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Official Tab


Flight959

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Guitar Tab books are rarely "official" they are transcribed by musicians that work for publishing companies.

 

For instance, I have a Black Sabbath tab book all of it in standard tunning, we all know Tony Iommi had to detune his guitar big time so right there you know this tab is not how he played the songs.

 

Note substitition is very prevalent.

 

On the net: a lot of the tabs are good others are garbage, when somebody says "well I tabbed this and it sounds pretty good" it is going to be a turd for sure. When is the last time Led Zeppelin sounded "pretty good". It has got to sound fu**ing awesome.

 

Some publishing companies have better tabs than others.

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when i first started playing guitar I bought 2 tab books and got a few from the library. I didn't like them, they didn't look like the way the real band played it live and i found that they sounded different many times as well.

 

I haven't opened a TAB book for over a year... I learn by ear. Like it better that way, feel a sense of accomplishment as well.

 

If I'm having an especially hard time with a part of a song I'll occasionally search for a TAB website that exclusively transcribes for that band. I find these to be much more accurate then TABs from websites such as Ultimate Guitar (although you can sometimes get lucky and find a good TAB there... I would check it out anyway if you're really having trouble and can't find a band TAB website)

 

Here's an example of a band exclusive TAB site (this is a nice one): http://www.fftabs.com/

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Guitar Tab books are rarely "official" they are transcribed by musicians that work for publishing companies.

 

For instance, I have a Black Sabbath tab book all of it in standard tunning, we all know Tony Iommi had to detune his guitar big time so right there you know this tab is not how he played the songs.

 

Note substitition is very prevalent.

 

On the net: a lot of the tabs are good others are garbage, when somebody says "well I tabbed this and it sounds pretty good" it is going to be a turd for sure. When is the last time Led Zeppelin sounded "pretty good". It has got to sound fu**ing awesome.

 

Some publishing companies have better tabs than others. Wolf Marshall is IMO the best out there.

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I've never seen a tab that feels 100% right. As has been already mentioned, 'official' tab books often have nothing to do with the artist that wrote the music. I have a Placebo tab book that doesn't even bother to use the artist's tuning, plus having seen them live, included far more notes than the guitarist actually plays. I find tabs are of most use as a quick way of getting a feel for the song and then working out what feels right to you. I agree with Thundergod totally but as I don't have the talent to play by ear exclusively I find tab to be a handy first step.

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Some tabs are quite good on the other hand, I have a Chuck Berry tab book that matches recorded versions exactly. Like I said some publishing houses have a good reputation some other don't.

 

Figuring it out by ear is not the right answer necessarily either. With bands using guitar mutlitracking it is hard to get them right. Alternative tunings can be tough and note subtitition is also very common.

 

I remember the first time I was reading some tab for a Lynyrd Skynyrd song and there were 5 guitars in it. If you are going to play that song with one guitar something is going to be left out.

 

It reminds me of Kirk Hammett when he was telling somebody he was having a hard time figuring out a song and his friend told him "that's 2 guitars in that song".

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I noticed about a year ago that many sites took their tabs down and there was a message something about the pending legal action from the music industry.

 

I agree that tab is most useful just to get a quick idea of the chords or riff and then figure the details out by ear.

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Most of them are. Right after I started playing I bought a few tab books of bands and songs I wanted to learn, and after the first few notes, quickly realized that they were further off than I was.

 

I'm sure there are a few other really good tabbers out there, but unless it's by Andy Aledort, I'm skeptical.

 

Besides, you can find tab for most any song online. Some obscure bands, or obscure songs by successful bands may be difficult to find, but they're usually out there if they have sold, say a a quarter to a half million albums or more.

 

 

 

I'm partial to Ultimate-Guitar.com

 

And understand, online tab is often wrong too, but you'll have multiple tabs by different people who play it different ways, by learning them, you can figure out your way to do it, and your way is always the right way.

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