If you are looking for accurate bass tabs and sheet music for “Leave Out All The Rest” by Linkin Park, you are in the right place. Released as the final massive single from their multi-platinum 2007 album Minutes to Midnight, this track is a masterclass in dynamic restraint and atmospheric alt-rock storytelling. Sitting at a steady, emotional 80 BPM, the bass line plays a critical foundational role—utilizing the deep, sub-bass power of a 5-string bass to drop massive, sustained whole notes that inject the arrangement with immense low-end warmth. Below, you will find the officially licensed sheet music, my Session Notes on nailing the technique, and a timestamped breakdown to help you practice along.
This track is just one part of our complete archive of verified [Linkin Park bass tabs and sheet music], which features full sheet music and tabs for their biggest songs.
Because of its massive commercial impact, this song is featured on our directory of [Platinum-Certified Albums Bass Tabs] for Minutes To Midnight, and it is also officially recognized in our collection of [Platinum-Certified Singles Bass Tabs] as a standalone global hit too.
Get the Accurate Leave Out All The Rest Bass Transcription (PDF & Sheet Music)
Feel free to just jump straight in to the tab and sheet music at the links below, but make sure you come back to check out my session notes on tone, technique, and the song’s breakdown!
👉 Download from Sheet Music Direct
👉 Download from Sheet Music Plus
👉 Download from MuseScore
👉 Download from Musicnotes
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Listen To The Original Track
Before you dive into the sheet music, press play below and listen to how the bass line provides the deep harmonic foundation and emotional lift that carries the entire arrangement.
Song Structure:
- 0:00 – Intro: The song opens with an atmospheric electronic synth loop Note: There is no bass in this section.
- 0:24 – Verse 1: Chester’s vocals enter the track alongside a clean electronic beat. The bass continues to sit out completely here, allowing the track to maintain its intimate, vulnerable dynamic space.
- 0:48 – Pre-Chorus 1: The instrumentation begins to swell, building the tension, but the bass remains silent, waiting for the full-band explosion.
- 0:54 – Chorus 1: Bass Entry: The full band kicks in. The bass drops in heavy with deep, sustained whole notes, providing a rock-solid, cinematic harmonic floor beneath the soaring string layers.
- 1:18 – Verse 2: Unlike the first verse, the bass stays in the mix here. Keep holding down those long, resonant whole notes to provide a deep, warm cushion beneath the vocals and acoustic guitar.
- 1:42 – Pre-Chorus 2: The song builds back up toward the main hook, with the bass maintaining its foundational presence to drive the track’s forward momentum.
- 1:48 – Chorus 2: Reinforcing the main theme with full presence. Focus entirely on your note duration here, letting each root note ring out fully until the exact millisecond of the next chord change.
- 2:12 – Bridge: The dynamic peak of the track. The bass holds down a heavy whole-note anchor beneath the driving guitar layers and guitar solo, providing an unyielding low-end foundation for the track’s emotional climax.
- 2:30 – Chorus 3: The momentum carries straight through. The bass continues playing its heavy, foundational whole notes here, keeping the low-end fully locked in with the rest of the band.
- 2:54 – Outro: The heavy rock elements fade out, leaving the delicate electronic synth loop to close out the track. Note: The bass sits out completely as the song resolves.
Song Information
Title: Leave Out All The Rest
Artist: Linkin Park
Album: Minutes To Midnight
Bassist: Dave “Phoenix” Farrell
Difficulty: Beginner
Tuning: Drop A (A-E-A-D-G)
Key: A Minor
Tempo: 80
Bass Diary Entry: Where Vulnerability Takes Centre Stage
Coming straight after something like Given Up, this track feels like a complete shift in atmosphere. Everything slows down, opens up, and leans far more into melody and reflection. It’s another clear sign of how much the band were evolving their sound during Minutes To Midnight.
At its core, the song feels like a reflection on legacy — how you’re remembered when everything’s said and done. There’s that underlying idea of wanting the good to outweigh the bad, asking people to look past mistakes and hold onto the positives instead. It’s honest, a bit vulnerable, and very human.
And yeah… hearing it now carries a different weight.
After the loss of Chester Bennington in 2017, it’s hard not to view the lyrics through a different lens. It can make it a tougher listen, but also a more meaningful one. Like a lot of Linkin Park’s catalogue, it taps into real emotion in a way that feels genuine rather than forced.
But even before that, this was always one that stood out. There’s something quietly reassuring about its message — that despite everything that goes wrong or feels heavy, it’s the good that ultimately defines things. Easy to lose sight of that, but songs like this bring it back into focus.
From a bass perspective, it’s all about subtlety and support. The playing sits right in the pocket, adding warmth and structure without drawing attention away from the vocal and lyrics. It’s restrained, but that’s exactly what the song calls for.
It might not hit as hard sonically as some of their other tracks, but emotionally, Leave Out All The Rest is right up there. A softer moment that ends up carrying just as much weight.
Session Notes: Tone & Technique
The Groove & Harmony
The beauty of “Leave Out All The Rest” lies entirely in its absolute dynamic restraint. Sitting at a slow-burning 80 BPM in A Minor, this track requires zero rhythmic complexity. Instead, the entire challenge here is discipline, precise execution, and mastering the long decay of a 5-string bass down-tuned to Drop A.
Because the bass line consists entirely of long, ringing whole notes during the sections it appears in, your primary focus is note value and seamless transitions. You aren’t locking into a moving drum pocket; you are acting as the harmonic weight of the room. When you hit a note, let it ring out with full, unbroken sustain until the exact millisecond the next chord changes, transforming your low A and E strings into a seamless, cinematic cushion.
Emulating the Alt-Rock Tone
To replicate the studio tone and handle the massive low-end of a Drop A tuning, you need a sound that is deep, smooth, and heavily focused on low-frequency warmth, with perfect compression to keep the 5th string from overpowering the mix.
- The Pick vs. Fingers: While Dave “Phoenix” Farrell often uses a pick for the band’s high-energy rock tracks, playing this song with fingerstyle gives you a much warmer, rounder transient attack that suits the ballad arrangement beautifully. If you prefer using a pick, choose a heavy-gauge, soft material and play closer to the neck joint to eliminate sharp clack.
- 5-String Muting Technique: Absolute muting control is your primary focus here. Because the lowest string is tuned down to a rumbling A, sympathetic resonance can easily ruin the quiet, intimate verses of the song. Use strict floating-thumb or ring/pinky right-hand muting to keep that low string completely silent when you aren’t playing.
- EQ Settings: Give your lows (around 60Hz – 80Hz) a careful boost to let that Drop A register breathe, but pull down the muddy sub-frequencies right below that so the low notes don’t turn into a blurry wash. Keep your low-mids intact to preserve the pitch and fundamental definition of the notes.
- Compression: High-ratio compression is your best friend on this track. Down-tuned 5-string notes have massive initial volume spikes followed by quick decay. A solid compressor clamps down on that initial thumb/pick strike and smooths out the sustain, giving you those endless, studio-slick sweeping notes that a stadium ballad demands.
Get the Official Sheet Music
You’ve made it this far, so don’t settle for “close enough” tabs that often miss the nuances that make a bass line groove.
This Leave Out All The Rest bass transcription is the result of hours of deep listening and research, ensuring you’re playing exactly what’s on the record.
Whether you’re prepping for a session or mastering your favourite tracks at home, get the professional edge with our officially licensed sheet music that ensures songwriters and performers are respected.from the below retailers!
👉 Download from Sheet Music Direct
👉 Download from Sheet Music Plus
👉 Download from MuseScore
👉 Download from Musicnotes
Affiliate Note: This page may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For full details on affiliate links, please see the Affiliate Link Policy.
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