How To Write Great Songs On Bass Guitar – Why It Can Be Easier Than Songwriting On Six String Guitar
So you play bass guitar do you? You’d like a piece of the action?
Well the good news is that you can become a songwriting power house!
Although I’m a lead guitarist and songwriter believe it or not I find it much easier to write songs on a cheap $50 bass guitar I picked up from a second-hand store.
I never actually intended to use it as a writing instrument and only bought it in the first place because I wanted to record some live bass guitar on my songs and just figured it would fit this purpose well.
Then one day I was just strumming around on it playing a very simple line and suddenly, out of the blue a singing melody came to mind.
Before I knew it I had some basic lyrics and a really catchy song, with a verse, chorus, bridge and a rhythm that just rocked.
I was quite taken aback to be honest because I’d never actually considered it would be possible to write a song on a bass guitar but it came very easily, and since then I’ve written many songs on that bass guitar.
In fact it is now my main songwriting instrument and here’s why:
What all great songs have is a great melody. The simpler and more catchy the melody then the more chance people are going to like the song.
This is because people just love to sing-a-long to a catchy hook.
Because bass guitar gives such a simple and pure note, then I believe that it allows the creative mind more space to think and create.
It makes perfect sense to me.
Think about it.
When you are playing chords then there is already a lot of notes flying around to influence and distort the melody line.
For instance if you are playing an A Chord on guitar then you have an E, a C# in there that is bound to clutter your thought process and taint your melody.
With a bass guitar then A is A, which means that if you want to hum a melody along you can hear clearly how it fits with your bass line.
You also get a much better feel for the rhythm of the song and how best to structure it because again it is a much simpler and less complicated sound that you are working with.
So to all you bass guitarists out there – you have no excuse for not contributing to your band’s song repertoire.