How Considering the Bass Line Improves Chord Progressions

Weird chords sound less weird when the bass line makes sense.

____________

“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle comes with this FREE eBOOK: “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro”. 7 Songwriting eBooks for $37
_____________

Chord progressions that require a bass line to move in odd ways will tend to sound unsettled and aimless — something to be avoided unless you’re looking for that effect. By “move in odd ways”, we usually mean a bass line that does one or more of the following:

1. leap by large intervals, two or more times in a row, but not following a circle-of-fifths;
2. leap by an  interval that doesn’t belong to the key, two or more times in a row.

In circle-of-fifths progressions, the bass will usually start on the tonic chord, follow that with any chord, then begin a sequence of continuously jumping down by 5ths (or up by 4ths – the same thing). Here’s what that sounds like. (The chords are C F Bdim Em Am Dm G7 C). As you can hear, the constant jumping of the bass is expected and acceptable in this kind of progression.

But progressions that are non-circle of fifths present more of a problem. Because those progressions are less predictable, the bass has a way of enhancing the aimless quality. Here’s an example:

C  Ebm Am  Bb  Dm  Ab  G  C (LISTEN)

As you can hear, the progression is a little strange, but it’s not a disaster. The upper line of the piano part works well to help guide the ear and keep the chords from sounding overly odd.

But the bass line accentuates the aimless quality of the progression. There are several large leaps in the bass, as well as several non-key leaps. One way to strengthen the progression is to change some of the chords, but what if you like the strangeness? Is there a way to make this progression work a little better?

There are two ways you can keep this progression intact, while allowing the ears of the listener to make better sense of it:

1. Use a tonic pedal point. All this means is to keep the tonic note in the bass, regardless of the chord of the moment. It would sound like this.
2. Use chord inversions. This means choosing a different chord tone to be the bass note. This would allow you to create a bass line that uses less leaps, and makes more tonal sense. You could do that by changing the progression to be: C  Ebm/Bb  Am  Bb  Dm  Ab/Eb  G/D  C, just as one option. (LISTEN) The fact that the bass is now moving largely by step helps guide the listener.

The bass line plays a very important role in helping listeners understand your progression. We tend to focus primarily on melodies and bass lines, and as long as those two features are working well, we can accept a progression that is strange to the ear.

______________

Written by Gary Ewer. Follow on Twitter.

“The Essential Secrets of Songwriting” 6-eBook Bundle describes every element of songwriting, including a step-by-step guide for writing a song. Includes sound samples, a musical glossary and copyright advice. $95.70 $37.00 (and get a FREE copy of “From Amateur to Ace: Writing Songs Like a Pro.“)