How do you create a bassline? This question is not just for bass players. It’s for producers and songwriters, who are likely to be programming their own bass parts in their DAW. Keyboard players can do basslines in their left hand; guitarists do them with their thumbs. And even if you never create or play a bassline, you should know how to listen to them.
You can think of the bass as serving a dual role: a percussive one and a melodic/harmonic one. In pop, the percussive role matters more. The bassline holds the groove together, and the rhythms matter more than the pitches. The best way to understand that side of things is just to listen to songs you like, focus on the bassline and scat sing along.
Below, I list seven common types of basslines found in Anglo-American pop, what you might call the basic basslines (ha). I show each of them playing the Axis progression in C using a standard rock rhythm. Then I give some examples of each drawn from actual music.
Chord roots
The simplest bassline approach is to just play the root of each chord. It’s not exciting, but it works.
The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964)
Paul McCartney didn’t start playing the melodic basslines he’s famous for until the second half of the Beatles’ career. In the early years, he just thumped out chord roots, plus the occasional power chord. There wasn’t much point in doing anything more complicated even if he had wanted to, because recording technology of the early 1960s couldn’t capture the bass with any clarity anyway. But a few years later, there would be some audio engineering advances, and Paul would start listening seriously to James Jamerson. We’ll see the result of that below.
U2 – “With or Without You” (1987)
Adam Clayton plays an Axis progression in D on continual eighth notes. It’s not exactly groundbreaking, but it fits the song’s hypnotic vibe. It helps that The Edge doesn’t play the chords at all, he just adds these abstract floating single notes or intervals.
Chord roots with scale or chromatic connectors
This is probably the most common pop and rock bassline strategy: put chord roots on the strong beats, but then exercise some creativity in getting from one root to the next, typically by walking up or down to them via scale tones or chromatic notes.
D’Angelo – “Brown Sugar” (1995)
This tune has a weird and interesting chord progression, so all D’Angelo has to do with his organ bassline is play the roots with some tasteful chromatic approaches, and the result sounds incredibly hip.
Amy Winehouse – “Back To Black” (2006)
The “chord roots plus scale/chromatic walkup” formula is especially apparent at the end of each line in the transition from A7 to Dm.
Chord tones
Beyond chord roots, you also commonly use fifths in basslines. Thus the joke: “How many bass players does it take to change a light bulb?” “One, five, one, five, one, five…” You can also use thirds and sevenths, though you typically only use them decoratively on weak beats.
Elizabeth Cotten – “Freight Train” (1958)
Cotten first recorded this song in 1958, but the video above is from 1985, when she was 92 years young. The idea of alternating bass notes with higher melody notes is a standard concept in folk, ragtime, blues and related guitar styles, but Cotten had a highly unusual physical approach. She was left-handed, but she played a standard right-handed guitar upside down, so she played the bass notes with her fingers and the melody notes with her thumb. More importantly, listen to her oceanically deep groove. Her basslines are simple alternating patterns: root-third-root-third, root-fifth-root-fifth, roots in octaves. But her timing, tone and touch are magical.
The Beatles – “Come Together” (1969)
Paul McCartney’s iconic bass riff is just an arpeggiated Dm chord, but the rhythm and phrasing make for an unforgettable hook.
Sabrina Carpenter – “Espresso” (2024)
The bassline is the root, fifth and seventh of Dm7 and the root, third and fifth of Em7. At the end of each phrase, there’s a C, which you could think of as anticipating the seventh of the next Dm7, as the root of a brief Cmaj7 chord, or as the third of a brief Am11. It’s nicely harmonically ambiguous.
Chord tones plus scale or chromatic connectors
To elaborate the idea of roots connected with scales or chromatic pitches, you can mix in other chord tones too. It’s a reliable formula for extremely hip basslines.
Herbie Hancock – “Chameleon” (1973)
Herbie plays the bassline on a synth while bassist Paul Jackson plays a higher-pitched countermelody. Herbie plays the root and seventh of Bbm7 and the root, fifth and seventh of Eb7 in a cool tresillo pattern, and he precedes each chord root with a chromatic walkup.
Parliament – “Flashlight” (1977)
A similar concept to “Chameleon”, but descending rather than ascending. Bootsy Collins came up with the line, but Bernie Worrell performs it on Minimoog. He plays the root, seventh and fifth of Cm7, then a chromatic walkdown to the root of F7. Finally, he cycles back to the beginning with a chromatic walkup to the root of Cm7.
Riffs
Having the bass play a repeated melodic idea is especially common when the harmony is static for long periods, or for the entire tune. You can also move bass riffs through a series of chord changes, by transposing or otherwise adapting them.
Thelonious Monk – “Caravan” (1955)
Bassist Oscar Pettiford alternates C and D-flat in a syncopated pattern under the main groove, before switching to standard jazz walking bass elsewhere.
John Coltrane – “Equinox” (1964)
Paul Chambers plays a simple tresillo pattern that gives this tune a somber intensity.
James Brown – “There Was A Time (I Got To Move)” (1970)
Bootsy Collins plays a complex, syncopated line with big, angular interval jumps, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard.
Chic – “Good Times” (1979)
Bernard Edwards laid one of the foundation stones of early hip-hop with this groove.
Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean” (1982)
Louis Johnson plays the legendary riff on bass guitar, doubled by Greg Phillinganes on synth. Notice that Johnson switches to simple chord roots on the prechorus before returning to the riff on the chorus.
Pedal
This is the simplest bassline approach in concept: you just repeat the same note all the way through. But you can get very hip harmony this way as the chords change on top.
Miles Davis – “Green Dolphin Street” (1958)
The tune begins with Paul Chambers’ tonic pedal under the descending chromatic chords.
Miles Davis – “Someday My Prince Will Come” (1961)
Another Paul Chambers pedal on a Miles Davis classic. This time he pedals the fifth of the key rather than the tonic, on the intro, the interludes before Coltrane’s solo and before the head out, and on the ending.
Pedal riff
Rather than repeating a single note, you repeat a simple riff that ignores the chord changes.
John Coltrane – “My Favorite Things” (1961)
Steve Davis hammers the fifth B and the tonic E for the entire thirteen minute duration of the tune.
Queen and David Bowie – “Under Pressure” (1982)
John Deacon’s riff is the root and fifth of the key, regardless of the chords going by on top.
Where to from here?
This post has barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities. I briefly mentioned walking bass above, but that’s a vast topic unto itself, and there are many other kinds of basslines that act as complex countermelodies. To go deeper and broader, I recommend Paul Thompson’s YouTube channel, a bottomless (ha) source of bass inspiration. In the meantime, figure out basslines from songs you like and imitate. For better or for worse, basslines can’t be copyrighted. Michael Jackson admitted to Daryl Hall that he stole the “Billie Jean” bass riff from “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)”, and if Michael can do it, so can you.