hey all,
I'm still trying to teach myself Friegt Train, Windy and Warm, and Trambone. But I cant get past the first few measures. (Hence the skipping between songs in frustration :oops: )
When I see Tommy Emmanuel or other finger pickers play these songs they are forming chords, but the tabs I'm finding don't list them. So instead of planting my hand in a chord I end up flying around from single note to single note and eventually end up with my fingers not able to do something (due to using the wrong fingers)
Is there something I'm missing? How do you know how to form your hand on these types of songs?
Thanks,
Mike
Mike
I am not familiar with this artist or these songs, but could you possibly show the tab? If so, myself and others will be able to tell you what chord forms were used.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
That's one of the big downsides of tab - all it gives you is information about single notes one at a time. Standard notation, on the other hand, gives you some harmonic information - you tend to see chords and arpeggios, because the notes are thirds apart (so they're mostly all on lines, or all on spaces), so they make 'shapes' on the page.
Try writing out the names of the notes you're fretting, and see if they form chords. If you see notes C#-G-A-E, there's probably an A7 fingering that takes them all in (A-C#-E-G) etc.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
I have a few song like this where the tab is in single notes...when I can I try to find the best possible chord that can fit a series of notes so that I can change to chords. It doesn't always work but you can adapt for many of them...
Mike
I experience this all the time, after a while it becomes second nature. Let's have a look at an example and i'll see if i can make things a bit easier.
here's a tab - its actually from Simon and Garfunkel , . , . , . , . , . , . , . , .
||----------3-------|-----------------|--------3--------|-----------------|
||------------------|-1-------0-------|------------0----|-1-------0-------|
||.-------------0---|-----0-------0---|---------0---0---|-----0-------0---|
||.--------0-----0--|-2----(2)0-------|-----------------|-2-------0-------|
||------------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
||--3---------------|-----------------|-3---------------|-----------------|
What you need to do BEFORE you even try to play anything, is look at the freeted strings. In the first measure its the low E and high E fretted at the 3rd fret yeah? So immediately my brain is thinking "G" chord! Also you have to look to see if your fingers come OFF the strings at all during the measure - in the first bar clearly not. So the first bar can be played by holding a G chord 320003 all the way through. No need to move anything. Onto the second bar. Ok so we are fretting the B string at 1, and the D string at D. Very much as you would for a C chord - given that we are not playing the A string there, I would say I would think in terms of plonking my fingers on in the C position. Now - on the second bar your fingers DO have to come off the strings, as soon as you play the B and D strings on the first beat, the rest of the measure is played with all the strings open (ignore the note in brackets for the time being.)
the third measure is almost the same as the first, so its back to G. The fourth measure is a repeat of the second, so its back to C.
HOWEVER if you really think this through before playing a note, you might think "hang on, I can play this all in one shape ! If I form a C/G chord 3x2013 I can play the first bar by taking off the fingers on the B and D strings, and the same goes for the rest. Try it and see!
Its about planning most of the time - that's the secret. Look at the fretted strings first, work out if they fit a recognisable chord, and if you need to remove fingers from the string during the playing of the bar.
Hope this helps
Matt
