Bass Lesson 04 - Rest, Music Symbols and Tablature

After learning the basic notes and note lengths of music, we need to learn about rests and all the other symbols we will find in music. So, in order for us to get the best idea of these examples, we will use the following sample piece of music. This example was not created to sound remarkable but to include most of the common musical symbols.

At first you may notice the items you have already covered in the past lesson. These items include the time signature, bass clef, and tempo. You will notice each measure is numbered; these numbers are called measure numbers. In the first measure there is a 4 beat rest, or a whole rest. This means you will not play anything in this measure.

Measure 2 contains, in this order, a half rest for 2 beats, a quarter rest for one beat, an eighth rest for ½ of a beat, and two sixteenth rests, both for ¼ of a beat. If you add the respective values for each rest, you will get 4, which means you do not play for 4 beats (or the whole measure). In music, you will not see rests arranged in this manner; instead, you will see just another whole rest, but they have been included this way in the example so that you can see what each looks like.

Measure 3 has a few odd symbols. The first beat is a quarter note with a dot next to it. This dot means to add half of that note to the total value. Since half of a quarter note is an eighth note, you add the value of the eighth note to that quarter note, so the total value would be three eighth notes, or one quarter note and one eighth note. You will notice that the dotted quarter note has a curved line connecting it to the next note. This symbol, referred to as a tie, means that you will add the values of both notes together and play them as one note without stopping. A dotted quarter tied to an eighth note has the same length as a half note.

After the tie, there is a cluster of three notes grouped with a “3.” This means that regardless of what value an eighth note takes, you are going to play 3 eighth notes in this beat. These notes are called triplets and are a great way to grab the audience’s attention. The second note of our triplet has a small dot above the note; this does not mean to add half of the original note’s value. Instead, it means to play it “short and detached,” or staccato. This means the note will have space around it to make the note sound shorter than it really is. Audio clip of staccato playing. 

Measure 4 has a vibrato symbol on the 4 note, or the upbeat of beat 3. The vibrato symbol is a small, bold, wavy line above the music. Vibrato means you wiggle the string back and forth to rapidly raise and lower the pitch of the note; oftentimes, this will help to sound more in tune, but can take away from or add to the feeling of music if used. Too much vibrato can sound unpleasant, but just enough can really add to a song. The next symbol looks like a slash (/) and is called a slide. A slide is performed by plucking a note and sliding your finger up (/) or down (\) the fretboard.

The bottom half of the example is called tablature. It consists of 6 lines, one for each string of your guitar, and has numbers on each line. These numbers show which fret to play. If numbers are stacked, they are chords. Tablature has many downfalls. Since every other instrument uses regular notation music, it is difficult and sometimes impossible for a guitarist to communicate with a flute or piano player. Tab is a quick way out, and because of that a lot of guitarists only know how to read tablature. Tab has its own symbols as well, but for the most part they are self-explanatory. If there are any confusing symbols used in further lessons, they will be explained.

Good luck with reading music! Digging some old sheet music out of your piano bench and trying to identify the different notes, lines, and symbols can only help you, so try your hand at reading music!