Introduction
Playing the bass guitar can actually be very rewarding. For most beginners, reading sheet music can be a bit overwhelming, but with the easy bass tab, one can learn how the music goes and thereby be playing your tunes within no time. Directly after running through these, you will find yourself able to read bass tabs and be that really good bass
player—less like that wind-scattered typhoon and more of a fun player.
Understanding the Basics of Bass Tabs
Bass tabs, or tablature, are made up of numbers and figures that indicate where your fingers should go on the fretboard. This easy-to-read format jumps right from the sheet music and into your instrument. Every line that you will find in a bass tab —easy bass tabs included — represents one of the strings on your bass guitar.
Since a bass tab carries the number of strings on a four-stringed bass, it usually is in four lines. For four-stringed basses, the first line is always the G string and then the D, A, and E strings down the page.
How to Read the Numbers
The numbers written on each line represent the fret at which to place your fingers when plucking the string. So, for instance, if there is a ‘3’ on the line from the D string, you’d put your finger on the third fret of the D string. A ‘0’ is the number used when you play that string open. Reading from left to right, be sure to play through these notes in the order shown on the tab. Pay attention to timing information placed above the staff and usually presented as how rhythms are form a given sequence of music symbols or some combination.
Special Symbols and Techniques
Bass tabs will usually contain specific symbols that represent directions for a large number of playing techniques. Though, these are some of the most common ones:
Hammer-ons (h): Simply play a note and then hammer with the left hand down onto a higher, fretted note without plucking again. For instance, “5h7” will represent a fifth fret, hammer onto a seventh.
- Pulloffs (p): The inverse of a hammer-on. You pull your finger off to a lower note. “7p5” means play the seventh fret, then pull off to the fifth fret.
- Slides (/ or \): Slide above or below from a note to the other. “5/7” = slide from fifth fret to the seventh fret and “7\5 = slide down from the seventh to the fifth Fret.
- Bends (b): Dealing with now hitting the string up or down while pitching is forced to something other than the standard tone. For instance the note “7b9” brings an exposed seventh fret note and forcefully makes it play to pitch of the ninth fret.
- Vibrato (~): A fine, rapid pulsation in the pitch that gives a “wobbly” effect. Symbols as “5~~~”.
Practice with Simple Songs
By far, practice is perhaps one of the best ways to master the reading of bass tabs. Start with practice in songs that have been written out: standard notation and rhythm notations found. Start with the simplest of programs available on websites that promise to teach you to follow bass tabs. The tabs for following are user-friendly and will readily build confidence with time. Drastically up the challenge as you grow in experience by playing complex tabs that encompass advanced features of playing and quicker rhythms.
Use a Metronome
Timing is an aspect of music that the use of the metronome can impress upon one to feel the time. The metronome gives you a tempo so that you can play and remain in the correct timing of the piece. That’s why most online tab resources have indications of tempo; always ensure you set yours accordingly.
Begin at a fairly slow tempo, and only gradually increase the speed as you come more and more comfortable with the Notes being played and the rhythms in use. This is also likely to help your counting and make progress in picking up new songs.
Join a Community
It really can be something of a journey sometimes once you finally get down to learning how to read bass tabs. It can offer valuable support and company, with valuable experience in participating in a community of other bass players, with pointers occasionally offered in the right direction. Even then, joining forums or group chats through social media or getting out for real-life sessions does make it possible to share tips and advice back within the playing community. Inside such communities, you will have the chance to approach several styles of music and various playing techniques closer, which will help enhance your skills and make the whole process of learning very fun.
Seek Out Quality Resources
Not every bass tab you find is of quality—it will really mark your journey in getting a good, quality tab. Websites like Ultimate Guitar give very much; lots of its tabs are reviewed by users as to how accurate they are. Moreover, many professionals and educators share tabs on their sites or social media. You might also consider purchasing books which contain tabs. Tabs primarily offer contextual elements and additional features that have always proven quite useful in learning, and now fall into place in a judges’ setting for those explanations.