Learning How To Read Guitar Tab Sites

By Chris Lake


When you are first getting started with learning to play the guitar, you might find that there are several different things that you have to be able to do. Many people can pick up the basics of playing rather easily including holding the guitar, chord structures and strumming. However, learning new songs and cover songs could prove to be tricky if you don't know how to read guitar tab sites or books.

If you are taking the time to read through this article, than you are likely looking for a little bit of insight concerning how to learn to read these tabs. The first thing that you need to understand is what tablature actually is and why it is important. Through the paragraphs of this article, you will learn how to read the tabs that you want to and where to find tabs if you are looking for them.

Before you are going to be able to relay the significance of tablature to your brain and then your ambition of learning the guitar, you have to understand exactly what it is. To put it rather plainly, this is the blueprint of a song. This is a diagram of where to put your fingers on a guitar to make chords used within the song. Tabs are used for all kinds of instruments: rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar, piano and drums.

Tablature is very similar in nature, and really only requires you to understand two main concepts to understand its information. The first would be how the numbers within a simulated fretboard correspond to your fingers. For instance: 1 would be your index finger, 2 would be your middle finger, 3 is your ring finger and a 4 is your pinkie. These do not change.

Next, you are going to have to look at where this number is placed. It will be on one of the strings (E, A, D, g, b, e) and on a specified fret. If no fret is listed, it would likely be to suggest that this is within the first three frets where the bulk of chords are played.

You will find that acquiring tabs for various songs that you like should not be difficult to do. There are a lot of websites that offer thousands and thousands of tabs for free all the time. If you want something that you can hold in your hands, you might check out some bookstores for books of tabs based on genres, time periods or individual bands or artists.

The first step of course, is learning how to read guitar tab websites and books. Having read this article, you should be a little better off with that.




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By Jason Lake

The New Moon soundtrack has quickly made a buzz in the indie music world, and deservedly so. If you haven't listened to it yet, here's a brief synopsis of the album.

Why would indie bands be willing to contribute to the soundtrack of a teen vampire movie series? I was really surprised to see this, as there's no way in the world I'd ever be interested in watching these movies.

You might be like me in this case. I had no idea what New Moon was, and it's probably because I have no connection to that demographic and I'm by no means interested in a show or movie about vampires.

This is different from most soundtracks in the sense that I doubt these bands have ever even watched the show. In fact, these are the last bands I'd expect to see on a show that appeals to teens with an affinity for pop culture.

Whatever their motives were for agreeing to do this together, the end result is pretty fascinating. I've found myself listening to this soundtrack quite a bit since I got it last week, and while I'll never see the movie, I'll definitely be listening to this some more.

There are more great bands on this soundtrack than just about any soundtrack I've heard within the last year or two. From Muse and Thom York to Bon Iver and St. Vincent, these are just a few of the many accomplished artists and bands on the New Moon soundtrack.

There's great songwriting, great guitar work, and a lot of music that basically sums up the current state of indie rock. I'm very impressed with this album on a whole, as are many well respected music critics.

Forget about what this was made for. These could all be the songs for a Hannah Montana soundtrack for all I care. If the music is this good, I'll be buying it.

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By Richie White

The series one 45 is medium sized combo containing two 12 inch speakers allowing up to 45 watts of power. This is plenty loud enough for the gigging musician. It does however still sound great at very low volumes.

One thing that is consistent across the Blackstar range is the build quality and easy to understand layout of the controls and features like the ISF (Infinate shape frequency). The ISF is a standout feature on all Blackstar amps. This quirky little feature enables the user to create either a British or American sound or anything in between, depending on where the dial is turned to. The 'British' side creates a much warmer and thicker tone, than the more sparkly and twangy 'American' side of things, so the control is not just a gimmick but is well worth incorporating into your tone settings.

On the clean channel with this control set to create a more British sound, the tone was thick and warm and threatened to break up when incorporating harder dynamics when playing. On the American side however, the much brighter twang produced reminds the player of classic Fender and Mesa amplifiers. Pushing the up the gain and turning back to the British side of things, the tone produced was still deep and thick, yet resonant and crystal clear and therefore perfect for country music. The bass and resonance of this tone was further improved by selecting the 'warm clean' channel, but turning the ISF dial to the American side meant that the brightness and twang was still retained.

Switching to the overdrive channel, the same amount of warmth and clarity was retained with the gain control around 2, especially with the ISF control turned to the British setting. Keeping this ISF setting and turning the gain up to halfway rendered a hair-raising ballsy crunch, perfect for recreating any 70's classic rock tone, whilst turning the ISF control to the American setting cleaned the tone up and improved the clarity and brightness. Cranking the gain served only to heat up this signal, adding more sustain, but the ISF control still made tone shaping infinitely possible.
Pressing the 'super crunch' button, I was amazed with the levels of gain that were possible even at low volume. Turning the ISF control to the American setting and scooping the mids, the tone was powerful yet fluid, with lead work sustaining and cutting through perfectly due to the impressive gain levels. Turning the ISF to the British setting, I was presented with the raw, ballsy sound of cranked Marshall heads, yet still surprisingly modern, given the 'super crunch' mode selected.

In conclusion, it is easy to see that the blackstar has been developed by designers in pursuit of valve tone. One benefit of this is that the ISF control makes most famous and classic amp tones easy to emulate, from the bright twang of fender amps to the raw crunch of classic Marshall stacks. Players in pursuit of high gain levels may be better suited to the larger peavey and mesa boogie type amps, but from a perfectly clear clean sound with amazing clarity to a thick, modern distortion, the Blackstar is a powerful rival to any amplifier.

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