Author Topic: Bass or Melody? (Read 1008 times)

pillagemyvillage · « **on:** April 27, 2008, 12:46:16 pm »

just wondered what you guys think to the question?
ive read alot into this debate...
is melody the most important part of a track?
or is it the bass?
for me, melody is the first thing i make in my track and then i base the rest around that...
however i feel bass is the most important part of a track!
if you listen to unforgotten village idiot or 147 crews tunes you can hear that the bass is the driving force behind each track.
so i reckon you can use only bass and percussion to make a tune rather than just melody and percussion... i guess it depends on your style though...
i feel bass lifts the track and gives it dance-ability!
as well as answering the question i also wondered how you create your bass and what samples you use!

iku · « **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2008, 03:57:38 pm »

I think the melody is the most important thing in a track. In spite of this fact I usually create the bass line and chords and then I listen to it so many times until the melody comes.
I have no track only with a bass line. I think that melody and bass line depend on each other and they complete each other.

Master Dutch · « **Reply #2 on:** April 28, 2008, 02:27:25 am »

It kinda depends on the genre your doing but I would have to say melody. Sometimes when I'm making tracks I dont even bother with a bassline. The melody would always have a trace usually when I sample. And if I were to just go all composed sometimes the beat would have plenty of bass. Im especially fond of the "long ring" my favorite drum percussion sound!

147 crew · « **Reply #3 on:** April 28, 2008, 11:05:53 pm »

as long as the tune rocks then I guess it doesn't matter, I just love funky BASS sounds- have you listened to the tune I uploaded JB & Spice- The Thing.. I don't know if you could make a melody that sounds like the BASS in that tune, but then the BASS is the melody..? But I love tunes that have no bass and no kick drum so yeah I haven't answered the question at all

as you know, all the samples I use are on my vids, loads of BASS notes!!

Not a Number · « **Reply #4 on:** April 29, 2008, 08:34:31 pm »

I prefer the melody to bassline; I usually have the bassline being quiet in comparison to the main melody.

But, seeing as all my songs are instrumental tracks which require vocals, I usualy have the main melody simple where vocals are meant to be played and more complex in fill sections.

Monermaje · « **Reply #5 on:** August 14, 2010, 07:21:41 pm »

Just write a melody any way you want to. Melodies usually move by step meaning that they either ascend or descend by a 2nd interval. If a couple of notes are more than a 3rd interval way from each other it is called a leap. You can put leaps in the melody but people don't typically put more than a leap of a 6th interval because they can be hard to sing. If you are composing for an instrument its not such a big deal. Under the melody, remember that the first and third beats are strong and two and four are weak, you want to put 3rds under strong beats and 6ths under weak beats. You can also put 5ths or octaves on weak beats but they shouldn't be on successive weak beats because it is stylistically incorrect. I would suggest that you just read music theory books by Hindemith and Schoenberg and also on amazon you can buy music theory books by Stan Funicelli that are really cheap and incredibly useful and instructive.