Guitar Tabs: Guitarists Delight or Devils Torture Device?

Hi Merlync(can't remember the rest!!!).

Right here goes, this one is RIGHT on topic for me! First off, you say you can play chords and scales and generally are pretty well past the "beginner" stage. Great! All the hard part is over!

So how do you go about translating that into playing songs. You have to use the grey stuff between your ears, a little here.

First off, whenever you go to a tab site, remember a few things.
1. Its not sheet music
2. Its often done by people more interested in being seen to post tab, regardless of accuracy
3. It's interpretation quite often.
4. Sometimes the recording may have used a guitar tuned to a different tuning than regular e,b,g,d,a,e.

I have just done a search for a particular song. And I looked at three tabs. And all three were completely different. Sound familiar?

So we have established that, really, what you're likely to be placing all your faith in, quite often is aload of rubbish. Great eh?

I have this trouble frequently. Usually what i do is as follows -
1. Print off a couple of the tabs. Try and play along to the song, with single strums at each chord change. Does it sound on the money, or complete cr*p?
2. If it sounds on the money, play all the way through and check that ALL the chord changes are correct and where they should be. You now have confidence in the tab, but no strumming pattern yeah?
3. Now go back to the start of the song. Mute the strings on your guitar, (by gently placing your fretting hand across all the strings) and now use your guitar as a rhythm finder, start strumming (still muted) until you pick up the strum being used on the record. DO NOT think about what you're doing, just keep trying to catch the rhythm. With a bit of listening, you'll get it. Start, if you have to, by listening to the beat and tapping it out in time with your foot, count out loud if you like. Is it 4/4 time? 3/4? Get that rhythm in your head. If it still won't come, try tapping it out with your hands on the coffee table like a bongo player. Got it now? Now go back to the guitar and try again. Sooner or later, you'll nail it. NOW examine EXACTLY what you're doing. Down Down Down Up? Downstrokes all the way? And as soon as you work it out, write it down!!!
4. If it sounded cr*p - try the chords you have got but with a capo on. Try at various positions and see if you hit one that works. Dido Thank you is a good example, without a capo you just won't get it to work with any tabs out there. Stick a capo on, and hey presto, nice easy chords all the way through.

For Dido Thank you, go to easy song database on this site. I have posted it. Beware though, as in true tabl style, I have now found out that the beginning and first chorus is exactly right, its the last bit that's wrong. The last verse is actually using the choris chords, my mistake. But the strumming pattern is right, definitely. Don't forget your capo!!!

Practice what i have said on the Dido song and you'll see exactly what i mean, bang the rhythm out on the table, starting with the bongo intro. And really listen to the acoustic guitar come in. Down .. pause up down up down.

Last word. If you really are interested in learning some songs, get some proper tab books at your music store, some (like the Hal Leonard series) really are excellent and accurate.

Don't panic, we are all in the same boat on this. Just think yourself lucky we have tab at all, and aren't trying to figure it out from listening to a crackly radio....like in David Hodge's day ha ha. No offence David.

All the best and hope you found this useful!

Matt

If you want the real deal, purchase the artists song book. In most cases you'll get the chords, lyrics, sheet music and tablature. The better ones even have the strum patterns. In a lot of cases you can buy the sheet music for guitar with chords and tab for a single song, if your only interested in one song. Anything you find free on the enternet is going to be someones own interpretation of the song.

Thanks guys! Good advice. I like the methodology you gave Matt, sounds like following that will really help.

As for buying the real deal, I think I will try that as well.

Merlyn

Merlyn

Yeah give it a go, it will help. But in my experience, most guitarists I know tend to have a miriad of books full of tabs that are correct. Take a leaf through some books in your local music store, there is tons of stuff available and its not too expensive.

All the best

Matt

I use tab to see how many guitars are played in the song, if the guitar part is played in an alternate tuning, if the guitar player is using a capo, etc. Then I try to learn the song be ear without the tab. Once I have the song down pretty well, I use the tab to clean up the song.

To learn the solo or melody lines, I only use the tab to get me started in the right place, if I just can't seem to find it by ear.

Doing it this way will be slow at first, but I promise it will pay off greatly over time.

If you use only use tab to learn songs, you will never be able to learn without it.

Ok, I learn a few chords. But can I hear any resemblance between the chords given and the song? Not usually. What about the strumming pattern (which is atleast half of the song)? Nope. I am left to reconcile the difference between a professional song and the tab song I see. The difference is, the pro song has usually a lead and backup part... and unless the artist is folk music... doesnt do chords.

How do I go from TAB to something that sounds decent?

I am really a beginner, though it's been a number of years since the first time I picked up a guitar. I struggle with this too. I was trying to learn a song from tab recently and just had nothing that sounded like the song (Darling Be Home Soon by The Lovin' Spoonful). My husband, who is much much more experienced, picks up the tab, starts strumming, and sure enough I'm hearing that song. So I'm not sure what's missing except, in my case at least, a ton of experience.

I found it's best to have a recording of the song your trying to play and read the tab as the song plays for the first few times just to get a feel for the music. You should be able to figure out how the tab fits the music and then try to imitate it yourself.

I find that using Powertab or guitar pro to play the midi files helps a great deal. This way you can hear how the music sounds while looking at the tab.

Or get some play along books. This way the tab will match the music exactly. Hal leonard has a whole series of these. They are geared to the beginner/intermediate so this should be fine for you.

Use Powertab! If you can't read notation. Most tabs on the internet are wildly inaccurate, and/or aren't the full song.

As said before, tabs are useful, but remember they aren't a substitute for knowledge of real notation.

Indeed, use GP or PT. You'll instantly hear if the tab is correct or not, can see the exact chord fingers, strum patterns, techniques used, and have a backing to play with. Best of all, both in tab and standard notation, so whatever you use, you can work with these progs.

I think the one failing of TAB is that the rhytym is almost completely absent from the music. You have no real idea how fast to play it, how long notes need to ring out ect. I think that's a bigger culprit behind it than bad tabs.

I've looked at parts of tabs that initially sounded nothing like what I was trying to play. The one element that was mucking things up was the rhytym. Even when I knew the song it was hard to place the notes together. It was hard picking out what was a quarter note, what was an 8th note, ect, ect. Now, I got it eventually, but it was harder to decipher.

TAB and standard paired together is a wonderful, wonderful thing. So I would second the song book comment above. Power Tab is another good thing to use, too.