Thanks. Yeah, I’m trying to work on a third part. Will come to me soon I’m sure.
The main reason for the key is that the guitarist wants to know what it is so he can make his part easier. I don’t personally care what key it is in as it just sounds good together to my ears. 
Family keeps humming it, so that’s either a bad sign or a good one. 
yeah, sounds like a very good start !
about your bridge or third part, I think some disco-octave-things would be great 
the idea being making some contrast with the current rock line. I think at something in the Electric Six or early Metric mood. just an idea 
This is very interesting… I really like what you have so far @JT. The interesting part to me is that you are attempting to design a song around a bass line. I’ve never tried doing that before and have always used either my guitars or keyboard first for songs design/shell, drum machine for basic timing/color, and now (after B2B), bass for song structure/foundation. I’m really interested to hear what your guitarist comes up with. I do agree with @joergkutter and @terb on the bridge section, and the inclusion of another note would help flavor the riffs a bit.
Thanks @Lanny and @terb. It’s definitely a good learning experience. That video is actually about two weeks old and was the first recording of this attempt at a song. Since then, I’ve done about 10 different versions of each riff and am just trying to see what fits together. I also jammed the song to death over two hours with a guitarist and drummer a few days ago, again trying out different things. The guitarist asked me to play the whole thing an octave higher for example so we tried that a bit. It’s quite a fun thing to try and I do recommend it. I think the final outcome will be pretty decent. And if not, it is still teaching me a lot of useful knowledge for the future.
(apparently now a post must be at least 5 characters, so that is why I have all this extra noise here)
Good for you, @JT . . . 
. . .
I really, really MUST get around to figuring out how to upload a video, etc. I suppose I’m either just too lazy or too cyber-challenged . . . 
Anyway, it is indeed a great start! You have good alternating, too.
Cheers, Joe
Yesss! I can appreciate this post, and your video, because I’m trying to do the same thing. So what you’re describing is great, and the feedback here too. Keep posting iterations of your song, if possible, because it’s helpful to see how a song is constructed, and your unique process of doing so.
Yeah, I’m sort of realizing that maybe constructing a song around a bassline has it’s own nuances, as opposed to trying to do it around a guitar riff or something else. Since JT has a guitarist friend handy, it may be a good idea to coordinate with him, or a drummer too (or just a drum looper), while “designing” the song. Sometimes the guitarist wants to do a solo at some point to break the song up, or some other addition
Protect your ears!
My band’s first ever song written a few months ago. It’s got some pop punk, hardcore and noise elements to it. And a classic sludge type breakdown.
I love it!
Playing your bass line an octave higher would put you into his zone which is where he would be much more familiar with - at least during the song design stage.
Agree. I guess this is why I’m interested in how this all progresses along the way, and see (hear) the final outcome. Such a challenge (at least to me) to design/create a song based solely on the bass line. I’m sure it’s been done many times before, but having been a guitarist first for so many years, it’s only natural for me to pick up one of my guitars (usually one of my acoustic’s) to start out with when an idea pops into my head.
Thanks. 
I got some more, but only one we’ve edited properly on a computer (we can only record on a phone covered in three coats currently lol), a more bass driven track with we would say ‘nu metal’ influences:
that’s pretty garage/punk indeed ! sounds good, it’s the kind of band I could go see playing live. if it happens one day, I would be the guy who will headbang mostly during the sludgy part. 
Thanks a lot bro. If you’re ever around the center of the Netherlands (Brabant, Gelderland and esp. Utrecht) you can probably find us playing some small stages and we will get you some beers on us. 
So, in the spirit of sharing “half-baked” stuff, and something that so far almost entirely exists on bass only, here is a sketch I stitched together (literally, and very noticeably) from a couple of ideas and a virtual drummer from Garageband. I put this together to show to our guitar player, such that he could a) think about some chords, b) ponder a vocal line for parts A and B (I have some idea myself, but let him come with some input as well), and c) get creative with “stuff” to fill the C part (bridge) - soundscapes or solo.
Oh, and yes, it has a less than exciting intro and a less than satisfying ending so far 
But, my main points being: you can start with a bassline and a melody perhaps, and you can fairly quickly stitch a A-B-A-B-C-A-B-C’-A-B kind of structure together to get a song skeleton.
In the end, little of how it is now in this “sketch” might survive by the time the song is finalized, but the original ideas should still be there!
OMG this rock is so melodic ! 
seriously, that’s cool, way more groovy that what we already heard about your band. also I like the punchy yet warm bass tone.
also we can tell about your jazz/fusion influences. not a bad thing at all
Thanks, @terb - much appreciated!
All the other songs of the band were composed by the guitar player, so, yeah, different style. And, as a former drummer and now bass player, more “groovy” comes more natural. Let’s see how this sketch develops 
That is so cool @joergkutter! Fantastic tone with a catchy jazz style that kinda pulls you into the groove… I’d love to hear how this one comes out! Maybe when I become more dependent on my bass and less dependent on my guitars, I might be able to build around a bass line one of these days… I do envy your ability to do this…
Last one I’m posting cuz it’s getting spammy:
This is a slower song mainly over two chords in Eb minor, alternative metal, with a key switch, breakdown in an odd time signature (I think it’s 9/8?), a guitar solo and quite some harmonizing on bass.
So to actually contribute I’ll explain how I do harmonizing/melodic fills on bass.
Here the main section is in the key of E minor (or Eb as we are tuned a half step down, but for the sake of it I will just say E as you can just transpose everything logically; pitches in absolute terms don’t matter, they only matter relationally (to one another)).
The chords for the guitar are a simple Cmaj to Emin (or really Cmaj7b9(?) and Emadd9). When I play over the Cmaj chord as @JoshFossgreen has illustrated in his ‘boxes’ video I can thus play a ‘major triad’ shape over it. But wait; this is not just a major chord, but this is also a major chord that is the 6 chord in the E minor key! The perfect fourth above that (F) is not in the key, but the augmented fourth above it (F#) is! That’s a tritone available to us that will sound very evil in this minor chord progression. Now, we can play the #4 Lydian scale over/from the Cmaj chord. But ALL of these notes are in the E minor scale as well; we simply play (very basically but effectively) in a modal way now; by stressing the notes around the tonal center of the chord. We are playing the notes of E minor but starting on its 6th scale degree so now our whole shape/box is basically the Lydian scale, for which the ‘box’ or ‘shape’ is as such (the Root is a C in this case):
So besides this I also do a lot of simply harmonizing with the guitar; when going from C to E do a run to both C and the octave above it from the ‘7th’ major scale interval (really the perfect 5th in the key), a passing note down to the p5th, maj2nd or f7th when going to E; a m3rd, f7th (or its octaves) when going back up to C and so on.
Finally, as this is just two chords going back and forth most of the time you need a dynamic interplay instrumentally to make at least the transitions more interesting and eventful. So me and the drummer accentuate some off-beat passing notes to make it feel like it’s really ‘pulled back’ every time; the last two bars of the measure when going back to Cmaj from Emin for example I hammer in some 8th notes and the drummer does a short backbeat fill so that when we hit the 1 again on C I hit that note hard and he smashes the crash.
So yeah I’ll stop spamming here for a while. New stuff will get posted to that Soundcloud acc under a playlist that will gradually form the whole demo.
Joerg that’s great! Love the tone and the light effect on the bass.
