tabs

irish_boy90

am a starter guitarist trying to learn a few songs atm.
one thing that is really annoying me is finding an accurate tab.
anyone know a good site for them.

i dont mean one like *snip* where there are 9 versions and each one is diffrent (and sound wrong at parts so you have to cut and add from diffrent tabs to get it right)

Giblet

Unfortunately, Tabs are on dodgy legal ground so you won't get links here. Which sucks really.

irish_boy90

really? o so how would i go about learning the legal way? (my guess is you don't)

Nevyn

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/29/guitar_sites_under_fire/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/technology/21ecom.html?ex=1187755200&en=c12c81b78fe0bd30&ei=5070

http://www.weeklygripe.co.uk/a168.asp

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/21/business/ecom.php


You are going to have to buy a book and pay the publishing costs.

Karl Hungus

irish_boy90 wrote:

really? o so how would i go about learning the legal way? (my guess is you don't)

Buy tab books I guess.

Check the relevant band websites aswell, sometimes they'll actually have published tabs themselves. I know there was some Metal band who actually printed guitar tabs in the booklet that came with the CD, because they were unhappy with the legal crap reguarding tabs.

Either that, or try play by ear. Infact, trying to play by ear is one of the best things you can do, you'll develop a better ear for music that way.

senordingdong

Terrible shame really.
I remember when I was learning and tab sites were a huge part of it for myself and every other guitarist I know.

irish_boy90

right. guess i might have to buy a few books.
but for the short time i will stick to trying to figure out tabs

Karl Hungus

The ability to play by ear is a very valuable skill, so definetly try it. It'll also mean that when you want to learn a song, you won't have to rely on whether or not someone else has tabbed it out already.

Malice

I've recently had to tab out a few things by ear myself and I have found a couple of tools to be incredibly useful. First of all I sample the riff that I'm trying to tab out using Audacity. This allows me to loop the riff while I plonk about on the guitar trying to work out the notes involved.
Once I have the riff worked out on the guitar I then create the tab in Guitar Pro. This is a very useful piece of software. It allows you to create separate tracks for guitar, bass and drums. It plays back what you write down so you can compare it to the original to ensure you're right and probably most useful of all it generates proper sheet music automatically so you can hand the printed output to a keyboard player and they should automatically be able to accompany you!
Audacity is open source and Guitar Pro costs €60. It has a demo version available so you can check it out to make your own decision on it.
To backup what Karl says, training your ear is very important and creating your own tabs will help enormously. It'll be slow going initially but well worth it in the end.

irish_boy90

since i have been playing for 2 months i am aiming to try and get at least 2-3 songs learned before i try any like playing by ear.
sure does sound alot easier in the end

Malice

irish_boy90 wrote:

since i have been playing for 2 months i am aiming to try and get at least 2-3 songs learned before i try any like playing by ear.
sure does sound alot easier in the end

What kinds of songs are you starting with? Depending on the band or artist it can be easier or harder to work out how to play the song.

irish_boy90

ehh started with a bit of offspring. starting metallica now. might learn a few more things on stardard

Creamy Goodness

if you're a fan of greenday start learning some of them as well, although they ain't exactly challenging as in they basically use just one chord shape, it will make you look cool

Malice

irish_boy90 wrote:

ehh started with a bit of offspring. starting metallica now. might learn a few more things on stardard

Offspring to Metallica is quite a jump in difficulty! Having said that if you can plough through songs like "The Kids Aren't Alright", "Self Esteem", "Pretty Fly" and "Gone Away" then you should be fine. They are all mostly based around power chords. Just watch your timing as you change chords!