General Question

Zyx's avatar

What does "R" mean in bass tablature?

Asked by Zyx (4170points) October 22nd, 2010

I found a lower case r that supposedly means to release a bend but there’s not even a bend in this piece. This is what it tells me to play on my E string:

-4R-4R-4R-4R

WAT?

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3 Answers

silverfly's avatar

Bass tabs on the internet can be kind of confusing and don’t always follow the same format. My guess for this one is Repeat? Perhaps you can listen to the song and figure it out? If there are a lot of repetative notes on the fourth fret of the e-string, then perhaps the author meant 4–4-4–4-4–4-4–4-4–4-4–4

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Try “rest”, it’s my best guess but it makes sense to me. But that is only a SWaG.
I read sheet music and never got into tabs.

Seaofclouds's avatar

It could be for a tap. I have seen taps marked as a T and also sometimes a R or L indicating which hand to tap with (and I believe all tabs are written assuming you are right handed).

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