OK, first I tryed to put up an image to show what I'm gonna ask, but I can't get it to work. So I'll try and explain in words to my best ability, so this may be a little long.
When looking at a piece of music from one of my many books that have both standard notation and TAB down below. I also see Chord "keys", (either a diagram of the chord or just a letter), for the lack of a better term, on the top of the Treble Clef Line; and as the song progresses there will be new Chord Keys etc. Sometime every couple of bars, others a few changes in the same bar.
With me so far? <smile>
Ok so what do they mean? The melody goes away from the notated Chord sometimes or alot of times and yes some of the notes in the melody are from the noted chord, and then sometimes not.
Are these "keys" more of a guide to prep where your fingers should be? Making it easier to play the melody? -or-
Are they notations for Rythm and if I played only the rythm of the song those are the chords?
Help I'm soo confused :cry:
Thanks
Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing. - Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977)
They give you the chord progression that accompanies the melody. If you just wanted to strum the song and sing it (instead of playing it note-for-note), you'd use those chords.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
It really depends on the particular tab/notation and song. Sometimes there will be a strumming pattern to go along with them that is actually what is played. Other times it is just the implied chord. But in the case of many Rock, blues, and jazz songs it's not really accurate but it's just the best thing a transcriber do with a style of music that just dosen't lend itself well to transcription methods that were invented for a totally different style of music.
In other words, It just depends on the piece and the transcriber. Without a specific example it's hard to give you a definitive answer.
And obviously the quality of guitar transcriptions varies greatly. And personally I think in the last 15 years or so the average accuracy and quality of transcribed guitar music has rapidly declined. It seems that the best transcribers of guitar music all want to go be rock stars. :(
