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Well, it's very difficult for me to follow the first two points due to the fact that I have found that ideas come to me more in rhythm and direction. It's hard for me to hear the exact pitches I want in my head, but I can hear where I want a note to go, and what I want the rhythm to be. Do you have any advice about how someone like me should go about following these methods? I usually try to define the melody, then the bass line to fill in the chord, all according to the rhythms and "pitch identifiers" that I heard in my head.
I would like to add on a bit to point 6 if I may. I feel that the structure of bass in a piece of music is to define a "point of reference" if you will for the ear. Thus, I feel that what is truly important when defining movement is what is "on top" For example, songs that stay in pedal do feel as if they are moving due to the fact that the chords are unstabalized on top. I think that the best example of what I'm trying to explain is Stephen Sondheim's "God, That's Good" from Sweeney Todd. The bass line stays a continous I-V chord, while various dissonances are heard in the chords above. The fact that at times the diatonality is broken is, to the audiences ears, irrelevant due to the fact that a strong bass line is used. Another similar thing that uses the chord progression you used is "Every Day a Little Death" Which follows the I-vi-IV-ii pattern, but due to the occasional sharped 4th and 2nd, it feels more that it's heightening the action then staying stagnant.
So, in summation, I feel that what is more important is establishing a bottom for the listener and placing suprises on the top half of the piece folowing an odd bass line that isn't really what you want. Of course, this is only case-only, and if an odd bass line is what is necessary, then I feel that that should be the road taken. It just seemed to me that rule six was discouraging using common chord progressions even if you were to have some sort of variety in the upper voices. Of course, I might be misintrepreting what you've said (and actually, I fear I might, since I always think in Bass Lines unless Roman numerals are used. If I did, excuse this post.)
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