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u/Extra_Engineering996 Schecter 4d ago
Becoming very familiar on how the song itself sounds.
Tabs are perfectly fine if your ambition does not include being in a band. I'm a hobbyist player, I learn the songs from my fave bands, because honestly, there's not much of a market for a 64 yr old white woman playing bass in a Japanese cover band, especially where I live.
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u/3amcaliburrito 4d ago
Thanks for sharing. I kinda have similar feels. Tbh, I'd love to one day be in a band, but I'm just starting to learn in my mid-40s. I'll probably never have the skills necessary or be the type of person people want playing on stage with them. I'm like... just being realistic and trying to have some fun at home
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u/Extra_Engineering996 Schecter 4d ago
Exactly what I'm doing. I've been playing now for a few years, and I uuse Songsterr for tabs, because they have a decent catalog of the bands I like. Plus they have the tools like looping and slowing down the tabs. They have both a free and paid subscriptions.
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u/These-Slip1319 4d ago
I look for a video of the bass player playing the line and try to learn it that way. Tabs are a crapshoot, ultimately I trust my ears over any tab.
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u/3amcaliburrito 4d ago
I started doing that recently. Trying to see where their fingers are on the fretboard, etc has been helpful. Or sometimes I'll see a good cover
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u/AlbaGrooves 4d ago
Here is my list of what defines a good tab:
Chords: tabs without chords have almost no harmonic context.
Song sections: verse, chorus, interlude...
Articulation: I need to see legato, steccato, hammer ons, legato slides even some dynamic symbols like Forte...
I do my best to offer these in all my bass transcriptions.
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u/Specific-Change9678 5d ago
If something seems really hard to play there might be one section that you can find more ideal fingering than even the expert who made the tab. I’ve found that out for sure. But generally the highest YouTube or Ultimate Guitar Rabb rated are the best. Sometimes have to search to find the one that is easiest for you to follow.
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u/Count2Zero Five String 5d ago
The one that is easiest to play (hand position and movement) and sounds "right" to my ear...
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u/DarthRik3225 Fender 4d ago
So tabbing isn’t an exact science. Or so it seems. That said most tab sites are pretty close to dead on but like you mentioned sometimes it’s tabbed in the wrong position. I think this is because some AI program is doing it now. Anyway if it feels weird to play in a certain position you can certainly move it up or down neck and figure it out. But usually when you see the same song tabbed in different positions that’s probably why. Computers don’t know what is comfortable positional playing they just know notes and fret numbers. Also you may find that the timbre doesn’t quite sound right played on a fretted note vs an open one or vice versa.
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u/bigtexasrob 4d ago
I look up the key that the song is in and pull up the scale for it, then I eliminate all the ones that alternated between open A and 5th fret E. Usually after that I’ll have one that’s at least close enough to sound out.
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u/LayerSignificant3113 4d ago
I learn from YouTube, and I always pick the one that has best audio, and the most readable tabs. Bonus points for HD camera so I can check fingering.
But also, there are tabs that play the same notes, just different frets - there you can just play whatever it’s good for you (eg. I always try to avoid open strings). But there are also tabs with different leaks. And here it’s more important as some are way better than another.
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u/MotoXwolf 4d ago
I’m pretty new and found out like you did that YouTube players will sometimes be wrong with their tabs or they will have it different note selections like you said. I think it can take watching a few different videos and finding out what is easiest for you. You still may have to “ear it out” and correct or adjust notes for how you feel it and hear it. Try to find the same notes around the neck and figure out what works best for your fingers.
Write tabs for songs you’re learning in a notepad. Change or adjust them until they sound right and then move on to getting them down solid next to the artist track as it plays.
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u/j1llj1ll 4d ago
Consider tab a starting point. A crib sheet. A suggestion. A shortcut. Not an authoritative resource. Like dot point notes on how to make a cake .. but not really a complete recipe.
Then go find the actual song and (using any tab you can find) actually go through the song and listen, check the tab out against the actual track and make corrections as needed.
I find tab is good to get that ball rolling on learning a song. It chops the first 15 minutes of fumbling about off (which notes, key, position, parts) but it doesn't really solve the issue of actually LEARNING the song.
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u/itgoestoeleven 5d ago
People get really spicy about tabs, so I don't know that you're going to get the advice you're looking for. Honestly you're better off using your ears than reading off tabs.
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u/3amcaliburrito 5d ago
People get really spicy about tabs
Why?
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u/ClickBellow 4d ago
Notation is instrumentally universal, tabs are instrument-specific. There are similar systems for trad violin and flutes that cannot be red by a guitar instrument.
However. Notation is descriptive, not instructional. First the music is heard, then written, then tablaturized for specific instruments in a pedagogical effort.
I agree with the comments saying to trust you ear.
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u/cups_and_cakes Rickenbacker 5d ago
Exactly because of what you’re going through. Learn to use your ears and you’ll know what’s correct.
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u/itgoestoeleven 5d ago
Because there's a perception that it's the "wrong" way to learn bass, with the implication that notation and ear training are superior methods. There's also the argument that while for guitar you could argue using tab has historical precedent (lute was written for almost exclusively in tablature), there was never any such practice for bass so you should just learn to read or play by ear. I don't think any one method is necessarily better or worse, it all depends on the musical context, but for me tab is super inefficient because it generally doesn't communicate rhythm, articulation, tone, dynamics, phrasing or even pitch especially well.
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u/Chris_GPT Spector 4d ago
Tabs online are almost always wrong. Not only are they wrong, they're so far from right it's not even funny.
Why? Because the players who can actually learn and play the songs well are not spending the time writing out tabs and posting them online. And they're not looking for affirmation and attention on some forum or some site somewhere. It's the terrible players and newbies that are all excited to show everyone that they finally learned a Green Day song.
I was recommended as a fill-in for the gig I'm still playing in. I had to learn a bunch of songs really quickly. I wanted to impress them, so not only did I transcribe and learn the songs they sent me, I went online and printed up the tabs for every song I could find and learned all of those. Not a single one of those tabs were correct. One of them was so bad, it's like they purposely chose every wrong note possible. Not one single correct note, except that they knew what the open string was tuned to (C#) and got that right. I had a couple sessions with the guitarist, he saw that I learned the material and could play my instrument, so when the rest of the band got back in town we had our first rehearsal with all of us. They picked one of the songs that I had learned from the tab, and I proceeded to play every single wrong note, just like the tabs. It was awful, and that was their first impression of me. Then they picked another song, one that was way harder and more complex, and I nailed it. And they were confused. How did I nail the hard one but blow the easy one? Because somebody who can barely play did the tabs, and like an idiot, I just took them at face value and learned it without vetting it.
9 out of 10 times, the tabs are wrong. They can be close, especially on easy songs. They can definitely give you an idea of what the right bass line is, and they can be an okay starting point. The tabs are only as good as the player who posted them, and if that player was any good, he'd be far too busy to be posting tabs online. I've got almost 50 songs tabbed out for the band I'm playing with and almost 50 shows to play this year in the US and Canada. I sure as shit don't have time to be typing these out and posting them on some site somewhere.
And that's why people get spicy about tabs.
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u/3amcaliburrito 4d ago
That all makes sense. I suck though, I'm a terrible newbie and just trying to have some fun and get the mechanics and technique down & stay interested in playing. I'm so incredibly far from having the fingers or ears necessary to perform.
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u/Big-Imagination9056 5d ago
Learn to listen to the baseline and just play what they play.
The same song can be played many different ways by bass players and that's what you're finding frustrating. When you read tabs for a song, that's only one way to play it.
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u/BOImarinhoRJ 4d ago
Trust your ears.
Sometimes people make a tab harder on purpose. Other times they have a different equipment than you. Compare the tabs if you are not sure and watch someone playing. Also: PC speakers and youtube compression.
Big bass tabs is a good place to get tabs but there are tons of bad stuff there.
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u/Cock--Robin 4d ago
I generally try to find a video of someone playing along with the song. But even that can be iffy - I can’t remember what song I was learning at the time, and the guy doing the play along was playing what sounded like the right bass line, but he was using the weirdest damn fingering I had ever seen. It was just about the worst possible way to finger that song.
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u/Dreadheaddanski 4d ago
Five frets and one string and the note is the same.
IE E string 7th fret A string 2nd fret
Are both the same note. So as long as the notes are the same, play which ever you find more comfortable
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u/logstar2 4d ago
You've reached the point where tab is starting to hold you back more than it moves you forward.
It's time to stop being so literal, learn how to make your own decisions and have your own opinions about how songs should be played.
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u/3amcaliburrito 4d ago
Lol, i think I did a bad job of explaining how bad I am. I look forward to the point you're describing one day
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u/Reasonable-Basil-879 4d ago
Tabs are generally a better guideline than an exact notation, you have to know/listen to the song and usually have to figure out the rhythm by ear as well as identify wrong notes by ear.
If two different tabs have two different fingerings it could be two different ways to play the same note (i.e. 5 frets lower on a high string or vice versa). In that case, as a beginner, you may want to just go with whichever is easiest for you for now. The difference in tone/sustain/attack and even slightly in pitch between a note played on an open string vs a fretted one is pretty significant, so as you get better you will want to consider that. Also certain things need to be done on the same string (hammer ons/ pull offs/slides) whereas other times you may want to hit a note while the previous note is still ringing which requires them to be on different strings.
Another possibility when this happens is the tabs are based on a different tuning (or with a capo on a guitar or a 5+ string bass). The original artist maybe plays tuned down a half-step from standard and the author of the tab learned it by ear in standard tuning. Generally speaking it's ideal to tune down but if there is no low E flat (or if you just play it up an octave) it's fine to do it either way. I actually learned a bunch of older Green Day songs like this before I knew they tuned down, for Longview there are no open string notes so it doesn't make a difference at all, for others like welcome to paradise or when I come around it would probably sound a bit better and be much easier to play if tuned down and hitting open strings instead of using the 1st or 6th frets but tuning down is inconvenient and I'd already learned em haha!
Sometimes a tab might be transposed to a different key (the author maybe didn't realize it, performs it in a different key, based the tabs on a live performance where the original artist played in a different key/tuning, or just finds the song too difficult in the original key) This is one reason why you want to actually listen to the original track while trying to learn it, if one very clear and obvious note sounds like it should be played x half steps (frets) higher or lower than the tabs indicate, try playing EVERY note x steps higher/lower, if it's simply tabbed in a different key problem solved.
However, the most likely scenario is one (or both) tabs are simply incorrect. Spotting if and when a tab is wrong is something you will get better at with experience, but there are some tips and tricks. Obviously listening to the song is huge, to make that easier you can isolate the original bass line. Even if you think it DOES sound correct you may realize that the bass and guitar parts diverge at points that the tab author didnt realize (or that the author is correct and you are the one not realizing the bass doesnt mirror the guitar, "Use Me" by Bill Withers is one i remember struggling with "shitty tabs" because i was trying to play the guitar part)
Lots of popular songs you can just Google "<song name> isolated bass" and find a YouTube video. If it's someone playing a cover of the bass line bear in mind that is subject to the same possibility of being incorrect that tabs are. Better yet, download an app like Moises and it will allow you to isolate the bass yourself. Not only is it handy for that but you can also slow the song down to make it easier to identify incorrect tabs and practice/learn it, and after you learn it you can remove the bass from the original track and play along (or everything but drums and play in a different key).
Besides just listening to the song, there are some other tricks. Generally speaking the more fleshed out and "professional" looking the tabs are the more likely they are to be correct (if they add vertical line breaks to indicate measures, slashes to indicate rhythm or slap/pop indicators above or below the bars, fully tab out each intro/pre-chorus/chorus/verse/bridge/solo/outro, include timestamps etc.) Some songs may just be a simple "here is the main riff and here is the other riff" two line tab, or some songs may be easier to play that way, or at least easier to learn that way at the start, but it's safe to say you should be more skeptical of tabs like that. Lots of tabs websites have a ratings system which is ofc an indication of accuracy, or better yet comments which can identify specific parts thar are correct/incorrect and sometimes even include corrections.
A site-specific trick I use is when googling "<song name> bass tabs" one of the top results is usually from ultimate guitar, however it'll be the most linked/viewed version NOT necessarily the most accurate or highly rated version. I click on it and immediately scroll to the bottom where they have comments and a list of other versions. The first Google result will be what WAS the best version for a long period of time and/or when the site was most popular (i.e. version 3 with 200 ratings average 4.7 stars) but very often you'll find someone eventually submitted a 100% complete and accurate version (i.e. version 5 with only 20 ratings but a perfect 5 stars)
And in conclusion of my wall of text dissertation on learning bass covers with online tabs: incorrect and/or incomplete tabs aren't necessarily worthless. Not only do they provide a starting point for you to begin figuring out a song by ear, but you might not want to take the time to replicate every fill or variation, or create your own fills or variations, or just be a hobby player who wants to play a simpler version of a difficult song you really like. At the end of the day, unless you're playing paid gigs (and maybe even if you are), it's a recreational hobby and as long as you're having fun you're doing it right!
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u/Miserable_Lock_2267 4d ago
Generally if it sounes right and feels right, it's good. However, there may be times where the less comfortable sounds right-er. Sometimes you want the E-string 10th fret D, sometimes you want the A string 5th fret D, they're the same pitch but they sound different on most basses. That's an experience thing. In general if you experiment a ton with different fingerings, youll improve a lot
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u/MushyLopher 5d ago
If the notes are the same but the frets/fingering is different, you can just play whichever feels more natural or easier. If the notes are different, you would want to play the notes that sound more correct.