Guitar Tabs

[GrandpaBill]

Doing one of my favorite things today and checking out Ultimate Guitar Tabs looking for song ideas and ,
Sometimes you find one that just says "play me , I might just fit"

Barry McGuire "Eve of Destruction"

 

[NoTeleBob]

I find that Tabs are a good starting point. The all seem to need refinement or enhancement to sound right. Usually I check out at least three and come up with something that's better than all of them.

 

[stxrus]

I will admit to getting lazy and will occasionally go to UG as a starting point. I’ll root though several tabs to try to find the “closest” accurate one.
Anyone remember OLGA?

 

[Blrfl]

Anyone remember OLGA?

Uh huh. And when those bastids at EMI and the Harry Fox Agency forced it to be taken down.

 

[cometazzi]

I remember OLGA but never knew what happened to it.

Like @NoTeleBob says they're a good starting point. They'll often get you into the ballpark.

Just earlier I was watching a video of a guy who was going over the intro section of TYA's "Going Home". Usually I dislike video instruction for things but in this case I thought it was pretty alright.

 

[rickthescot]

Olga, yeah she was...oh not that one. Sorry.

 

[JeffroJones]

Anyone remember OLGA?

The archive pre-dates internet porn, Amazon, E-Bay, every newspaper (and record publisher), spam and Google. It pre-dates the web.

Ah, take me back, country roads


:::

 

[Tonetele]

Yeah but to play TAB you need to know the song intimately. Reading music you just do it and you get better the more reading you do.

 

[johnny k]

The cool thing with tabs is they help with the tuning of metal bands. Cannibal corpse uses a wide range of downtuning, and you don't have to figure them out with tabs. And if you go low, the recordings get muddy and a strong palm mute can sound a halp step higher.

 

[richiek65]

I find that Tabs are a good starting point. The all seem to need refinement or enhancement to sound right. Usually I check out at least three and come up with something that's better than all of them.

Yes, just like instructional youtube vids

 

[johnny k]

Yes, just like instructional youtube vids

the worse thing about those videos is when the guy plays something at full speed and when he slows it down, he doesn't play the same thing exactly. I guess time is money, come on...
I really like this channel, i think he was a member here at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/user/tomcon21/videos

 

[richiek65]

the worse thing about those videos is when the guy plays something at full speed and when he slows it down, he doesn't play the same thing exactly. I guess time is money, come on...
I really like this channel, i think he was a member here at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/user/tomcon21/videos

I'll check that guy out

 

[NoTeleBob]

Yeah but to play TAB you need to know the song intimately. Reading music you just do it and you get better the more reading you do.

But "written" music can't show some of things that TAB can show. Guitar has a lot of slurs and techniques that don't replicate as other instruments do i.e. there's only so many ways to hit a piano note. Hammer on, pull off, bend, bend and release, pre-bend, vibrato, etc. You either can't show it in conventional scales or, it too, requires hearing the song played by others.

They both have advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Tonetele]

Theory has a rage of tchnical terms that express how to play notes. Adagio is the only question I ever got wrong ( meaning - funereal). Piano- soft. Forte - Loud and so on. Gissimo- running up and on and on it goes. It is the length of the not , breve, semi-breve, crochet, quaver et.al that is uncertain in TAB. It was the original form of writing music but improved upon over centuries by what is now formal musical notation. No offence meant, just defending my position on musical theory.

 

[historicus146]

the worse thing about those videos is when the guy plays something at full speed and when he slows it down, he doesn't play the same thing exactly. I guess time is money, come on...
I really like this channel, i think he was a member here at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/user/tomcon21/videos

Slow it down yourself with the Gear Logo (settings) under the youtube video. You can slow youtube vids down to .25.....and you can go frame by frame with the > or < keys.
There are more and more videos with demonstration and the tab running underneath. That's way better than trying to slow down a record on a turntable. Anyone remember that?

 

[johnny k]

Slow it down yourself with the Gear Logo (settings) under the youtube video. You can slow youtube vids down to .25.....and you can go frame by frame with the > or < keys.
There are more and more videos with demonstration and the tab running underneath. That's way better than trying to slow down a record on a turntable. Anyone remember that?

Yeah, there is an app called transcribed which was suggested to me by a member. It enables to transpose pitch and speed of a youtube video. Very good !

 

[Jeremy_Green]

Honestly, this is better than any tab for me

LoopTube: Loop YouTube Videos

Looptube - Loop youtube videos. Slow down a video, set start and end points to loop a segment of a video. Learn and practice fast guitar solos and other musical pieces.

www.looptube.xyz

 

[zimbo]

I like Songsterr. The tabs are incredibly accurate.

 

[AAT65]

I like Songsterr. The tabs are incredibly accurate.

True, most of them are. Still needs checked by the Mk1 Listening Device (your ear) but they are mostly a good starting point.

 

[wulfenganck]

I use tabs here and there, mostly as a starting point for a new song. I also sometimes make tabs for certain ideas, riffs, chord-voicings, so it's more a memory for me rather than a notation.
But frankly, I wish I could read and write notes properly. I'm okay with bass and reading notes in bass clef, as I'm playing bass in a brass orchestra, but I suck at the treble clef.
I think notes are far more nuanced than tabs.
They still may be in regular use by luteplayers, but you can't use them to communicate with other musicians outside guitar- and luteplayers.