for bass players who work songs out by ear

The whole thing
is three rows.

How long the note is, where it sits on the neck, and what it's called, one above the other so you can read all three at once. It's how I've always written transcriptions on paper. This does the same, typed.

Open the editor Download · 121 KB
A pencil transcription on paper: a row of note lengths, a four-line staff with fret numbers, and the note names Fis, Cis and Dis written underneath.
On paperYears of my transcriptions look like this.
The same two bars rendered by the editor: note lengths, fret numbers on a four-line staff, and the names Fis, Cis and Dis underneath.
TypedThe same two bars in the editor.

Why there is a third row

Tab shows you where to put your fingers but not what you are playing. Notation shows what you are playing but not where. I wanted both, so the fret numbers and the note names go on the page together.

You never type the names. Put a 4 on the D string and Fis turns up underneath it. Move the note to another string and the name changes with it. Dutch names, or English if you would rather have F♯ and B♭.

Two bars at 96, played twice.
312x5AAmx5A5A2B3C2B3CCh5D7E

There is a bit of everything in those two bars. Quarters and eighths, a dotted quarter, a tie, an eighth rest, two ghost notes, a triplet, a slide into the second bar and a hammer-on coming out of it, chord names, and a repeat instead of writing the bars out twice.

Chords first, notes later

Some songs are easier to take apart from the top down. You get the chord progression on one listen, then go back and work out what the bass is actually doing under it. The whole shape goes in as one line of typing.

  1. Type the progression

    [Verse] Am | C | G G7 | Dm

  2. Get the bars

    1AmCGG7Dm

  3. Work out the notes

    15AAm5A3C7E3CC3C7E10G3GG3G2BG71F5DDm5D1F5A
The editor's chord tones panel: the chord Am, its notes A, C and E labelled with their degrees, and a twelve-fret neck with every place they fall.

It will show you what is in the chord

While you are filling a bar in, the panel shows the chord you are under, which notes are in it, and everywhere they sit on the neck. Click one of the dots and that note goes in. Saves counting frets to find the third.

Majors, minors, sevenths, sixths, sus and diminished, with the root spelled either way. Slash chords keep their bass note, which you will care about.

One bar per line, or use |. Two chords in a bar splits it between them. [Name] starts a new section. When you type a fret over a rest it becomes a note, and the chord stays where you put it.

What it does

Write it

  • Pick a note length, type fret numbers, space to move on.
  • Bar lines look after themselves.
  • Rests, dots, ties, triplets. Dead notes, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides.
  • Repeat marks with a count on them, and 1st and 2nd time bars.
  • Chord names above, lyrics below, and headings like Chorus.
  • Click a chord to see its notes on the neck, then click one to put it in.
  • Copy a phrase and paste it further on. Undo goes back as far as you like, and there is a redo for when you go too far.

Read it

  • Four, five or six strings, and alternate tunings. Change it and the notes move, not the music.
  • Octave numbers in Helmholtz, scientific, Yamaha or written pitch. Or none at all.
  • Set how many bars go on a line, and break lines and pages yourself.
  • Bar numbers, for when somebody says take it from 17.
  • A section that is just a repeat of an earlier one can say so in a word instead of being written out again.
  • Prints to PDF with none of the editor on it.

Play it

  • Play from any note, or select a passage and hear only that.
  • It follows the repeats and the endings.
  • Loop four bars at 60% and bring them up to speed.
  • The page turns a line early, so you are never reading off the bottom of the screen.

How it's put together

One fileDownload it once and it keeps working.
Works offlineNo account, no sign-in, no connection.
Nothing leaves your laptopNo tracking, no uploads, no cookie banner.
Plain filesTranscriptions are plain .json. Keep them wherever you like.

It runs in any current browser. Saving over the same file, where you pick a name once and every save after that writes straight back to it, needs Chrome or Edge. Those are the ones that let a page hang on to a file. Firefox and Safari do everything else the same, but Save gives you a fresh copy each time, the way a download does.