If you’ve ever been in an SATB choir or even just heard one perform, you've probably noticed that most songs have one thing in common: the sopranos get the melody while the basses sing the same metronomic vocals that get hidden when other voice parts layer onto their root sound. This concept is unfortunately prevalent with instrumental music as well, for the double bass is often used to create a repeated background melody that sets the tone of the song. Despite the fact that playing the same melody over and over again may sound incredibly easy to do, keeping the tempo and making sure to pay attention to the flow of the music is quite challenging especially with the ability to zone out. (In choir singing, when a voice part is tasked to sing a single note over the course of many measures, if the singers don’t rearticulate, the note will eventually go flat or in some cases sharp.) Luckily for us, the bass player in Ben E. King’s song “Stand By Me” really does have your back in keeping the rhythm and tonality, as they play the same riff continuously for many measures without letting the steadiness of the beat falter. With each pluck of the strings, you can hear a strong resonant sound that creates a wholesome vibe as you listen to the song. Ben E. King came up with this bassline and wanted to use it as the pivotal starting point of the song as well as the basis for the string arrangement that gets added as the song progresses. The bass line in this heartfelt song is very catchy and did a good job in capturing the essence of this song. No matter how many times you hum the bass melody, it’ll never get old to you, and you’ll just keep wanting to hear the same tune that really does stand by you as you go through the journey of the song.
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