# Ear & transcription

Most bass lines are learned by ear: the part is low, mixed under everything, and TAB for it is often wrong. On bass the job has an order — roots first, then the notes between them, then the rhythm.

## The method

1. Pick something short — one bar or two.
2. Sing it in your own octave. The note name matters, not the octave.
3. Find the roots: the first note of each bar is usually the chord's root.
4. Fill in between: up, down or the same; a step, a leap or the fifth.
5. Then the rhythm — count it against the kick ([Reading · rhythm](reading.md)).
6. Write it down as TAB, then play it with the recording and fix what is off.

The Stems tool has a bass-only mode.

## Drill 1 — Match one note

A note plays somewhere in frets 0–7. Find it on the neck. The same note an octave away does not count.

## Drill 2 — Up, down or the same

Two notes. Get the direction before the distance.

## Drill 3 — Find the root

A major or minor chord plays. Find its root on the neck, any octave.

## Then a real record

Pick a bass line that stays in one place on the neck. Loop the first bar, run the method, write the TAB on paper, and only then check a published one.

## Ready when

- Find a single sung or played note on the neck in under ten seconds.
- Get the direction of two notes right nine times out of ten.
- Name the root of a chord you hear, and have written out one real bar by ear.