Bass lines confuse me. Ask me to come up with a bass line and my imagination ends at playing whole notes on the root - but I was just listening to Time Out of Mind for example and I was like "wow, this completely goes against my assumptions about what the bass should be doing." What's this secret magic everyone else is using and how do I get my hands on it?
just get into a situation where you are expected to provide the bass for a song. over time, there is no one who doesn't figure out how to do this