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Learn To Read Guitar Tab

I got the following information from this website.

It should help you understand what tabs are and how to read them.Good luck!!

To learn drum tab, click here.

To learn Keyboard/Piano tab click here.

 

*** THE GUIDE TO TAB NOTATION : ***

*** HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB ***

 

Written by Howard Wright

H.Wright@astro.cf.ac.uk

 

 

Last update : 27th July 1995

 

 

 

CONTENTS

-----------

 

1.0 What is TAB

1.1 What TAB will tell you

1.2 What TAB won't tell you.

 

 

Reading Tab :

--------------

 

2.0 TAB notation - The Basics

2.1 Other symbols used in TAB

2.2 Hammer ons and pull offs

2.3 Bends

2.4 Slides

2.5 Note length information

 

 

Writing Tab :

-------------

 

3.0 Getting Started

3.1 To Tab or not to tab

3.2 Things to do when writing TAB

3.3 Things to avoid

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

*****************************

*** 1.0 WHAT IS TAB ***

*****************************

 

TAB or tablature is a method of writing down music played on guitar or bass.

Instead of using symbols like in standard musical notation, it uses ordinary

ASCII characters and numbers, making it ideal for places like the internet

where anybody with any computer can link up, copy a TAB file, and read it.

 

 

****************************************

*** 1.1 WHAT TAB WILL TELL YOU ***

****************************************

 

TAB will tell you what notes to play - it will tell you which string to hit

and which fret to fret it at.

 

TAB will tell you where hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, harmonics and

vibrato are used.

 

TAB will tell you what tuning the piece is in. If this isn't given

explicitly, assume normal tuning. TAB should also give you information

on use of capos etc.

 

TAB will give you an indication of the ryhthm of the piece - i.e it will tell

you which are the long notes and which are the short notes.

 

However it will not tell you exactly how long or how short they are.

 

This leads me on to ...

 

 

******************************************

*** 1.2 WHAT TAB WILL NOT TELL YOU ***

******************************************

 

TAB will (usually) not tell you the note lengths of the notes - so in most

cases you will *have* to listen to the song yourself, with the TAB in front

of you to work out the ryhthm of the notes.

 

TAB will not tell you which fingers you use to fret which note.

 

TAB will (usually) not tell you anything about picking and strumming -

you will have to decide for yourself where to use upstrokes/downstrokes

and so on.

 

 

*******************************************

*** 2.0 TAB NOTATION - THE BASICS ***

*******************************************

 

TAB is simple to read, and should be simple to write if you want to submit

a song you have worked out yourself. The idea is this :

 

You start out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These correspond to the

strings of the instrument. The top line is the highest pitch string, and

the bottom line is the lowest pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB

with the stringnames at the left.

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B----------------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Numbers are written on the lines to show you where to fret the string

with the left hand. If a zero appears , this means play the open string.

Like standard musical notation, you read from left to right to find

out what order to play the notes. The following piece of TAB would mean

play the sequence of notes (E F F# G G# A) on the bottom E string by

moving up a fret at a time, starting with the open string.

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B----------------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E---0--1--2--3--4--5---------------------------------------------

 

 

OK so far ?

 

Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two or more notes

are to be played together, they are written on top of one another,

again just like standard notation.

 

In the next example we have a G bar chord.

 

E----3------------------------------------------------------------

B----3------------------------------------------------------------

G----4------------------------------------------------------------

D----5------------------------------------------------------------

A----5------------------------------------------------------------

E----3------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

So this means play all these notes together as a chord.

 

You might see the same chord written like this :

 

E--------3--------------------------------------------------------

B-------3---------------------------------------------------------

G------4----------------------------------------------------------

D-----5-----------------------------------------------------------

A----5------------------------------------------------------------

E---3-------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Which would mean strum the same shape starting at the bottom string, so

that each string is hit slightly later than the last string, but all notes

will ring together. Below is am example of the same shape again, but now

the gaps between the notes are bigger - so you would probably pick the

strings separately instead of slowly strumming the shape.

 

 

E------------------3----------------------------------------------

B---------------3-----3--------------------------------------------

G------------4-----------4-----------------------------------------

D---------5-----------------5--------------------------------------

A------5-----------------------5----------------------------------

E---3-----------------------------3--------------------------------

 

 

You might ask - How do I know how fast or slow to play this ?

Are all the notes supposed to be the same length ?

 

 

This is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often TAB

will *not* give you any information on the note lengths. It is usually

left up to you to listen to the song to pick up the rhythm.

 

However - don't despair. TAB should give you some indications of

timing. In the example above all the notes are evenly spaced so you

can reasonably assume that the notes are the same length (maybe all

eighth notes or quavers) but this may not always be true - it depends on

who wrote the TAB.

 

As a general rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB should tell you

which notes are the long ones, and which are the short and fast ones, but

obviously it won't tell you if a note is a triplet or anything like

that. Again, this will depend strongly on the person who wrote the

TAB.

 

As an example, here are the first few notes of the American National

Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly that the different spacing

corresponds to the different note lengths.

 

E-----------------------0--------4--2-0--------------------------

B---0--------------0---------------------------------0-----------

G------1------1----------------------------1----3----------------

D--------2-------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Obviously it will be a lot easier to play the TAB for a song you

know well than for a song you've never heard of because you will

already be familiar with the ryhthms of the familiar song.

 

 

*****************************************

*** 2.1 OTHER SYMBOLS USED IN TAB ***

*****************************************

 

So far I've looked at what notes to play : which string to hit, and

where to fret it. I've mentioned how to get an idea of note lengths

by looking at the spaces between notes on the TAB, but this can only

be a rough guide. You will always have to check with the original track

to work out details of the rhythm.

 

A lot of other imprtant information can be included in a piece of TAB.

This includes hammer-ons, pull offs, slides, bends, vibrato and so on.

 

The standard practice is to write extra letters or symbols between notes

to indicate how to play them. Here are the letters/symbols most

often used :

 

h - hammer on

p - pull off

b - bend string up

r - release bend

/ - slide up

\ - slide down

v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)

t - right hand tap

x - play 'note' with heavy damping

 

 

That last one, the x, is used to get a choppy, percussive sound.

You usually use your fretting hand to lightly damp the strings so

that when you pick the note it sounds dead.

 

Note that the use of 'x' is *totally* different from the use of

an 'x' when giving chord shapes.

 

For example if you wrote the chord of D, you would see :

 

EADGBE

xx0232

 

where the 'x's mean do not play this string.

 

In tab it is implicitly assumed that a string is not played if it is not

marked. So the same chord in TAB would be :

 

E-----2-----------------------------------------------------------

B-----3-----------------------------------------------------------

G-----2-----------------------------------------------------------

D-----0-----------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

with no 'x'. The x is is only used in TAB to represent a heavily

muted string which is picked/strummed to give a percussive sound.

 

There are a number of other symbols for things like whammy bar bends,

pick scrapes and so on. There seems to be no particular standard

way of writing these - details should be given in the TAB to explain

what the symbols mean.

 

Bass TAB will probably need a few extra symbols to cope with the

different techniques used in bass playing - for example slapping

and 'popping' the string with thumb or middle finger.

You could use 's' for slap and 'p' for pop as long as you wrote

them *underneath* the lines of tab to distinguish them from slide

and pull off which would be written *on* the lines of tab.

 

 

****************************************

*** 2.2 HAMMER ONS AND PULL OFFS ***

****************************************

 

With hammer-ons and pull-offs you might find things like these :

 

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B----------------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A---------5h7-----------5h7--------------------------------------

E---0--0----------0--0-------------------------------------------

 

 

which would mean play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the

5th fret and hammer on to the 7th fret.

 

Pull offs look very similar :

 

E----3p0------------------------------------------------------------

B---------3p0-------------------------------------------------------

G--------------2p0--------------------------------------------------

D-------------------2---------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Here we have a descending blues scale using pull-offs to the open

strings. For each pull off you only pick the first note of the pair

with the right hand - so in this example you would pick all the

notes on the 3rd and 2nd frets, and the open strings would be

sounded by pulling off.

 

Because you give the string an extra bit of energy when you hammer on

and pull off, you only need to hit the first note with the picking hand.

You could even have a long string of hammer-ons and pull-offs like

this :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B----------------------------------------------------------------

G---2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2----------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

In this case you only pick the first note.

 

 

**********************

*** 2.3 BENDS ***

**********************

 

When bends are involved you need to know how much to bend the note

up. This is indicated by writing a number after the 'b'.

For example, if you see this :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------7b9-------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

it means strike the B string at the 7th fret, then bend the note up

two semitones (one whole step) so that it sounds the same pitch as

a note fretted at the 9th fret would do. (Sometimes the bend is

written with the second part in brackets, like this ---7b(9)--- )

 

Something like this :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------7b9--9r7--------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

means play the note at the 7th fret, bend up two semitones, strike the

note again whilst it is still bent, then release the bend so that the

note has it's normal pitch.

 

You sometimes get a note which is bent up only a quarter of a tone or so.

In this case it would look a bit strange to write :

 

B--------7b7.5--------

 

if you have to bend it up half a fret's worth.

Instead it's written as :

 

bend up 1/4 tone

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------7b--------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

with instructions on how much to bend written above the note.

 

 

**********************

*** 2.4 SLIDES ***

**********************

 

The most common symbols used for slides are / for a slide

up and \ for a slide down.

 

You might also see 's' used to mean slide.

 

You don't always need separate symbols for 'up' and 'down' slides

since a line of TAB reading :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------7/9-------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

is clearly a slide *up* from 7th to 9th fret. However you might

also see things like these :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------/7-9-7\---------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

where the exact start or finish of a slide is not given. Here you

have to know whether you're sliding up or down. In these cases use

your judgement to choose the starting or finishing fret. The effect

usually desired is to have a note 'swooping in' from a lower pitch

or dropping suddenly in pitch as the note fades.

 

You could have a whole series of slides running together, like this

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B------7/9/11\9\7\6\7--------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

which would mean you only strike the first note with the pick using

the sustain to produce the other notes.

 

 

***************************************

*** 2.5 NOTE LENGTH INFORMATION ***

***************************************

 

Occasionally you will find TAB which includes information on all

of the note lengths. There seems to be no particular 'standard'

way of doing this, but it usually involves a line of letters or

symbols above the TAB.

 

See below (Section 3.2 part 6) for more details.

 

If the explanation of the timing symbols is not given in the TAB

then you've got a problem !

In this case a quick email to the author to ask for enlightenment

is the only way forward.

 

 

*********************************************

*** 3.0 WRITING TAB - GETTING STARTED ***

*********************************************

 

Perhaps one of the most important things to do before you start

typing up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly how much information

to include in it. The trick is to convey the right amount of

information in a clear, easily readable form.

 

Questions you can ask yourself are :

 

- Is the song played using mostly chords ?

 

- Are there a number of riffs which appear throughout the song ?

 

- Is there a clear verse/chorus/middle bit structure ?

 

 

By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce a clearly

structured TAB which will not only be easier for others to read, but

also easier for you to type in.

 

There are also choices to be made when deciding what package to use

when typing the TAB in. All you really need is a simple text editor,

however a mouse-driven editor will probably make things easier.

 

When you start typing in it saves time if you draw out one blank stave

and then make 8 or 10 copies of these before you start typing in

the fret numbers etc.

 

If you use a more complicated package like Microsoft Word then

make sure that the characters you use are all the same length.

If an 'm' character is wider than an 'i' character then your TAB

is going to look very strange on another text editor. Choose a font

where all charcters get the same width - Courier usually does the

job.

 

There are also a number of programs available by ftp which were written

specifically to make TAB writing easier. Details of these programs

including ftp addresses are in the 'TABBING MADE EASY' FAQ by John Kean,

along with other useful hints for writing TAB.

 

 

*************************************

*** 3.1 TO TAB OR NOT TO TAB ***

*************************************

 

If a song can be described well with just chords, then it will be

a lot easier to read and write if you just use the chord shapes, rather

than tab out the chords.

 

BUT - if you do just send in the chords it makes things *much* clearer

if you give the chord shapes as well.

For example, if you wanted to send in Led Zeps 'Gallows Pole' you could

write:

 

 

Intro : A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A

 

Verse : A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A

A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A G D

A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A

 

 

(You should really have the words underneath as well, but I can't

remember them at the moment !)

 

Now this is OK, but how many people actually know how to play Dadd4/A

off the top of their heads ?

 

What you need to do is include some chord shapes like this :

 

EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE

x02020 x02010 x04035 320033 xx0232 x00000

 

A7 Am7 Dadd4/A G D G/A

 

 

To TAB out these chords will take a lot longer to type in, and

will probably take people a lot longer to read and understand.

Where a chord is based around chords like this, it makes things

much easier if you just give chord shapes and names, then show

where the chords go in relation to the words.

 

 

**********************************************

*** 3.2 THINGS TO DO WHEN WRITING TABS ***

**********************************************

 

One of the most important considerations when typing in TAB is to make

it clear and easily readable.

 

There are a few simple things you can do to make things work.

 

-- 1 -- Use spaces !

 

It's amazing the difference it can make if you insert a few blank lines

in the right place. If you are used to writing the words above or below

the lines of TAB make sure you leave a few lines free so that it's clear

whether the words belong to the line of TAB above or below.

Space out the individual lines of TAB and the whole thing will be a lot

easier for others to understand.

 

-- 2 -- Define the symbols you use.

 

It would make everybody's life a lot easier if everyone used the same

symbols for hammer ons, bends etc.

 

BUT - if you are convinced that your particular way of writing bends

and slides makes much more sense than anyone else's, that's OK as long

as you tell everybody what system you use. It makes very good sense to

start your TAB file with a list of symbols used.

 

The list of most commonly used symbols is below :

 

h - hammer on

p - pull off

b - bend string up

r - release bend

/ - slide up

\ - slide down

v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)

t - tap (with strumming hand)

x - muted, struck string

 

when you get on to harmonics , you might see a variety of symbols

used. Even in standard music notation, an accepted way of writing

natural and artificial harmonics has neverbeen agreed !

However, using brackets is the standard way of writing harmonics,

so a natural harmonic at the 12th fret would be :

 

E----------------------------------------------------------------

B----------------------------------------------------------------

G----------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E------<12>------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Normal brackets () are sometimes used for grace notes or optional

notes so 'pointy' brackets <> is the usual choice for harmonics.

 

-- 3 -- Label bits of the TAB

 

It makes things a lot easier if you can see where the 'verse' and

'chorus' parts of a song are, so put a few labels in certain places

to guide people through it.

 

Many songs will have clear 'verse' and 'chorus' structures - so you

can tab out the riffs/chords or whatever for these just once, and then

indicate where these are repeated. Or there maybe a couple of

important riffs which are used - so TAB these out and label them

'Riff One' and 'Riff Two' - then when they come up later in the song

you can just say 'repeat Riff One four times' instead of tabbing

the whole thing again.

 

As long as it's clear which bits of TAB go with which label, you

will save yourself time this way as well as making it easier to

read for others.

 

-- 4 -- Include Artist/album

 

It's useful for others to know where to find the original song,

so at the beginning of each TAB include some information on

the artists who recorded the original, and the album on which

the song can be found.

 

-- 5 -- General comments

 

It's also useful to include a few lines at the beginning of the

TAB to explain the style of the song, or to point out important

features such as alternative tunings, use of capos etc.

 

A few words along the lines of "use a staccato, funky kind

of strumming style for the chords, then change to a sustained

feel for the lead line" will help people to get an idea of

how to approach the playing style.

 

Information on the type of guitar (electric/acoustic,

6 string/12 string) and effects used would be useful.

 

One point on the use of capos and alternative tunings :

 

It's a lot easier for people to understand chord names etc if

they are written as though played *without* a capo.

For example, if you have a D shape chord played with a capo at

the 2nd fret you should write it as D major even though you will

actually be fretting notes at the 4th and 5th frets.

 

Also - for TAB using a capo, it's standard practice to write the

numbers of the frets *relative* to the position of the capo.

So again, if you had a D major chord with a capo at the 2nd fret

the TAB would be :

 

E----2-----------------------------------------------------------

B----3-----------------------------------------------------------

G----2-----------------------------------------------------------

D----0-----------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

even though you actually fret the notes at the 4th and 5th frets.

 

It's similar with TAB for guitars tuned a semitone or tone

lower than usual. If a song should be played with the guitar

tuned to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and it has this chord :

 

Eb-----0--------------------------------------------------------

Bb-----0--------------------------------------------------------

Gb-----1--------------------------------------------------------

Db-----2--------------------------------------------------------

Ab-----2--------------------------------------------------------

Eb-----0--------------------------------------------------------

 

it makes things a lot easier to understand if the you call the chord

'E' rather than Eb.

 

That way, if you decide to play in standard tuning, you don't get

confused.

 

-- 6 -- Timing information

 

You may want to get really serious and include details

giving the precise rhythm of the piece. This will involve

a lot more typing, but it means all the information

necessary to play the piece is given explicitly.

 

One way to approach this is to write a line of dashes

interspersed with numbers which count the beats.

So in 4-4 time, you would have :

 

1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc

 

Under this you can write a line of d's and u's to represent

down and upstrokes.

Here is a simple example where the rhythm is 2 crotchets

(quarter notes) followed by 4 quavers (8th notes)

 

1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc

d---d---d-u-d-u-d---d---d-u-d-u-

 

You could expand on this to use upper and lower case letters

to indicate accents and so on.

If you use this method make sure that you clearly separate the

2 lines of rhythm information from the 6 lines of TAB !!!

 

One other way of including timing information is to use one

letter/symbol for each note type.

 

For example use e for 8th note (quaver), s for 16th note (semi-

quaver) and so on. The letters you use may well differ depending

on whether you're used to the american system of quarter notes,

8th notes etc or the english system of crotchets and quavers ,

but the method is the same.

 

(If you're not sure of the 'translations' here they are :

 

whole note - semibreve

half note - minim

quarter note - crotchet

8th note - quaver

16th note - semiquaver

32nd note - demisemiquaver

64th note - hemidemisemiquaver)

 

Simply write the letters above the corresponding note in the

TAB. (Make sure you define which letters/symbols you use)

 

Here's an example of what this looks like :

 

This is the opening riff from the Beatles' Ticket To Ride

 

q e e t t t q e e t t t

 

E--------0-----------0--------0-----------0----------------------

B-----------2-----0--------------2-----0-------------------------

G---2----------2----------2---------2----------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------

E----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Here I've used q for quarter note, e for 8th note

and t for triplet quarter note.

 

If you want to send in a TAB with rhythm information like this

then it's *essential* to explain the system you use. I've seen

a lot of different systems of letters and numbers of varying

degrees of simplicity and readability. Whichever you choose to

use, you'll have to explain all your symbols to make sure others

can work out what the hell you're on about.

 

If you want to give a few clues as to the rhythm of the TAB, but

don't want to get too involved, use of bar lines is an effective

way of conveying timing information.

 

Simply insert a vertical line of |'s to indicate the end of a

bar. So using the national anthem example I had before, with bar

lines it looks like this :

 

E--------|---------------|0--------4--2-|0--------------|--------

B---0----|----------0----|--------------|---------------|0-------

G------1-|-----1---------|--------------|-----1----3----|--------

D--------|2--------------|--------------|---------------|--------

A--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|--------

E--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|--------

 

-- 7 -- Lyrics

 

It's a lot easier to follow a piece of TAB when you've got at least

some of the lyrics to follow, and you can match up the notes/riffs

in the TAB to the lyrics.

 

Try to include lyrics for at least the first verse and chorus. If

you're not sure of the words you can ftp cs.uwp.edu - there is a

large collection of song lyrics held there.

 

Failing that a request to the newsgroups along the lines of

 

" Please mail me the lyrics to such and such so that I can make

a proper job of the TAB I'm working on" will usually get a sympathetic

response.

 

As a final note on writing TAB I should say that whenever you post

to the newsgroups ALWAYS cross post to both guitar groups, and also

mail a copy to guitar@nevada.edu so that it can be included in OLGA.

 

For more information on posting to the guitar newsgroups and OLGA

see the other FAQs regularly posted to the guitar newsgroups.

 

********************************

*** 3.3 THINGS TO AVOID ***

********************************

 

-- 1 -- Tab Wraparound

 

One of the most common problems in writing TAB is text wraparound.

This makes the TAB almost impossible to read but is very easily

avoided.

 

The problem occurs when you write a line of TAB which is maybe 80

or 90 characters long. For a lot of people this is too wide for

their screen, so what should be a single line of tab ends up being

split onto two lines.

 

Here is what it looks like :

 

 

E---------------------------------------------0-----------------------------------------------

B---------------------------------------2--4-----4--2-----------------------------------------

G------------------------------1--2--4-----------------4--2--1--------------------------------

D---------------------1--2--4-----------------------------------4--2--1-----------------------

A------------0--2--4-----------------------------------------------------4--2--0---------------

E---0--2--4-----------------------------------------------------------------------4--2--0-----

 

 

Now this will probably look pretty weird when you see it. When I

wrote it, using Windows 'Notepad', it looked fine because I could

fit the whole thing on one screen.

For most newsreaders though, it is too long and you run into

problems.

 

All you have to do is be careful when you type in TAB so that you

the maximum width of line is say 60 characters.

 

I've tried to do that in this FAQ so that the maximum width is about

 

<<<------------------------------------------------------------------>>>

 

this much. If you limit your TABs in the same way, you should be OK.

 

Of course, if TAB *does* get wrapped around the author might not realise

because it looked fine on his/her screen when they wrote it. It might be

worth letting them know of the problem, so they can be careful in the

future.

 

(This includes me ! If parts of this FAQ are too wide for your screen,

please let me know !)

 

-- 2 -- Very squashed TAB

 

It's amazing how easy it is to ruin an otherwise good piece of TAB by

not spacing it out so that the end result is a mass of cramped TAB,

explanations, labels etc.

 

When you finish typing up, go back through the TAB and see if you can

insert a few blank lines here and there to separate verse from chorus

or whatever. It really does make it a lot easier for others to read.

 

It might also be worth considering if you've included too much detail

in the TAB. Usually this will not be the case, but I have seen a few

TABs which go into great details, but are extremely off-putting to

try to read because of the sheer quantity of information.

 

-- 3 -- Unnecessary repetition

 

If a line of TAB or a particular riff is repeated a number of times

then save yourself the effort, TAB it once.

 

It's also easier to read like this.

 

 

That's all I *think* you need to know about reading and writing TAB.

If there's anything important you think I've left out or if there

are bits of the FAQ which you can't understand then let me know.

 

You can contact me at : H.Wright@astro.cf.ac.uk

or spxhaw@thor.cf.ac.uk

 

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LOT of 20 -12


Doctor Who: City Of Death Double LP GREEN VINYL 180g Limited RSD2018
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Doctor Who: City Of Death Double LP GREEN VINYL 180g Limited RSD2018 picture


Doctor Who and the Pescatons LP Tom Baker Colored Vinyl Sound Effects RSD 2017
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Doctor Who and the Pescatons LP Tom Baker Colored Vinyl Sound Effects RSD 2017 picture


Lamp 14.5'' Vinyl Record Grooved Base -Yellow Wax and Orange Liquid
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Lamp 14.5'' Vinyl Record Grooved Base -Yellow Wax and Orange Liquid picture


Vinyl Record Upcycled Bowl Vintage Vinyl
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Vinyl Record Upcycled Bowl Vintage Vinyl picture


Vinyl Record Bowl
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Vinyl Record Bowl picture


KANYE WEST SIGNED AUTOGRAPH VINYL MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY BECKETT BAS
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KANYE WEST SIGNED AUTOGRAPH VINYL MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY BECKETT BAS picture


Funko Pop Deluxe Vinyl Record Album with case Jim Morrison and the Doors Funko
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Funko Pop Deluxe Vinyl Record Album with case Jim Morrison and the Doors Funko picture


A History of the United States 12 Vol. LP Vinyl Record Box Set Columbia Records
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A History of the United States 12 Vol. LP Vinyl Record Box Set Columbia Records picture


Antique HMV Fully Functional Gramophone Working Replica Vinyl Record Player Gift
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Antique HMV Fully Functional Gramophone Working Replica Vinyl Record Player Gift picture