… or transcribe your own bassline to emulate the original, which is what I have done a few times, such as with People are Strange and Train Train in this thread.
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Yep!
In which case you don’t really need the sheet music I guess, just a chord chart.
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Yep! That’s why I really prefer to just use a chord chart (as long as it’s accurate).
As evidenced, there are resources online with reliably accurate bass transcriptions, both with and without tab.
I prefer to have music notation of the original tunes, although I’ll figure out bass lines as need be. I like seeing how a line’s rhythm is written as notation, regardless of whether or not the original artist could even spell the word notation, much less write it. I find some of the original stuff truly inspired and, for me, inspirational.
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I’ve read sheet music for almost 45 years and definitely prefer it. But the simple fact is it is scarce to nonexistent for most genres, compared to tablature anyway. By several orders of magnitude.
It can be created automatically from the better tabs (the ones that contain rhythm as well, which is available on most of the good tab sites; Songsterr and UG Pro at least.) Or from MIDI in the DAW. Or by transcribing. So there’s routes to get it, but the fact is, ignoring tablature as an important resource is going to be very limiting for many genres.
The same goes for communication with other musicians. Good luck handing sheet music to most guitarists, for rock and alternative genres anyway. Some can, most can’t in my experience - because there is little reason for them to learn it.
I’m all for good sources of bass sheet music online. I just wish it wasn’t so scarce compared with tablature.
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Indeed! Paul McCartney wrote some incredible basslines, some of them very complex. I was lucky enough to find the original bass score for Nowhere Man when I did a cover of that song last year, and I was awestruck at the complexity of it. It was quite fun to learn and play.
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You make valid points, but I did say and mean “for me.”
Personally, I don’t intend to hand sheet music to anybody. Absolutely no need or desire. I’ve played in bands and I know full well how they work. Rock bands are a ton of fun, and most players in my experience have great ears. They can pick up a cover tune’s lines and drums almost instantaneously, or very quickly after a few listenings and run-throughs.
The jazz and classical ensembles I’ve played in were very different from any of that. Sheet music was, of course, coin of the realm. That’s why I like notation and seek it out.
I grew up with chord charts and wrote most of my own tunes with nothing but charts with lyrics. Rehearsals with my guys were marathon exercises in brute repetition. Sessions ran for hours.
That said, for me, at this point in time, I prefer music notation for its specificity. Not saying or suggesting that anyone else should.
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Truer words were never spoken, or typed.
McCartney’s bass lines are beyond sublime in their intricacies and elegance.
Back in the day, my best friend, an unbelievably talented guitarist and as much of a Beatles freak as me, attempted to teach me bass. FWIW, he had played in rock bands forever before he became one of the first two guys to receive a Masters Degree in Classical Guitar from the storied North Texas State University music school.
Unfortunately, he didn’t know what Josh does about teaching in bite-size, fun chunks of info.
So, he taught me (or tried to teach me) how to play Michelle. Cool, I thought, that’s a slow-ish love song. How hard could it be?
I was in music school at the time, and I had just bought a brand new Rick 4001, so I thought I was golden.
Yeah…no.
For me at the time, McCartney’s line was anything but simple, and I just wasn’t prepared for it.
I owned a bunch of guitars and saxes, so my shiny red Rick became very lonely, very soon. I ended up trading the Rick in on a Fender Rhodes.
I’ve since studied many Beatles bass lines. I still marvel at them. But that’s just me.
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Paul McCartney, who along with all his other Beatles bandmates, can neither read nor write music… but he understands and speaks music 
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My favorite example of that is Tori Amos, a virtuoso pianist, with classical training from a young age, who so famously can’t sight-read that she named her first band “Y Kant Tori Read?”
It didn’t really hold her back 
I was never able to sight-read on keyboard either, despite being in a band, and while still getting a lot out of being able to read music. Personally I don’t find sight reading that valuable, but I am also not a session musician or someone that gigs with random bands… In my experience it’s a situationally valuable skill.
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I could sight read well on several orchestra/band instruments in both treble and bass clef, I could do an ok job of it on piano, I don’t find it useful at all right now on bass or guitar; I only practice it on bass once in a while in case I decide to do some musical theatre work. I might have some stuff coming up with a choir but I won’t have to sight read any of it. I know several people who play in bands and none of them read music or even know much theory.
what I really need to work on is memorizing some songs, I’ve always played from sheet music and never had to memorize anything so I suck at it 
I’ve only ever memorized a few songs on guitar.
I could do it on a couple instruments as well (and did live), but even then - I learned the damn song and just used the notation as transitional cues anyway. That doesn’t require sight reading
Really the main thing sight reading gives you is the ability to rapidly digest new material. Which, frankly, I don’t need badly enough to focus on.
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That’s one thing sight reading is good for.
From a compositional perspective, which is what I find valuable, sheet music is great for studying how a line was composed and played rhythmically and dynamically by the original player.
Regardless, the OP asked for help finding resources for bass sheet music and some good ones have been shared, so that’s good.
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Reading sheet music is immensely valuable. I was responding to @sshoihet about my feelings on the utility of sight reading (not reading in general). Specifically, I find it to be very situational.
Hi Pam @PamPurrs ,
Check out Con’s stuff, it’s pretty accurate imo.
His site is bass instructor.ca
Cheers Brian
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So what s the deal with early old school jazz musicians and notation? I know a lot of musicians grew up impoverished with little or no formal training… Did most pick up notation, or were they just using chord charts and a good ear? (Of course it helps in jazz that not playing it twice the same way is considered an advantage!)
I know that “fake books” we’re heavily used, and none of those had bass lines(just melody, lyrics and harmony) so the bassist just had chord changes and the had to improvise the line. So not much incentive to learn actual notation. Even when Berklee made the real books, The didn’t originally include bass (I think the actual legal ones sold since 2004 do have bass though).
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Most jazz pioneers learned their instruments by ear. They were familiar with Western music chord progressions, often learned from hymns and popular music of the day. Music notation was generally unnecessary for soloists as spontaneous improvisations were common and respected.
Fast-forward many decades to big jazz bands and things evolved. Music schools began to teach jazz theory, which required students to read and analyze solos and arrangements. Large jazz ensembles required scores for more polished performances.
That said, smaller jazz groups maintained the improvisational tradition of the genre, but the musicians were more educated in music theory at that point.
Over time, jazz became more popular and more mainstream, and that didn’t sit well with some musicians who felt its improvisational tradition was being forgotten or destroyed.
For example, Bebop was born as a revolutionary counterpoint to what many Black musicians of the day considered the homogenization of jazz music by the popular white big band sound of the 40s. Chord charts and improvisation were intentionally at the core of Bebop so the music couldn’t, or would’t want to be, copied and watered down as earlier jazz music had been.
Fast-forward even more and jazz has evolved into various modern styles, including fusion. Chord charts are very much a part of all modern jazz styles, but most if not all new-generation jazz musicians are educated in music schools - colleges, university and private schools - where knowledge of reading sheet music is a requirement.
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That’s very interesting history. Might partially explain why I like bebop but dislike most modern jazz I have heard.
Improv is still a core staple of all jazz, and modern jazz covers a tremendous range of styles. Jazz is vast in its permutations. Even some aficionados would be hard pressed to have heard them all.
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