Been playing for about 2 years, mostly chords and very short riffs etc. Would like to play some melodies such as Eagles "Take It easy" and that type of music. I have an old Eagles book all in Standard notation and thought that it would also help me start to read music and learn the fret board a bit better if I could transpose to tab from the music. However I can't figure out which note the melody starts with. The first note is a D positioned in the first open space below the staff ,the next three are G's positioned on the second line from the bottom. the song is in the key of G. What fret do I start my tab on? As you can see I am at square one and hope this question makes sense.
Thanx Robbie
Those notes are open D string and open G string or fret for similar (A string 5th fret and D string 5th fret)
Thanx missileman, had it kind of narrowed down to the open D and G however that was just a guess on my part. So it is also Ok to start this melody on the 5th fret A string? there is no convention to say that it is one pitch or the other.?
Robbie
Missleman is correct.
Start with the open D (4th string) and open G (3rd string). Tab the song and learn the fretboard from open strings to the 5th fret.
Then as an exercise start with the A string (5th string) 5th fret and D string (4th string) 5th fret for the D and G respectively. Go on from there trying to avoid the first 3 or 4 frets, using only frets 4 or 5 to 10. This way you'll learn the fretboard in sections.
Are you doing it by hand or using PowerTabs to tab it out. Its a great tool, in that as you fill in the tab below it writes out the standard notation above. You'll see real time whether or not you've got the right notes by comparing it to the sheet music you have.
Mike
Playing an instrument is good for your soul
I have been doing it by hand but will check out power tabs and also will retab it starting with the A string 5th fret after I learn the first one. Thanx for the suggestions
Robbie
The pitch is pretty much fixed but unless indicated it's up to you where to play that specific note. On a guitar you could play the open G string, or the fifth fret 4th string, 10th fret 5th string or even 15th fret 6th string. They are all the same G but will have a different sound due to string thickness and such things. If you are starting out you might want to see if you can play it all in first position, so playing all notes on the fourth fret or closer to the neck. So the G is open G string and an F# would be 4th fret 4th string.
Thanx missileman, had it kind of narrowed down to the open D and G however that was just a guess on my part. So it is also Ok to start this melody on the 5th fret A string? there is no convention to say that it is one pitch or the other.?
Robbie
Yes there is convention, 5th fret A string is the same tone as open D string, so is 10th fret low E string. (they are all the same note)
Personally, I only play 5th fret and above, reading standard notation, if one of 2 things happen.
1. most of the notes are above the staff.
2. if I have any embelishments to play (hammer on, slide, ect..) where the notes invovled would be on different strings in first position. (I move up the neck so they are on the same string)
It depends on whether you're looking at guitar music (in which case missleman is correct) or piano music.
The guitar is written one octave higher than it sounds. That's done so the guitar fits in the staff with three ledger lines at each end to go from E to E (open 6th to 1st string 12th fret).
If you're looking at piano music, the D in the space below the staff is the note above middle C - roughly 584 cycles per second. That's on the second string, third fret (or 3rd string 7th fret, 4th string 12th fret etc)
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanx to all who have replied so far;
I had noticed power tab mentioned but only tried it last night after the suggestion. It is a cool tool.
Noteboat I do have your book and see that the music I have is written on a set of three staffs. The top one is the one I have been using and assumed it was for guitar as the chord diagrams are directly above it. The other two are connected by brackets and are what your book calls a grand staff for piano. I do see an error I have made though as I started with the note on the first open space below the staff. This is actually shown in the piano music while the guitar music starts with a D on the second line from the bottom.
Robbie
