In this bass lesson you will learn to play a melody with the help of bass tablature. Playing melodies is a great way to practice finger dexterity and you can play along with your friends!

Let’s first take a look at a bass tablature staff:

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These four lines represent the strings of your bass. We will assume that you have four strings on your bass. The top line represents the first string on your guitar, the highest pitched string, or the G string.

On these lines you will find numbers that tell you to press your fingers on the frets. Here is an example:

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———–0——————————–

—3—————————————-

——-5—————————————— ———-

The number 3 tells you to press down on the third fret of the third string and play the note. The number 0 tells you to play the second string open, that is, without pressing a fret.

In this bass lesson you will play the melody in second position. That means you play all the notes on the second fret with your index finger, the notes on the third fret with your middle finger, and so on.

I will write the lyrics of the song Amazing Grace one line at a time. Below each line I will give you the corresponding melody written in tablature notation as explained above. Let’s start with the first line:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

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———–2——-2——————-

——-3——-3——-5—3———–

—3—————————-5—3—

That saved a wretch like me

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———–2——-2——-2—5—

——-3——-3——-5———–

—3——————————-

Once I was lost but now I’m found

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—2—5—2——-2——————-

—————3——-5—3———–

—————————————–5—3—

I was blind but now I see

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———–2——-2———–

——-3——-3——-5—3—

—3——————————————-

I suggest you learn the melody by heart and practice it using the fingerings mentioned above.