chord translation?

patrickroberts · #1 05-07-2001, 05:15 PM

How do u translate chords into bass tab?

Phil Smith · #2 05-07-2001, 07:13 PM

What exactly are you looking to do? Do you mean, for example, given a chord like CMaj7(CEGB), what would the tab look like?

G|------4---
D|--2-5----
A|3-------
E|--------

Is this what you're looking for? If so, spell out the chord i.e. figure out what notes the chord is comprised of and the rest is straight forward.

Phil

**Blackbird** · #3 05-08-2001, 12:08 PM

Great General Instruction topic.

Will C.

Bruce Lindfield · #4 05-08-2001, 12:19 PM

Hmmm.. did I detect a whiff of sarcasm there?

The definitive answer has to be - "You don't!!"

Or at least - why? exasperatedly - or rather "what's the point?".

PS - I hope ED gets to see this one!

He may have some rather sarcastic comments of his own about how the "professional " career is coming on?

Davidoc · #5 05-08-2001, 02:49 PM

This probably sounds stupid, but learn to read music...

As for your question...
How I'd go about doing doing the tab is finding the notes in the chord, and use your knowledge of the fingerboard to put it in tab.

patrickroberts · #6 05-09-2001, 10:45 AM

is it possible to do it without any real musical knowledge?

Phil Smith · #7 05-09-2001, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by patrickroberts
is it possible to do it without any real musical knowledge?

As in a machine where you feed chords into it and out comes tab notation?

Phil

patrickroberts · #8 05-09-2001, 05:16 PM

what i meant to say was; how do u take CMaj7, and put it into tab? (easily?)

MJB · #9 05-09-2001, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by patrickroberts
is it possible to do it without any real musical knowledge?

patrick, I really don't think you are ever going to be content trying to play bass and avoiding learning about music. After all, it IS a musical instrument. Do yourself a big favor and do what it takes to get started on gaining the musical knowledge. If you're not willing to make the effort than I really think you should give up playing. I'm not trying to be mean, just honest.

yawnsie · #10 05-09-2001, 06:00 PM

I've got to agree with MJB - there's no shortcut when playing a musical instrument, sooner or later you have to learn some theory. It's like wanting to drive without bothering to learn the highway code - not exactly a good path to success...

Davidoc · #11 05-10-2001, 05:57 AM

There is a way: A popular technique among guitarists is to learn the fingerings instead of the notation.

Tabs are more or less fingerings.

Try just learning the fingerings and put it in tab from there. For now just try that.
In the long run, do yourself favor and learn the theory behind it all.

Bruce Lindfield · #12 05-10-2001, 06:51 AM

I'm not sure this will work for bass playing anyway - for guitarists and piano players, there are many ways of playing CMaj7, for example -different voicings,inversions etc - if playing with a bass, you might use rootless voicings and just imply the chord. But all of these choices depend on you having some knowledge of theory and what notes make up a chord and which give it its characteristic sound.

Otherwise it's just trial and error. I think that as a bass player you need to "internalise" chords and know what notes are available to you over every chord or you are going to be making frequent mistakes and very boring bass lines!