if no tabs - then what?
 

I would like to play more than just the root of the guitar chords but have several songs i don't see tabs for in the internet.

I play keyboard and am thinking i can play the baseline from the piano music.

That way i also see potential rhythm with the notes.

Any drawbacks to doing this?

Thanks

Play by ear? May be tough at the beginning but it gets a lot easier with practice.

Do you know your theory? If not that might be a good start as to what you could play, and coupled with a good ear, what the line you listen to is made up from.

Yup, just listen and figure it out.

Only drawback I see is ledger notes used in the piano sheet music will probably go lower than your E string will allow. Low E is as low as you can go on a 4 string, lower than that you have to adjust up an octave, which turns me into jello, LOL. Course a 5 string eliminates that problem. Nothing wrong using bass clef, even if it is just the lowest note in the stack.

Instead of tab I use fake chord all the time. See a chord name and then play as many of the chord's tones as the music will allow before it goes off and leaves me. Root on 1. Need more, the 5 on the 3rd beat works well. Need more, the correct 3 and 7 on the second and forth beat fill in nicely. Eights are good as is the 6. Love the 6, it's neutral and adds a sound I like and the 8 is just the root in the next octave. Root, fives, eights and the correct 3 and 7 plus the 6 give me just about all I need.

Piano sheet music to fake chord --- the lowest note in the stack most of the time is the chord name you need for your fake chord sheet music. Only takes a few minutes to add those names somewhere above the treble or lyric line and then you have fake chord or lead sheet music.

If you can read standard notation - yes use that skill.

Have fun.

What tabs are you looking for?

If it's a crappy transcription, you'll be playing a crappy bass line.

By ear, reading standart nortation or creating your own bass line following the right chords

Bass and guitar transpose up an octave. In other words, the E one ledger line below the bass clef for piano reads as the third space E on bass. Concert middle C, on a standard-tuned four-string bass, is at the seventeenth fret of the G string. There is plenty of room to double what the piano is (probably) playing in the left hand (unless they're reading a ton of ledger lines).

Though a five-string is always nice. :D

My suggestion? Follow the chords, follow your ear, or follow whatever the next lowest sounding instrument is doing. At any rate, the more you know, the better off you'll be.

I'll use the piano part as a framework and write it out - writing the correct notes from the version you want to be doing. As long as the number and placement of the bars line up, it makes transcribing a bit easier than starting with a blank sheet of paper or a new Finale file.

Photo copy the part, write in the correct notes and rhythms on top of the piano part and then write it out on a blank sheet.