Creating a syncopated EDM bass line

Hello, and welcome to the unit "EDM Remixing." This is Lesson 2: "Creating a Syncopated EDM Bass Line." My name is Mr. Chapman, and without further ado, let's jump right into this lesson. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to create an effective syncopated baseline for an EDM remix. For this lesson, we have three key words. They are syncopated, synth based and root note. A syncopated rhythm is one that emphasises or accents the notes in between the main beats. A synth based is a low-pitched synthesiser, and the root notes of a chord is its main notes and what the chord is named after. This lesson is in three learning cycles. The first learning cycle is called understanding syncopated rhythms. And let's jump right into it. A common feature of EDM, which we know to be electronic dance music, is the use of syncopated rhythms where the notes in between the beats are emphasised or accented. This offbeat or hi-hat pattern is an example of syncopation. Before we listen to this example of syncopation, let's just have a study of the music there. So we've labelled the beats 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and we might recognise that symbol sitting in the middle of the stave. Well done if you said it was a quaver rest and we have a quaver playing hi-hats at the top of the stave, you might notice that the quavers are being played in line with the word 'and; so they're playing in between the main beats. So when notes are played on the 'and' of each beat, we can call this rhythm syncopated. Let's have a listen to that example now. (rhythmic tapping) Next we're going to listen to how these notes land in the gaps between the metronome beats. Again, before we listen, we'll have a quick study of the music. So we're in 4/4, which means we have four beats in the bar and we have labelled them at the bottom, 1, 2, 3, and 4. In between beats 2 and 3, however, we have a quaver that is playing on the 'and' which is the beats in between. So we have 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, and 3, 4. Okay, so notice where those notes are played on the 1, the 'and' of 2 and beat 4. Let's take a listen to that now. (rhythmic tapping) And for the second example, again, we're in 4/4, we have 4 beats in a bar. We have beats 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. So in this case, which beats are not being played on? So in other words, where are the rests in this bar? You may have spotted that the quaver rests are on beats 2 and 3, and we are playing on 1 and, and, and 4, 1 and, and, and 4. Again, we'll have a listen to that now. (rhythmic tapping) So in the first example, the middle notes was syncopated 'cause it played on the offbeat or the and beat. And in the second example, the notes 3 and 4 were syncopated, but not note 2. We'll take a look at another example. This is a non-example. So in this example, there are no notes that are emphasising the and in between the beats. So therefore it is not a syncopated rhythm. You might ask, "Well, hang on a second. "There is a note being played on the and," that is true, but it's connected to the first beat and it is not emphasised in this case. So we wouldn't call it syncopated. We'll take a listen and hopefully you can hear and agree that there isn't an emphasis on that beat. And this bar does not feature syncopation. (rhythmic tapping) So beat 1 is not syncopated because it uses a pair of quavers and therefore the emphasis is still on the beats. An offbeat quaver, which would've occurred after a rest, would be syncopated. So if we had quaver rest and then the quaver on and, we would call that a syncopation. So where the quavers are connected and start on the beats, that is not syncopated where we have a rest, a quaver rest followed by a quaver, we would call that syncopated. And don't worry if that's a bit confusing at the moment. Hopefully with a few more examples and a little bit of practise later on in this lesson, we'll be a lot more confident on syncopation. Now we're gonna do a little recap on syncopate, our understanding of syncopation so far. There's plenty of time to get more confident with syncopation in this lesson. Let's take a look at what we've looked at so far and really ingrain that knowledge. So what does syncopation mean? Is it A, when the rhythm emphasises notes on the beat? Is it B, when the rhythm emphasises notes in between the main beats? Or C, when the rhythm emphasises beats 2 and 4? Give you a little bit of time before telling you the answer. Well done if you said B, when the rhythm emphasises notes in between the main beats. We might recognise that the emphasis of beats 2 and 4 is what we would call a backbeat when talking about drum patterns and the rhythm emphasising notes on the beat is directly the opposite of syncopation. Okay, so we're gonna listen to you three quick examples and you are gonna decide which one you think is syncopated. Now, before we even play these, you might be able to tell. For a clue, look at the rests. I'm gonna play these for you now, and I will say the letter before each example. So this is example A. (rhythmic tapping) Here is example B. (rhythmic tapping) And here is example C. (rhythmic tapping) So again, which example showed syncopated rhythm? Yeah, well done if you said B. You might have also spotted that there were. This is an example where we have a quaver rest followed by a quaver. So good job if you spotted that. So that brings us on to the first task of today's lesson. We're going to listen to four musical clips and identify if the rhythm uses syncopation. With the first two examples, you can use the notation to help you. So we'll listen to example one. We can look at the bar and we'll just write yes or no on our worksheet or wherever we are recording the work for today's lesson. Here is example number one. (rhythmic tapping) Here is example two. (rhythmic tapping) Example three. (rhythmic tapping) And example four. (rhythmic tapping) If you need to listen to any of these again, you may rewind the video. Otherwise I'll give you a little bit of time before showing you the answers on the next slide. Okay, so going through the answers of Task A, we might have noticed that example one did use syncopation. We've got a couple of examples there of a quaver rest followed by a quaver. Example two did not use syncopation, all of the notes falling on the main beat. Example three also did not use syncopation. We did have quavers, but they were paired quavers and example four did indeed you syncopation. So well done if you've got all of those right. Make sure to give yourself a tick or correct your answers. So the second part of this lesson, we are going to be creating a simple bass line. The bass line is a fundamental part of any EDM or electronic dance music song and is often played on a synth bass. Now we looked at the word synth base in our keyword slide and we defined it as a low-pitched synthesiser, and a simple effective bass line is created from the root notes of each chord in a piece of music. We also looked at root notes in our keyword slide, and remember that the root note of a chord is its main note and what the chord is named after. So we have a couple of examples to help us sort of picture this. So for example, the root notes of a G chord would be the note G, whether it was G major or G minor. The root notes would be G. The root notes of E minor would be E. The root notes of B flat major would be B flat. So whatever the name of the chord, that also tells us the root notes as well. So for our remix, the chords are A minor, D minor. We also use G major and E, and so the root notes would be A, D, G, and E. So whenever the chord changes, our bass line root note would also change. Hopefully you can see how these two tables correlate. We're literally just dropping the M, which means minor in the chord symbol and using the root note of each chord. So let's do a quick check for understanding. Imagine I am playing an A minor chord. What would the root note be? Would it be A, B or C? Little bit of keyboard labelling knowledge. Yeah, well done if you said B or the note A. So we're gonna be creating a simple bass line. We've got three videos to watch. The first video will show us how to actually add the bass track. The second will be showing us how to play the actual bass line, and the third video will be recording the bass line. I'm gonna play these videos for us back to back, and here is the first one now. Next we're gonna create our simple bass line for our EDM remix. We've already got a melody and our EDM drumbeat. So now I'm gonna add a new track. So that's software instrument, and now I'm ready to choose my bass instrument. Remember, in EDM, almost all the instruments are synthesised and that includes the bass. So normally the bass line will be played on a synthesiser with a bass sound. I'm gonna select Synthesiser and Bass, and now I'm gonna have a go at finding a suitable sound for my remix. Remember, when you're choosing your instrument, there is no right or wrong answer. You want to choose one that suits the style, but that also suits your specific remix. So it will be different to the kind of style that I choose. Let's test a few of these out and find one that I like. (soft bass music) I can barely hear that one, so I'm definitely not gonna use that one. (deep bass music) So a little bit too atmospheric, that one. So I want a little bit of a simpler sound. (gentle bass music) That's the one for me. I like that. That suits the style that I'm going for. So I've chosen my bass sound. The next thing I'm gonna do is have a go at practising through the bass line based on the root notes. Now, we've already worked out and it's on your worksheet and on the slides, we've already worked out the root notes of each chord. And remember, the root note is the bottom note of each triad chord. So A minor, for example, our root note is A, and that's gonna be our starting note for the bass line. I'm gonna talk you through how the bass line should sound, and then I'm gonna have a go recording it in. So you'll see from your worksheet, we're starting on A for one whole bar, that's four beats, 1, 2, 3, 4. Then it does the same on D, 1, 2, 3, 4. Then we've got two beats on A and two beats on G, 1, 2, 1, 2, then four beats on A, 1, 2, 3, 4. That's our first half done. The second half is very, very similar. You'll just notice there's one note that is different in bar 7. So from bar 5, 4 beats on A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 beats on D, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2 beats on A, 2 beats on E this time, 1, 2, 1, 2, and then back to 4 beats on A, 1, 2, 3, 4. The whole thing then will sound like this, starting on A, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4. Once I've had a go at practising it through and I'm happy with it, I'm gonna then have a go at recording in. For the purposes of this, I'm just gonna mute the melody. So I'm just recording with drums so there's less distraction for me while I'm recording. Before I record, make sure the metronome is on, make sure the playhead is back at the start of bar 1 and make sure I've selected the track with my bass instrument. So I'm recording in the right track. Let's go. (upbeat music) I'm pretty happy with that, but I can always quantize it to make sure that it's exactly in time. So remember to quantize, you open up your Notes Editor, you drag a box over the notes, and then here, because these are all long notes, we could quantize to either a quarter note or we could quantize to a half notes. So I'll do that one there. Let's have a listen to it with the bass line, the drums, and the melody. (upbeat music) I am pretty happy with that for now. So just before I finish, I'm gonna double check that, first of all, my region should end at the end of bar 8. Should end at the same place as the drums and the same place as the repeating melody. I should make sure that I've quantized it, that I've got a suitable synth based sound and that I've only used the root notes of the chords that are on our worksheet and on the slides. After watching those videos, we should be able to answer a couple of questions. So which two of the following apply to your EDM bass line? Is it A, should use a synth bass? B, should use the root notes of the chord progression? C, should be quantized to an 1/8th note, or D, should use a bass guitar sound? Yep, well done if you said both A and B, which leads us into the second task of today's lesson. So as we know, we're creating a simple bass line for your remix, and we're gonna be using the root notes of the chords. So let's take a look at the success criteria before I ask you to actually complete this task. We need to make sure that the bass line uses a suitable synth base timbre. We need to also ensure that the bass line uses only the root notes. We must also make sure that the notes changes at the start of each bar and twice in bars 3 and 7. Now, before you get started on this task, if you do need to have a look at the videos that we watched together earlier, then you may scroll back in this video just to give yourself a quick recap. Otherwise, you should pause the video here whilst you complete the task. And join me when you have finished for the second part of the task. Good luck and enjoy. Great. So I hope you had fun doing that second task. But the second part of this task, we're going to listen to an example of a bass line and identify one improvement that could be made. So let's take a listen to that example now. (upbeat music) Okay, so hopefully you said something similar to they could have chosen a more suitable instrument to play the bass line, such as the synth bass as we have discussed in this lesson, and that the baseline is not perfectly in time of the drums or the beat. So it needs to be either quantized or rerecorded to make it more in time. Well done for spotting those things. So the final section of this lesson, we're going to be creating a more complicated bass line. In EDM music, bass lines are often syncopated. Listen to these examples. And whilst we do, try and tap the beats to help you feel how the baseline falls in between the main beats, and also think about what effect the syncopation has on the music. Now for these two examples, I'm gonna ask that when you listen to them, you pause this video here and head over to the slides where you can click on the Listen buttons. This will open up the pieces of music in a new tab and you can listen to them there. Once you're ready and you've had a think about those questions and tapping the beat as you listen, come back to this video and press play and we'll discuss complex bass line in a little bit more detail. After listening to those examples, hopefully you realise that adding syncopation to the rhythm does create a little bit of interest and excitement in the music. It also, to me, feels like a little bit more dancey and a bit more groovy. And EDM is definitely a dance genre. Importantly, however, the bass notes still work around the root notes of the chord, even though the rhythm changes. So we're gonna watch three more videos. This is gonna help us to create more complex bass lines using syncopation. The three videos will explain how to add a synth based track, how to add syncopated rhythms to your bass line, and then how to actually record the bass line to your project. Again, as before, I will play these back to back, and if you need to scroll back to them later on during the task or before the task, just take a note of the time of each one. Here they are now. Now I'm gonna have a go at creating a more complex bass line. So far we've created a very simple bass line that just used the root notes and sustained them throughout each bar. Here we're gonna have a go at creating one that uses syncopated rhythms. That's a bit more complex and a bit more interesting to listen to. To start, I'm gonna add a new track, software instrument, and then I'm gonna choose that same base synthesiser that I used for my simple bass line. So I'm gonna find Synthesiser, Bass, and then if I look here, I can see I used Alphabet City Boundless Bass, so I'm gonna choose that one. A syncopated rhythm is a rhythm that places emphasis in between some of the main beats. It does not play on the beat, but it plays some of the notes in between the beats. This would not be a syncopated rhythm. 1, 2, 3, 4, because all of those notes came on the beat. This would be a syncopated rhythm, 1, 2, 3, 4, because you can hear some of those notes came in between those beats. I'll show you a different one. 1, 2, 3, 4. So I'm playing some of the notes in between the beats. It's these syncopated rhythms in EDM that often make the bass lines sound really effective. Now, in order to come up with some syncopated rhythms that I think work within my remix, I'm gonna need to improvise and experiment a little bit. In order to do that, I'm gonna start off by muting my simple bass line, muting my melody, and then I'm gonna pop these 8 bars of drumbeat on the loop. So they keep playing over and over. That will mean I can then try out some different rhythms and come up with some that I like. Remember when we're doing this, the bass notes are gonna stay exactly the same notes as those in the simple bass line. So the simple bass line, we started on A, then went to D, then we did A and G, and then went back to A, and then the second half was similar, but with an E instead. We're still using those same notes and changing at the same time. So mostly the start of the bar. However, I'm gonna play a few extra notes to change the rhythm. You'll see what I mean here. Let's have a go. (upbeat music) So I'm still changing at the same time. A then D, then A, then E, then A, I'll try a different rhythm. (upbeat music) So you can see that there were lots of different rhythms I tried out, but we're still using those same root notes and changing them at the same time. Now, when I was doing that there, I tried lots of different rhythms, but really now I want to strip it down so I'm only using one or two different rhythms and repeating them. If we have too many different rhythms within our bass line, it sounds a little bit disjointed and incoherent, but what we want is to make it sound really coherent. So I'm gonna choose one or two of those rhythms and try and stick to them by repeating them. I quite like this one that I found. (upbeat music) So I think I'm gonna make a bass line that uses that rhythm and repeats it over. The one thing I have to be careful of is in bar 3 and bar 7. When I have to change note more quickly, I will have to adapt my rhythm slightly to fit with those change of root notes. So let's have a good recording it. (upbeat music) So if we're listening closely, you can hear that change notes exactly where I changed before. So there's A, then D, then A, then E, then A. So it fits the exact same chords as what I did before. However, I've now got a more interesting syncopated rhythm. Just as before, when you're doing this, there is no right or wrong rhythm to use. Syncopated rhythms sound effective because they place an emphasis in between the beat. So you want to make sure your rhythm is syncopated and not just playing on the beat. However, you will not choose to use the same rhythm that I've used there, you will find a different one. You'll be creative and come up with a rhythm of your own. So before I finish, I'm just gonna check. I've recorded my new syncopated bass line in a separate track. It should finish at the same point as the other tracks, which is bar 9. So the same point as my first bass line and the point also where the melody starts repeating again, which is at bar 9. I've made sure that I've stuck to the same root notes that we used before, A D, A G, A, A, D, A, E, and A, and that they change at the same time as that simple bass line. And I've also made sure that I've got a suitable synth bass sound for that real EDM bass line effect. Now we've watched those videos. Let's try and answer the following question. Which three of these are features of an effective complex bass line? Is it A, use a variety of different notes in each bar? B, use the root notes of each chord? C, use repeated rhythms, D, use various different rhythms? E, use some syncopated rhythms? Remember that there are three. So which three do you think? I'll give you a little bit more time before I show you the right answers. So we have B, using the root note of each chord, that stays the same as before. C, we're going to use repeated rhythms and E, we're gonna use some syncopated rhythms as well. So Task C is creating this more complex bass line for your remix. Just looking at the success criteria, we're going to make sure, just as we've just done in the check for understanding, that we're using the root notes of each chord, so the chord, the notes themselves don't actually change from before. It's the rhythm that will change. And we want to emphasise in between some of the main beats to create some syncopation. We're also going to repeat rhythms so that it doesn't sound too disjointed. Again, if you need to look at the videos that we just watched, you may scroll back. Otherwise, pause the video here whilst you complete your task. And as before, good luck and I hope you enjoy. When you're done, come back to the video and press play. I hope you enjoyed playing that more complex bass line. I help you also find yourself to be successful in that task. For the second part of the task, we are going to listen to a bass line and we're gonna discuss how the success criteria have been achieved. We're thinking about does it use root notes? Does it repeat the rhythms and does it play in between the beats to create some syncopation? So let's have a listen to that example now. (upbeat music) Great, so well done if you said something similar to the bass line does still use the root notes of the chord, so that was good. The rhythms are syncopated placing an emphasis in between the main beats, but there's not much repetition. The rhythms change constantly. This could be improved by choosing one or two rhythms and repeating them. And that brings us to our Summary slide for today's lesson. Today we looked at syncopated rhythms and we know that they're used often in EDM, helping to create excitement in the music. And a syncopated rhythm is one that emphasises or accents notes in between the main beats, like the ands of each beat. Most bass lines in EDM use syncopated rhythms and the root notes of each chord and bass lines in EDM are usually performed on a synth base, which is a low-pitched synthesiser. So again, welcome done for your hard work in today's lesson, and I look forward to teaching you in Lesson 3.