Music Composition DUMmIES

If you’re writing a piece for a bass, you would write out something like

Figure 19-3.

Next, you write numbers on the lines to show you where to fret the string —

meaning upon which fret to apply pressure (in case there’s any confusion).

If a zero appears, this means play the open string (no fretting).

The tab shown in Figure 19-4 means play the sequence of notes: E(0), F(1),

F#(2), G(3), G#(4), and A(5) on the bottom E string by moving up a fret at a

time, starting with the open string.

If two or more notes are to be played together, they are written on top of one

another, such as in the example of a G barre chord shown in Figure 19-5.

In Figure 19-5 you would play all these notes together at once, as a chord.

3 3 4 5 5 3

E B G D A E

Figure 19-5:

Illustrating

a G barre

chord in

guitar

tablature.

0 1 2 3 4 5

E B G D A E

Figure 19-4:

These notes

are going up

the E string

in tablature.

G

D

A

E

Figure 19-3:

A blank bass

tablature

shows four

“strings”

instead

of six.

244 Part IV: Orchestration and Arrangement