Transcribing in TAB

[Electric_Spank]

After playing a couple of shows in a friends cover band, I have decided just start learning songs note for note in an effort to sound better. Playing the changes with fills here and there works fine but I think it would sound better overall if the bass was played exactly as on the original version. With that being said, when transcribing, how many of you write it out in tab? I am not a tab user, I learned the songs in the band by having them telling me all the chord changes and I played the root notes. I can read bass clef but it just seems much more practical when writing out these songs to do it in tab form. Any advice/opinions are welcomed and appreciated.

[EADG mx]

If I am just playing off changes I will transcribe the form, tempo, and changes. Sometimes dynamics or other misc. notes.

If note for note, standard notation is (in my opinion) the most comprehensive, useful, and beneficial way to do things.

If you find writing sheet music by hand tedious (which I do), try a notational software like Finale, Sibelius, Transcribe.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

I can read bass clef but it just seems much more practical when writing out these songs to do it in tab form.

In the long run you will find standard notation to be much more useful than tab. So many bassists struggle with learning how to read. You are handed a golden opportunity to improve your reading skills, which you shouldn't pass up.

There are symbols for things like "play this measure the same as the last one" that speed up transcription.

[John Wentzien]

Standard.
Especially for the timing.

[Electric_Spank]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

If you find writing sheet music by hand tedious (which I do), try a notational software like Finale, Sibelius, Transcribe.

This is my main reasoning for writing things out in TAB. I don't know if any of those are free, but I am going to investigate .

[fdeck]

Personally, maybe it's just me, but I find all of the notation programs to be utterly tedious compared to a sheet of staff paper and a pencil.

[Rudreax]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Personally, maybe it's just me, but I find all of the notation programs to be utterly tedious compared to a sheet of staff paper and a pencil.

This.

[Electric_Spank]

Well, you guys have convinced me to put in a little extra work for my own benefit. I have a quick question about key signatures. Instead of writing out a b or # next to a note on my bass clef, can I just put the correct Key signature and write a regular note without a flat or sharp symbol? I did the song Like A Stone, by Audioslave. From looking at the notes in the song, I am pretty sure it's in the key of Bb. Using these notes: G, Bb, D, Eb and maybe one more but it sounds lower than my low E so I will probably just throw something else in there. So in this example my question is if I write my key signature as Bb, would I then be able to just write out a B on my bass clef without a b symbol next to it?

[Slax]

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

Well, you guys have convinced me to put in a little extra work for my own benefit. I have a quick question about key signatures. Instead of writing out a b or # next to a note on my bass clef, can I just put the correct Key signature and write a regular note without a flat or sharp symbol? I did the song Like A Stone, by Audioslave. From looking at the notes in the song, I am pretty sure it's in the key of Bb. Using these notes: G, Bb, D, Eb and maybe one more but it sounds lower than my low E so I will probably just throw something else in there. So in this example my question is if I write my key signature as Bb, would I then be able to just write out a B on my bass clef without a b symbol next to it?

In short, yes. If you put a b next to a B when the key signature of Bb it would be taken as a Bbb. (B double flat because Bb is already implied).

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

Well, you guys have convinced me to put in a little extra work for my own benefit. I have a quick question about key signatures. Instead of writing out a b or # next to a note on my bass clef, can I just put the correct Key signature and write a regular note without a flat or sharp symbol? I did the song Like A Stone, by Audioslave. From looking at the notes in the song, I am pretty sure it's in the key of Bb. Using these notes: G, Bb, D, Eb and maybe one more but it sounds lower than my low E so I will probably just throw something else in there. So in this example my question is if I write my key signature as Bb, would I then be able to just write out a B on my bass clef without a b symbol next to it?

Yup.

[Rudreax]

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

Instead of writing out a b or # next to a note on my bass clef, can I just put the correct Key signature and write a regular note without a flat or sharp symbol?

That's pretty much the purpose of key signatures being written on sheet music.

[Electric_Spank]

Thanks. I was pretty sure about that one, just wanted to double check .

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Slax

If you put a b next to a B when the key signature of Bb it would be taken as a Bbb. (B double flat because Bb is already implied).

This is not actually correct; it would not be read as a Bbb. Whenever you see a flat before a B, you play Bb, regardless of what the key signature is. If you want a double flat, you have to explicitly write it.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Rudreax

That's pretty much the purpose of key signatures being written on sheet music.

+1.

[Richard Lindsey]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Personally, maybe it's just me, but I find all of the notation programs to be utterly tedious compared to a sheet of staff paper and a pencil.

Yeah, me too. The advantage of a notation program, however, is that you can store and reproduce nicely readable charts easily, not to mention edit them later if you need to. Once you've got the music in the program, it's great to have. It's just getting it there that can be tedious. It's true, for speed and efficiency, nothing beats pencil and paper.

Of course, if you do major scoring for multiple instruments, a notation program is pretty much a must these days.

[greenboy]

A long time ago I dumped using key signatures on most of my transcriptions. Why? Because 90%+ of the music I was transcribing didn't adhere to strict European major or minor scale / chord conventions. Often instead, chords were dominant 7ths and modulated into plenty of temporary key changes, modes were present, and more accidentals were needed than were worth it.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by Richard Lindsey

This is not actually correct; it would not be read as a Bbb. Whenever you see a flat before a B, you play Bb, regardless of what the key signature is. If you want a double flat, you have to explicitly write it.

This.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Personally, maybe it's just me, but I find all of the notation programs to be utterly tedious compared to a sheet of staff paper and a pencil.

When I'm writing my own music I enter it into a notation program as soon as possible -- not only because it makes spitting out the parts for other musicians infinitely easier than hand copying, but because it then becomes trivial to archive the work.

But if I'm doing transcriptions of bass parts that I'm gonna have to play, 99% of the time I use a pencil & staff paper.

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Personally, maybe it's just me, but I find all of the notation programs to be utterly tedious compared to a sheet of staff paper and a pencil.

I used to find that until I was forced to learn Finale for certain courses. Now I use it for pretty much everything and I find it much faster (and neater) than writing by hand.

There are endless ways to speed up the work flow that I think a lot of people don't know about. For example, Speedy Entry and Hyperscribe with a MIDI input, MIDI importing, scanning with SmartScore.

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

I did the song Like A Stone, by Audioslave. From looking at the notes in the song, I am pretty sure it's in the key of Bb. Using these notes: G, Bb, D, Eb and maybe one more but it sounds lower than my low E so I will probably just throw something else in there.

The key is G minor and you can play it by dropping your E string to D.

[rcarraher]

Originally Posted by Electric_Spank

After playing a couple of shows in a friends cover band, I have decided just start learning songs note for note in an effort to sound better. Playing the changes with fills here and there works fine but I think it would sound better overall if the bass was played exactly as on the original version. With that being said, when transcribing, how many of you write it out in tab? I am not a tab user, I learned the songs in the band by having them telling me all the chord changes and I played the root notes. I can read bass clef but it just seems much more practical when writing out these songs to do it in tab form. Any advice/opinions are welcomed and appreciated.

I do mine n Tab AND notation, which is quite easy to do using TabLedit. Tried Guitar Pro, but I like TabLedit. Do a search here and you'll find a couple of my tabs, that should give you a feeling. Another thing I like about it is it'll read back your Tabs and play them through a midi or even your PC. Makes it easy to see hear if you got it right.