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| Tab Help - Tablature Help - General - ezFolk Forums | |||||||||||||||
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OctoberKing Approved 
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Hey everyone, I just happend to stumble into ezFolk quite by accident. Anyway...........I'm a total beginner with the guitar (less than a year) I've learned a couple of songs by learning a few chords and listening along to the music. But I'm totally stumped by tabs. Take for instance the The Country Lick lesson with tab, I'm not really getting it.......Is there any lesson or web page explaining how to read ezFolk tab? I don't think I'll be able to download any software on my computer because I use Linux instead of Windows or Mac. I would like to say just how great this web site is, I'm very interested in traditional music and it's great to see folks seeing that it never goes away.
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Richard Hefner Administrator 
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Hi OctoberKing, Welcome to ezFolk! You can find some simple direction on reading guitar tab on the guitar tutorial page... http://www.ezfolk.com/guitar/Tutorials/tutorials.html It's kind of basic and I need to redo it but should explain most of what you need to know. If anything is unclear feel free to ask and I'll be glad to help. You can also find more links to guitar tabs on the guitar main page... http://www.ezfolk.com/guitar/index.html 
____________________ Richard Hefner Webmaster, ezFolk.com MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner |
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TheBloodyIrish Approved
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Tabs are quite easy to learn. They tell you what string to play on which frets. Unfortunely, it does not tell you the timing; the timing is what standard notation is for anyway. Now... tabs start out looking like this: ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- These 6 lines correspond with the strings on your guitar. In standard tuning, the bottom would be your low E, second would be A, then d, b, g, e in that fashion. ------------- ------------- ------------- ----0-------- ------------- Noticed the 0 in there? That means it is be played with an open string. In other word, your A string would be played open. ------------- ----3-------- ------------- ------------- ------------- The 3 in this tab means that it is be played with a g string on the third fret. This should be enough to play the basic tabs. There are other notations for tabs, but I will let the others fill it in. Hopefully, I got it right. My friend over the Internet had to explain it to me. Last edited on Sun Feb 18th, 2007 06:19 pm by TheBloodyIrish ____________________ Currently learning: D-tuned Tin Whistle Projects: Tin-Can Banjo, Goatskin Banjo, Ugly Stick Dream Instruments: Banjo, Fiddle, Lambeg, Lap Guitar, Mountain Dulcimer |
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Richard Hefner Administrator
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Just for the record, the tabs on ezFolk do include the timing.
____________________ Richard Hefner Webmaster, ezFolk.com MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner |
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TheBloodyIrish Approved
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That is the first time I ever saw a tab with timing. Again, I guess it is not that hard to adapt the tabs to standard notation.
____________________ Currently learning: D-tuned Tin Whistle Projects: Tin-Can Banjo, Goatskin Banjo, Ugly Stick Dream Instruments: Banjo, Fiddle, Lambeg, Lap Guitar, Mountain Dulcimer |
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Richard Hefner Administrator
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Actually having the timing included in tablature is very common. I've been using TablEdit for about seven years now and it's been in there the whole time. I would think that most decent tab programs include timing. Over the years I've seen constant references to people saying that tabs don't include timing but that's just not the case, certainly for the thousands of people who use TablEdit.
____________________ Richard Hefner Webmaster, ezFolk.com MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner |
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OctoberKing Approved
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Ok, well after actually spending a little time I was able to find the tutorial on reading tab. BloodyIrish thanks for the crash course it was a big help. I still have questions though. If I was looking at this tab for instance, http://www.ezfolk.com/guitar/Tutorials/Reading_Tab/reading_tab.html the first measure in G, I would play the 6th string at the 3rd fret then strum the 1st, 2nd and 3rd string, the 2nd and 3rd string open and the 1st string fretted at the 3rd fret? And whats going on in the second and 3rd measure? Is the second measure a single note melody? And yes I did just bounce off the turnup truck. Thanks for the help.
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Richard Hefner Administrator
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I think you've got it. What you said is correct. In that example, in the first measure you're holding the G chord, and you should hold the chord unless there is a reason to deviate from that (and very often there is) such as a melody note that you want to play that's not in the chord or if you're maybe doing a run or something like that. Looking back at that page, which I made up seven years ago, I remember now that I didn't want to overcomplicate it with too many details. You can find some tablature descriptions that go on for ages. It ain't that difficult... the horizontal lines are strings and the numbers are the frets where your fingers go. Of course there are a lot of little subtle things like holding the chord except when you shouldn't hold the chord (as I mentioned above). To me, that kind of thing can drive you nuts if you worry too much about it in advance. I believe that once you get into a song you'll start seeing why you do certain things at certain places and it will start making better sense. Does that make sense? Probably not... save a seat for me on that turnip truck. Anyhoo, you've got the idea. The first measure in your example you hold a G chord. On the count of 1 you hit the 6th string (which you're holding on the 3rd fret). On the count of 2 you strum the first few strings (hitting exactly 3 strings is not that important -- it's mostly a rhythmic thing). Then on the count of 3 you hit the 4th string, which is open, and on the count of 4 you strum again. You're right about the 2nd measure. It starts out with a quarter note (6th string 3rd fret again) then there's a little single note run that consists of 6 eighth notes. I did that to show the timing difference in the quarter notes and eighth notes. Feel free to keep asking questions. Try some of the easy guitar tabs and let me know what throws you and I'll be glad to help.
____________________ Richard Hefner Webmaster, ezFolk.com MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner |
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OctoberKing Approved
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Well I can't thank y'all enough for the help. I'm sure that for the coming months it will start to fall into place. I'm really looking forward to working through some of the lessons and songs. I remember growing up in southern California in the 70's and my friends thinking I was mad because I was into Gram Parsons and that road took me even deeper into traditional music which I've never lost intrest in but only a deeper desire to know more of it.
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| ezFolk Forums > General > Tablature Help > Tab Help | |
