Writing a tap melody

[Rasta Rocker]

For my music theory class I gotta write a 16-bar melody..with harmonies. Not too tough, but I want to be able to play it on my bass for extra credit. I've got some tapping experience and that's how I want to do it. But anything I try to come up with blows, anyone got any tips?

[FunkMetalBass]

Unfortunately, I'm in your boat. All I can say is come up with something that sounds melodic and beautiful, mess with it, play it up on the higher frets, and then create a bassline that you can tap easily along with it in the lower frequencies.

Main suggestion: arpeggios.

[Rasta Rocker]

Yeah I'm not used to writing melodic things. My style is more rhythmic and groovey. I know this is a pretty ambiguous question.

Anyone recommend chord progressions? I don't know how to create feeling yet.

[Akira]

I would find some easy piano music and look at how the accompaniments fit the melodies.

[Rasta Rocker]

Writing harmonies isn't my problem, it's just writing melodic music that sounds good. I know theory, I just don't know how to create the tone of music or make it sound like iron maiden or anything. As I said, my style is more about groove and rhythm

[FunkMetalBass]

Again, with the piano music, find something you like and analyze the chord progressions.

[PsychoTronn]

play some scales or walking basslines in a melody

[Pluperfect_Arson]

16 bars, you say?

That ****'s easy.

Start out writing a melody line that you can transfer over onto bass, but, since you want to tap the entire piece, you actually have to be able to tap the part.

From there, figure out what chords each note fits into. Figure out chord progressions and their common exceptions, and then start eliminating the chords. When you are done eliminating, you should have a decent chord progression that fits the melody line. However, if you don't know what chords like to go where, I can type that out for you.

Then you go from note to note harmonising what you have in your melody line. Basically, it is like writing with 4-part (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) without the alto and tenor.

It isn't rocket science. :p

For the sake of simplicity, your bass line should just be holding down the roots for the most part while the melody does all the work. Don't do anything too complicated with the bass if you want to be able to tap both parts. If you find that holding down the roots in the bass is boring, then switch it up some and add some fifths in there.

This post is pretty vague, so I hope you know what I just said.