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Muting strings on acoustic (blue on black)

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(@bigh29)
Eminent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 17
Topic starter  

Hey all,

I am working on playing blue on black by Kenny Wayne shepherd. The main chord progression is D-Some flavor of C(add 9?)-G. I pulled this strumming pattern from the powertabs.net, and it sounds about right to me.

Q==72

Q E S S S S S S E S S E E S S E S S S S E S S
E||-------------------------------|-----3--x-x-3--L-3-3-3----------||
B||---3----3--3-3-3-3-x-3-3-------|-----3--x-x-3--L-3-3-3-----0-0--||
G||*--2----2--0-0-0-2-x-0-2-------|-----0--x-x-0--L-0-0-0-----0-0-*||
D||*--0----0--0-0-0-0-x-0-0-------|-----2--x-x-0--L-0-0-0-----0-0-*||
A||-----------3-3-3-----3----0h-2-|--3--3--x-x-2--L-2-2-2----------||
E||-------------------------------|-----------------------3b-------||

I am struggling with the muted strings in the second bar. How should I play this? Do I switch to the G chord with my left hand and mute with my right? Or do I mute with my left hand? Or do I even strum this? I could just slap the strings with my hand.

For what it is worth, I'm not even playing the muted strings in the first bar. I could use help there too. That one isn't missed too badly, but my play lacks character if I miss the two in the second bar.

Here is a youtube video of the song. Thanks for the help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee735pZ6kxk

H^2


   
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 cnev
(@cnev)
Famed Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 4459
 

Hmm, I just learned the song and I don't play those muted strums either and it sounds fine although I'm not playing this on an acoustic. I'll have to go back and look at the tab that I have for it.

"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!


   
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(@hyperborea)
Prominent Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 827
 

I would mute that with my left hand. Just lift up your fingers on the left hand so that they are still touching the strings but aren't pressing them down. That will mute all of the strings that you are touching. For the other strings you will need to angle one or more of your fingers to touch them. So for the Cadd9 to the mute just lift all of your fingers and lean the index finger (the finger on the 4th string - or at least that's what I would do) back over the 3rd string while still touching the 4th string.

In the first bar you could pretty much just keep the same chord shape all of the way through. Just lift the ring finger on the third string and lift them all for muting.

What is the "Q", "E" and "S" on the top of the bars mean? Also, what is the "L" in the second measure? I haven't seen that notation before.

Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson


   
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(@kent_eh)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1882
 

What is the "Q", "E" and "S" on the top of the bars mean? Also, what is the "L" in the second measure? I haven't seen that notation before.
That is how Guitar Pro exports a tab to ASCII text.

Here is the full legend that it uses (including a bunch of advanced stuff not used in the tab that BigH posted)
Oh, and the Q==72 at the start shows the duration of a quarter note (in this case 72BPM)
Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole
H - half
Q - quarter
E - 8th
S - 16th
T - 32nd
X - 64th
. - note dotted
|-n-| - n-tuplets

Tablature Legend
----------------
L - tied note
x - dead note
g - grace note
(n) - ghost note
> - accentuded note
NH - natural harmonic
AH - artificial harmonic
TH - tapped harmonic
SH - semi harmonic
PH - pitch harmonic
h - hammer on
p - pull off
b - bend
br - bendRelease
pb - preBend
pbr - preBendRelease
brb - bendReleaseBend
n/ - tremolo bar dip
n - tremolo bar dive
-/n - tremolo bar Release up
/n - tremolo bar inverted dip
/n - tremolo bar return
-n - tremolo bar Release down
S - shift slide
s - legato slide
/ - slide into from below or out of upwards
- slide into from above or out of downwards
~ - vibrato
W - wide vibrato
tr - trill
TP - tremolo picking
T - tapping
S - slap
P - pop
< - fade in
^ - brush up
v - brush down

I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep


   
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