If you're planning to take part in a musical revival, you might need to find a good selection of gospel bass tabs. In gospel bands, you'll always have a choir and a pianist, but these bands often include organ, drums, and bass guitar, as well. The bass guitar in gospel music is an important component of the sound. It lays the foundation for harmonies sung by the choir while helping the drummer drive the beat and get the audience involved.
Finding Bass Tabs for Gospel Music
Unfortunately, bass tabs tend to be more difficult to find than guitar tabs. The fact remains, though, that good resources are available, both online and in printed format.
Tabs on the Internet
Whether you just want to browse or have a specific song or artist in mind, you'll enjoy poking around on sites geared toward gospel musicians. If the songs you're looking for aren't available today, they might be available tomorrow, so bookmark these sites and check back often.
- Christian Guitar.com - Christian Guitar.com is an excellent website for all types of Christian music. There are hundreds of songs tabbed on the site for you to learn on the bass. You can search the database either by artist or song.
- Rockin' With the Cross - This is a pay site, but the fee is relatively inexpensive at around four dollars per month. At Rockin' With the Cross, you get access to tabs for both bass and guitar, as well as piano and horn sheet music.
- Christian Guitar.org - Christian Guitar.org has a large selection of bass tabs available that you can search by artist or song title.
Other Resources
Don't overlook books and instructional sites. They can help gospel bassists build a wealth of information at their fingertips.
- Band in a Book - From Mel Bay, a publisher of music instruction books, Band in a Book features gospel bluegrass tunes that are arranged for multiple instruments to play together in the same key, including solos for bass guitar.
- He Is Exalted - This great book contains bass tabs for songs like God Of All, Lord Reign in Me, In Christ Alone, and several others.
- Gospel Bass Lines - This site is an all-encompassing resource for gospel bassists. It provides videos on a wide range of subjects like ear training, building a major scale, how to play specific songs, such as Amazing Grace, how to improvise, interviews with notable gospel bass players, and even devotionals to keep you inspired.
Keep Exploring and Practicing
To develop as a gospel bassist, you need to keep an open mind and explore a variety of resources, whether online tablature, printed music books, or online instructional sites. These tools will enhance your practice. The best practice of all, though, happens when you jam with other musicians, so get together with your friends and play as often as you can.
