From: whale@leland.Stanford.EDU (Stephen Schmidt)
Subject: Re: help with notation
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Distribution: World 
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 05:45:28 GMT

In article <BxJ6oy.1HD@ccu.umanitoba.ca> umrobe57@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Ken A.
Robrge) writes:
>  Hello, I was wondering if someone could explain to me how to read those
>chord notations like the ones someone put for I believe it was a KING's X
>tune or something like that.

Well, this isn't quite the right thing, but what follows is the section on
How To Read TAB from the alt.guitar.bass FAQ, of which I am the maintainer.
It's oriented for bass, but since some of us _do_ play chords on our
four-stringers, there is an example of how to read chords in TAB.

If some brave soul wants to volunteer to be the FAQ maintainer for this
group, they are welcome to use this post as the basis for the How to Read
TAB question which should SURELY be the most FAQ on this group...

-----

Bass tabulature, or TAB for short, is a simple method for writing bass
music. There are several different versions of tabulature, but the
following features are common to most of them.
	(guitar tab is pretty darn similar)

Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these are usually
	(guitar tab on six-line staves)
written using dashed characters. Each space corresponds to one string on the
bass: the lowest space corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A
string, the next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on
a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the corresponding
string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third fret on the E string,
one would write:

G------------------------------------
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E----3-------------------------------

	(for guitar, add the B and E strings)

Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an
ascending G major scale might be written:

G------------------------------------
D-------------------2--4--5----------
A----------2--3--5-------------------
E----3--5----------------------------

Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:

G-------------------------0----------
D----------------0--2--4-------------
A-------0--2--3----------------------
E----3-------------------------------

Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar. Thus
one might write a simple A major chord as:

G-----9------------------------------
D-----11-----------------------------
A-----0------------------------------
E------------------------------------

which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the 11th
fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G string.

Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is done by
writing a single character after the note being fingered. The most common of
these are:
   h - hammer-on from previous note
   p - pull off from previous note
   \ - slide up to note
   b - bend note
   S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
   P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
   t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
   H - harmonic

	(probably others are common for guitar as well)

Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:

G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
D------------------------3b----------
A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
E------------------------------------

A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive
sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a line
instead of a number:

	(People don't do this on guitar: instead, they strum the guitar
	 while muting all 6 strings. Can note it the same way, I guess.)

G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
E------------------------------------

When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger should
be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated by writing a
number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring
finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:
 
G---------5--7--5--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---0--5-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
    1  1     3  

It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each note
a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth note, e=eighth
note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It is possible to add
dots to this system as is done with normal notes though it is not common.
In addition, vertical bars are usually used to indicate measure breaks.
TAB noted this way might look like this:

    w   q  s  s  e  q  h   q. e  e  e  s  s  e   h
G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
E-----|------------------|---------------------|----


Here is an example of TAB use: the song "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith,
transcribed by Steve Schmidt.

(Sorry, I don't know the guitar part... but it's similar, maybe the same
thing?)

Sweet Emotion has 3 bass riffs, each one a measure long. It's not hard to 
figure out which goes where, but I've added a line of lyrics under each
part to get you started.


   e  e  s  s  s  e  e  s  e  s  s  
G-----------------------------------
D-----------------------------------
A--0--0-----------0--0--0--5--3--5h-
E--------3--3--3--------------------

Sweet..........Emotion........
Sweet..........Emotion........


   e  e. e  s  s  s  e  e  e
G------------------------------
D------------------------------
A--5-----------3---------------
E-----5--5--5-----5--3--5--3---

Standing in the front just shaking your ass
Take you backstage you can drink from my glass


   s  s  s  s  e  s  s  e  s  e  e
G-----------------------------------
D-----------------------------------
A--5--3p-0--------------------------
E-----------0--2--0--3--3--0--4--5--

no lyrics over this part

You can probably figure the whole thing out from there.
-- 
Steve Schmidt			<><		   whale@leland.stanford.edu
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist
indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist
conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!