What would a real BASS player play when accompanying you?

[Hugh-AR]

What would a real BASS player play when accompanying you playing your song?

When you play a song using a STYLE you have a 'band' that plays along with you, with a drummer, a bass player, and various other instruments like guitars etc. all blending together to make a suitable backing. But let's be clear .. in this situation, it is you that is playing your song to 'fit in with the band'. This STYLE you have chosen would sound the same with any melody you played. This is not what happens when you have a real band accompanying you. A real band would play rhythms and counter melodies to fit your song.

In this topic I want to concentrate on just one member of the band (the BASS player) and see what he/she would be playing to complement the melody of your song.

So first, let's have a listen to what my song sounds like with the 'automatic bass' playing. In this example, I have used three different STYLES.
Click the play arrow below to listen.



The bass player in the above is just playing the ROOT and FIFTH all the time .. until he gets to the verse with the Guitar, where he does a little 'skip' (hooray!). Trouble is, the bass note is ROOT, ROOT, ROOT all the time! This is not what a real bass player would do when accompanying you 'live'.

[Hugh-AR]

One thought I had was that I have often used a MULTIPAD to add a 'counter melody' to a song I have been playing. So why not create a Multipad for the Bass Player? Here below is how I have done this.

When I create my MULTIPAD I need a VOICE set up in R1. From the BASS section I have chosen LowBass (tossed between that and AcousticBass).



As I would be playing the bass notes with my right hand and not my left, I would want to play them in the region just below Middle C .. so I needed the VOICE to be an octave lower than it was. In the MIXING CONSOLE, I dropped the R1 voice to -2.



With all the other Multipads I have done, the notes I have played have all been to the right of the Split Point. But playing a BASS part? Would need to go below my split point. So have gone to the Split Point page ...





... and wound the black wheel round to the left until the Split Point was as far down as it would go.



I then headed for the MULTIPAD CREATOR page.

To get at the MULTI PAD screen, in the MENU, choose DIGITAL RECORDING ...



... and then choose MULTI PAD CREATOR.



The screen you get has to be set up for the type of MULTIPAD you want to create. You can create four different Multipads for the song you are playing and can trigger which one/ones you want when you want it/them. In this example I am only making one Multipad, so I am making my choices for PAD1.



There are two ways you can set up a MULTIPAD.

1. You can record some notes, and when you trigger the MULTIPAD when playing your song the Multipad will play those notes back at you exactly as you played them. For this DEMO I will be playing Michael Row The Boat Ashore in G, so if doing it this way I would have to play the bass notes I want to hear in the key of G. Note: Creating a Multipad is not like putting in a PART in a STYLE. A STYLE 'repeats' the pattern according to the 'measure' of the Style (ie. how many bars elapse before the pattern repeats itself). With a MULTIPAD you play notes to follow the melody, so can put notes in for a whole verse. Any REPEAT will take place when playing a second verse .. and if you don't want it doing that (eg. because you are playing the CHORUS next) you will have to turn the MULTIPAD OFF.

If you click the play arrow below you can listen to the bass notes I want (in G).



If you read music, these are the notes to play.



Of course doing it this way the MULTIPAD can only be used when the piece is being played in the key of G. I shall be doing my BASS part with the CHORD MATCH ON .. then the Multipad can be used when playing the song in any key.

2. The second way of doing a MULTIPAD is to have the CHORD MATCH ON, and then you have to record all your notes in C (ie. with C as the ROOT).

CHORD MATCH means that it will play 'intervals' based on the root of the chord you are playing. You have to RECORD everything with C as the root. To get the MULTIPAD to play specific notes, you have to work out the interval relative to the chord you are playing at that point (sorry, it's getting complicated now). So, for example, if at a certain point in the song you were playing the chord of F and wanted the bass to 'walk up' F, G, A, to Bb (and at that point were playing a Bb chord) .. the actual notes you would play for your MULTIPAD (based on C as the root) would be C, D, E, C. This 'walking up' from C would actually be 'walking up' from F, as that is the chord you will be playing. And yes, that last note you have to record as a C because at that point you have just walked up from F and are playing a Bb chord, and the Bb you want to hear is the root of the chord you are playing. In the key of C, C is the root. So you record the note C.

I have set up the options as below (arrowed blue).



REPEAT means it will repeat the notes you program in. But note ... the REPEAT is not like a STYLE, which repeats every 'Measure'. The MULTIPAD 'repeats' whatever you program in .. which can be for a whole verse (and that is what I shall be doing here) .. so I don't even have to think about what the STYLE is doing .. only what the melody is doing.

I have worked out all the 'intervals' in the DEMO above relative to the actual chords I play in the song, and transferred these to intervals with C as the ROOT. You can hear what these notes are (when playing them with C as the 'root') by clicking the play arrow below.



And if you read music, these are the notes to play.



When you have decided what notes you are going to play, press the RECORD and the Multipad will be WAITING for you to start the recording.



ie. WAITING for you to press a note to start the recording.

START THE METRONOME GOING .. then you will be able to keep time with your recording, The louder 'clang' is on the first beat of the bar.

If you want to start recording on the first beat of the bar, then press the SYNC START (so it's flashing). It'll then still be WAITING for you to press that first note. Do that when you hear the Metronome 'clang' on the first beat of the bar.

If you want to start playing notes after the first beat of the bar, then press the START on the first beat of the bar and come in with playing notes where you want to hear them.

Next question. When do you STOP the MULTIPAD? Answer: At the end of the bar at the end of the verse. Then the REPEAT will start on the first beat of the next verse. You STOP it by pressing the STOP showing on the screen; or the START/STOP button by the SYNC START.



You then have to SAVE the MULTIPAD you have created (give it a NAME).

When using this MULTIPAD BASS you have just created you have to set up your STYLE with the BASS PART turned OFF .. otherwise you will get the standard 'default' Yamaha bass part playing along with your Multipad.

And how does all this sound with the MULTIPAD replacing the 'default' Yamaha BASS?
Click the play arrow below to listen.



As a piece of music, I'd much rather listen to that, with the bass part tailored to the melody, than the version with the 'default' Yamaha bass you heard in the start of my topic.

If there are any questions about all this, please do ask.

Hugh

[Ron]

Hugh,

The bass notation below in the screen shot is incorrect.



The lowest note on the bass is E below middle C. So the notes in your demo should not be written as they are. This would seem to be a product of the Yamaha Tyros “ Score “ function. It obviously relates to the notes in the range you played on the keyboard but do not relate to the true notes that would be played on the bass. The ability to lowering the octave on the Tyros does produce lower sounding notes but these cannot be related to a real bass instrument sound and its notation. Strange how this never occurred to me before this event. Hope this is helpful. The only situation where this might occur is on modern electric basses which now have 5 strings with the first string now being tuned to B below E.

Ron

[Hugh-AR]

Ron,

Thanks for that. Yes. you're right. I recorded the bass notes with the MIDI recorder and then used the SCORE function on my Tyros 4 to get those notes put on the stave .. and took a 'screen shot' of them.



Not reading music, I hadn't appreciated how difficult those notes were to pick out, with all those extra bar lines at the bottom taking the notes outside the range of a normal bass stave. And also taking those notes below the range of the instrument playing them .. double bass or bass guitar. If instead of my topic being called, "What would a real BASS player play when accompanying you?" I had said, "Alternative bass part for Michael Row as created on a keyboard" I wouldn't have been caught out by something keyboard players often don't take into account .. the range of the instrument they are using.

I have now done it again, playing the notes an octave higher. Even I can now see that the score is showing the actual notes I wanted played.



Hugh

[Ron]

As we have already discussed this Hugh, I think it is only fair to state for the sake of the unbelievers that these notes are not written to be played by a bass player. These are the notes required to setup the Multipad function where everything is based on the scale of Cmaj7.

I for one, cannot get my head round this, so I will not be trying to follow this post.

Ron

[Hugh-AR]

Ron,

You are right in what you say. The notes to be played for the BASS in that particular script were based on having the MULTIPAD in CHORD MATCH mode. This means the Miultipad will play it's 'pattern of notes' based on the chord you are actually playing at the time. To work in this mode, you have to record your notes as 'intervals, with C as the root'.

Playing the piece in G, the actual chords I play for Michael Row The Boat Ashore are:

/ G - - - / G7 - - - / C - - - / G - - - /
/ Bm - - - / Am - - - / Bm - D7 - / G - - - /

Let's take a look at those last two bars. If I was playing an organ with foot pedals, the actual notes I would play for the Bass (as it's in the key of G) are:

/ B D E F# / G - - - / (ie. 'walking' my bass up from B to G).

When recording the Miltipad in CHORD MATCH mode I have to record everything as 'intervals' with C as the root.
So if I want to hear my bass notes just following the 'root' of the chords I am playing above, I would have to do my recording as:

/ C - - - / C - - - / C - - - / C - - - /
/ C - - - / C - - - / C - C - / C - - - /

Instead of thinking of those notes as 'C', think of those notes as the 'root' of the chord you are playing at the time.
So the bass notes you will hear are not 'C' all the time, but the note that is the 'root' of the chord you are playing for the song.
These are bass notes, not chords.
/ G - - - / G - - - / C - - - / G - - - /
/ B - - - / A - - - / B - D - / G - - - /

Looking at those last two bars. I will be playing the chord of Bm and the bass notes I want are B, D. With C as the root, those notes would be C, Eb (ie. the 1st and 3rd notes of Cm).
The next chord is D7, and the bass notes I want are E, F# (ie, 2nd and 3rd notes of the scale starting on D). With C as root, the 2nd and 3rd notes in the scale of C are D, E.
The last bass note is G (on a G chord). So with C as root that is C.

So (as you can see in the music score above) those last bass notes of / B D E F# / G - - - / have to be programmed in as / C Eb D E / C - - - /.

If I've lost you .. perhaps give up on this one!

But, if you want to do a BASS using a MULTIPAD, all is not lost. If you turn the CHORD MATCH to OFF then you can program in the actual notes you want to hear (in the key of G) and they will be played back at you 'as is'.

I'll cover this in my next post.

[Hugh-AR]

The advantage of setting up a MULTIPAD using Method 2 above (with the CHORD MATCH ON) is that it will give you the bass pattern in whatever key you play your piece in. The disadvantage is that all the notes you want to hear have to be put in as 'intervals' with C as the root. Takes a bit of working out what these notes should be! Also, if the chords in the piece you are playing are changing rapidly (eg. as in Theme From A Summer Place) it is not really possible to create a bass part with CHORD MATCH ON.

Method 1 is definitely the easiest way to go as you just play the actual notes you want to hear. The disadvantage of this method is that you have to decide beforehand which key you are going to play the piece in.

---

Setting up a MULTIPAD so that any notes you record into it will play 'as is' back to you (ie. ignoring any chords you may be playing with your left hand as you play your song).

If this is going to be your one and only MULTIPAD, then work in the Pad1 position. But I already have a MULTIPAD for playing the BASS in Michael Row The Boat Ashore and it's already using the Pad 1 position. So I will load this Multipad back into MULTIPAD CREATOR and create a Pad 2. Then I can use the same MULTIPAD and just activate Pad 1 or Pad 2 depending on which one I want to use.

When the Multipad is loaded in, I press the button next to the second Multipad slot so I can set that one up (PAD2). This time we want REPEAT ON .. but we leave CHORD MATCH on OFF. In this Mode, whatever notes you record will be played back at you 'as is', completely ignoring any chords you may be playing with your left hand as you play your song.



Set up the Voice you are going to use for the MULTIPAD as explained at the start of this topic (I am using LoBass and moved my SPLIT POINT to bottom C so I had the whole area of the keyboard to play bass notes in). When you are ready to record, press the REC and the program is WAITING.



Start the METRONOME going. Get the SYNC START flashing ready for you to play a bass note on the first beat of the bar.
These are the notes I have played. Click the play arrow below to listen.



If you read music, these are the notes I played (but an octave lower than those showing on the stave).



When you have completed your recording don't forget to STOP it at the end of the bar (using the STOP showing on the screen; or the STOP by the START/STOP). The screen now has Pad2 in that second slot (or Pad1 in that first slot if you are just doing one Miultipad).



Now SAVE what you have done .. and give the file a NAME as you would do normally (ie. hold down the DELETE to remove the Yamaha wording, and put in your own UPPER CASE / lower case letters). Don't forget to press the OK after to confirm the Name.



I now have a MULTIPAD with two blue buttons lit up. Pad2 can only be used when playing the piece in G; and Pad1 when playing it in any key.



By the way, you can trigger a MULTIPAD to start at the right place by putting it in a REGISTRATION MEMORY. To do this you press and hold down the SELECT button whilst pressing the MULTIPAD you want. It will start 'flashing'. You can also get the SYNC START 'flashing' by pressing it. Anything 'flashing' will store in a REGISTRATION MEMORY and trigger the feature when the Registration Memory button is pressed.

How does all this sound? Click the play arrow below to listen.



Well, I think I prefer the MULTIPAD BASS done without the CHORD MATCH. It sounds very 'positive'. And I found it much easier to play the required notes. Maybe this is because I was actually playing and hearing the correct bass notes rather than some notes that would be converted to the right ones when I played some chords.

I did have one (little?) problem though. When I recorded the bass notes and stopped the recording at the point I considered was the right place for it to REPEAT, when I reached the end of a verse the bass pattern wouldn't start at the beginning of the next verse. There was one whole bar of silence from the MULTIPAD before it came in again. I overcame this problem by recording the multipad bass notes for two verses rather than one; and using the REGISTRATION MEMORIES to change the STYLE & VOICE and trigger the MULTIPAD.

[Hugh-AR]

My one (little?) problem ...

My fault! I had pressed the STOP for the Multipad just after the first beat of the next bar. So that's why I had a bar of silence before it came in again. You have to STOP the Multipad a fraction before the end of the bar. So just recording the BASS part for one verse now works fine, and the MULTIPAD comes in spot on at the start of the second verse.

Handy hints with MULTIPADS: When recording a Miultipad, if you don't want the Multipad to actually REPEAT (the idea of choosing REPEAT is so that it keeps in time with the Rhythm) then let it run for a couple of bars after the end of the recording before stopping it. This will give you plenty of time to turn it OFF. If you do want it to REPEAT, then STOP the Multipad a fraction before the end of the bar just before you want it to repeat. Remember, a MULTIPAD can be as long as a piece of string, and follows the MELODY, not the STYLE .. so doesn't repeat in 'measures' like a STYLE. So make it run for as long as you want.

Hugh