Forum

Since there is no General Guitar Discussion section of the forum anymore, I'm going to post here.

TABs. We love 'em, we hate 'em. I'm trying to learn a song and I looked all over the net for TABs, chord sheets, something that would help me out. Everything I found was horribly off. The chords were correct but thats about it. They were in the wrong places, the timing was waaaay off and the TAB was really bad no matter how you looked at it.

I know that many, if not most of the TABs online were written by beginners but some of these are really bad.

So... I've had to sit and work out many of my own tabs now and I know its helped my ear. Actually, I'm at the point where I really recommend you do this on your own. Figuring out your own TABs is a great exercise and the songs I've done it with I can play so much better than the others.

I know Dennis recently had this same thing happen.

So, how many of you are ready to write your own TABs?

Andy,

Funny you should bring this up. I'm working on a song now that I'm sure we all know and love (Beatles Song) but it's way off the beat'n path. So I went out and looked at TABs for this and to tell you the truth I couldn't find one that I'm even close to being happy with. So I know the general chords and went to YouTube and watched a few folks to get an idea as to how I wanted to play it. Kind of a combination of many. So with my brain full at the moment I need to write this down. Now short of going out and buying a TAB program I'm stuck handwriting it. So the long answer to your quesiton is that I beleive I can do it but I'm just looking for the "right" way to do it.


Markm

The concept of creating my own tabs seems waaaay off for me. I can barely read it, let alone create my own. My sense is that with some work, I and others who are uncomfortable with it could (and should) learn to be more facile with TAB. I don't know much about GuitarPro. Would GuitarPro be useful as a teaching tool? I will check out the demo (I believe someone indicated in a previous post that a demo exists), but I'd thought I'd ask anyway.

Hi Jay, beeing a strong advocate of Guitar Pro, I suggest that you download the demo (full software good for 15 days). Once you get around it, you will find it is a fantastic tool. I have not created new tabs but I have entered some tabs of songs in Guitar Pro and just have helped me understanding the standard notation as it writes it automatically when you enter the tabs. If you make a mistake and the bar is not filled as per the time signature, it turns red letting you know that you have to make a correction.It is certainly worth the try.

I have Mother Goose as a Guitar Pro file. I could send it to you to try.

Marc

Thanks for the tip. I'll do that next week when I return home.

Jay

I downloaded the demo over Christmas and used it a fair bit. One of it's big advantages is that it allows you to play back GP TAB that you've downloaded, so you get an instant check on how accurate the TAB is. I found a TAB for Little Melissa that I was keen to work on, but on play back it was awful - so I saved myself some time. Transcribing songs is not easy as it does require knowledge of some musical theory but the demo is worth having a look at. I am still undecided about buying.

r

reiver wrote:

One of it's big advantages is that it allows you to play back GP TAB that you've downloaded, so you get an instant check on how accurate the TAB is. I found a TAB for Little Melissa that I was keen to work on, but on play back it was awful - so I saved myself some time. Transcribing songs is not easy as it does require knowledge of some musical theory but the demo is worth having a look at. I am still undecided about buying.

r

I love that feature too. Has really helped weed out a bunch of poor TAB....

I have the full version, and like it very much. I still have troubles with some of the tools and how to use them, but there is a group here at the site that has been very helpful when I have questions.

Transcription and writing out TAB can be very difficult for some (myself included), but I find it to be fun and very helpful in learning the fretboard and actually expanding my theory knowledge.

MJ

NOt sure if its changed or not but the old free trial Guitar Pro was not the Full version, it originally didn't come with the RSE (Real Sound Engine), this feature in the full version is brilliant replicating as close as possible the actual sound of the instrument you transcribe, it even differentiates between les Pauls and Strats, and it has an array of Amps to pick from and effects to add in. It also has a section where you can replicate many famous guitarists. AS for Tabbing yourself I've done a fair bit over the years without extensive standard notation knowledge or music theory. Some of my original TABS are rubbish, but as you use it more you do improve, its also very useful if you find a GPro TAB and its not quite correct you can play around with it to get it right, I've done that a lot.