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- ********************************************
- *** ***
- *** THE GUIDE TO TAB NOTATION : ***
- *** HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB ***
- *** ***
- ********************************************
-
-
- Written by Howard Wright
- H.Wright@astro.cf.ac.uk
-
-
- Last update : 18th April 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 string
- names 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
-
-
-
-
-
-