Complaining?

If your problem is solvable, then solve it!

If your problem is unsolvable, then there's nothing you can do about it.

Either way, there is no reason for you to complain, is there?

Play By Ear

Of course, it's your fingers that does the job.

But, it is your ear that choose the melody, control the dynamics, feel the rythm.

It's your ear that actually play the music.

Improvisation

I think improvisation is not just random pick of melodies. Improvisation has its own structures, sentences, words.

The reason that we call it improvisation is that because we are free to select which structure, sentence, or word at a particular moment. Once selected, it will have a structure. It become a melody.

Greatest Jazz Guitarists

1. Wes Montgomery 2. Pat Metheny 3. Django Reinhardt 4. Joe Pass 5. Charlie Christian 6. John Scofield 7. Allan Holdsworth 8. Bill Frisell 9. Jim Hall 10. John McLaughlin 11. Larry Coryell 12. Al DiMeola 13. Mike Stern 14. Larry Carlton 15. Pat Martino 16. Grant Green 17. Kenny Burrell 18. Lenny Breau 19. Herb Ellis 20. John Abercrombie 21. George Benson 22. Lee Ritenour 23. Les Paul 24. Jimmy Bruno 25. Charlie Hunter 26. Robert Conti 27. Chet Atkins 28. Jeff Golub 29. George Van Eps 30. Stanley Jordan 31. Kurt Rosenwinkel 32. Hank Garland 33. Joe Diorio 34. Barney Kessel 35. Ronnie Earl 36. Russ Freeman 37. Andy Summers 38. Tal Farlow 39. Eddie Lang 40. Nick Webb 41. Grant Geissman 42. Derek Bailey 43. Jimmy Raney 44. Kevin Eubanks 45. Howard Roberts 46. Scott Henderson 47. Robben Ford 48. Johnny Smith 49. Thom Rotella 50. George Barnes

51. Frank Gambale 52. Ed Bickert 53. Billy Bean 54. Charley Byrd 55. Ralph Towner 56. Martin Taylor 57. Henry Johnson 58. Mark Whitfield 59. Ken Navarro 60. Dean Parks 61. Steve Khan 62. Greg Carmichael 63. Gabor Szabo 64. Russell Malone 65. Ronny Jordan 66. Norman Brown 67. Earl Klugh 68. Billy Bauer 69. Carl Kress 70. Fitzroy Coleman 71. Buzz Feiten 72. Julio Fernandez 73. Mark Stefani 74. Paco DeLucia 75. Daryl Stuermer 76. Phil Upchurch 77. Ulf Wakenius 78. Hiram Bullock 79. Dominic Miller 80. John Pizzarelli 81. Tony Mottola 82. Bucky Pizzarelli 83. Derek Trucks 84. Zachary Breaux 85. Tommy Tedesco 86. James "Blood" Ulmer 87. Peter White 88. Marc Antoine 89. Jack Wilkins 90. John Pisano 91. Emily Remler 92. Brian Hughes 93. Danny Embrey 94. Mick Goodrick 95. Bireli Lagrene 96. Mike Elliot 97. Wolfgang Muthspiel 98. Tuck Andress 99. Randy Johnston 100. John Goodsall

Playing improvisation alone

Some time I let a chain of chord playing inside my head. Something like:

FM7-C9-Dm7-C9-FM7

Over and over, in a loop.
I also let the basic melody and rythm, playing inside my head.

Then I improvise along that melody, chords and rythm.

It feels so good ...!

Blues

Blues songs are so simple, yet powerful. You are playing along a simple chain of chords. Something like:

E7-A7-E7-B7-A7-E7-B7

And you can feel such a rich melodies.

HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB

********************************************
*** ***
*** THE GUIDE TO TAB NOTATION : ***
*** HOW TO READ AND WRITE TAB ***
*** ***
********************************************


Written by Howard Wright
Howard.Wright@ed.ac.uk

OLGA_TABFAQ: V1.0
Last update : 1st September 1999


****************************************************************************
*** Copyright Howard Wright and the olga-grunts ***
*** ***
*** This document may be distributed freely as long as NO CHARGE is made ***
*** and my name and email address are not removed. If you want to edit ***
*** or re-format this document for public consumption, please contact me ***
*** first. If you try to make any money by selling this guide to TAB, in ***
*** part or as a whole, you will be struck down by a bolt of lightning. ***
*** Probably. ***
****************************************************************************


I have now got a version of this guide in HTML.
If you would like a copy of the HTML version, drop me a line.


CONTENTS - Part I
------------------

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


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


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


For slides, s is sometimes used to indicate either an up or down slide.
Symbols for harmonics are explained below in Section 3.2

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.

Note - you might see other symbols used to mean hammer on or pull off, for
example ^ can be use to mean hammer-on and pull-off.

e.g :

G---2^4^2----

which would mean "hit the note at the 2nd fret, hammer-on to the 4th and
pull-off to the 2nd fret". It would make things easier if everyone used
the same symbols, so unless you have a strong objection to 'h' and `p`
please use those. In any case, for any tab you send you should always
explain what your symbols mean so if you use anything 'unconventional'
make sure you explain what it means.



**********************
*** 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.

Sometimes a pre-bend is used - this is where the string is bent up
*before* the note is struck. After striking the note, the bend is
released. Pre-bends are usually written like this:


E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------(7)b9r7---------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------

This means: fret the note at the 7th fret and bend the string up two
semitones (without actually playing the note). Now strike the string and
release the bend.


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.

--------

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.

Jimmi Hendrix

I am listening to Jimmi's CD: " The Jimmi Hendrix Experience".

He is such a great player. He can really express his feeling through his guitar, just like a woman expressing her feeling through her words and tears.

Mengapa Agama?

Kalau saya mah, berpikir lebih sederhana.

Yang paling pokok itu apa? Bagaimana saya menjalin hubungan konkrit
dengan Tuhan, bukan? Hubungan ini lantas mempengaruhi hubungan saya
dengan sesama dan dengan seluruh alam semesta.

Agama diciptakan hanya sekedar membantu saya dalam menjalin hubungan
tersebut. Kalau agama malah membuat saya bingung, atau malah menghalangi
hubungan saya dengan Tuhan, dan sesama, ya dibuang saja ...

Kalau ada orang yang mati-matian membela agama, maka itu sungguh
menggelikan. Agama diciptakan untuk membela manusia, bukan sebaliknya.

Saya menyembah Tuhan, bukan menyembah agama! Sungguh sayang bahwa banyak
orang yang menjadikan agama sebagai berhala yang disembah. Mereka bahkan
membunuh menghancurkan sesama demi agama. Padahal agama diciptakan untuk
membela manusia. Jika ada orang yang menghancurkan manusia demi agama,
ini sungguh ironis!

Agama dan kitab suci hanyalah kumpulan kata-kata yang seharusnya
membantu kita menjadi manusia yang berbudi luhur dan memuliakan Tuhan.

Kitab suci hanyalah telunjuk yang menunjuk ke bulan,
Jika anda telah melihat bulan, anda tidak butuh telunjuk lagi, bukan?

Mengapa Menulis?

Ketika anda menulis, anda tidak hanya sekedar mengekspresikan apa yang sudah ada di benak anda, atau menulis ulang apa yang sudah ditulis oleh penulis lain. Ketika menulis anda menyusun kembali semua itu ke dalam alur yang baru, dan di dalam proses penyusunan itu akan muncullah ide-de baru yang belum ada ketika anda mulai proses menulis.

Jadi menulis adalah juga proses berpikir, dan proses penciptaan.

Membela Agama?

Ada orang yang berjuang mati-matian demi membela agamanya. Bahkan ada yang meledakkan bom atau mati demi membela agama.

Sungguh tidak ada yang lebih keliru dari itu.

Agama diciptakan untuk manusia, bukan sebaliknya.

Seharusnya agama yang membela manusia, bukan manusia yang membela agama.Kepentingan manusia-lah yang harus diperjuangkan. Hak azazi manusia yang harus ditegakkan. Manusia seharusnya berjuang demi manusia dan kemanusiaan. Dan bukannya menghancurkan manusia demi agama!

Kesederhanaan

Kesederhanaan bukan sekedar pilihan etis atau moral, atau bahkan spiritual. Kesederhanaan mengandung makna yang praktis, yaitu: membantu kita untuk fokus pada apa yang terpenting, menghemat energi, dan mempermudah kita mengerahkan segenap energi dan pikiran kita.