Written by Howard Wright
\nHoward.Wright@ed.ac.uk
\nLast update : 26th May 1998 <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This guide was originally written by Howard Wright. The reason I posted it on this site is because it’s a great resource, but it can be hard to find on the net. It was used with permission. Thanks Howard!
\n– Tommy Merry<\/p><\/blockquote>\nCONTENTS
\n———–<\/p>\n1.0 What is TAB <\/p>\n
1.1 What TAB will tell you<\/p>\n
1.2 What TAB won’t tell you.<\/p>\n
Reading Tab :
\n————–<\/p>\n2.0 TAB notation – The Basics<\/p>\n
2.1 Other symbols used in TAB<\/p>\n
2.2 Hammer ons and pull offs<\/p>\n
2.3 Bends<\/p>\n
2.4 Slides<\/p>\n
2.5 Note length information<\/p>\n
Writing Tab :
\n————-<\/p>\n3.0 Getting Started<\/p>\n
3.1 To Tab or not to tab<\/p>\n
3.2 Things to do when writing TAB<\/p>\n
3.3 Things to avoid<\/p>\n
———————————————————-<\/p>\n
*****************************
\n*** 1.0 WHAT IS TAB ***
\n*****************************<\/p>\nTAB or tablature is a method of writing down music played
\non guitar or bass. Instead of using symbols like in standard
\nmusical notation, it uses ordinary ASCII characters and numbers,
\nmaking it ideal for places like the internet where anybody with
\nany computer can link up, copy a TAB file, and read it.<\/p>\n****************************************
\n*** 1.1 WHAT TAB WILL TELL YOU ***
\n****************************************<\/p>\nTAB will tell you what notes to play – it will tell you which
\nstring to hit and which fret to fret it at.<\/p>\nTAB will tell you where hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides,
\nharmonics and vibrato are used. <\/p>\nTAB will tell you what tuning the piece is in. If this isn’t
\ngiven explicitly, assume normal tuning. TAB should also give
\nyou information on use of capos etc.<\/p>\nTAB will give you an indication of the ryhthm of the piece –
\ni.e it will tell you which are the long notes and which are
\nthe short notes. <\/p>\nHowever it will not tell you exactly how long or how short
\nthey are.<\/p>\nThis leads me on to …<\/p>\n
******************************************
\n*** 1.2 WHAT TAB WILL NOT TELL YOU ***
\n******************************************<\/p>\nTAB will (usually) not tell you the note lengths of the notes
\n– so in most cases you will *have* to listen to the song
\nyourself, with the TAB in front of you to work out the ryhthm
\nof the notes.<\/p>\nTAB will not tell you which fingers you use to fret which
\nnote.<\/p>\nTAB will (usually) not tell you anything about picking and
\nstrumming – you will have to decide for yourself where to use
\nupstrokes\/downstrokes and so on.<\/p>\n*******************************************
\n*** 2.0 TAB NOTATION – THE BASICS ***
\n*******************************************<\/p>\nTAB is simple to read, and should be simple to write if you
\nwant to submit a song you have worked out yourself. The
\nidea is this :<\/p>\nYou start out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These
\ncorrespond to the strings of the instrument. The top line
\nis the highest pitch string, and the bottom line is the
\nlowest pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB with the
\nstring names at the left.<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nNumbers are written on the lines to show you where to fret the
\nstring with the left hand. If a zero appears , this means play
\nthe open string. Like standard musical notation, you read from
\nleft to right to find out what order to play the notes. The
\nfollowing piece of TAB would mean play the sequence of notes
\n(E F F# G G# A) on the bottom E string by moving up a fret at a
\ntime, starting with the open string.<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—0–1–2–3–4–5———————————————<\/p>\nOK so far ?<\/p>\n
Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two or more
\nnotes are to be played together, they are written on top of one
\nanother, again just like standard notation.<\/p>\nIn the next example we have a G bar chord.<\/p>\n
E—-3————————————————————
\nB—-3————————————————————
\nG—-4————————————————————
\nD—-5————————————————————
\nA—-5————————————————————
\nE—-3————————————————————<\/p>\nSo this means play all these notes together as a chord.<\/p>\n
You might see the same chord written like this :<\/p>\n
E——–3——————————————————–
\nB——-3———————————————————
\nG——4———————————————————-
\nD—–5———————————————————–
\nA—-5————————————————————
\nE—3————————————————————-<\/p>\nWhich would mean strum the same shape starting at the bottom
\nstring, so that each string is hit slightly later than the last
\nstring, but all notes will ring together. Below is am example of
\nthe same shape again, but now the gaps between the notes are
\nbigger – so you would probably pick the strings separately instead
\nof slowly strumming the shape.<\/p>\nE——————3———————————————-
\nB—————3—–3——————————————–
\nG————4———–4—————————————–
\nD———5—————–5————————————–
\nA——5———————–5———————————-
\nE—3—————————–3——————————–<\/p>\nYou might ask – How do I know how fast or slow to play this ?
\n Are all the notes supposed to be the same length ?<\/p>\nThis is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often TAB
\nwill *not* give you any information on the note lengths. It is
\nusually left up to you to listen to the song to pick up the
\nrhythm.<\/p>\nHowever – don’t despair. TAB should give you some indications of
\ntiming. In the example above all the notes are evenly spaced
\nso you can reasonably assume that the notes are the same length
\n(maybe all eighth notes or quavers) but this may not always be
\ntrue – it depends on who wrote the TAB.<\/p>\nAs a general rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB should tell
\nyou which notes are the long ones, and which are the short and fast
\nones, but obviously it won’t tell you if a note is a triplet or
\nanything like that. Again, this will depend strongly on the
\nperson who wrote the TAB.<\/p>\nAs an example, here are the first few notes of the American
\nNational Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly that the
\ndifferent spacing corresponds to the different note lengths.<\/p>\nE———————–0——–4–2-0————————–
\nB—0————–0———————————0———–
\nG——1——1—————————-1—-3—————-
\nD——–2——————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nObviously it will be a lot easier to play the TAB for a song you
\nknow well than for a song you’ve never heard of because you will
\nalready be familiar with the ryhthms of the familiar song.<\/p>\n*****************************************
\n*** 2.1 OTHER SYMBOLS USED IN TAB ***
\n*****************************************<\/p>\nSo far I’ve looked at what notes to play : which string to hit, and
\nwhere to fret it. I’ve mentioned how to get an idea of note lengths
\nby looking at the spaces between notes on the TAB, but this can only
\nbe a rough guide. You will always have to check with the original
\ntrack to work out details of the rhythm.<\/p>\nA lot of other imprtant information can be included in a piece of TAB.
\nThis includes hammer-ons, pull offs, slides, bends, vibrato and so on.<\/p>\nThe standard practice is to write extra letters or symbols between
\nnotes to indicate how to play them. Here are the letters\/symbols most
\noften used :<\/p>\nh – hammer on
\n p – pull off
\n b – bend string up
\n r – release bend
\n \/ – slide up
\n \\ – slide down
\n v – vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
\n t – right hand tap
\n x – play ‘note’ with heavy damping<\/p>\nFor slides, s is sometimes used to indicate either an up or down slide.
\nSymbols for harmonics are explained below in Section 3.2<\/p>\nThat last one, the x, is used to get a choppy, percussive sound.
\nYou usually use your fretting hand to lightly damp the strings so
\nthat when you pick the note it sounds dead.<\/p>\nNote that the use of ‘x’ is *totally* different from the use of
\nan ‘x’ when giving chord shapes.<\/p>\nFor example if you wrote the chord of D, you would see :<\/p>\n
EADGBE
\n xx0232<\/p>\nwhere the ‘x’s mean do not play this string.<\/p>\n
In tab it is implicitly assumed that a string is not played if it is
\nnot marked. So the same chord in TAB would be :<\/p>\nE—–2———————————————————–
\nB—–3———————————————————–
\nG—–2———————————————————–
\nD—–0———————————————————–
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nwith no ‘x’. The x is is only used in TAB to represent a heavily
\nmuted string which is picked\/strummed to give a percussive sound.<\/p>\nThere are a number of other symbols for things like whammy bar bends,
\npick scrapes and so on. There seems to be no particular standard
\nway of writing these – details should be given in the TAB to explain
\nwhat the symbols mean.<\/p>\nBass TAB will probably need a few extra symbols to cope with the
\ndifferent techniques used in bass playing – for example slapping
\nand ‘popping’ the string with thumb or middle finger.
\nYou could use ‘s’ for slap and ‘p’ for pop as long as you wrote
\nthem *underneath* the lines of tab to distinguish them from slide
\nand pull off which would be written *on* the lines of tab.<\/p>\n****************************************
\n*** 2.2 HAMMER ONS AND PULL OFFS ***
\n****************************************<\/p>\nWith hammer-ons and pull-offs you might find things like these :<\/p>\n
E—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA———5h7———–5h7————————————–
\nE—0–0———-0–0——————————————-<\/p>\nwhich would mean play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the
\n5th fret and hammer on to the 7th fret.<\/p>\nPull offs look very similar :<\/p>\n
E—-3p0————————————————————
\nB———3p0——————————————————-
\nG————–2p0————————————————–
\nD——————-2———————————————
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nHere we have a descending blues scale using pull-offs to the open
\nstrings. For each pull off you only pick the first note of the pair
\nwith the right hand – so in this example you would pick all the
\nnotes on the 3rd and 2nd frets, and the open strings would be
\nsounded by pulling off.<\/p>\nBecause you give the string an extra bit of energy when you hammer
\non and pull off, you only need to hit the first note with the picking
\nhand. You could even have a long string of hammer-ons and pull-offs
\nlike this :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2—————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nIn this case you only pick the first note.<\/p>\n
Note – you might see other symbols used to mean hammer on or pull off,
\nfor
\nexample ^ can be use to mean hammer-on and pull-off.<\/p>\ne.g :<\/p>\n
G—2^4^2—-<\/p>\n
It would make things easier if everyone used the same symbols, so
\nunless you have a strong objection to ‘h’ and `p` please use those.
\nIn any case, for any tab you send you should always explain what your
\nsymbols mean so if you use anything ‘unconventional’ make sure you
\nexplain what it means.<\/p>\n**********************
\n*** 2.3 BENDS ***
\n**********************<\/p>\nWhen bends are involved you need to know how much to bend the note
\nup. This is indicated by writing a number after the ‘b’.
\nFor example, if you see this :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB——7b9——————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nit means strike the B string at the 7th fret, then bend the note up
\ntwo semitones (one whole step) so that it sounds the same pitch as
\na note fretted at the 9th fret would do. (Sometimes the bend is
\nwritten with the second part in brackets, like this —7b(9)— )<\/p>\nSomething like this :<\/p>\n
E—————————————————————-
\nB——7b9–9r7————————————————–
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nmeans play the note at the 7th fret, bend up two semitones, strike the
\nnote again whilst it is still bent, then release the bend so that the
\nnote has it’s normal pitch. <\/p>\nSometimes a pre-bend is used – this is where the string is bent up
\n*before* the note is struck. After striking the note, the bend is
\nreleased. Pre-bends are usually written like this:<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB——(7)b9r7—————————————————
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nThis means: fret the note at the 7th fret and bend the string up two
\nsemitones (without actually playing the note). Now strike the string
\nand release the bend.<\/p>\nYou sometimes get a note which is bent up only a quarter of a tone or
\nso. In this case it would look a bit strange to write :<\/p>\nB——–7b7.5——–<\/p>\n
if you have to bend it up half a fret’s worth.
\nInstead it’s written as :<\/p>\nbend up 1\/4 tone
\nE—————————————————————-
\nB——7b——————————————————–
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nwith instructions on how much to bend written above the note.<\/p>\n
**********************
\n*** 2.4 SLIDES ***
\n**********************<\/p>\nThe most common symbols used for slides are \/ for a slide
\nup and \\ for a slide down.<\/p>\nYou might also see ‘s’ used to mean slide.<\/p>\n
You don’t always need separate symbols for ‘up’ and ‘down’ slides
\nsince a line of TAB reading :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB——7\/9——————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nis clearly a slide *up* from 7th to 9th fret. However you might
\nalso see things like these :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB——\/7-9-7\\—————————————————
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nwhere the exact start or finish of a slide is not given. Here you
\nhave to know whether you’re sliding up or down. In these cases use
\nyour judgement to choose the starting or finishing fret. The effect
\nusually desired is to have a note ‘swooping in’ from a lower pitch
\nor dropping suddenly in pitch as the note fades.<\/p>\nYou could have a whole series of slides running together, like this<\/p>\n
E—————————————————————-
\nB——7\/9\/11\\9\\7\\6\\7——————————————–
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nwhich would mean you only strike the first note with the pick using
\nthe sustain to produce the other notes.<\/p>\n***************************************
\n*** 2.5 NOTE LENGTH INFORMATION ***
\n***************************************<\/p>\nOccasionally you will find TAB which includes information on all
\nof the note lengths. There seems to be no particular ‘standard’
\nway of doing this, but it usually involves a line of letters or
\nsymbols above the TAB.<\/p>\nSee below (Section 3.2 part 6) for more details.<\/p>\n
If the explanation of the timing symbols is not given in the TAB
\nthen you’ve got a problem !
\nIn this case a quick email to the author to ask for enlightenment
\nis the only way forward.<\/p>\n*********************************************
\n*** 3.0 WRITING TAB – GETTING STARTED ***
\n*********************************************<\/p>\nPerhaps one of the most important things to do before you start
\ntyping up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly how much information
\nto include in it. The trick is to convey the right amount of
\ninformation in a clear, easily readable form.<\/p>\nQuestions you can ask yourself are :<\/p>\n
– Is the song played using mostly chords ?<\/p>\n
– Are there a number of riffs which appear throughout the song ?<\/p>\n
– Is there a clear verse\/chorus\/middle bit structure ?<\/p>\n
By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce a clearly
\nstructured TAB which will not only be easier for others to read, but
\nalso easier for you to type in.<\/p>\nThere are also choices to be made when deciding what package to use
\nwhen typing the TAB in. All you really need is a simple text editor,
\nhowever a mouse-driven editor will probably make things easier.<\/p>\nWhen you start typing in it saves time if you draw out one blank
\nstave and then make 8 or 10 copies of these before you start typing in
\nthe fret numbers etc. <\/p>\nIf you use a more complicated package like Microsoft Word then
\nmake sure that the characters you use are all the same length.
\nIf an ‘m’ character is wider than an ‘i’ character then your TAB
\nis going to look very strange on another text editor. Choose a font
\nwhere all charcters get the same width – Courier usually does the
\njob.<\/p>\nThere are also a number of programs available by ftp which were
\nwritten specifically to make TAB writing easier. Details of these
\nprograms including ftp addresses are in the ‘TABBING MADE EASY’
\nFAQ by John Kean, along with other useful hints for writing TAB.
\nYou can obtain this FAQ from OLGA (www.olga.net\\software.html).<\/p>\n*************************************
\n*** 3.1 TO TAB OR NOT TO TAB ***
\n*************************************<\/p>\nIf a song can be described well with just chords, then it will be
\na lot easier to read and write if you just use the chord shapes,
\nrather than tab out the chords.<\/p>\nBUT – if you do just send in the chords it makes things *much*
\nclearer if you give the chord shapes as well.
\nFor example, if you wanted to send in Led Zeps ‘Gallows Pole’
\nyou could write:<\/p>\nIntro : A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A<\/p>\n
Verse : A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A
\n A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A G D
\n A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A A7 G\/A A7 Am7 Dadd4\/A<\/p>\n(You should really have the words underneath as well, but I can’t
\nremember them at the moment !)<\/p>\nNow this is OK, but how many people actually know how to play Dadd4\/A
\noff the top of their heads ?<\/p>\nWhat you need to do is include some chord shapes like this :<\/p>\n
EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
\nx02020 x02010 x04035 320033 xx0232 x0000x <\/p>\nA7 Am7 Dadd4\/A G D G\/A<\/p>\n
To TAB out these chords will take a lot longer to type in, and
\nwill probably take people a lot longer to read and understand.
\nWhere a song is based around chords like this, it makes things
\nmuch easier if you just give chord shapes and names, then show
\nwhere the chords go in relation to the words.<\/p>\n**********************************************
\n*** 3.2 THINGS TO DO WHEN WRITING TABS ***
\n**********************************************<\/p>\nOne of the most important considerations when typing in TAB is to make
\nit clear and easily readable.<\/p>\nThere are a few simple things you can do to make things work.<\/p>\n
— 1 — Use spaces !<\/p>\n
It’s amazing the difference it can make if you insert a few blank
\nlines in the right place. If you are used to writing the words above
\nor below the lines of TAB make sure you leave a few lines free so that
\nit’s clear whether the words belong to the line of TAB above or below.
\nSpace out the individual lines of TAB and the whole thing will be a
\nlot easier for others to understand.<\/p>\n— 2 — Define the symbols you use. <\/p>\n
It would make everybody’s life a lot easier if everyone used the same
\nsymbols for hammer ons, bends etc.<\/p>\nBUT – if you are convinced that your particular way of writing bends
\nand slides makes much more sense than anyone else’s, that’s OK as
\nlong as you tell everybody what system you use. It makes very good
\nsense to start your TAB file with a list of symbols used.<\/p>\nThe list of most commonly used symbols is below :<\/p>\n
h – hammer on
\n p – pull off
\n b – bend string up
\n r – release bend
\n \/ – slide up
\n \\ – slide down
\n v – vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
\n t – tap (with strumming hand)
\n x – muted, struck string<\/p>\nWhen you get on to harmonics , you might see a variety of symbols
\nused. Even in standard music notation, an accepted way of writing
\nnatural and artificial harmonics has neverbeen agreed !
\nHowever, using brackets is the standard way of writing harmonics,
\nso a natural harmonic at the 12th fret would be :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE——<12>——————————————————<\/p>\nNormal brackets () are sometimes used for grace notes or optional
\nnotes so ‘pointy’ brackets <> are the usual choice for harmonics.
\nBecause there are no standards (in written music or tablature) to
\ndistinguish between natural and artificial harmonics, some confusion
\nsometimes arises. If you are writing out some tab with harmonics, it’s
\nbest to add a note to say whether they are natural harmonics (most
\ncommonly at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets) or artificial (pinched)
\nharmonics. With artificial harmonics, you have to fret a note with
\nthe left hand (say at the 2nd fret) and pinch the harmonic an octave
\nabove (at the 14th fret) so you should make it clear whether the
\nnumber you write in the tab is the fretted or pinched note. It is
\nmore common to tab out the pinched notes, so if you see tab like this :<\/p>\nE—————————————————————-
\nB—————————————————————-
\nG—————————————————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE——<14>—<16>—<17>—<16>—<14>——————————<\/p>\nIt will usually mean fret notes at the 2nd, 4th and 5th frets, and
\nplay the artificial harmonics at the frets shown in the tab.<\/p>\n— 3 — Label bits of the TAB<\/p>\n
It makes things a lot easier if you can see where the ‘verse’ and
\n‘chorus’ parts of a song are, so put a few labels in certain places
\nto guide people through it.<\/p>\nMany songs will have clear ‘verse’ and ‘chorus’ structures – so you
\ncan tab out the riffs\/chords or whatever for these just once, and
\nthen indicate where these are repeated. Or there maybe a couple of
\nimportant riffs which are used – so TAB these out and label them
\n‘Riff One’ and ‘Riff Two’ – then when they come up later in the song
\nyou can just say ‘repeat Riff One four times’ instead of tabbing
\nthe whole thing again.<\/p>\nAs long as it’s clear which bits of TAB go with which label, you
\nwill save yourself time this way as well as making it easier to
\nread for others.<\/p>\n— 4 — Include Artist\/album<\/p>\n
It’s useful for others to know where to find the original song,
\nso at the beginning of each TAB include some information on
\nthe artists who recorded the original, and the album on which
\nthe song can be found.<\/p>\n— 5 — General comments<\/p>\n
It’s also useful to include a few lines at the beginning of the
\nTAB to explain the style of the song, or to point out important
\nfeatures such as alternative tunings, use of capos etc.<\/p>\nA few words along the lines of “use a staccato, funky kind
\nof strumming style for the chords, then change to a sustained
\nfeel for the lead line” will help people to get an idea of
\nhow to approach the playing style.<\/p>\nInformation on the type of guitar (electric\/acoustic,
\n6 string\/12 string) and effects used would be useful.<\/p>\nOne point on the use of capos and alternative tunings :<\/p>\n
It’s a lot easier for people to understand chord names etc if
\nthey are written as though played *without* a capo.
\nFor example, if you have a D shape chord played with a capo at
\nthe 2nd fret you should write it as D major even though you will
\nactually be fretting notes at the 4th and 5th frets.<\/p>\nAlso – for TAB using a capo, it’s standard practice to write the
\nnumbers of the frets *relative* to the position of the capo.
\nSo again, if you had a D major chord with a capo at the 2nd fret
\nthe TAB would be :<\/p>\nE—-2———————————————————–
\nB—-3———————————————————–
\nG—-2———————————————————–
\nD—-0———————————————————–
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\neven though you actually fret the notes at the 4th and 5th frets.<\/p>\n
It’s similar with TAB for guitars tuned a semitone or tone
\nlower than usual. If a song should be played with the guitar
\ntuned to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and it has this chord :<\/p>\nEb—–0——————————————————–
\nBb—–0——————————————————–
\nGb—–1——————————————————–
\nDb—–2——————————————————–
\nAb—–2——————————————————–
\nEb—–0——————————————————–<\/p>\nit makes things a lot easier to understand if the you call the chord
\n‘E’ rather than Eb.<\/p>\nThat way, if you decide to play in standard tuning, you don’t get
\nconfused.<\/p>\n— 6 — Timing information<\/p>\n
You may want to get really serious and include details
\ngiving the precise rhythm of the piece. This will involve
\na lot more typing, but it means all the information
\nnecessary to play the piece is given explicitly.<\/p>\nOne way to approach this is to write a line of dashes
\ninterspersed with numbers which count the beats.
\nSo in 4-4 time, you would have :<\/p>\n1—2—3—4—1—2—3—4— etc<\/p>\n
Under this you can write a line of d’s and u’s to represent
\ndown and upstrokes.
\nHere is a simple example where the rhythm is 2 crotchets
\n(quarter notes) followed by 4 quavers (8th notes)<\/p>\n1—2—3—4—1—2—3—4— etc
\nd—d—d-u-d-u-d—d—d-u-d-u-<\/p>\nYou could expand on this to use upper and lower case letters
\nto indicate accents and so on.
\nIf you use this method make sure that you clearly separate the
\n2 lines of rhythm information from the 6 lines of TAB !!!<\/p>\nOne other way of including timing information is to use one
\nletter\/symbol for each note type.<\/p>\nFor example use e for 8th note (quaver), s for 16th note (semi-
\nquaver) and so on. The letters you use may well differ depending
\non whether you’re used to the american system of quarter notes,
\n8th notes etc or the english system of crotchets and quavers ,
\nbut the method is the same.<\/p>\n(If you’re not sure of the ‘translations’ here they are :<\/p>\n
whole note – semibreve
\nhalf note – minim
\nquarter note – crotchet
\n8th note – quaver
\n16th note – semiquaver
\n32nd note – demisemiquaver
\n64th note – hemidemisemiquaver )<\/p>\nSimply write the letters above the corresponding note in the
\nTAB. (Make sure you define which letters\/symbols you use)<\/p>\nHere’s an example of what this looks like :<\/p>\n
This is the opening riff from the Beatles’ Ticket To Ride<\/p>\n
q e e t t t q e e t t t <\/p>\n
E——–0———–0——–0———–0———————-
\nB———–2—–0————–2—–0————————-
\nG—2———-2———-2———2—————————-
\nD—————————————————————-
\nA—————————————————————-
\nE—————————————————————-<\/p>\nHere I’ve used q for quarter note, e for 8th note
\nand t for triplet quarter note.<\/p>\nIf you want to send in a TAB with rhythm information like this
\nthen it’s *essential* to explain the system you use. I’ve seen
\na lot of different systems of letters and numbers of varying
\ndegrees of simplicity and readability. Whichever you choose to
\nuse, you’ll have to explain all your symbols to make sure others
\ncan work out what the hell you’re on about.<\/p>\nIf you want to give a few clues as to the rhythm of the TAB, but
\ndon’t want to get too involved, use of bar lines is an effective
\nway of conveying timing information.<\/p>\nSimply insert a vertical line of |’s to indicate the end of a
\nbar. So using the national anthem example I had before, with bar
\nlines it looks like this :<\/p>\nE——–|—————|0——–4–2-|0————–|——–
\nB—0—-|———-0—-|————–|—————|0——-
\nG——1-|—–1———|————–|—–1—-3—-|——–
\nD——–|2————–|————–|—————|——–
\nA——–|—————|————–|—————|——–
\nE——–|—————|————–|—————|——–<\/p>\n— 7 — Lyrics<\/p>\n
It’s a lot easier to follow a piece of TAB when you’ve got at least
\nsome of the lyrics to follow, and you can match up the notes\/riffs
\nin the TAB to the lyrics.<\/p>\nTry to include lyrics for at least the first verse and chorus. If
\nyou’re not sure of the words you can go to www.lyrics.ch – there is
\na large collection of song lyrics held there.<\/p>\nFailing that a request to the newsgroups along the lines of<\/p>\n
” Please mail me the lyrics to such and such so that I can make
\na proper job of the TAB I’m working on”<\/p>\nwill usually get a sympathetic response.<\/p>\n
As a final note on writing TAB I should say that whenever you post
\nto the newsgroups ALWAYS cross post to both guitar groups, and also
\nmail a copy to guitar@nevada.edu so that it can be included in OLGA.<\/p>\nFor more information on posting to the guitar newsgroups and OLGA
\nsee the other FAQs regularly posted to the guitar newsgroups.<\/p>\n********************************
\n*** 3.3 THINGS TO AVOID ***
\n********************************<\/p>\n— 1 — Tab Wraparound<\/p>\n
One of the most common problems in writing TAB is text wraparound.
\nThis makes the TAB almost impossible to read but is very easily
\navoided.<\/p>\nThe problem occurs when you write a line of TAB which is maybe 80
\nor 90 characters long. For a lot of people this is too wide for
\ntheir screen, so what should be a single line of tab ends up being
\nsplit onto two lines.<\/p>\nAll you have to do is be careful when you type in TAB so that you
\nthe maximum width of line is say 60 characters.<\/p>\nI’ve tried to do that in this FAQ so that the maximum width is about<\/p>\n
<<<---------------------------------------------------->>><\/p>\n
this much. If you limit your TABs in the same way, you should be OK.<\/p>\n
Of course, if TAB *does* get wrapped around the author might not
\nrealise because it looked fine on his\/her screen when they wrote it.
\nIt might be worth letting them know of the problem, so they can be
\ncareful in the future.<\/p>\n(This includes me ! If parts of this FAQ are too wide for your screen,
\nplease let me know !)<\/p>\n— 2 — Very squashed TAB<\/p>\n
It’s amazing how easy it is to ruin an otherwise good piece of TAB
\nby not spacing it out so that the end result is a mass of cramped TAB,
\nexplanations, labels etc.<\/p>\nWhen you finish typing up, go back through the TAB and see if you can
\ninsert a few blank lines here and there to separate verse from chorus
\nor whatever. It really does make it a lot easier for others to read.<\/p>\nIt might also be worth considering if you’ve included too much detail
\nin the TAB. Usually this will not be the case, but I have seen a few
\nTABs which go into great details, but are extremely off-putting to
\ntry to read because of the sheer quantity of information.<\/p>\n— 3 — Unnecessary repetition<\/p>\n
If a line of TAB or a particular riff is repeated a number of times
\nthen save yourself the effort, TAB it once. <\/p>\nIt’s also easier to read like this.<\/p>\n
That’s all I *think* you need to know about reading and writing TAB.
\nIf there’s anything important you think I’ve left out or if there
\nare bits of the FAQ which you can’t understand then let me know.<\/p>\nYou can contact the author of this guide at: Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Howard Wright Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk Last update : 26th May 1998 This guide was originally written by Howard Wright. The reason I posted it on this site is because it’s a great resource, but it can be hard to find on the net. It was used with permission. Thanks Howard! – Tommy Merry CONTENTS ———– 1.0 What is TAB…<\/p>\n