The Lesson Loft — Guitars

[Goop]

I'm a total noob at this so bear with me.....

I'll soon be starting a search for a new bass player. I would like to have tabs ready to go before I place any ads.

I play all original music and am looking for software where I can load up my songs and have bass lines created. To keep it simple, I only want the lowest note of each guitar chord transcribed, as the bass lines pretty much follow the rhythm guitar. So I guess you could say I am looking for guitar tab software?


Any recommendations?

[jonfinn]

There might be software out there that does that. If so, I'd love to see it. My experience with trying to get software to do things like that haven't been great. Too many times, I've ended up spending more time re-editing the result where it would have taken much less time to just do it by hand.

If you're notation skills aren't great, I'd suggest just putting up recording of the tunes and let the bass player figure it out from there. You'll get fewer, but higher quality, responses.

Do you really want a bassist who relies on you writing out tabs all the time?

[Goop]

Originally Posted by jonfinn

If you're notation skills aren't great, I'd suggest just putting up recording of the tunes and let the bass player figure it out from there. You'll get fewer, but higher quality, responses.

Do you really want a bassist who relies on you writing out tabs all the time?

I've tabbed out maybe five of my songs by hand. I can do it, but I hate it and am trying to avoid taking that route if at all possible for the rest of my set.

Ideally I would prefer a bass player that could learn up everything by ear then show up for a few band practices and do a show. I have played with some guys who can do that but they are few and far between and are in high demand and busy.

I am willing to teach/write out tabs/do as many band practices as reasonably needed to make this happen but at the same time do it efficiently as possible.

Thanks for your reply!

[speechless]

Guitar Pro probably isn't all that you want but I bet it's enough for what you need

[JonR]

Why can't you just give the bassist a handwritten chord chart? Any bassist who's worth anything knows how to play the roots on a given chord chart. (Bassists have to know the notes on their frets, even if guitarists don't )
The problem - I guess - would be if there's specific rhythms or timings; but then tab can't show that anyway!

What I do for bass players who can't read notation (and even for some who can), is give them chord charts with bar lines marked, so they know how many beats each chord lasts for. That's crucial information. And using tab software for that is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
(Assuming you don't read notation, just count the beats each chord lasts for. Assuming it's in 4/4, divide the number of beats by 4. Mark barlines where each count of "1" is. Eg, a 12-bar blues in A would look like this:

Code:

|A  |A  |A  |A  |
|D  |D  |A  |A  |
|E  |D  |A  |A  |

If it's clearer to add beat markers, use additional slashes like this:
|A / / / |A / / / |A / / / |A / / / |
|D / / / |D / / / |A / / / |A / / / |
|E / / / |D / / / |A / / / |A / / / |
That way, if you have faster changes, 2 or more chords per bar, you can mark where they fall.
Even with that level of detail, it's going to be much quicker for you to prepare than using tab software (or handwriting tab).

It would have be a pretty dumb (and rare) bassist who couldn't read that. Or are you saying that the typical bass player you meet doesn't know how to find an A note on their bass?? (If so, I'm not surprised the ones who can are so busy...)


Are you perhaps (reading between your lines) looking for software that will translate audio information (eg from an MP3) into tab or notation? If so, good luck, but don't hold your breath. I'm sure many brains have been working on that for some time, but AFAIK no success yet. (There's been some limited success with notation, but only from very simple information.)

[Steadfastly]

If you have never tried to learn to read sheet music, I would strongly suggest it. It is really quite easy and it's so much better and easier than tab. You can then get a simply music notation program and quickly copy the notes you want for any song. Some programs will write it for you as you play.

[Goop]

Originally Posted by JonR

Are you perhaps (reading between your lines) looking for software that will translate audio information (eg from an MP3) into tab or notation?

That is what I meant when I said I was looking for software that I could load my songs into to create bass tabs. I also read the rest of your post and I understand what you are saying, but most of my music has a lot of single note runs. It's not like a 12 bar blues where you hang on each chord for a predictable/obvious amount of time. Your recommendation will work on some of my songs though and I will use it. Sometimes I think too hard and make this more difficult than it needs to be, lol. I appreciate your input.

Originally Posted by Steadfastly

If you have never tried to learn to read sheet music, I would strongly suggest it. It is really quite easy and it's so much better and easier than tab. You can then get a simply music notation program and quickly copy the notes you want for any song. Some programs will write it for you as you play.

I played piano and trombone for several years so I used to know how to read music and am sure I could do it again with a little work. How will reading sheet music help me write out tabs for someone who can't read sheet music?

Also, what you said about a notation program that could write it out as I play is exactly what I am looking for, thanks for your help.

[Santuzzo]

I have been in the same situation where I needed to make bass tabs of my songs for the bass player and I used Guitar Pro for it.
In my case this was fairly easy since the bass on the recordings that I had made of mys songs is programmed (MIDI), so all I had to do it export a MIDI file from my DAW and import that MIDI in Guitar Pro.

[Lutz Richter]

I use guitar pro too and it is good. In addition to guitar and bass you can also make drumtracks and other instruments.

[Pitar]

http://tuxguitar.en.softonic.com/

I use this. Messed around with it a couple hours to get an idea of the buttons, symbols and features and began tabbing. Playback allows you to check your work and it automatically scores as you go. One of the things I noticed is the sliding note emulator really isn't audibly accurate on playback so I use the hammer button for that. It sounds much better. But I just use it only for playback checking of the piece. After I'm done I change the hammers back to slides (for the finished score), as appropriate. If the collaborator/band member has the same software you can send him the tab to load and listen to. Sliced bread.

[Goop]

Thanks guys for all the input, much appreciated!

[aj_guitarist]

I used Power Tab. its free and really easy to pick up!