bass line
9
3.4
- noun
- /bæs laɪn/
- Specialized
:
línea de bajo
- The band's bass line provides a strong foundation for the entire track.
- melody and bass line
- chord and bass line
- play the bass line
It sounds complete just with the bass line and the melody.
- It sounds complete just with the bass line and the melody.
- So when I'm writing, I usually start with the drums and the bass line.
Examples
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Much rock and pop music uses simple, repeated harmonic patterns and bass lines, often referred to as "vamps."
Academic text (2001) -
It sounds complete just with the bass line and the melody.
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Now, I was thinking the bass line could go something like this.
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Listen, that bass line, right there.
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Hey, check it out, I learned the bass line from Final Fantasy II.
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Learn to sing and play the bass lines of tunes by ear.
Academic text (1999) -
Upper elementary students can easily learn to play chords and bass lines to accompany class singing.
Academic text (1993) -
Another suggestion is to provide a simple bass line and harmonic progression against which students write a melody.
Academic text (2001) -
The guitar is like a maelstrom, and the pounding bass line sounds awesome, too!
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Help students learn to understand harmonic progressions by singing and playing bass lines and harmony parts to familiar tunes.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
1
6.3
The lowest singing or instrument line that plays deep notes to support the music
A bass line written with numbers that show the chords to play
How Low
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning of 'bass line' is directly derivable from combining 'bass' (the low-pitched instrument/part) with 'line' (a melodic tune or musical part). This is a standard compositional collocation in music (cf. 'melody line', 'vocal line') and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand it.
Etymology
The noun bass line comes from the idea of a low musical bass part that makes a steady 'line' under the song. The low notes act like a strong thread that holds the rhythm and the main sound, so bass line now means the low part that supports the whole piece of music.