Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
Lesson 25 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
Lesson 25 from: Music Theory for Electronic ProducersTomas George
Lesson Info
25. Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
Lessons
Introduction
00:58 2Basic Music Theory Terms
08:07 3Keyboard Layout and Octaves
06:19 4Working out Major Scales
08:58 5Perfect 5ths
06:42 63rds - Part 1
08:05 73rds - Part 2
07:39 8Perfect 4ths
04:36Chords and Inversions - Part 1
10:05 10Chords and Inversions - Part 2
09:13 11Chord Progressions - Part 1
10:22 12Chord Progressions - Part 2
08:26 13Inversions
08:53 147th Chords
09:48 15Chord Extensions
08:09 16Suspended Chords
02:40 17The Circle of 5ths
04:30 18Minor Scales
08:09 19Chords in the Natural Minor scale
09:56 20Harmonic and Melodic Minor
09:30 21Write the Chords, then the Melody
09:03 22Write the Melody, then the Chords
18:01 23Arpeggios
08:00 24Writing Bass Parts
11:35 25Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
14:10 26Song Analysis - Chords, Part 1
10:17 27Song Analysis - Chords, Part 2
05:58 28Song Analysis - Melody
08:55 29Song Analysis - Arrangement
07:30 30Song 2 Analysis - Arrangement
05:04 31Song 2 Analysis - Chords
08:55 32Song 2 Analysis - Melodies
06:34 33Song 3 Analysis - Chords
11:41 34Song 3 Analysis - Melodies and Arrangement
06:55 35Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 1
10:22 36Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 2
18:47 37Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 3
18:49 38Create a Song from a Drum Beat - Part 4
08:21 39Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 1
08:16 40Create a Song from a Chord Progression - Part 2
08:07 41Create a Song from a Melody - Part 1
07:27 42Create a Song from a Melody - Part 2
09:05 43Modes Intro
04:10 44Ionian
00:43 45Dorian
04:31 46Phrygian
02:09 47Lydian
01:35 48Mixolydian
02:13 49Aeolian
00:39 50Locrian
01:50 51Dorian Mode Example
09:12 52Pentatonic Scales
12:27Lesson Info
Writing Bass Riffs and Adapting Melodies
OK, let's have a look at creating a base rift now. So this is another way we can actually create a baseline. So we don't have to have the base follow the cords, we can have the cords follow the base so we can start off with a baseline. So I've just opened up a new clip here. I'm just gonna draw it in a baseline. So I'm just gonna stick to AKI which was G major just using so far the roots, the third and the fifth and then add a passing note here and then let's see what this sounds like. So love is about trial and error unless you have a midi control and you're playing it also, I want it in the right register. So I want it low. So I do believe creating a base rifts about being quite repetitive. Let's add the drums to this. So this is really just based around the root, which is the G, the third, which is the B the fifth, which is the D, then I have a passing note of an A and of F sharp which is the major seventh. So in theory, in theory, we could just play this G major chord and that will...
probably fit. It might be a bit boring but it will fit. So I'm just gonna draw it in G major core just to show you that it will fit. It will sound a bit bland as well. So you could just have this playing in every beep and uh yeah, we, we probably wanna mix it up your hair soon. So if you remember, we're just playing the, basically the G major chord, but we have an A and F sharp. So we could add a few other chords. We don't have to stick exactly to these rules. I quite like this pattern for the, the chords, the rhythm, we can change it to different notes to see what it sounds. So we have the G, the D and the B was and we also have an A and A N A shop. So let's just, we can do of course, similar to melody writing. It's just a copy this over just so we can see what's actually going on. So we have this here. OK. So now you can see where it lands on this cord. It has a B so we could change this to quite simply a B minor. So the B minor is kind of the same. But instead of the G snap shot, we know this because if we got four, then 51234 and 12345 F sharp and then it repeats again. So it goes back on the G. So maybe we could try a different night, we could try a day ad chord. So we have kind of ad major slash G. So it's a G in the base, but ad major in the core progression. So 1234. So it's F sharp, then 12345. So 12345 F sharp and then 1234 is an A. So this B needs to go down to an A, it gives a different kind of sound. We could try another one. We could try, maybe even a E minor. Let's try that. Let's put this um JB and A repeating the G again at the end, we can try another chord. Remember major, mind and mind and major, major. Mind diminish major for G major. So we could try a minor. Let's try a minor. This will give us a bit of an unusual sound but it might work. Mm Not so much. I didn't like that one. Go back to the G. Look at this could probably have the B going throughout the whole riff as well. So we can just add other notes as well to these chords if we really want. But this is more kind of comes under maybe melody, counter melody. But so then we can write a complete new melody based around this bass R or we can even see if our old melody actually fits, there's no harm in experimenting. So let's find our old melody. Sometimes, this kind of stuff won't work. Sometimes it will. You never actually know. So, here is an old melody. Let's drag it down and just see if it fits. Just gonna get rid of that high B now cos that clashes with the melody. Let's see if this fits. Sounds a bit messy, but it's a starting point. You could go in and find out the bass notes and compare them to the melody or just compare to start with perhaps even the chords with the melody. So let's go back to the chords, select all these and then go to the melody. It's just different ways of finding new parts for your arrangement. There's one thing just writing a few chords and another thing actually making interest in adding new parts. So this is basically our chords here. So let's just drag these across first one's day. Yeah. OK. First note is a B which will fit with that called A G major. Second has kind of a E E DC B kind of fits. Yeah. And then we have the D with the E, the B and the G that kind of fits. It's not maybe not the most ideal thing in the world. This one kind of clashes at F sharp with the G. So we could change this chord to an F sharp or we could even change the melody to a G. So uh there's a few different options we can do same here with the B that works fine. F sharp B that works fine GF sharp. This again. Let's change the melody up to a G and then G, let's change this F sharp ball to a G. Now, I think it should fit a bit better. And we've got the, the chords that fit with the bassline and now the melody that fits with the chords. One thing we need to do here is go into our synthesizers and actually create a bit more space. It's a bit muddy at the moment. Like I said, this isn't really music for you, but it is at the same time, cos our mix is super important. Let's try this with the melody. OK. So now we're gonna try the melody with this new bass ref. So let's move this onto here. So this is just a piano sound. So it's a bit easier to hear what's going on because sometimes you've got all these different synthesizers, it's quite hard to hear what's going on because there's so much sound design. It's quite hard to sculpt in because you can get d tune and different effects and noise from the SIMS. If you just go back to the piano sound, it can be a lot easier. Sometimes it's easier to hear certain clashes and what's going on. I'm just gonna move this chord sequence over to a piano and then when you can hear it works, you can move it back to a central. But I think to start with, it's not always the best thing to do for an RP gator. There's loads of different stuff we can do. Now, we've got a bit more going on. So now I'm just going to extend these cords and just make something a bit more interesting and hopefully some kind of more form a song cos right now I think you should be getting the, the basics of what notes and what chords fit together. But it's more about creating actual music. OK. So now we've got the base in Arpeggio, add the drums and add the melody and so do these and let's pair the whole thing together. Of course, we have these chords playing here. Let's just get rid of these. There we go, the strip it out without the cords or without the drums without the Arpeggio. So it's just the base and the riff. So we did change this riff. We changed the f sharp to a G. So I'm going quite fast in this lecture. But basically, all I've done is I've created a base riff that's repetitive, that fits with new chords. And with these new chords, I've actually adapted the ref to fit these cords. So the baseline has cords and the ref, new ref fits these cords so we can go between the old ref and the new ref. So it's kind of similar, but the old one has cords that fit the riff, the new one, the riff fits the cords, which fits the baseline. So we've got two different sections now. So this is the first section and now we've written a complete new section. 1234, then we can go back to the old section. So, really, this is about a bass riff and creating a bass riff, but it's more gone into how you can create new sections and adapt melodies to different parts. Cos it's not just about writing the bass riff, writing the chord progression, it's about all the parts interlocking together and creating some nice music. So you have to be aware really like the bass riff and those chords that f sharp was clashing. So we had to change it to a g so there's certain stuff like that, but we've still got the F sharp in the first riff and then the second riff we haven't. So it does have a slight few variations which can make your music a bit more interesting because a lot of the time, electronic music, it needs to be repetitive, but it also needs to be different at the same time. So what you need is want most of the parts repeating but certain intricate parts changing every time adding a bass riff, changing the chords around this bass riff or writing the chords around the melody or writing the melody around the chords are different ways. You can stir it up and create new music and create new melodies and keep it repetitive, but also interesting at the same time. So thank you for watching this lecture. It was mainly about bass riffs, but also about adapting your music to different instruments and different parts.
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Sabrina John
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Electronic Music Production