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The Art Behind Bass Guitar Tabs

Playing bass (or any guitar, for that matter) is more than pressing strings and fancy strumming. There’s a lot of technicality involved, technicality that’s religiously safeguarded by bass guitar tabs. After all, the only way the instrument can be played right is when there’s a guideline, right? It’s no Egyptian papyrus, but it’s close enough.

Tabs or tablature?

When glossing guitar songbooks you see the phrase guitar tabs a lot. Have you ever wondered if this is a close relation to tablature in music? Well, it’s not rocket science to tell that tablature and tabs are exactly the same, tabs being merely a nickname of sorts.

In guitar, tabs are musical notations that guide players where to place their fingers along the strings and in which fret. Tabs are frequently used for guitars and other stringed and fretted instruments. This is the more popular reference for learning guitar for pop and rock music. This also has several advantages over the tedious musical notations. In contrast, classical music is steeped in staff notation for accuracy in rhythm and timing.

Reading your bass guitar tabs

A bass guitar will have four strings. The first uppermost string is the G string (no, it’s not underwear), followed below by the D string, which is tailed by the A string. The last string, E, is the strongest of all the bass strings. These strings are represented by four horizontal lines. The numbers below the lines are the frets where the notes are played on. You will observe the frequent appearance of the O which indicates that the string should not be fretted or pressed against a fret. If there are numbers above the fret numbers the note has to be played on that fret.

If a number appears above a number on top of the fret, the strings are to be played at the same time, this time like a chord. Most bass guitar tabs are accompanied by legends to help the player understand some of the unfamiliar terms. In general, bass guitar tabs are easier to learn than the formal guitar musical tablature.

More guitar enthusiasts are finding bass guitar tabs convenient to use when attempting to understand the rudiments of bass guitar playing. There is no need for them to understand the underlying principles of guitar tablature because they want to learn how to play the bass guitar fast. Bass guitar players who dream of making it big opt for formal lessons in the fine art of bass guitar. A lesson in bass guitar will introduce them to the formal musical scales meant for stringed instruments. With experience and a solid background on musical theories, bass guitar players can switch easily from bass guitar tabs to scales.

Start with easy pieces

If you want to start a band, you should start with easy song pieces. Try out guitar pieces with simple bass guitar tabs. You will gradually progress on all fronts, from rhythm to bass, with constant practice and lessons. If there are difficulties along the way, you can always ask advice and opinions from the pros.

Practice your hand speed, slapping, and picking. Bass guitar tabs will require fast playing and switching of notes. You can add a dash of your own style by adding slaps. The faster you can go, the better you can play your bass guitar. Start practicing with free bass guitar tabs. You can have access to thousands of bass guitar tabs online and offline. Just decide what song pieces you want to learn but always start from the simple to the complex to avoid developing bad guitar habits that will ultimately be too hard to shake off.

Indeed, bass guitar tabs are easy enough to learn. After all, they’re not hieroglyphics.

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Short Scale Bass Guitar

The short scale bass guitar is one of three different scale types of guitars that you can buy. Before you buy a guitar, you need to determine the type of sound you want, the number of strings that you want, and the size of the guitar that you want. The short scale bass guitar is the shortest of the three types of guitars that you can buy, with only 30 inches of space between the nut of the guitar and the bridge saddle. Medium scale bass guitars have 32 inches between the nut ad the bridge saddle, and long scale guitars have 34 inches. The five string long scale guitar has 35 inches between the nut and the bridge scale, and the six string long scale bass guitar has 36 inches.

For beginning players, the short scale bass guitar is often suggested. This is due to the fact that these guitars tend to be slightly lighter than other models, making them ideal for a beginner to learn to cope with the weight of the instrument. As short scale bass guitars often have only four strings, there is less for a beginner to learn how to cope with.

Before you determine whether or not the short scale bass guitar is right for you, you need to decide what kind of music that you want to play. The short scale bass guitar is very common and flexible, allowing it to play many styles of music. However, some types of music require five or six strings, which make the short scale bass guitar unusable for those types of music. Beginners are commonly detoured from approaching the five or six string bass guitar until they have had at least several years of experience learning the standard four string bass guitar.

Due to how common the short scale bass guitar is, you can select from hundreds of different models and appearances of these guitars. Almost all brands make short scale bass guitars, so you can buy the perfect instrument for you. As these tend to be the type used for training, you can acquire an inexpensive guitar to learn on, and then upgrade to a high end Fender or other brand of guitar.

Once you own a short scale bass guitar, you will need to make sure that you take good care of it. Replacing the strings as needed, polishing the wood and keeping the guitar in its case can prolong the life of your guitar by several years. A damaged guitar will not have as good of a sound as one that is well maintained, so it is vital that you work to keep good care of your instrument.

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Fretless Bass Guitars

For the more advanced player, fretless bass guitars are a good way to hone your skills and get more sound from your instrument. Unlike their fretted cousins, fretless bass guitars lack the textured board. As a player, this means your have to have an excellent ear and a good knowledge of the bass guitar to play. Without the frets, you have to know what sounds each chord makes, as well as have excellent finger memory. Fretless bass guitars are not for beginners.

There are two types of fretless bass guitars available. The first type uses a completely blank board. These do not have any form of marker to show where your fingers need to rest in order to hit certain notes. These are the most challenging to use, and require the best finger memory and ear to play. The second type of fretless bass guitars available have the markings on where the frets would normally be. This is an intermediate stage guitar, allowing those interested in learning fretless bass guitars to have no frets but be able to get a visual confirmation that their fingers are in the correct place.

Fretless bass guitars have a distinct advantage over fretted guitars. By removing the frets, it is a lot easier to get half tones and notes that are specifically at half key. These are techniques designed for more advanced players. This allows those players to get a more individual sound from their guitars a lot more easily. For more aggressive music, where fingers may be slid up and down the board at great speed, fretless boards put a lot less strain on the fingers.

When you are examining guitars for purchase, you may notice that the majority of master grade instruments are fretless. This is due to both the level of skill required in order to play fretless bass guitars and the demands of the buyers. As most beginning and intermediate players will refuse to play a fretless bass guitar, they are sold less frequently than fretted boards. This may make finding a fretless bass guitar more difficult and more expensive.

When you go to buy a fretless bass guitar, you will want to make certain that the instrument has a good quality of sound. As you will be relying on your ears and your finger memory to correctly play the instrument, if the fretless bass guitars have lower quality sound, you may not be able to distinguish when you are in tune.

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Be One With Your Bass Guitar Chords

So you think you have it in you to join the ranks of Flea, D’arcy, and George Harrison and play bass? Well, you have a long way to go, so you better start now.

Learning the basics

If you want to go into bass guitar playing, decide which bass you will play. You have a choice – the 4-stringed bass guitar, or five, six, seven, and even more strings. Beginners usually go for the 4-stringed bass guitar. The next step would be choosing the right bass guitar and learning the bass guitar chords.

A bass player who knows his bass guitar chords has an edge. His understanding of chord music theory will enable him to make his bass line definitive and very interesting. He knows the note to play and when to play it. Knowing bass guitar chords entails the mastery of all basic chords with emphasis on the 6th and 7th chords for bass guitar. A bass guitar chords lesson includes the entire basic chords, important 6th and 7th chords, the 12 keys, chord map, charts, and neck patterns. The bass guitar chords are composed of three or more notes played together, and each type of chord has a formula.

He also has to master the 12 different notes   A, B flat, C, D flat up to A flat. Not all songs, however, use these notes because the notes of a song are dictated by the song’s key. Mastery of the musical patterns equips the bass guitarist with the skill to learn songs off record. He will then be able to pinpoint accurately what scales were used and the chord patterns and changes that went with it.

An initiation to bass guitar chords diagrams and notations

There are hundreds of bass guitar chords. There are even more ways to play them. You can play the “Happy”notes or the major chords, or sound the minor notes for the “sad” tones. You can jazz up the tones by moving up a half step (augment) or go down a half step (diminish). Playing the bass guitar chords offer endless possibilities of combinations of note chords.

Any beginner will benefit from learning to read bass guitar chords tablature or tab. This is a method of music notation. The illustrations show where to put your fingers, the frets and the strings. They also show horizontal lines, and each string is noted according to its placement. You will also see notations like O and X or a number. An O denotes that you play the string on the chord without depressing it. An X means you don’t play the string at all. A number on a string denotes that the string should be played in the fret specified.

A beginner should be able to memorize the chords and practice playing until he is comfortable with his guitar. Eventually his hand movement will take on the dexterity that marks a great bassist. He will also learn the slaps, riffs, and slides, as well as the use of the pick.

Buying and playing your bass guitar

An electric or acoustic bass guitar should be comfortable to play. You must able to manage its weight, and the neck of the bass guitar should be navigable by your hands. Get the guitar from reputable dealers who can give you a warranty. If you are opting for a used bass guitar, you can be sure it is reliable if it was played for years. However, bear in mind that used guitars do not come with a warranty and these may have unsuitable modifications.

Playing the bass guitar is a physical thing. It is therefore practical to do warm-up exercises before striking the first bass guitar chords. Find a comfortable position that will not strain your hands. Relax, and your bass guitar music will be just as smooth as it is fluid. In time, you’ll be giving Flea a run for his money.

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Bass Guitar Sheet Music

Bass guitar sheet music is a good way to help hone your skills as a bass guitar player. As beginners often practicing strumming chords without the assistance of sheet music, learning how to read music is a skill that is often overlooked in the beginning stages. If you do not know how to read music, you may need to acquire a chord chart that shows the notes and symbols you will use when reading sheet music.

The easiest ways to learn how to read bass guitar sheet music is to download some songs on the internet and review them. Compare these songs with chord charts online, and match up the sheet music to the chord charts. The simplest of songs will use a series of notes to form a melody, only requiring one string to be plucked at a time. After that, there are songs that use simple strums, with only two strings being used at a time. As you progress, you may find yourself using all four to six strings, dependent on the type of bass guitar that you own.

When you use bass guitar sheet music, you should make certain that the melodies are written for your instrument. Five or six string bass guitars will often use different sheet music, as the chords they use vary from four string bass guitars. While sheet music can be converted to the different types of bass guitars, it is easier for a beginner to use sheet music designed for their instrument.

Many pieces of bass guitar sheet music is written after established songs or as part of soundtrack compilations. These types of compositions are highly popular, as it allows people to learn the songs that they like. As many bands protect their bass guitar sheet music until long after the intellectual property has been well established, you may have to learn the songs by earn and write down the proper chords. Homemade bass guitar sheet music is rather popular, as many players will get together to play their favorite songs by other bands. Transferring music learned by ear to sheet music is also a good way to reinforce the skills you have been learning.

Bass guitar sheet music should be used as a tool to teach you chords, finger memory and improve your ability to hear music. As listening to your own music and being able to identify tone errors is important, using someone else’s music can help you learn what errors you are making. While creativity and making your own music is highly enjoyable, these are skills you need prior before you can make a solid composition on your own.

Bass Guitar Tab

For those new to the guitar world, a bass guitar tab is a notation used to refer to a chord, or a series of chords. Learning bass guitar tabs is one of the more difficult aspects for beginners to grasp, as there are many different tabs that are used for the guitar. As there are many different combinations of fingerings, there are an equal number of tabs, all of which may only slightly vary between one or another.

Tabs are not only used for the bass guitar, though the use of the term ‘tab’ is usually restricted to guitars. Harmonicas, as well as other instruments, make use of tabs, though if you go into many retail stores and ask for tabs, it is generally assumed you want guitar tabs. Bass guitar tabs are less often used, as the majority of players use other types of guitars.

When you make use of a bass guitar tab, you will want to keep references and resources handy. As you progress as a player, you will need the resources left often, but they are good to have if you encounter a notation that you have never seen before.

A bass guitar tab can be acquired in several ways. First, you can download them online. This is highly popular, as there are hundreds of thousands of tabs available on the internet, if you know where to look. You can also buy your tabs in local retail stores. In stores, tabs are commonly referred to as sheet music. If you find yourself having trouble locating tabs, ask where they keep the sheet music for your instrument. This will help you find the tabs you are looking for.

In the recent past, acquiring a bass guitar tab for some popular bands has become difficult. Due to bands desiring to protect their investments, some tabs have been banned for sale or distribution to the general public. If you are having difficulty locating a tab in your stores or online, this is probably the reason for it. The organizations in charge of this are the NMPA and the MPA, or, the National Music Publishers Association and the Music Publishers Association. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a listing of the tabs that are currently banned from the public domain.

The easiest bass guitar tab to acquire is for music that has been entered into the public domain. These are songs that the bands have either released to the public domain by their own will, or songs that are so old that they naturally progressed into the public domain. These songs are commonly used as teaching tools, as acquiring them is extremely easy.

Bass Guitar Lessons

Bass guitar lessons are vital for those who want to be able to progress past the initial beginning stages of playing the guitar. There is a lot of things that you need to learn in order to master the guitar, ranging from a variety of chords, playing songs and taking care of your instrument. As everyone needs to begin somewhere, bass guitar lessons are the most useful for those who have just started to play. These lessons will teach good habits and the basic skills that are needed in order to be able to learn on your own.

As bass guitar lessons are so important, you need to make certain that you do as the lessons instruct, and be willing to put in the effort required. You can get paid or free lessons, but both lesson types have one thing in common. You need to practice in order to make use of the skills that you are learning. While free lessons let you work on your own pace, you cannot escape the need to practice. If you are not willing to practice, you may be better off not trying to learn the instrument at all.

Bass guitar lessons can be frustrating for those who are not familiar with how stringed instruments work. With four to six strings to have to work with, as well as combinations of several thousand different chords, there is a great deal that must be learned before you can say you have mastered the bass guitar. The sheer amount of learning required can be frustrating, but it is not impossible to overcome.

If you are interested in bass guitar lessons, you will either need to rent or buy a bass guitar. If you are uncertain on whether or not you want to seriously learn the guitar, it is suggested that you borrow one from a friend. If you cannot borrow one, rent one for a month from a rental store, or make a deal with a pawn shop for an instrument. As brand new bass guitars can be very expensive, you need to be ready to commit before you purchase one. Buying a used instrument may be a solution for you if you want the instrument without the expensive of a new instrument.

One of the benefits to taking bass guitar lessons is that you will be able to learn the basic chords needed to play music. As there are many songs that only require a combination of a few chords, you can begin to enjoy your instrument quickly. This is one of the reasons bass guitar is so popular. Unlike woodwind or reed instruments, there is a much lower learning curve to be able to play the bass guitar.

Bass Guitar Fretboard

The bass guitar fretboard is one of the pieces of a guitar you have to take care to maintain. As the frets on the guitar are where you are to place your fingers to form the correct chords, this part of the guitar is commonly worn. When you play a lot, you will usually end up replacing your strings first, then the frets. Frets are worn down with age and pressure from strings and fingers. As they are worn down, depending on the material, they may splinter or alter the sound of your guitar.

Should you encounter this problem, you should replace your bass guitar fretboard immediately. A fretboard that is worn not only affects the sound, it can teach your fingers bad finger memory. This is due to the fact that old or damaged frets may slide or be worn in such a way where your fingers do not rest properly on the strings. These minor adjustments can cause problems if you are trying to play on a professional level, as the sound will not be in tune. If you have ever dragged your finger across a violin string as it was being played, you would be able to hear the differences in tone as your finger moves up or down the string. The same principle applies with bass guitars.

If you need to replace a bass guitar fretboard, there are two ways that you can do it. First, you can remove all of the strings and try to replace the fretboard yourself. This can be done by peeling off the old fretboard and applying the new. Depending on how your instrument is constructed, this might be easy or difficult. If you have never replaced a bass guitar fretboard yourself, you may want to order the fretboard you want online and take the guitar and new fretboard to a professional shop. A professional will be able to remove the fretboard without damaging the neck of your guitar and make certain that the board is seated properly. A proper seating is required in order to get the quality of sound that you need.

There are several ways that you can make certain that your bass guitar fretboard remains in good condition. First, you can make certain that you clean the fretboard. Cleaning the fretboard will keep dust and containments off of the board, with will prolong its life. Second, you can learn to only apply the amount of pressure needed to get the correct sound. Some individuals will press too hard on the fretboard, which can lead to damage that can only be replaced through replacing the board.

Bass Guitar Chord Chart

A bass guitar chord chart is a good way for a player of any age level to work their skills and practice playing their instrument. Anyone can pick up a guitar, strum the strings and make some form of sound. It isn’t until you learn hundreds of chords, know how to place your fingers and work both of your hands in unison that you can transform random strumming of the strings into beautiful music.

There are several components of a bass guitar chord chart. First, the chord chart will be designed for a dominant hand. Usually, this is the right hand. Some charts allow a switch for left handed players, as the direction you strum the guitar greatly changes the sounds that come from it. As many bass guitar chord charts are displayed so you can compare with what you are doing, someone who is left handed will have great difficulty using a chart designed for those whom are right handed.

A good bass guitar chord chart will clearly show the strings and the standard layout of the fingerboard, as well as where you need to place your fingers. The notes this corresponds to will be commonly written out below the chart, though occasionally all you will be given is the name of the chord. As many songs are a combination of various chords, knowing as much of each chord as possible will help you master your instrument faster.

Do not be ashamed if you have difficulties mastering a bass guitar chord chart, or tying several chord charts together. Beginners need to focus on slowly strumming the correct chords, which requires practice. While many want to begin playing beautiful, challenging music immediately, the basics need to be learned. If you are tired of just practicing the various chords and ensuring you are playing the correct sound, slowly alternate which chords you play. This will help you create basic music, and can keep your interest live.

Even with the help of a bass guitar chord chart, you will never master the bass guitar unless you practice and use different charts and resources. Do not be afraid to experiment with your instrument. A great deal of the learning process is finding out just what your instrument can do. The more you play, the more fun you will have, which will make the required aspects of learning less of a job and more of a variant on your fun practices.

Bass Guitar Essentials

Picking out my very first bass guitar was an exciting event. It is the first instrument I have ever purchased that I plan on learning how to play. Why not learn guitar first? Well, I have a love for the bass and not only that, I have been told on many occasions that is is easier to learn than the guitar.With all of the excitement of my purchase, I decided to make sure I have all of the essentials needed for my new bass. Below covers several accessories that you may want to include if you are looking to purchase a new bass guitar as well.

Bass Guitar Cases

The first thing you will want to do is protect your new investment. This requires a sturdy bass guitar case. Cases come in various styles and materials. The lower-end cases are very thin and don’t offer much protection if you plan on toting your bass around town. There are sturdier cases which are molded and padded on the inside. These cases have a hard shell and the padding keeps the bass secure. I’d highly recommend a molded case if you will be doing a lot of traveling.

Extra Bass Strings

Bass guitar strings are relatively sturdy but it doesn’t hurt to keep some spare strings handy. There are several types of bass strings available to include flatwound, roundwound, and groundwound.

Bass Guitar Straps

Depending on the bass you purchase, it may already come with a strap included.Of course there are various types of straps to choose from as well. The most popular guitar straps are usually made of leather or suede. Many are often woven and come in a variety of colors to suit your tastes. If you’re not into the fancy straps, you can always choose between vinyl and polyester.

Extra Guitar Picks

Out of all of the accessories you can have for your bass, the pick comes in more styles than anything else. You can choose from hundreds of colors as well as the thickness of the pick. Having multiple guitar picks always comes in handy.

Guitar Tuner

Keeping your bass in tune is a must and there are various types of guitar tuners available on the market. They all range in price from lower end tuners at $10 up to high-end versions that go for $100 or more. If you’re a beginner, it’s probably safe to stick to a low-end model until you become better at playing the bass.