Can you copyright a bassline [Pictures]

Last updated : Sept 3, 2022

Can you use a bassline from another song?

If you use someone else's melody note for note then you need to clear the use with the copyright owner otherwise you could be be sued.

What parts of music can be copyrighted?

Copyrighted elements of a musical composition can include melody, chord progression, rhythm, and lyrics — anything that reflects a "minimal spark" of creativity and originality.

Can a rhythm be copyrighted?

Drumbeats and drum patterns are not typically considered songwriting – it's not typical to copyright a drumbeat. The law makes clear that lyrics, melody, harmony, and rhythm can be copyrighted. Most often, lyrics and melody are afforded protection under the law before the other two.

Can you copyright a vocal melody?

With regards to the sound recording it is simple. As soon as you create a sound recording, or "Master", you own the copyright to it in its entirety (unless it's a bootleg/sample of someone else's audio). For anyone to legally use it, they would need your direct permission in the form of a Master License.

Is it OK to steal chord progressions?

This is a completely legal use of another chord progression. You can't do this with another songwriter's melodies: they are subject to copyright, and are protected from other people “borrowing” them.

Is it legal to make a parody of a song?

In the United States, parody is protected by the First Amendment as a form of expression. However, since parodies rely heavily on the original work, parodists rely on the fair use exception to combat claims of copyright infringement.

How much do you have to change a song to avoid copyright?

According to internet lore, if you change 30% of a copyrighted work, it is no longer infringement and you can use it however you want.

How much of a song can I use without copyright?

Unfortunately, there are no fixed standards as to how much of a song you can use without infringing the song owner's copyright. Of course, the shorter you can make the clip, the stronger your argument for fair use protection.

How many seconds before music is copyrighted?

This is one of the most common misconceptions. Unfortunately, this is not true and there is no bright line rule that says a use is an acceptable use as long as you only use 5, 15, or 30 seconds of a song. Any use of copyrighted material without permission is, according to U.S. copyright law, copyright infringement.

Can you copyright a beat with a sample in it?

You CANNOT sample music without permission, no matter how short or long the sample is. Copyright is copyright. And if the sample is recognizable (hell, even if it isn't recognizable), you're using another person's intellectual property in order to construct or enhance your own.

Are drum loops copyrighted?

Drum loops, drum beats and drum patterns are not copyrighted because they aren't technically considered songwriting. Copyright law states that only a piece of music's lyrics, melody, harmony and rhythm can be copyrighted.

Are music loops copyrighted?

Anyone who creates original musical material – whether that's whole songs, backing loops, or even just one-second samples for other people to use – owns the copyright for everything they make, meaning that you can't use it without permission.

Is stealing a melody illegal?

You can't take someone's melody or lyrics and call them your own. Most songwriters know, though, that chord progressions aren't generally protected by copyright.

How long is a melody copyright?

Once a copyright is created, protection generally lasts for 70 years after the death of the author and in some cases 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation. That's a long time!

What constitutes stealing a melody?

One of the most common things I hear from songwriters is that they're afraid they subconsciously stole their melody from another song… and therefore their melody is not really 'theirs'. For a song to be actual plagiarism, a substantial portion of its melody has to be exactly the same as the other song's.

What happens if your song sounds like another song?

If your song sounds recognisably like part of another song, and the other side can demonstrate in court that copying has occurred, you could end up owing someone a lot of money, or even lose ownership of your own work. But that's unfair, say many songwriters.

What makes music copyrighted?

The song is protected by copyright once it has been 'fixed' in a form that can be copied, such as being written down or recorded. It has to be original in the sense of not having been copied from elsewhere (see Track 2). Copyright enables the authors to control the use of their work: who uses it and how.

How do I know if my song is original?

1. Why Every Musician Should Check Their Songs for Plagiarism.
2. Let Others Listen to the Song.
3. Use a Music Recognition App.
4. Use a Sheet Music Detector.
5. Change the Tempo.
6. Change the Pitch.

Do parody songs pay royalties?

If you're creating a parody and your use is deemed "fair," then you don't owe royalties or anything else to anyone, you're using your 1st Amendement right to create a "transformative" work out of an existing work to comment on it...

Is satire a copyright?

Satire uses the original work as a means to criticize or mock something other than the original work. This falls outside the scope of fair use because, unlike parody, satire can criticize or mock its target without needing to use the copyright-protected work. The original work is the means but not the end.

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what's up slappers this is an emergency we have been backstabbed i recently discovered that some very famous bass lines we all love actually have never been played on bass ever we thought these legendary bass lines were played on bass but actually were not slept like now if you're shocked in this video we're gonna discover and expose all these bass lines i promise you you're gonna feel betrayed but do you know who is never gonna betray you me if you subscribe now thanks let's start this first episode of omg i thought this was base but actually it is not first let's start strong seven nation army it is probably the most legendary bass line literally every bassist knows how to play it but let's quickly check the band who wrote this song did you notice something weird there are only two musicians one drummer and one guitarist yes you guessed it this baseline actually was recorded using a guitar tuned down this is already too much it is still considered a baseline though because it's in the bass and low frequency range but still the original is played on guitar i'm suffering next the next bass lanes is from a recent hit song from charlie puth called attention i'm gonna play it for you huh um pretty cool sounding but let's quickly listen to the original bass line i would say this is a real base but charlie puth himself reveals the sad and scary truth so everyone's always asking about the bass who played the bass what happened with the bass um so that sounds like the realest bass ever i feel like i'm living in spain without s but i kind of felt that was played on a keyboard sounded way too clean to be a real bass and the quality of virtual instruments is racing so quickly that soon we might not be able to distinguish real bass from fake bass we live in a society our friends drums are already suffering from this like 99 percent nowadays drums are just samples press be in the chat for drums next seinfeld if you are a boomer you are probably very familiar with this song but not if you are young this is a very famous bass part from this extremely popular tv show check this out now this must have been played on base right then i use the base that slap bass as the primary melody of sorts for seinfeld on its own once again bass has been replaced by a keyboard they are still in our jobs stop next you can not hide forever davey keep your word and battle me now or i will hack you this is no joke why is this guy in this video stop asking me for a base battle davie503 i already told you what i think about you next 24k magic from bruno mars the baseline sounds like this in every live show they always have a cool bassist playing these parts but the original bass line is not played on bass shocking very fun instrument to play but not real bass next we have two iconic bass lines from michael jackson thriller and billie jean again in live shows they have a real bass player but the sad reality is that they were both played on a synth base you know what i can't do this anymore i'm just suffering too much which basically shocked you the most in this video leave a comment now and if you know any more bass lines that were not actually played on bass leave a comment now i hope you enjoyed this first episode of omg i thought this was bass but actually it is not remember to slap like leave a comment and subscribe and i will see you in the next video stay funky bros oh gee i thought this was bass but actually it is

Thanks for your comment Zachary Pullen, have a nice day.
- Cecily Donning, Staff Member

all right today we're doing a little bit of a public service which is dispelling the oxymoron that is the educated bass player so we're gonna take this journey instruments beautiful emerald green bass which is the official bass of the Emerald Riders my Celtic band which I'm gonna link you to below because I'm really going all out on the promotion of this now we're talking about how you can use music theory real simple music theory to help you write bass lines you can use this same kind of idea as far as like maybe writing lines on a guitar and pushing it down or do you get on a keyboard we're just talking about kind of different modes of the major scale and how you can use them as numbers to write a bass line so again I'm doing this something awesome carbon-fibre Journey instruments guitar this actually folds down into a backpack but I kind of wanted to showcase it because it just sounds it sounds so good and it's the official emerald color of the armor riders so we're gonna do this is the people's key of G all right so I'm gonna loop AG major just guitar glue but before we do that we need to know what notes we have available we're gonna do it all in one position right here how about that the G Major scale who could have saw that coming ridiculous right so let's look at it real quick the low E string gets the 3rd fret and the 5th fret the a string gets second fret third fret and the fifth fret D string gets second fret the fourth fret 3 5 2 3 5 2 4 5 g a b c d e f sharp g ok really important knowing all that and then being able to turn that into number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 so this can be done in any key we just move that whole shape to an a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 all the stuff is movable the open strings aren't even gonna help us at all for the entire the entirety of this exercise this lesson and it's all about just kind of choosing which mode you want anytime you see a major chord on bass or in any kind of song there's three different types of modes you can use to create bass lines or bass riffs out of we just learned one the major scale mode fancy people call that the Ionian mode and press your friends now it's really easy to remember the other two as long as we know that these are numbers one two three four five six seven eight my favorite mode is just making one small adjustment you take that forth note one two three four and sharpen it which means now we have the fourth fret on the a-string in the key of G 3 5 2 4 5 2 4 5 everything about this is you have this kind of symmetry of these is back to back a and D string 2 4 5 2 4 5 alright so this is the major scale with a sharp 4 the other name for this would be the Lydian mode okay you're gonna find this on the 4th degree in any key alright but we're staying with G right here we'll talk about more of that in a second the other one that's really really common is we're just gonna take that major scale again take the 7th note 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 we're gonna flatten it okay there's gonna be a flat seven otherwise known is a minor seven because you'll see this in minor chords it's really easy here I know this symmetrical shape three five two three five two three five great thing about that is you can just rip this off three five three five three five very kind of pentatonic vibe if you want to do just those notes but really we've got runo a second on the key it's called the major third the important thing is those first three notes are the same across all three modes all three scales are going to look at it right although we're gonna share these that fourth note is gonna be the same in two of them again in the Lydian it's gonna be sharp and then the other only other alteration is the flat seven okay so we have three modes it's good to be able to do these back-to-back major lady mixo-lydian is the name of this one now it's all well and good to be able to play them but let's hear what they sound like so what I'm gonna do right now is I'm going to loop just a a G major chord just kind of back and forth alright so I've got another emerald guitar city Angelico official guitar of the emerald riders Celtic band awesome concept album off how does he do it how did you make so much great music we're just gonna loop a super simple just G major thing okay so we've got this gone now bring the emerald Mason it can be something assembled is it Rudolph if super super simple add that in the 5 1 2 3 or 5 but we haven't used any of they from mode so we can easily start doing something in Lydian where we take that sharp 4 and emphasize it kind of like I'm kind of going overboard just kind of proving point to that sharp 4 makes a different sound than just a regular kind of major flat 7 and do one of my favorite cool bass lines like almost kind of like a minor sounding thing but over this right there flat seven really kind of stands out and this one makes that mode special now the really cool thing about when you're playing with a very simple accompaniment you can really spread your wings on base so I can go back back and forth and really switch in and out of all these three modes over a major chord because the thing about that major chord in the guitar track it's a triad it only has three notes from that scale in fact it's the first note the third note and the fifth note a G a B and D so anything else that I want to use to kind of dressup that chord on a bass I'm totally within my rights even if I switched kind of change keys all I'm doing it so I'll start just with the regularokay so that was just kind of playing around over one chord really incorporating all these notes the regular G major G a B C C sharp a sharp or D so if you want to look at incorporating all three of the modes it's almost like having nine different notes one two three four five six seven eight nine and back again now when in a denser arrangement of other instruments or for guitar players playing extended chords or something you could get in trouble thinking of that in fact the modes are specifically supposed to go on certain chords in a progression okay so the next thing we're gonna do is I'm gonna make a more common progression that kind of sticks out a little bit more where we're gonna take maybe we'll start with a G major like and then go to D major to C major and back to G okay so sorry d is super simple to see major back to G and then so a little bit like there there's the décor you distract the route no the base see gyah a lot of time your job is a bass player just to do this depending on what the drummer is doing now how to match this deal with the kick drum just Reno and a five to the T C chord is five back now major thing about this is so now we can start adding those modes in particular places so in this progression G is the one one two three four C is the four D is the five all major chords in a key over that G major chord it would make most sense to use the G major mode the G Ionian mode over that C course and C is the fourth one that is where the Lydian mode occurs so when ever get to that C I'm gonna take that same shape we used when we started on a C note the third fret on the a-string three five two four five two four five just like w

Thanks Annelle your participation is very much appreciated
- Cecily Donning

About the author

Cecily Donning

I've studied economic geography at University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh and I am an expert in earth systems engineering and management. I usually feel crushed. My previous job was hotel manager I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about dog walking and kendama. Huge fan of Harrison Ford I practice horse riding and collect autographed baseballs.