READING TAB

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
Maybe you may need "that music with the dots on the page"?

Have you considered taking the publisher to court?
 

Bushwhacker

Suspect 1
Good one, Crossroads, lol... an un-named amateur musician on a public forum (Ultimate-Guitar), doing everyone a favor by tabbing out a song for us.... don't think taking him/her to court is in my mind! It just had me intrigued is all. Like was said earlier, its so quick with 16th notes at 84 bpm,(that's 5.6 notes per second), nobody would really hear it but the composer. Add to that my poor playing technique... well, you get the drift.
Dave
 

mountain man

Still got the Blues!
I'm no expert either, but I think in the first example it's a slide, in the second it's a hammer-on. A Curved connector between two different notes indicates that it's hammer on (or off). A curved connector between two of the SAME notes is an indication to just hold the note for the entire duration.
Hmmm, Good point. I didn't notice that curved connector under those notes........ Probably cuz I haven't seen that notation before? I was just focusing on what looked like a pretty obvious slide....... Now it's a bit confusing.
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
I may be unclear on the question. Are you asking about the ties on the standard notation or on the curved lines under the tab? I have always seen the curved lines represent a slur, with the slanted lines indicating that slur is a slide. I may be totally off but those appear to be consistent with the ties on the standard notation that appear to indicate triplets?
 

BoogieMan

Blues Junior
That does clear it up for me. Looks like the slide I have been using the most is the legato slide. Thanks jalepeno.
 

Bushwhacker

Suspect 1
That's a good demonstration of the two different slides, commonly used. Inexperienced as I am, I only knew of one slide type.
Thanks Jalapeno, for finding that example, and thanks to all for your input. Seems maybe a few of us have been missing the second 'pick' on a shift slide. Legato is all I have ever used.
Oh, any particular recommendations on reliable Tab information?... I saved a few of the pages used as examples on this thread!
Dave.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I was not aware of notating the different types of slides. This is all new to me! :) I guess it's true you can learn something new every day. Quite frankly, unless you really want to duplicate a recorded version exactly does it make a difference? I've done slides by lightly hammering on to a string and sliding up to a fret and then pick the note when I got to the destination. I wonder how that would be tabbed?
 

Bushwhacker

Suspect 1
Hi Jalapeno, I have been learning this song in sections, (as you do), with my guitar teacher, and only realized during this week, that the section I am learning at the moment was tabbed differently to a similar section in the initial part of the song. That's why I asked the question on here, I simply didn't know! Now that so many different opinions on the tab have come out, I am really glad I asked. Like I said in an earlier reply, with my lack of playing skills, nobody would know, but it's nice to know the theory!
Dave
P.S. I have no idea how to Tab your example!
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
One guy on Youtube says that one is a Legato slide, and one is a Shift slide, where you also pick the second note... interesting
Dave

Yes that is correct. when two notes are tied (with the "arc") you don't pick the second one (or all the next ones, you can have more than one tied note). You slide to it, pull off or hammer on depending on the configuration. In music notes only notation, it's all denoted with the tie (aka legato)

Tabs are weird. In fact someone recently posted here about the GuitarOS web site that is offering a free metronome boot camp course. Looking around that site, the guy makes a compelling point for the fact that guitar is the only instrument that has this whole alternate system of Tabs, Patterns, etc... rather than regular music notation, and one of his points is that some guitarist may want to learn the guitar as a "real" instrument.
While I don't want to start a debate on it, his analogy of using the imperial measures in a world where everyone else is using the metric system (rteal instruments, real notation) is an interesting one.
To be fair, regular music notation is not precise either, it serves OK for entirely classical music, but fails to convey the fell of a lot of other musics where the beat is not completely straight. I find it one of the "good" aspects of music, the reader gets to interpret and put their own spin on it. the same way a theater play will be interpreted differently by different actors, even though the text and stage instructions are provided.
 

Jalapeno

Student Of The Blues
I hear you BW. I got fed up with internet tab when I tried to figure out the intro to "A Fool for Your Stockings" by ZZ Top, the tab is a mess, even after learning the intro I try to match it up with the tab and I still don't see it.

For me, I love the double staff with real notation on the top and tab underneath it and Gutiar Pro 6 is a good tool for it. It looks like GP6 did a great job for you. However, there is still some internet tab notations that baffle me :). Pure notes slow me down and pure tab does too. I am getting pretty good at reading the double staff but as your music shows, it never seems to end. Thanks for asking the question. I'm learning stuff not in my dvd courses.
 

Bushwhacker

Suspect 1
Well, I saw my face to face guy last night, and he had never seen it before either! On GP6, you can display all the different tab symbols, so he pulled it up, and it calls one a Legato Slide,(with the arc), and one a Shift Slide. I think I found that on google, the same as a few others did. Oh well, as has been pointed out before, nobody that hears me will pick it up!
Dave
 
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