More often than not there is a clear distinction, which tips 1 and 2 above will help you identify. Melody Summaryĭon’t be embarrassed if you struggle to distinguish melody from bass line. Naturally you’ll want to use the other tips above to help you get started! Bass Line vs.
If you play another instrument you can either work from the full sheet music, or combine this with your playing by ear practice and try to figure out the bass line and the melody parts bit-by-bit. If you play bass guitar, this will mean alternating between the bass tab you know already, and trying to play the melody or vocal part by ear. just the root of each chord), and just the top notes of the right-hand part (or the vocal part if present) to get the melody. If you play piano, this generally means playing a simplified version of the left-hand part to get the bassline (e.g. Whatever instrument you play, one great ear training exercise that will help you distinguish bass line from melody is to practice playing each of them! Pick a song you’re familiar with, get the full sheet music, and then practice playing the song’s melody, and then its bassline. This means that doing some chord progressions ear training can help you teach your ear what to “expect” when listening for a bassline, and how it is connected to the chords being played. The bassline helps provide the solid, predictable structure which the melody then wanders freely on top of.
It most commonly provides the root note of each chord, so that listening for the bass line is closely related to listening for the chord progression.
Here are some we’d suggest: Tip #1: Difference in Pitch There are however some tips and tricks you can use, and several different ways you can train your ear to distinguish bass line from melody. This means that it’s easy for your ear to follow the bass line instead of the melody and vice-versa. So if you’re not sure if you can do it: don’t be embarrassed!īoth the bass line and the main melody are essentially “tunes”, normally played one note at a time, wandering around the scale of the key the song is in. This is the kind of question which might seem trivial but can actually be quite challenging.