do you make chords based on rhythm of melody or bassline

thanks

 

There is no precise right way. It precisely depends on my inspration.

 

what

 

I tend to start off with the root (bassline).

 

Essentially your chords should follow the overall key of your track.
In most music you will be using some sort of scales, so your bass will be in key with whatever scale you're using (minor, major, pentatonic etc).
So for instance if your track is overall in D Major, you are probably going to want to use one of the notes in the chord, so the D Major Triad is ( D, F#, A) and that triad make up the D Major chord.

The bass will sound best using those notes, but really you can use any of the notes in the D Major scale and it will probably sound ok.

There are no wrong notes, but playing the wrong ones: It's jazz ;)

 

I start with the chord progression first. I find it easier to disassemble the chords to figure out my basic Bassline, and they also contain the notes which will be used by any arpeggiator I load up.

 

You can make the Chord Progression while doing the Bassline..