for the other.
So we could do.
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] So here I'm doing the minor triad for the F sharp minor, [F#] and then I'm doing fifth, [B] root,
root for the B.
_ Minor triad, minor triad.
_ _ _ And we could do fifth, root, root for the B minor.
And then come to the fifth here.
Fifth, root, root.
So we're still playing fifths and roots, but first is here.
The fifth above the root note.
And then the other fifth here.
So [G#] we get.
_ [C#m] _ _ _
[B] _ _ Okay?
[F#m] So let's play along and see how it sounds. _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ [C#m] _ _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _