I’m Toru Hoshino, an upright and electric bassist and instructor based in Tokyo.
In this article, I’ll walk you through how to build a walking bass line as TAB notation using MuseScore.
Contents
What Is MuseScore?
MuseScore is free software for writing notation and producing playback audio. It’s really easy to use.
You can download MuseScore here: https://musescore.org/
How to Create a Bass Tab Staff in MuseScore
Once you open the program, here’s the general flow:
① Go to File → New to bring up the New Score wizard.
② Enter whatever title and subtitle you like (in my example I used the title “Bass Tab Score” and the subtitle “For Blog”).
③ Click Next.
Choose a blank score template, then on the instrument selection screen, search for “Bass Guitar” under Plucked Strings and add it.
With the new staff selected, click Add Linked Staff, which adds a second, linked staff under the bass clef staff. Set that second staff’s type to “TAB (4-string, full).”
Click Finish in the bottom right, and you’ll end up with a score like this:
You can enter notes either on the bass clef staff or directly on the TAB staff — both work.
A Useful Trick for Editing TAB
For example, on bass, the note D can be played as the open 2nd string or as the 3rd string, 5th fret.
If you enter a D normally, MuseScore will default to notating it as the open 2nd string (fret 0), like this:
If you want that D notated as the 3rd string, 5th fret instead, first turn off note-input mode (the “N” icon in the top left), then click on the note in the TAB staff and press Ctrl + Down Arrow (Cmd + Down Arrow on Mac). That moves the note to the next string down, giving you the alternate fingering.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.