Bass Tab, Manuscript & Blank Fretboard Diagrams
Blank paper to print: tab for 4, 5 and 6-string bass, bass-clef stave over tab, bass-clef and plain manuscript paper, and blank fretboard diagrams for scales, modes and chord shapes. A4, one page each, nothing to sign up for — print as many as you need.
Tab paper
One line per string, the string names down the left. The top line is the highest-sounding string — the G on a four — which is how tab is printed and the thing beginners get backwards.
10 staves · 4 lines
4-string bass
Four lines, G D A E, ten staves to the page. The one most bass players want.
9 staves · 5 lines
5-string bass
Five lines with the low B, G D A E B, nine staves to the page.
Stave and tab
The layout bass music is usually printed in: a bass-clef stave above, tab below, one barline through both. For writing a line out both ways — or filling in the one you cannot yet read from the other.
6 systems
4-string bass · stave + tab
A bass-clef stave over a four-line tab, six systems to the page.
6 systems
5-string bass · stave + tab
A bass-clef stave over a five-line tab with the low B, six systems to the page.
5 systems
6-string bass · stave + tab
A bass-clef stave over a six-line tab, five systems to the page.
Manuscript paper
Five-line staves, ten to a page — with the bass clef printed at the start of every stave, or with nothing at all.
Blank fretboard diagrams
Several blank necks to a page: the nut at the left, the highest string on top, position dots where your bass has them. For scale patterns, the pentatonic modes, arpeggios and chord shapes — draw the shape, name it in the space above.
7 necks · 17 frets
4-string bass
Four strings, G D A E, seventeen frets — as far as the scale patterns reach — seven necks to the page: five for the pentatonic modes with two to spare.
6 necks · 17 frets
5-string bass
Five strings with the low B, seventeen frets, six necks to the page.
5 necks · 17 frets
6-string bass
Six strings, high C to low B, seventeen frets, five necks to the page.
About the sheets
The staves are 8 mm and there are ten to a page — a little larger and more spaced than a shop-bought pad, because these are for writing on by hand and hands need room. The tab lines are a little over 3 mm apart for the same reason, so a written 12 fits between them.
The tab sheets carry the string names down the left, and the top line is the highest-sounding string — the one nearest the floor, the opposite of how the bass sits against you — which is worth saying once. The tunings are the standard ones: E A D G, a low B under it for five strings, a high C over that for six. Tune differently? The lines don't mind — strike the printed names and write yours.
The blank fretboard diagrams are the same way up: the nut is the thick bar at the left, the top line is the G (or the C on a six), and the pale dots sit where the position markers are on the instrument, with the fret number under each so a sheet cannot be read backwards. Draw a scale pattern, a pentatonic mode, an arpeggio or a chord shape on a neck and write what it is in the space above. The necks run to the seventeenth fret, which is as far as the scale patterns reach — the pentatonic modes in G sit between the third and fifteenth frets, in A between the fifth and seventeenth.
The plain sheet has no clef, so it is the one for practising drawing the bass clef, and for anything the other sheets presume too much about. If you need a sheet that isn't here — a different tuning down the side, bigger staves, a longer neck — say so.
Paper sorted? Now something to write on it
The free lessons are full of lines worth copying out — walking bass, the pentatonic modes, tetrachords — and the free PDFs put the fretboard and every interval on one page each. The other free tools keep you in tune and in time while you play what you wrote.