Teenage Love Affair Bass Tab (Alicia Keys)

We will start off immediately with the verse and the riff you can play entirely throughout it. Beginners may have to practice a bit more since you have to develop a little speed and use some hammer-ons. I won’t explain in detail where to put the hammer-ons, since you will probably feel it yourself when you play it.

G|———–10–8–7—————————-
D|———————10–10–10–8–10–8——
A|–8–8–8———————————-10–
E|———————————————–

As you probably noticed the E-string isn’t used. The string won’t be used for the entire duration of the song, which is weird for a bass tab. Usually bassline involve a lot of playing on the E-string, since it gives the lowest and bassiest sound. More melodic basslines, however, can be played by making full use of all the other strings.

The next part is the pre-chorus. This part features a relatively simple bit and then a more difficult break. The first bit is just playing two notes in line with the singer. The break is a bit tricker because of the timing. You should get that absolutely right for it to work.

G|—————————————————————–
D|—————————————————————–
A|–6–6–5–6–6–5–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–8–8–8–
E|—————————————————————–

After the pre-chorus you get into the chorus part. This part of the bass tab is not really difficult. The bass mainly follows the lead singer and it consists of two chords. Using some extra notes you can make it a little more interesting, but the singer is the most important here, so you should just stick to a simple rendition.

G|———————————–
D|———–7————–5—–5–
A|–5–5–5—–5–3–3–3—–3—–
E|———————————–

The chorus has to be played three times. After that you get into a break that leads you back to the main riff. It is very similar to the pre-chorus, but still listen to the song a couple of times to get it absolutely right.

G|———————————————————–
D|———————————————————–
A|–6–6–5–5–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–
E|———————————————————–

And that basically finalizes the song. There isn’t much more to it. Playing this bass tab will get you a perfectly usable bassline for a nice live performance. Try experimenting with the breaks or coming up with variations for the main riff.