{"id":445,"date":"2015-12-02T01:46:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T01:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/?p=445"},"modified":"2015-12-02T01:46:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T01:46:24","slug":"bass-line-important-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/2015\/12\/bass-line-important-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is the bass line so important in music?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-via=\"music4surgery\" data-hashtags=\"importance+of+the+bassline\" data-count=\"vertical\" data-url=\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/2015\/12\/bass-line-important-music\/\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>A fascinating study was reported today in an online publication called openculture.com. \u00a0The title of the study is &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<a title=\"Permanent Link to The Neuroscience of Bass: New Study Explains Why Bass Instruments Are Fundamental to Music\" href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2015\/10\/the-neuroscience-of-bass-new-study-explains-why-bass-instruments-are-fundamental-to-music.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark\">The Neuroscience of Bass: New Study Explains Why Bass Instruments Are Fundamental to Music<\/a>&#8221; \u00a0For musicians and music-lovers, we know we love a great bass line. \u00a0How many Bach fugues begin with a powerful state of the fugue subject in a powerful bass instrument, like the pipe organ. \u00a0The fugue then dances through other registers, instruments and transformations of all kinds. \u00a0Then there&#8217;s the ostinato bass line, like the famous Pachelbel Canon, where the bass line or specific chord progression, repeats over and over in the bottom-most register of the orchestra or organ, or even piano. \u00a0Sometimes called a &#8220;ground-bass,&#8221; \u00a0it creates a sense of grounding in the listener and as it becomes more and more predictable, the listener relaxes into the rhythms, melodies and harmonies, knowing that as the bass remains the same, all the other voices and instruments morph around it.<\/p>\n<p>This new study points out that &#8220;Bass instruments don\u2019t only keep time; they also play a key role in a song\u2019s harmonic and melodic structure. In\u00a01880, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=dwctAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">an\u00a0academic music textbook<\/a> informed its readers that\u00a0\u201cthe bass part\u2026 is, in fact, the foundation upon which the melody rests and without which there could be no melody.\u201d As true as this was at the time\u2014-when acoustic precursors to electric bass, synthesizers, and sub-bass amplification\u00a0provided the low end\u2014it\u2019s just as true now. And bass parts\u00a0often define the root note of a chord, regardless of what other instruments are doing. As a bass player, notes Sting, \u201cyou control the harmony,\u201d as well as anchoring the melody. It seems the importance of rhythm players, though overlooked in much\u00a0popular appreciation of music, cannot be overstated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you find this as interesting as I do, I strongly suggest that you read the entire study, which I&#8217;ve linked to in the title above! \u00a0Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet A fascinating study was reported today in an online publication called openculture.com. \u00a0The title of the study is &#8221; &#8220;The Neuroscience of Bass: New Study Explains Why Bass Instruments Are Fundamental to Music&#8221; \u00a0For musicians and music-lovers, we know we love a great bass line. \u00a0How many Bach fugues begin with a powerful state [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59,55],"tags":[146],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why is the bass line so important in music? 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