Basically what all this means is that you're playing one note per fret/string with the most minimal amount of movement possible—and there's a name for it. It's called AP bass . You can see that all of the notes are written on one line, instead of separate lines like you'd write for standard bass tab. You're playing all of these notes in one position, and moving your fretting hand as little as possible. If you look at the note F (fourth string second fret), it looks like someone is just holding down an E with their thumb and writing a big "F" over it, but if you move up to G# (third string fourth fret) same thing: the G# looks like nothing more than a G flat with an arrow pointing up and right—the note doesn't change at all in either case! This means that you're only doing one thing with your fretting hand—sliding up and down that same string (with the most minimal amount of movement possible) while keeping your fingers in the same position.