Pushing myself - taking gigs outside my comfort zone

[metropolis_4]

Worked on the Sister Christian solo today. That’s a really fun one!

The chart is driving me crazy though because it’s not written very well when it comes to stuff like this, and the last two bars are just a mess how they’re written so I had to work something out myself. It’s 1 step higher than the original.

I’m really needing a Floyd Rose…

 

[TSJMajesty]

Worked on the Sister Christian solo today. That’s a really fun one!

The chart is driving me crazy though because it’s not written very well when it comes to stuff like this,

Have you checked songsterr.com? Their tabs are generally pretty spot-on, with only a few actual mistakes, but I've found stuff in impossible positions to play.

But..., you can edit it w/o a subscription, then download a screenshot of whatever sections you want to save, as a png file. I do that a lot.

Edit, I just looked at it, and w/o even picking up my guitar I could hear several mistakes.

 

[metropolis_4]

Have you checked songsterr.com? Their tabs are generally pretty spot-on, with only a few actual mistakes, but I've found stuff in impossible positions to play.

But..., you can edit it w/o a subscription, then download a screenshot of whatever sections you want to save, as a png file. I do that a lot.

Edit, I just looked at it, and w/o even picking up my guitar I could hear several mistakes.

I don’t even know what they were thinking in measures 84-85.

I’m finding with a lot of these you have to sort of listen to the original songs and interpret these charts based on that

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

Worked on the Sister Christian solo today. That’s a really fun one!

The chart is driving me crazy though because it’s not written very well when it comes to stuff like this, and the last two bars are just a mess how they’re written so I had to work something out myself. It’s 1 step higher than the original.

I’m really needing a Floyd Rose…

View attachment 29439

Aside from simply using your (hopefully trained) ear, there's always the innerwebz to the rescue:

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

I've always been of the opinion that traditional notation sucks for the finer nuances of guitar playing.

It's fine for Fake Booking and Kum-bay-ya campfire strumming, but anything beyond rudimentary guitar playing, it fails poorly.

There's a reason guitar tablature was invented.

 

[TSJMajesty]

I've always been of the opinion that traditional notation sucks for the finer nuances of guitar playing.

It's fine for Fake Booking and Kum-bay-ya campfire strumming, but anything beyond rudimentary guitar playing, it fails poorly.

There's a reason guitar tablature was invented.

I agree 100%. Tab takes you straight to it.

Just watched an old Dick Cavett interview of Jimi Hendrix, and he asked him if he read music, and Jimi goes, "No. Not at all."

Nuff said.

And man was he humble!!

 

[TSJMajesty]

I don’t even know what they were thinking in measures 84-85.

Yeah, you can clearly hear they're all sixteenth note triplets/eighth note.

 

[metropolis_4]

I've always been of the opinion that traditional notation sucks for the finer nuances of guitar playing.

It's fine for Fake Booking and Kum-bay-ya campfire strumming, but anything beyond rudimentary guitar playing, it fails poorly.

There's a reason guitar tablature was invented.

Yeah, it’s fine for a lot of stuff, but when you start getting into things like harmonics, artificial/pinch harmonics, whammy bar work, atonal bends, two hand tapping and such it often falls apart.

This solo in particular is challenging for notation, it’s full of those sort of guitar-isms.

So far I’ve been doing pretty well by comparing these charts and listening to original recordings to get the context of what they were going for

 

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, there's a pretty good reason for standard notation to exist. I'll leave it to you to find out what it is...

 

[metropolis_4]

Fwiw, there's a pretty good reason for standard notation to exist. I'll leave it to you to find out what it is...

What do you mean?

I love standard notation for most stuff, but take a look at that transcription for the Sister Christian solo I pasted above. The writer was clearly struggling to convey some of the more esoteric guitar sounds. If I play that exactly how it’s written it doesn’t sound anything like it should. It requires interpretation based on existing knowledge of the piece

 

[TSJMajesty]

Fwiw, there's a pretty good reason for standard notation to exist. I'll leave it to you to find out what it is...

Oh ok.

Defend your argument. Tab is faster, goes more directly to how you play a certain piece, and you don't need to learn another language to know what to play. It's simply a better language for guitar.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I always loved that Sister Christian solo, so tasteful and perfect for that song.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Defend your argument.

Standard notation is there to communicate with all musicians.
TABs require the author to know guitar, standard notation doesn't.
MDs often don't play guitar. Professional notation writers even less so.

 

[metropolis_4]

I always loved that Sister Christian solo, so tasteful and perfect for that song.

I love it too, it’s a really fun one to play

 

[LeftyLoungeLizard]

No one's gonna play the solo in Sister Christian in a cover band on a triangle, bassoon, harmonica or other random concert instrument.

 

[TSJMajesty]

No one's gonna play the solo in Sister Christian in a cover band on a triangle, bassoon, harmonica or other random concert instrument.

 

[Sascha Franck]

No one's gonna play the solo in Sister Christian in a cover band on a triangle, bassoon, harmonica or other random concert instrument.

And still, to write down TABs, the transcriber would have to be a guitar player. Not required to transcribe something in standard notation.

 

[duzie]

My pea brain relates to Tab without much thought.
Use whatever works for your situation right

 

[metropolis_4]

And still, to write down TABs, the transcriber would have to be a guitar player. Not required to transcribe something in standard notation.

I don’t know that I agree with that. If the transcriber doesn’t understand the instrument I don’t think they’ll be very successful whether they’re trying to notate in TAB or standard notation.

The problem at that point is not understanding how the instrument is played means they don’t understand the context to transcribe a part in a way that makes sense to a guitarist trying to play it.

That’s what I’m seeing first hand in this particular score. The reason it’s such a mess is because the transcriber obviously doesn’t understand the instrument.

That was kind of my point with the thread about pianists writing guitar parts

 

[Sascha Franck]

I don’t know that I agree with that. If the transcriber doesn’t understand the instrument I don’t think they’ll be very successful whether they’re trying to notate in TAB or standard notation.

From my experience, that's not true. Further, it'd automatically mean someone scoring musicals would have to be familiar with every instrument down to detailed playing techniques. Which would be quite impossible.