Virtual Bass: Play Bass Guitar Online

Yes. It is free, needs no account or download, and runs entirely in your browser on a computer, tablet or phone.

Q W E R pluck the strings from the lowest (E) to the highest (G), at whatever fret each one is held; on a 5-string, Q is the low B and T the G. In Grooves, Space or J plays the next note of the groove and P starts and stops the drums. M switches mute on and off, and X stops the strings ringing.

Yes. Switch on 5-String and the neck gets a low B string under the E. The grooves keep the same notes and move onto the E, A, D and G strings of the wider neck, so you can see where they sit next to the B.

Yes. Tap the strings, drag across them, or use the big Next Note pad to play a groove in time. Held upright, a phone shows the first frets, which hold every groove here; turn it sideways to see more of the neck. If you hear nothing, check that the phone is not on silent.

It is a practice tool rather than a course. It shows where every note sits on the neck, plays classic grooves over a drum beat with the line in TAB, and lets you play them yourself in time. It does not listen to or grade your playing. When you want to learn a real song, GrooveSheet can transcribe its bass line into sheet music and TAB from a recording.

No. Every note is synthesised in your browser with a plucked-string model (the Karplus-Strong algorithm), voiced for fingers, a pick or slap, and shaped like a bass amp. The drums are synthesised too. Nothing is downloaded, so it starts at once and works offline after the page has loaded.

In Free Play, tap or click any string at any fret to play that note. The string stays fretted there, so dragging across the strings rakes every note you have fretted. In Grooves, pick a groove and press Play: a drum beat starts, the notes of the groove light up on the neck as they come round, and the TAB under the neck shows the line with a moving playhead. Turn off Bass Plays Too to play the line yourself, by tapping the lit notes or by pressing Next Note (or Space) in time, which plays the note of the groove nearest to that moment.

A 4-string bass is tuned E A D G, from the thickest string to the thinnest: E1 (41.2 Hz), A1 (55 Hz), D2 (73.4 Hz) and G2 (98 Hz). That is the same as the four lowest strings of a guitar, an octave lower. A 5-string adds a low B (B0, 30.9 Hz) under the E. Each fret raises a string by a semitone, so the 5th fret of each string matches the next open string, and the 12th fret, marked by the double dot, is the open note an octave up. On the E string the natural notes fall at fret 1 (F), 3 (G), 5 (A), 7 (B), 8 (C), 10 (D) and 12 (E). Turn on Note Names to see every note on the neck.

Rock eighths: one note, eight times a bar, locked to the kick drum. Root and fifth: the chord's root on beat one and its fifth on beat three, the backbone of country and folk. Disco octaves: the root on the beat and its octave on the "and". Soul line: syncopated notes around the chord, with a leading note into the next bar. Funk: sixteenth notes with dead notes and octave pops. One drop: the reggae feel, which leaves beat one empty. Walking bass: one note per beat in swing, moving through the chord and stepping by half steps into the next. Start each one slowly with the bass playing, then turn it off and play it yourself.

Most bass players pluck with the first two fingers of the picking hand, alternating them, which gives a round, warm sound: that is the Finger sound here. A pick gives a harder, brighter attack that cuts through loud guitars, common in rock and punk. Slap is the funk sound: the thumb bounces off the low strings at the end of the neck, and a finger pulls the high strings so they snap against the frets, the pop. Dead notes, where the fretting hand rests on the string without pressing it down, add rhythm without pitch. Mute shortens every note, as a hand resting on the strings near the bridge does.

No. The free tools need no account and no download. They run in your browser, and nothing you play or drop in is uploaded.

Yes, in any current mobile browser. MIDI keyboards and pad controllers need Chrome, Edge or Opera, on a computer or an Android phone.

GrooveSheet turns any song into sheet music, MIDI and separated stems with AI: drums, bass, guitar, piano and more. Every song starts with a free 30-second preview.