Video 4, The bass line, What does it sound like?

0:00 These videos are dedicated to the new DJs out there, okay?

Alright folks, this is video number four in a selection that I'm doing on aspects of music. These videos are dedicated to the new DJs out there, okay? So what you need to do, okay, if you haven't seen video number three, two or one, I suggest you go to djtutor.com, click on the tutorials icon and then click on the genres icon and then you'll... The DJ Tutor is available for purchase at Ellaskins.com. BPM is the appropriate letter and the appropriate word. To go along with B is something called the bassline that rocks. Now then, in this selection of songs, what I'm going to do, well when I say the selection of songs, we're not going to play the hippest, most funkiest songs going out that are modern day songs. We're going to go back in time and actually rip apart the original songs that brought us the basslines that we actually use today in modern songs. The first one is by one of my favourite all-time old school bands which is Crown Heights Affair.

And the track is entitled Rock The World, okay? We'll have a listen and then I'll tell you exactly where and what the bass line is. Okay, now listen. Now that actual sound... I can't sing to save me life. But that is the bass line. We'll have a listen again.

2:28 You will then have top, mid and bass, or treble, mid and sub, okay?

That sound, that is the bass line. Okay, now on 99% of DJ mixers you will have a gain control, which is basically it increases and decreases the volume that comes into the back of the mixer. You will then have top, mid and bass, or treble, mid and sub, okay? Now then, if you take away on your mixer the treble and the mid and you're just left with the sub, A lot of the bass sounds that are actually made from the music you're listening to. That is where the bass line comes in. Think about it. Bass, low, bass... Here's the bass line. Okay, now then, we're only looking at old cuts here today simply because I think they rock and without old tunes from years ago we wouldn't probably, well we would definitely have bass lines today but a lot of modern day music have almost like nicked tiny samples or just incorporated certain phrases from music from like years ago and put it into their tunes of today. Now then, the other track we're going to play

He is, in my book, undisputedly the king of disco sound. This is by a band called Chic, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were the main men in this particular track. And this is called Good Times, and believe me, you listen to it and it makes you feel good. Okay, it goes on, I mean, you know, halfway through.

5:22 These particular

The DJ Tutor. The emphasis of scratching then, there wasn't much use of the crossfade, of the cut switch, etc. In fact, then possibly there wasn't even a crossfade, okay? It was just the volume controls. There was no transforming, nothing like that. The original idea of actual cutting and when I say cutting, of actual scratching, it was a very, very simple and a new concept then. So think about it, if you're doing a mix, okay, you could just use the bass line from this one, take away the mid and the top, okay, and then bring something else in and not have the bass line on this one but have the mid and top on this one, okay? And mess about, it's all about experimenting, it's all about having fun, it's all about practicing and at the same time enjoying. Okay, right, now then what we're going to do now is the next song I'm going to play is not a dance track, okay? It's got virtually nothing to do with dance music, in fact it's a rock track.

But the beauty about it is, it's got a bass line to die for. Now then, if you haven't heard this song before, I'm afraid you haven't lived. Just like with this one, if you haven't heard that one, you haven't lived. If you haven't listened to a lot of old school music, I suggest you check it out because you could learn a lot from it, alright? This is by Queen. Now then, can you see a similarity between the bass lines? This particular track is called Another One Bites The Dust. Now then, what I'm going to do, okay, like I said, Grandmaster Flash actually utilised these two particular records in a mix that he did. It was all live. It was absolutely fantastic. It was very simple. It was still very difficult to do and when he actually did it, it was totally and utterly groundbreaking. So what I'm going to do, I'm just going to show you one part of the particular mix that he actually did when he used these two particular tracks. Okay, so what we'll do, we'll start this one off again. We'll start it properly. Alright, check it out.

Okay, I hope that's been a help. This is video number four in looking at certain aspects of music and in this one we looked at the fantastic sound known as the bassline. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.