Working with bass passing notes

While, in theory, a variety of notes can underpin any chord within your track, most of the time either the root note of your chord or another note directly related to that chord will sound most ‘comfortable’. In other words, if your track is in G minor, a bass note playing the note ‘G’ will sound most ‘rooted’ under the chord, with either B flat or D having the potential to work well too.

However, this is where things get tricky, as sometimes other notes can be effective too, particularly if you’re looking to write a bassline which transitions from one chord to the next smoothly. Let’s suppose the second chord of your track is an E flat major chord. As the bass note drops from G to E flat to reflect that change, you might well find that an intervening note – otherwise known as a passing note – of F will feel musical and natural, as it’ll help to emphasise that the bass end is dropping in pitch. Of course, that F doesn’t relate precisely to either the G or the E flat chords, so it’s not ‘in tune’ with either chord directly. That’s not to say it won’t sound good, though, which is less of a surprise when you consider that plenty of musical genres rely on more interesting harmony than simply underpinning each chord with the root note at all times.

Whenever you have a chance to add colour between chords by using passing notes, it’s worth seeing if your bassline sounds richer for this extra colour. Passing notes might not always work but when they do, they’ll sound musical and considered. As is always the case though, don’t be afraid to experiment. Passing notes are just one idea to help you add melodic interest to your compositions, but don’t be afraid to try other things. There are no hard and fast rules – if it sounds good to you, then go with it!