Any questions about tab & chord notation & printed form? Add them here please.

[cameronm]

When it says |A D|, does that always mean 2 beats of A, then two beats of D? Or can that mean 3 of one, 1 of the other?

[Goooner1]

If it's evenly spaced, I'd take it as two beats of each, could be wrong though, but that's how I read it

If on the other hand it was written [A   D] with a gap more to one side, I'd take it as 3 beats of A and one of D, not saying I'm right, but that's how I'd read it.

[justinguitar]

It means 2 beats on each chord as far as I can recall, but in this kind of "rough" notation it could mean 3 beats on one chord and 1 on the next, but your ears will soon tell you if you listen to the song!

... maybe it's on the later in i wanna hold your hand...

[Dancinbaer]

When learning a new song, I burn a CD of that song along with others I may want to learn. (CD's are cheap so I have put one song on a CD though). Then I listen to it over and over and over and over usually while driving in my truck. I have a 30 minute commute to work. I learn to sing along with the track until I know both the lyrics and the melody.

This has a couple benefits when learning to play it on the guitar:
1) The melody is in my head which helps with the strumming pattern and tempo.
2) When the singing changes chords, so does the guitar. This helps solve the issue others have mentioned regarding having the chords above all verses instead of just the first verse. I've learned NOT to rely on where the chord is printed on the page but rather where in the verse the change "fits".

Hope this makes sense and is of some help.
Denny

[Lolive]

Yes, Dancinbaer, I'm using the same way to learn the songs.
Thanks to Youtube, I managed to burn 5 CD ( CD1 = stages 1 & 2, CD2 = stages 3 & 4,...,CD5 = stages 9 & Bonus).
So I listen to them in my car when I go to work.
I also try to play with the record. So these Cd are very useful and I still need your songbook but when I open your book, there is one thing that is missing :

I know the stage but I don't know the number of the song I'm working on.



Maybe something like this could help (just look on the top-left of the picture, I added "BS-108" near the title of the song)



Maybe it is just a very personal need but, sorry, this is the only lack I found !
Your book is just excellent

[scoobie]

Hi,

This question doesn't really fit into any of the listed categories, but this seems the closest.

As part of my training(?) I record the songs from the book as I master them, then work out the melody and add that, then try and work out my own simple solo to play over the top of that.

The trouble is working out the keys of the songs - easier with capo's, but some of them just don't fit into the standard major scale formula.

For example (Sittin On) The Dock of The Bay - at first glance it looks like the key of G, but then A should be a minor, as should B7. It's not C either as then D should be minor as should E.

I can't seem to fit them into any key - chords that should be minor are major and vice versa, from stage 3 onwards.

I realise that I could solo using the chord tones in each case, but I'm not that advanced yet.

Knowing me I'm probably missing something really simple.

Have the majority of the songs been rearranged to a particular key? If yes which one?

If not, how can I work out the key?

Thanks in advance.

[rot]

The book is nice and I like it. There is two things that annoyed me:

Firstly the point of songs being annotated with chord names only partly etc. - this has been discussed in detail here already. I was just a bit frustrated as it is hard for a beginner to get along with the styles of notation common for guitar as they are all lacking information. They assume that you know how the rhythm of the song goes. Or they assume that you will be able to see where to set the beginning of a bar etc..

This is OK somehow as it is a common "problem". Maybe more information at the beginning (for the first songs) and kind of a lesson on how to cope with this "lack" of information would be great. Maybe thats something tat could be covered in a lesson - how to read and then play something like one of the most basic songs in he book (i know there is a lesson on reading tab and so on - but theory is different than practice).  The same is true for riffs btw. I didn't eally understand the notation enoght to be able to do it by the description - to me there is a difference between knowing how notation works and trusting my reading skills to play along with it. This is not really beginner stuff but as it is part of the beginners course somehow a lesson would be good.

The second thing I am missing is much more simple. I would have liked to have an index of all Chords (or  even more a page showing all chord shapes used and the page numrbers where they are explained) at the end of the book. An overview or index of all rhythm patterns would also be great. As I am not reading the thing from start to end and keep forgetting things like the shapes of d7 chords that would have been great.

[MHeptonstall]

Hi,  

I'm trying to understand the tab notation in the book, but it appears different to what I'm used to seeing.   Can someone try and explain it to me, or is there a link to a tutorial for this style of tab?

To try and clarify my question....usually the horizontal lines are the strings...if this is the case, what are the numbers for?

Thanks,

Mark

[TB-AV]

There is very littler TAB in the book. the TAB that does exist is clearly explained with beats and fingers.


Maybe what you are talking about are the chord charts?

Like  ||A     |D     | E     |A  E  |A   ||

That means play one bar of A, one of D, one of E, then half bar A + half bar E, then one bar A.

[MHeptonstall]

Hi,

Its the fingerstyle explanation tab that is confusing me (e.g. bottom of page 59, Intro riff for Brown eyed girl)

Thanks,

Mark

[mercthunder]

Hi Justin,

I am looking to purchase one of your books. I know the basic chords already, but i am looking for a book that teaches songs and includes the tabs for those songs, not just chord strumming. Do you have a book that meets this criteria? Does your beginner book include tabs to songs, where i'd actually be playing notes and plucking, as opposed to just strumming chords?

Appreciate your assistance.

[Tourniquet]

Some of the songs in the book have picking patterns in the later stages but it's mostly rhythm patterns as the focus is on ensuring a good grasp of 8th note strumming.
I would expect the intermediate songbook to contain more what you're after, but that's still on the horizon.

[cjs]

The book is nice and I like it...... I was just a bit frustrated as it is hard for a beginner to get along with the styles of notation common for guitar as they are all lacking information. They assume that you know how the rhythm of the song goes. Or they assume that you will be able to see where to set the beginning of a bar etc.... .kind of a lesson on how to cope with this "lack" of information would be great.....

+1

[misterg]

The book is nice and I like it...... I was just a bit frustrated as it is hard for a beginner to get along with the styles of notation common for guitar as they are all lacking information. They assume that you know how the rhythm of the song goes. Or they assume that you will be able to see where to set the beginning of a bar etc.... .kind of a lesson on how to cope with this "lack" of information would be great.....

+1

Unfortunately this is a fact of life - neither the chord/lyric sheets nor 'tab' give you enough information to recreate a song from nothing (unlike sheet music).

You do need to know how the song goes before you can play it. Ideally, you need to know the song quite well...

You need to listen to a recording of the song to pick out where the chord changes happen (or use one of Justin's lessons where he shows you!) - the chord letters are written in approximately the correct place in relation to the lyrics in the book, but this is a guide only.

You have to listen carefully - it *is* difficult to start with.

Andy

[misterg]

I'm trying to understand the tab notation in the book, but it appears different to what I'm used to seeing.   Can someone try and explain it to me, or is there a link to a tutorial for this style of tab?

To try and clarify my question....usually the horizontal lines are the strings...if this is the case, what are the numbers for?

Its the fingerstyle explanation tab that is confusing me (e.g. bottom of page 59, Intro riff for Brown eyed girl)

Hi,

The numbers are the frets and the lines are the strings - thinnest string at the top, thickest at the bottom. There are also note values mixed in with the tab which I haven't seen very often.

TAB lesson here:

http://www.justinguitar.com/en/TB-011-ReadTAB.php

So the intro starts 7th fret thin 'e' and 8th fret 'b' played together followed by 8th fret thin 'e' and 10th fret 'b' played together.

Have you seen the song lesson?

http://www.justinguitar.com/en/BS-304-BrownEyedGirl-VanMorrison.php

HTH

Andy (D'oh - just seen the date on these messages  )