How to Write Killer Basslines

If you're interested, check out the song I'm using for a demo:
• Polestar - Sean Daniel...
Going over a few different perspectives on writing basslines. Taking a very rudimentary approach from just following the root note of chords, to adding a more melodic approach within a scale, and then also taking pieces of chords and implementing them into your bass playing!
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A little about me:
Sean Daniel is a man. A man of simple needs and desires. And the one desire, no, the one NEED, that stands above all is to spread the challenges, joy and intellectual stimulus of music to people of Earth and beyond.
Born on the mean streets of upper middle class suburban Chicago, Sean learned the ways of the world through the dizzying heights of success to the lonesome depths of failure and emerged with the promise of a better tomorrow reflecting in his eyes and fiery passion in his belly.
He plays and teaches guitar on his KZbin channel where he regularly releases original music and projects to the adulation of legions of fans, who often compare him to Chris Pratt and one time Ryan Reynolds. He’s currently in the market for a nice leather jacket.

[@user-ct8pd1pw2n]

You have a cool grandma for knowing about basslines

[@seandaniel23]

She got down.

[@AJbassist]

is ur grandma Carol Kaye?

[@clyth_3194]

His bass kinda looks like his face or am i just high

[@seandaniel23]

Haha, sure. I'll take it.

[@tristancul4018]

Yes

[@colerf]

Sean is so cool he had a Covid Lockdown haircut a year before it became popular!

[@jakeharper384]

You’ve always been my favourite teacher on KZbin. Started playing bass a few months ago and thanks to the theory you taught me when I played guitar the transition has been smoother than expected!

[@balls261]

This was a great tutorial. You broke it down really easily without completely abandoning music theory in the process, while also giving multiple examples. Interesting basslines have always been something I've struggled with, but I learned a lot from this. Many thanks!

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@brpaulfenderbass8005]

Sean Ive played bass for thirty years and you are right on point.Learning guitar now love your vids .Thanks.God bless

[@seandaniel23]

Mean a lot coming from a real bass player! Thanks so much!

[@twankwhelan8517]

Excellent. Been following your guitar lessons for awhile now, you show the same ease with bass instruction. Hopefully more to follow, and thank you.

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks so much! I'm gonna try and get another one up within a week :)

[@greenatom]

Great lesson and great song! Thank you for the very clear explanations.

[@seandaniel23]

Happy to help!

[@jesuslovesbass3944]

Hey Sean, thanks for the vid. I was sort of stuck in a rut, and your vid has given me some things to work on. Thanks bro. And, really like your style in presenting your info. Subscribed and will be following.

[@Sir.alfred.of.arthritis]

tysm for the vid, this will help me in so many ways!

[@chiparooo]

Cool! Getting ready to dust off the old P-bass. Would like to see more bass vids.

[@seandaniel23]

More coming soon!

[@ryanmcgill3603]

Thanks man, good ideas

[@MrTubbyguy]

Excellent. really useful!

[@ramchawlabass8035]

Love this bruh! 👍🏻

[@Solo_Co-Op_Gamer]

Great stuff!!

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks so much!

[@leebraly3904]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

[@seandaniel23]

Always happy to, Lee!

[@JimmyGrant74]

Thanks for this vid. I learnt something today

[@seandaniel23]

Happy to help!

[@JohnnyMacaw]

Dope and digging that Tee

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks! Pretty cool dude sent it to me!

[@diamondsprince]

This video came at exactly the right time

[@seandaniel23]

So great to hear!

[@mikehunt3463]

Just like yo momma

[@PeterMasalski93]

Good as a guitar player I was looking for this without going through a whole course...

[@RuisRydo1205]

sweet lines on a sweet bass.

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks so much! Love that bass!

[@heywoodjablowme8588]

Really useful. Thanks! :)

[@seandaniel23]

Happy to help!

[@P.Jlive2024]

Grandma didn't finish by saying And Punks get Lumps" 🤘😂 Another great vid bud. Thank you for taking the time out of your life to teach us the gift you were given.

[@seandaniel23]

Grandma didn't need to, the trail of punk bodies spoke for themselves. :)

[@ghfdt368]

I don't know how to play bass but use VST plug ins instead,but this was still really helpful for songwriting. Thanks Sean :)

[@seandaniel23]

Always happy to help!

[@JessicaMorgani]

I like to play a really short octave before the next cord if I am playing a pop song, and it sounds really funky if you add the seven.

[@seandaniel23]

Always a good bass call!

[@budandbean1]

Did you buy that thing Sean? Lot of great talk about that bass out there on the intranets... Let me hold your Ric now that you have no use for it anymore. You are so correct here in this vid. If it wasn’t so long, I could tell you a terribly sad story that totally relates to this.

[@seandaniel23]

Nope, but they better give it to me :)

[@samfar28]

👍love this!! My guitar sounds like bass since i put 12 gauge strings

[@joashbritto]

farha sameer I don't think strings make a huge difference in the tone...coz the pickups are the same ._.

[@seandaniel23]

Gotta love it!

[@ReverendDudeKyle]

Thanks man, I'm gonna use the fuuuuck outta this

[@seandaniel23]

Rock it out my guy!

[@insanedrummer89]

How’s it done. Love that line dude.

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks so much!

[@quentinrasco6229]

Did you hear Rick Beato threw u under the bus last night on his live channel. All over you leaving your tuner clipped on...u actually had two on the headstock..he thinks that is ridiculous..he had a picture of u and everything. Your hair looked great so that was good. Sad to say he didn’t know who you were. Sounds like another Sean vs youtuber war coming soon!

[@insanedrummer89]

Funny thing about rick, he’s got some entertaining videos but he can not I repeat can not teach a damn thing. Sean knows how to teach. Rick does the whole explainish- ramble on - gonway to complex for the topic he’s talking about, never has any sequence.

[@milesdoodling1054]

I also witnessed this live stream being referenced. And yes, i fell about laughing!

[@BanakaiGames]

I like some of Rick beatos videos but a lot of the time him and his audience jerk off over old rock and the Beatles and that anything modern is crap

[@seandaniel23]

I have thoughts about this coming on the QA :)

[@greenatom]

Rick Beatoff was behaving pretty loutishly there.

[@user-pk4sd9dd2w]

a bit off point but why do I see Fmajor and Fminor chords working well together in several songs? I thought they'd sound terrible as they're in different keys? tks!

[@BanakaiGames]

In the key of c, f minor is a minor IV which is one of the most common non-diatonic chords. It has a really emotional sound that's kinda easy to recognize. When you go from major IVto minor iv it's a cadence I can't remember the name of but it's in a lot of songs.

[@seandaniel23]

A lot of times Fm works as a great transition to an F major chord. So you're right that they aren't in the same key, but really there's context for almost any 2 chords to fit in the right context :)

[@user-pk4sd9dd2w]

thanks! I presume it works because F minor is the parallel minor of F major and they both resolve to the same root and hence sounds ok when F min is used as a transitory chord?

[@evrenersoy6372]

Actually if you are speaking about C major key ( for example ) Fm becomes from its paralel minor wich is C minor. Then the IV chord converts to iv. So that means , again if we speaking about tonal harmony , it might have a function as a pre dominant and can move to any of dominants or tonic functionalty chords. ( for a possible cadence like deceptive , if continues by V-vi or Authentic if moves V then I or plagal if moves directly to tonic chord ) Anyways , also can be use by applying secondary dominant of it , in this case it's C7. In summary tonal harmony ( not modal ! ) adds some functions to the tonal center and many of tricks like submediant change , diminished substitute , tritone substitute , secondary dominant subs. relative minor/major , paralel minor/ major , neapolitan sixth , extensions , sus chords , alterations , ( to dominant especially ) , secondary leading tone etc. could be funny. I suggest take a look for all of this items and check the tonal harmony in general. Good Luck .

[@t-bonewolfe4097]

Great grandma had MAD bass line skilz

[@seandaniel23]

The maddest.

[@malcelinho]

It seems that your bass playing are very influenced by your guitar playing. That's not a criticism, first of all, badass Carol Keye had her bass playing influenced by guitar as well, and second, because is interesting to see various approaches for playing. Even though I dig more the first, the other two was pretty cool, too. Thanks for your insight dude, keep making nice videos o>

[@seandaniel23]

Oh all my musicianship is pretty much transposed from guitar first. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch the vid and reach out man!

[@WilliamElliottHinson]

Hey can I borrow that bass? Just for a couple days... Ok maybe a little longer...

[@seandaniel23]

:)

[@jesuslovesbass3944]

Ok, my 4th time through this video and you lost me when you played the Fmaj 3 over the C maj. I'm trying to come up with a music theory explanation of how this would work. It seems random. My only guess is, and please let me know if I'm looking at this the correct way, you played the maj 3 because the F maj follows the C and you are using the maj 3 as a transition into the F maj. Is that correct? Thanks.

[@vonsparks]

He is playing that as to change the sound of the chord he is playing over. It's a really interesting technique as a lot of bassists (and other musicians!) Don't understand that you can change the perception and sound of the root chord. I have this with my band all the time where i am playing notes within the key of the song we are playing that aren't the root notes to melodically change the sound of the chord to something more fitting for the song we are playing. The singer sometimes thinks I'm playing the wrong note (even though it sounds lovely over the root chord) and will write out the chords for me. To which i say to her... yes... i know!

[@mp3o]

When you shift from Dm to CM (example 2) you nearly always include some other (lower) note that you fail to mention. Please clarify. It sounds good, just wish you included it in the explanation. Maybe it is a "pulloff" of the open a string, like you demonstrate on the d string later. Also why ignore the f at the 3rd fret of the d string? That position suggests the 5th below (c) at the 3rd fret of the a string, instead of exclusively using 5th above the root, and sets up the f (root below, which you did mention) at the 1st fret of the e string.

[@jandebuyssere]

i tought the same thing, hearing open strings here and there.. sounds good indeed!

[@suryagurung7793]

My speakers are so bad that I can't hear the bass at all 🤣

[@johnpick8336]

You play bass like a guitar player Sean ! Lol

[@markhinde710]

Do bass only players rip on you for being a guitar player teaching bass? After learning guitar a bit, I started bass, but stopped to focus on guitar. I felt phoney trying to became bassist.

[@seandaniel23]

Honestly I haven't gotten nearly enough hate as I was expecting.

[@markhinde710]

Dean Samuel well then, YOU SUCK! Feel better now?

[@syedijlalofficial]

1st

[@syedijlalofficial]

Have i earned Metal or rock now? 😎

[@seandaniel23]

Champion once more!

[@DSpeir-pi6tm]

;)

[@seandaniel23]

Thanks for watching as always!

[@svrecords6443]

Im a guitarist.....why am i here.....

[@shayh.3556]

Bass is arguably a funner instrument to play than guitar

[@alecyuanmallillin4914]

why do you sound like 2012 pewdiepie? xD

[@patriks.590]

He more sounds like Ninja

[@bionicmalice]

pewdiepie

[@seandaniel23]

hi

[@bionicmalice]

@@seandaniel23 hi bro nice tutorial :)

[@dguyiop8]

So you're saying as a bass player you should step on people's toes. Got it! I'm kind of an expert in taking that one or 2 valuable points from a video. There was no 2nd valuable point.

[@seandaniel23]

That'll be the follow up vid :)