How do you read guitar tabs?
I recently aquired a bass guitar, and wwant to teach myself to play it - however, I can't read the tabs! Please help!
Thanks,
Tom.
OK, the thinnest string on your bass is the 1st string, and the thickest string is the 4th string (I assume your playing a 4-string bass, if not, your thickest string is the 5th.) Each line on a line of tab represents a string
1st ————————————-
2nd ————————————-
3rd ————————————-
4th ————————————-
Then, each number on one of those lines tells you where to fret that string. For example:
1st ————————————-
2nd ————4————————-
3rd ————————————-
4th ————————————-
The tab above is telling you to hold down the 2nd string on the 4th fret. If you have several seccussive numbers:
1st ————————–2————–2—-2–
2nd —2—2—–4—-4———-0—0———–2
3rd ————————————————–
4th ————————————————–
Read it left to right like a sentence. Basically, if you can imagine a straight vertical line sliding left to right along a tab, every time that line contacts a number, you play it. That means if there are severaly numbers contacted at the same time, play them all at the same time.
Last of all, tabs do not provide any sort of info on the rythym of a song. So it's hard to play a song you've never heard before, even with tabs. There are also many other symbols commonly used in tab writing, and the author of the tab usually offers a key at the beginning to tell you what they mean.
Hope that helped. Good Luck!
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May 18th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm
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May 18th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm is a great site. It teaches regular guitar tab but just subtract two strings and you got yourself bass tab
References :
May 18th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
OK, the thinnest string on your bass is the 1st string, and the thickest string is the 4th string (I assume your playing a 4-string bass, if not, your thickest string is the 5th.) Each line on a line of tab represents a string
1st ————————————-
2nd ————————————-
3rd ————————————-
4th ————————————-
Then, each number on one of those lines tells you where to fret that string. For example:
1st ————————————-
2nd ————4————————-
3rd ————————————-
4th ————————————-
The tab above is telling you to hold down the 2nd string on the 4th fret. If you have several seccussive numbers:
1st ————————–2————–2—-2–
2nd —2—2—–4—-4———-0—0———–2
3rd ————————————————–
4th ————————————————–
Read it left to right like a sentence. Basically, if you can imagine a straight vertical line sliding left to right along a tab, every time that line contacts a number, you play it. That means if there are severaly numbers contacted at the same time, play them all at the same time.
Last of all, tabs do not provide any sort of info on the rythym of a song. So it's hard to play a song you've never heard before, even with tabs. There are also many other symbols commonly used in tab writing, and the author of the tab usually offers a key at the beginning to tell you what they mean.
Hope that helped. Good Luck!
References :
May 19th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Learn how to READ MUSIC… at your level, it won't be any more difficult than learning those stupid TAB's and you won't have to rely on someone transposing a piece of music for you later.
References :