******************************************** *** *** *** THE GUIDE TO TAB NOTATION : *** *** HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB *** *** *** ******************************************** Written by Howard Wright Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk OLGA_TABFAQ: V1.0 Last update : 1st September 1999 **************************************************************************** *** Copyright Howard Wright and the olga-grunts *** *** *** *** This document may be distributed freely as long as NO CHARGE is made *** *** and my name and email address are not removed. If you want to edit *** *** or re-format this document for public consumption, please contact me *** *** first. If you try to make any money by selling this guide to TAB, in *** *** part or as a whole, you will be struck down by a bolt of lightning. *** *** Probably. *** **************************************************************************** I have now got a version of this guide in HTML. If you would like a copy of the HTML version, drop me a line. CONTENTS - Part II ------------------- Writing Tab : ------------- 3.0 Getting Started 3.1 To Tab or not to tab 3.2 Things to do when writing TAB 3.3 Things to avoid ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************************* *** 3.0 WRITING TAB - GETTING STARTED *** ********************************************* Perhaps one of the most important things to do before you start typing up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly how much information to include in it. The trick is to convey the right amount of information in a clear, easily readable form. Questions you can ask yourself are : - Is the song played using mostly chords ? - Are there a number of riffs which appear throughout the song ? - Is there a clear verse/chorus/middle bit structure ? By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce a clearly structured TAB which will not only be easier for others to read, but also easier for you to type in. There are also choices to be made when deciding what package to use when typing the TAB in. All you really need is a simple text editor, however a mouse-driven editor will probably make things easier. The Windows program NOTEPAD is perfectly adequate for writing TAB, and is what I normally use. When you start typing in, it saves time if you draw out one blank stave and then make 8 or 10 copies of these before you start typing in the fret numbers etc. If you use a more complicated package like Microsoft Word then make sure that you use a monospaced font so that the characters you use are all the same width. If an 'm' character is wider than an 'i' character then your TAB is going to look very strange on another text editor. Choose a font where all charcters get the same width - Courier usually does the job. There are also a number of programs available by ftp which were written specifically to make TAB writing easier. Check OLGA (www.olga.net) for more information. ************************************* *** 3.1 TO TAB OR NOT TO TAB *** ************************************* If a song can be described well with just chords, then it will be a lot easier to read and write if you just use the chord shapes, rather than tab out the chords. Be sure to use markers such as 'Intro' and 'Verse,' so that the reader knows where you are in the song. Another way of doing this is to give the time on the CD. If the chorus of a song begins after one minute and 10 seconds, write 1:10 in the margin. See 3.2.3 below. For example, if you wanted to send in Led Zeps 'Gallows Pole' you could write: Intro : A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A Verse : A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A G D A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A BUT - if you do just send in the chords it makes things *much* clearer if you give the chord shapes as well (how many people actually know how to play Dadd4/A off the top of their heads ?). What you need to do is include some chord shapes like this : EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE x02020 x02010 x04035 320033 xx0232 x0000x A7 Am7 Dadd4/A G D G/A To TAB out these chords will take a lot longer to type in, and will probably take people a lot longer to read and understand. Where a song is based around chords like this, it makes things much easier if you just give chord shapes and names, then show the chord changes for the Intro, Verses etc. ********************************************** *** 3.2 THINGS TO DO WHEN WRITING TABS *** ********************************************** One of the most important considerations when typing in TAB is to make it clear and easily readable. There are a few simple things you can do to make things work. -- 1 -- Use spaces ! It's amazing the difference it can make if you insert a few blank lines in the right place. Space out the individual blocks of TAB and the whole thing will be a lot easier for others to understand. -- 2 -- Define the symbols you use. It would make everybody's life a lot easier if everyone used the same symbols for hammer ons, bends etc. BUT - if you are convinced that your particular way of writing bends and slides makes much more sense than anyone else's, that's OK as long as you tell everybody what system you use. It makes very good sense to start your TAB file with a list of symbols used. The list of most commonly used symbols is below : h - hammer on p - pull off b - bend string up r - release bend / - slide up \ - slide down v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~) t - tap (with strumming hand) x - muted, struck string When you get on to harmonics , you might see a variety of symbols used. Even in standard music notation, an accepted way of writing natural and artificial harmonics has neverbeen agreed ! However, using brackets is the standard way of writing harmonics, so a natural harmonic at the 12th fret would be : E---------------------------------------------------------------- B---------------------------------------------------------------- G---------------------------------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------------------------------- A---------------------------------------------------------------- E------<12>------------------------------------------------------ Normal brackets () are sometimes used for grace notes or optional notes so 'pointy' brackets <> are the usual choice for harmonics. Because there are no standards (in written music or tablature) to distinguish between natural and artificial harmonics, some confusion sometimes arises. If you are writing out some tab with harmonics, it's best to add a note to say whether they are natural harmonics (most commonly at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets) or artificial (pinched) harmonics. With artificial harmonics, you have to fret a note with the left hand (say at the 2nd fret) and pinch the harmonic an octave above (at the 14th fret) so you should make it clear whether the number you write in the tab is the fretted or pinched note. It is more common to tab out the pinched notes, so if you see tab like this : E---------------------------------------------------------------- B---------------------------------------------------------------- G---------------------------------------------------------------- D---------------------------------------------------------------- A---------------------------------------------------------------- E------<14>--<16>--<17>--<16>--<14>------------------------------ It will usually mean fret notes at the 2nd, 4th and 5th frets, and play the artificial harmonics at the frets shown in the tab. -- 3 -- Label bits of the TAB It makes things a lot easier if you can see where the 'verse' and 'chorus' parts of a song are, so put a few labels in certain places to guide people through it. Many songs will have clear 'verse' and 'chorus' structures - so you can tab out the riffs/chords or whatever for these just once, and then indicate where these are repeated. Or there maybe a couple of important riffs which are used - so TAB these out and label them 'Riff One' and 'Riff Two' - then when they come up later in the song you can just say 'repeat Riff One four times' instead of tabbing the whole thing again. As long as it's clear which bits of TAB go with which label, you will save yourself time this way as well as making it easier to read for others. -- 4 -- Include Artist/album It's useful for others to know where to find the original song, so at the beginning of each TAB include some information on the artists who recorded the original, and the album on which the song can be found. -- 5 -- General comments It's also useful to include a few lines at the beginning of the TAB to explain the style of the song, or to point out important features such as alternative tunings, use of capos etc. A few words along the lines of "use a staccato, funky kind of strumming style for the chords, then change to a sustained feel for the lead line" will help people to get an idea of how to approach the playing style. Information on the type of guitar (electric/acoustic, 6 string/12 string) and effects used would be useful. One point on the use of capos and alternative tunings : For TAB using a capo, it's standard practice to write the numbers of the frets *relative* to the position of the capo. So if you had a D major shape with a capo at the 2nd fret the TAB would be : E----2----------------------------------------------------------- B----3----------------------------------------------------------- G----2----------------------------------------------------------- D----0----------------------------------------------------------- A---------------------------------------------------------------- E---------------------------------------------------------------- The notes fretted on the top three strings are 2 or 3 frets above the capo position, so they are written with the numbers 2 or 3, even though you actually fret the notes at the 4th and 5th frets. When writing out the names of chords played using a capo, it's usually best to use chord names that take into account the actual pitch of the notes. For example, in the tab example above, guitarists recognise the chord shape as a "D shape", but because the capo is at the 2nd fret the actual chord is an E (2 semitones up from a D), so you should write the chord name as E. This makes it easier for other musicians (or other guitarists who aren't using a capo) to play along in the right key. It's similar with TAB for guitars tuned a semitone or tone lower than usual. If a song should be played with the guitar tuned to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and it has this chord : Eb-----0-------------------------------------------------------- Bb-----0-------------------------------------------------------- Gb-----1-------------------------------------------------------- Db-----2-------------------------------------------------------- Ab-----2-------------------------------------------------------- Eb-----0-------------------------------------------------------- although it "looks like an E chord" it is actually an Eb, because of the tuning, so in the long run, it avoids confusion to call it an Eb. -- 6 -- Timing information You may want to get really serious and include details giving the precise rhythm of the piece. This will involve a lot more typing, but it means all the information necessary to play the piece is given explicitly. One way to approach this is to write a line of dashes interspersed with numbers which count the beats. So in 4-4 time, you would have : 1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc Under this you can write a line of d's and u's to represent down and upstrokes. Here is a simple example where the rhythm is 2 crotchets (quarter notes) followed by 4 quavers (8th notes) 1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc d---d---d-u-d-u-d---d---d-u-d-u- You could expand on this to use upper and lower case letters to indicate accents and so on. If you use this method make sure that you clearly separate the 2 lines of rhythm information from the 6 lines of TAB !!! One other way of including timing information is to use one letter/symbol for each note type. For example use e for 8th note (quaver), s for 16th note (semi- quaver) and so on. The letters you use may well differ depending on whether you're used to the american system of quarter notes, 8th notes etc or the english system of crotchets and quavers , but the method is the same. (If you're not sure of the 'translations' here they are : whole note - semibreve half note - minim quarter note - crotchet 8th note - quaver 16th note - semiquaver 32nd note - demisemiquaver 64th note - hemidemisemiquaver ) Simply write the letters above the corresponding note in the TAB. (Make sure you define which letters/symbols you use) Here's an example of what this looks like : This is the opening riff from the Beatles' Ticket To Ride q e e t t t q e e t t t E--------0-----------0--------0-----------0---------------------- B-----------2-----0--------------2-----0------------------------- G---2----------2----------2---------2---------------------------- D---------------------------------------------------------------- A---------------------------------------------------------------- E---------------------------------------------------------------- Here I've used q for quarter note, e for 8th note and t for triplet quarter note. If you want to send in a TAB with rhythm information like this then it's *essential* to explain the system you use. I've seen a lot of different systems of letters and numbers of varying degrees of simplicity and readability. Whichever you choose to use, you'll have to explain all your symbols to make sure others can work out what the hell you're on about. If you want to give a few clues as to the rhythm of the TAB, but don't want to get too involved, use of bar lines is an effective way of conveying timing information. Simply insert a vertical line of |'s to indicate the end of a bar. So using the national anthem example I had before, with bar lines it looks like this : E--------|---------------|0--------4--2-|0--------------|-------- B---0----|----------0----|--------------|---------------|0------- G------1-|-----1---------|--------------|-----1----3----|-------- D--------|2--------------|--------------|---------------|-------- A--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|-------- E--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|-------- As a final note on writing TAB I should say that whenever you post to the newsgroups ALWAYS cross post to both guitar groups, and also mail a copy to guitar@olga.net so that it can be included in OLGA. For more information on posting to the guitar newsgroups and OLGA see the other FAQs regularly posted to the guitar newsgroups. ******************************** *** 3.3 THINGS TO AVOID *** ******************************** -- 1 -- Tab Wraparound One of the most common problems in writing TAB is text wraparound. This makes the TAB almost impossible to read but is very easily avoided. The problem occurs when you write a line of TAB which is maybe 80 or 90 characters long. For a lot of people this is too wide for their screen, so what should be a single line of tab ends up being split onto two lines. Here is what it looks like : E---------------------------------------------0----------------------------------------------- B---------------------------------------2--4-----4--2----------------------------------------- G------------------------------1--2--4-----------------4--2--1-------------------------------- D---------------------1--2--4-----------------------------------4--2--1----------------------- A------------0--2--4-----------------------------------------------------4--2--0-------------- E---0--2--4-----------------------------------------------------------------------4--2--0----- Now this will probably look pretty weird when you see it. When I wrote it, using Windows 'Notepad', it looked fine because I could fit the whole thing on one screen. For most newsreaders though, it is too long and you run into problems. All you have to do is be careful when you type in TAB so that you the maximum width of line is say 60 characters. I've tried to do that in this FAQ so that the maximum width is about <<<------------------------------------------------------------------>>> this much. If you limit your TABs in the same way, you should be OK. Of course, if TAB *does* get wrapped around the author might not realise because it looked fine on his/her screen when they wrote it. It might be worth letting them know of the problem, so they can be careful in the future. (This includes me ! If parts of this FAQ are too wide for your screen, please let me know !) -- 2 -- Very squashed TAB It's amazing how easy it is to ruin an otherwise good piece of TAB by not spacing it out so that the end result is a mass of cramped TAB, explanations, labels etc. When you finish typing up, go back through the TAB and see if you can insert a few blank lines here and there to separate verse from chorus or whatever. It really does make it a lot easier for others to read. It might also be worth considering if you've included too much detail in the TAB. Usually this will not be the case, but I have seen a few TABs which go into great details, but are extremely off-putting to try to read because of the sheer quantity of information. -- 3 -- Unnecessary repetition If a line of TAB or a particular riff is repeated a number of times then save yourself the effort, TAB it once. It's also easier to read like this. That's all I *think* you need to know about reading and writing TAB. If there's anything important you think I've left out or if there are bits of the FAQ which you can't understand then let me know. You can contact the author of the tutorial at: Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk