Progress By Bass
Aug. 4, 2024
In this article, I should probably write about chord progressions, but since I can’t, I’ll write about the bass instead.
I don’t know many people who compose music, but when I talk to people who do, I feel that chord progressions are a big factor in composing. Some people say that if you follow the chord progressions, it’s easy to compose a song.
I have never studied chord progressions since I learned about them in music class in junior high school, which is I, IV, I, V, I (A, D, A, E, A for A major). And I don’t want to study them much because I want to think about how to compose myself.
However, for writing this article, I tried to look up jazz and bossa nova chord progressions. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the names of many of the chords on the pages, so I gave up reading them. But, I thought there are some rules or fundamentals of chord progressions. In jazz and bossa nova, where improvisation is important, if the chord progression and basic measure structure (whether 8 measures or 12 measures) are not decided, the whole band will not be in symphonized. It’s not good if the wood bass and piano follow different chord progressions, or if the drum fill-in comes in at the wrong time. So it’s natural that there are rules.
But, in classical guitar, the score is finalized before playing, and it’s performed by one player. So there is no need for such rules. As long as the song doesn’t sound strange, that’s OK.
Now, enough about chord progressions, let’s get to the main topic. I have almost no knowledge of chord progressions, and not only that, I have hardly ever thought about using chords to progress a song. What I use to progress the song is the bass.
In the songs I wrote, there are often only bass parts at the beginning of the measures. Below are the 3rd and 4th phrases of Tyrrhenian Coast.
Tyrrhenian Coast 3rd-4th phrases
The reason why there is no melody on the first beat is that the bass sound comes to mind first. When I hear the bass sound that I played, I naturally get into the mood for that sound. And once the bass is decided, the chord is naturally decided, and then the melody that matches the mood is added on the bass and chord. That’s the feeling I have.
The bass in above phrases is just a repeating E and A, and as a result I think the chord are progressing with just E7 and A. But I don’t consciously play chords because, as I wrote in the article “Sing With Chord,” when I play the bass, my left hand automatically presses the frets that resonates with it.
In order to make the song easier to play, I mostly use open strings on the bass, but when I want to add variety, consciously make the bass sound different from usual. The following is a continuation of previous phrases.
Tyrrhenian Coast 5th-6th phrases
In this example, the bass changes frequently: D, B, E, A, D, C#, B, E. The chords should change accordingly, but I don’t know much about chords, so I don’t know what they are. The bass is not played on open string, so I moved my fingers one by one to find the bass sound I wanted to make (or rather, hear).
The next song, Fountain in the Forest is an extreme example.
⇒Fountain in the Forest : Staff Notation ↗️
Almost all the basses in this song are A’s. The reason for this is that the monotonous bass represents a fountain that keeps on spouting water regardless of humans. But, in a few measures, I used D’s and E’s for bass. This allowed me to create subtle atmospheric changes in the monotonous music.
For the third small piece in Shopping Street Seaside, I consciously did something out of the ordinary.
Shopping Street Seaside – Piece 3
The notes marked in blue are chord A on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings, so the bass E doesn’t match. But that gives it a mysterious feel, and it’s one of my favorite ideas. (It’s a shame that the bass is quiet in the recording, but the deep bass sounds good in a live performance).
There is also a bass sound that I focused on as a theme. Silver Grass – Gold Moon is a song themed on the gentle autumn full moon. The difference between the first and second marked parts is the issue, so please listen to it, even though it’s a bit long.
Silver Grass – Gold Moon
I think the bass and chords in the second repeat marked in blue are not correct, but the note marked in green is. I used A as the bass here, because I wanted to express the image of a big moon floating in the sky. I feel that this note doesn’t fit the flow of the song. It’s probably wrong from a music theory, but I still wanted to use A.
By the way, I just know that the first beats of this song are almost bass only 🙂
At first, I didn’t realize that I was using the bass to progress songs. As people around me were talking about chord progressions, I wondered why I was composing without knowing chord progressions, and then I realized this fact.
Before I realized, I was composing without knowing it, so I can compose songs without knowing it. However, once I became aware of it, I began to feel like trying to incorporate some ingenuity into the bass. Unlike chords, it doesn’t require any difficult study, so it’s the good method for me. But, the complicate movement of bass makes the song difficult to play, so I only use it in places where I absolutely need a change.
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Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash