How to Read Bass Tab

How to Read Bass Tab How to Read Bass Tab To play your favorite song on guitar, you must first get yourself familiarized with bass tablature. It is an intuitive system that you can learn without going for any music theory training. Here are some instructions that will help you to understand how you can read bass tabs:

Instructions

Give a look at different lines in a tab, corresponding with the strings. Mostly bass tabs are written for a four string bass, but there are also some that are written for a five or six string bass. Different Lines in a tab represents each string, the lowest (E) is on the bottom and the highest (G) is on the top.

Now familiarize your self with the numbers on the lines. These numbers will represent the fret that you will hold down and the string that you will play. For instance, if it is 0, then you need to pluck the open string but for numbers greater than 0, like 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, you must press your finger on the corresponding fret when you play.

Read and play the tabs from left to right. This means that the farthest left is the first ones to be played. As you continue to read and play the tab from left to right, you may at times come across numbers that arealigned vertically. These numbers are chords that should be played at the same time. How to Read Bass Tab1 How to Read Bass Tab

Look out for other relevant symbols and special markings on the string lines that tell you how the note is played. For instance, special markings could be a “^” that indicates to bend the string, a “p” that means to pull-off or it could be a “/” that means slide up, a “\” that means slide down, or an “h” that means to hammer on.

Tips to Remember

It is always better to start off with reading guitar tabs for simple songs that you have heard several times. This is because it will help you to know how it exactly sounds.
Carefully read all the tabs. Often some people adopt special symbols for slides, bends, pull-offs, and the like. However, they generally mention it at the top of a page.
It is not necessary to follow a tab exactly as it is. If you feel that a particular note sounds a bit off and you can play it better, then try it out.