4 string tabs for 5 string

[green3101]

Hey everyone,

does anyone know a site that provides bass tabs in 5 string format? Or one that has full band tabs in midi format (think the pro tabs options on Ultimate Guitar), but then lets you change the one written in 4 string to 5?

I’m specifically looking for this with drop tuned by half/full/three etc step songs - to a five string tuned in standard.

can something like Guitar pro do this?

thanks

Mike

 

[green3101]

Anyone?

 

[Semi Actuated]

As far as I know, I don't think you can take a Guitar Pro tab that is set up for 4 sting bass and turn it into a workable 5-string bass tab. To try to answer your question I just tested it with a 4-string transcription I had done.

I created a new file for 5-string bass and copied my 4-string transcription to the new 5-string file. When I pasted into the 5-string file it just threw almost all tab notation onto the B-string, even notes that were tabbed to the G string in my transcription.

So I guess technically it's a 5-string tab, but certainly not a very workable/realistic one. To get a good 5-string tab notated you would have to go in and manually edit the file to place the tab notation in a more playable configuration. It's doable, but it would take a bit of time.

Whether there is other software that can do this I do not know.

 

[Cal03]

If you have a midi tab file you can also open it in MuseScore, but you will probably need to manually edit the tab yourself.

 

[green3101]

As far as I know, I don't think you can take a Guitar Pro tab that is set up for 4 sting bass and turn it into a workable 5-string bass tab. To try to answer your question I just tested it with a 4-string transcription I had done.

I created a new file for 5-string bass and copied my 4-string transcription to the new 5-string file. When I pasted into the 5-string file it just threw almost all tab notation onto the B-string, even notes that were tabbed to the G string in my transcription.

So I guess technically it's a 5-string tab, but certainly not a very workable/realistic one. To get a good 5-string tab notated you would have to go in and manually edit the file to place the tab notation in a more playable configuration. It's doable, but it would take a bit of time.

Whether there is other software that can do this I do not know.

Surely if you open up a guitar pro file with a 4 string bass track already tabbed out (say, in drop C or D standard for example) - then change the instrument to a 5 string bass in standard tuning, it will transpose the tab?

 

[Semi Actuated]

Surely if you open up a guitar pro file with a 4 string bass track already tabbed out (say, in drop C or D standard for example) - then change the instrument to a 5 string bass in standard tuning, it will transpose the tab?

OK. Your question caused me to investigate a little more. After some research I did the same copy/paste from my 4-string transcription to a new Guitar Pro file set up for a 5-string tab notation.

Then I selected all 199 bars in my 5-string file and went to the drop down "Tools" menu at the top, and selected "Automatic Finger Positioning". This changed the tab notation to a more sensible fingering for a 5 string bass, but it's still not what I would think I would exactly want (if I played a 5 string, which I don't).

So it's much improved over my first attempt, but I think you would still have to manually edit some parts of the tablature for it to be logical-but way less than on my first attempt, which was completely illogical fingering.

Maybe if the tuning on my original file was drop D or C the fingering would be better still, but some of the stuff on the higher strings in my second attempt is still a little goofy also, so I think probably not totally fine.

This is Guitar Pro 8 by the way. I used to use Guitar Pro 6, but I don't think it had that "Automatic Finger Positioning" feature.

Long story short, I guess the answer to your question is "sort of", maybe even "for the most part"........yes.

 

[Semi Actuated]

I should add that a lot of the problems with using Guitar Pro in this way, are related to the fact that when you are using tab, Guitar Pro will (by default) put every note at the lowest fret possible in the tablature, even when that would be an illogical and difficult manner of fingering for the passage.

For example, Cal03, in his reply above, references importing a midi file into Musescore. You can do that in Guitar Pro also-years ago I experimented with it, but if you want to use the tablature, it also defaults to using the lowest fret possible for every note. I read music (somewhat)-but sometimes I also "cheat" with tab, so the few times I imported midi files, if I wanted to use the accompanying tablature, I would have to edit the tab so that the fingering was more logical. I don't think there is any way to override this default, unfortunately. Not that I have seen anyway-but I'm not an expert either.

 

[green3101]

Thanks guys, yeah I get you. I could always just move the tab to a better position on the neck, or just do it as I’m playing along. It’s just a good way of knowing whether a drop tune 4 string tab can be easily converted to standard tuning 5 string, or if i have to drop the low B to A and then apply a capo to represent drop C or C#