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old dog trying new tricks.

Dave Bruce
Posts: 2
I have recently started to try my hand at playing my bass again after over 30 years. I was never any goods to begin with, lol … but my question is a simple one, can someone provide or give me a a location to find a legend to explain some of the meanings on the tab lines. Thank you in advance for any help folks.
LoudLon [moderator]
Posts: 1938
Generally speaking:

h = hammer on
p = pull off
/ = slide up
\ = slide down
() = sustained note

Those are the most common. Sometimes you'll see tabs with S, E, Q, H and W above the bar. These are note durations:

S = 16th note
E = 8th note
Q = Quarter note
H = Half note
W = Whole note
(3) = triplet

Then there are some tabbers, such as myself, who include additional notations of their own choice (for example I use . for staccato, r for rest, ^ for bend… ).

If there's a specific tab you're having legend troubles with, feel free to post the link here. We'll see if we can help figure it out.
the only other one I have seen that I dont know about is an “x” on the string line for a note, what does that represent …. and thank you kindly for the explanation and reply, its been a great boost for me.
johnny880
Posts: 395
Quote:
the only other one I have seen that I dont know about is an “x” on the string line for a note, what does that represent …. and thank you kindly for the explanation and reply, its been a great boost for me.
That's a ghost note. The thing I didn't quite get until Loudlon did a wonderful job of explaining how they work and what they are there for. Check out the other thread for his explanation. Good on you for picking up that bass again…

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