School Home
Members
articles

Welcome to Musician War School
CapnZilog

Your Account

• Submit
article
• Your
articles
• Your
queue (0)

Guitar Secrets

• Artist
Analysis (48)
• Chords
(23)
• Exercises
(37)
• Gear
(8)
• Gear
Reviews (4)
• Harmony
(6)
• Lessons
(21)
• Personal
Licks (37)
• Picking
(11)
• Rhythm
(2)
• Scales
(27)
• Songwriting
(20)
• Studio
Overviews (16)
• Sweeping
(38)
• Tapping
(16)

Most viewed

• GE
Lightblub Commercial
(2029)
• So,
you want to pick cleaner, huh???
(1840)
• REAL
arpeggios (none of that Jonezter crap!!!!)
(1671)
• Holy
Jumping Arpeggios Batman!
(1103)
• triads
of sweep picking (1102)

Cap'n Zilog's Amazing
No-Tears Tab Solution

Lessons

Posted by CapnZilog - Jul 20, 2004
@ 01:15:02 AM

Effortlessly tab your solos - and
get a free MIDI version to boot!

Can't Tab = Can't Doubletrack?

A number of times I've seen people write (usually
intro-level new folk, but not always) "I'm so off-the-cuff I
improv everything I play and therefore can't tab anything."

This got me thinking... this implies that you can't
repeat your parts, either! If you can't repeat your parts, how
can you doubletrack or harmonize your solos?

That's
gotta be crippling, but it gets worse:

It implies that
you can't transcribe your own parts. Really? Can't even play
your own parts by ear? How do you learn licks off record? If
you've ever learned a lick off the record, you can repeat
it... and if you can repeat it, you can TAB it.

An
easy solution to this dilemma comes next.

Cap'n
Zilog's Amazing No-Tears Tab Solution

OK. When I first
starting tabbing stuff here I thought it was a PITA as well,
but then I realized... most TAB doesn't contain any note
durations, so all you have to worry about are the bar lines.

EASY TAB SOLUTION #1 ("Weeee! Notepad" version)

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

1)
Tab out all your fretted notes as a single bar of unlimited
length in Notepad. Don't worry about the note durations at
all.

2) Go back and listen to the rhythm section of
the song to hear where the bar lines should be. Count the
beats by ear while reading along with your TAB, and write in
the bar lines. Done.

EASY TAB SOLUTION #2 ("Dude!
PowerTab" version)

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

1)
Get a MIDI keyboard. I recommend the Creative Prodikeys DM, a
standard PC alphanumeric keyboard that has a 3-octave keyboard
built-in. (No MIDI interface required, around $70)

2)
Open up a MIDI track for recording and play back your solo on
your sequencer software.

3) "Lip-Sync" along with your
solo by tapping a couple of keys (ANY keys!) on your MIDI
keyboard. You're only trying to duplicate the rhythm &
timing of your notes, not the pitch. If it's a fast part, play
the notes using two or three fingers on adjacent white keys.

4) You now have a MIDI track containing the proper
timing and duration for all the notes in your solo. Export
this track into PowerTAB, and correct the fret number for each
note. You're done, and the result will be score-perfect.

MAJOR SIDE BENEFIT: You now have a MIDI version of
your solo which you can speed up, slow down, change key,
harmonize, etc., etc... The first time I figured out this
trick it was like... "Duh! Why the hell didn't I think of this
before?"

-djh

4 comment(s) | viewed 279
time(s) | |

Your Comments

Commented by CapnZilog - Jul 20, 2004 @
11:23:43 PM

OK, yes you have seen this article
before - but at least now it's under the correct topic and
looks right!

Commented by Avernus - Aug 04, 2004 @ 03:21:58
PM

I'm almost exactly like what you
described at the top of this article =/ ...  It's not
because I'm trying to be "off the cuff" ... it's just how I
play best - I jam randomly when I write lead lines etc.
Tabbing them is extremely difficult cause I never remember
exactly what I played.

Any tips on how I should improve
this?  I despise tabbing simply because it takes me hours
just to write 8 bars of the stuff of a song I
wrote!

Should I be writing songs completely *before*
playing anything?!

Commented by CapnZilog - Aug 05, 2004 @
03:51:42 PM

I think it has a lot to do with
how 'phrase-able" your playing is. Phrasing is key to
memorization; if a part can be broken down into melodic or
rhythmic motifs, or accents, the job is much easier. The worst
case would be music created by a random-note generator on a
computer; I could transcribe it, but it would take me much
longer to do so.

Making things catchy and approachable
for your listener, makes your job easier too because it helps
you remember what you played. The opposite of catchy is
forgettable... no money in that!

For me, most
everything begins as improv at some point - but after a lot of
refinement the mediocre bits get good, the good bits get
(hopefully) very good, and the bad bits get thrown out. That's
when I know I have a song.

Commented by Hub - Sep 08, 2004 @ 03:05:05
AM

Great article Capn!!!! I've always
tabbed my posts but i knew the timing was off. Thanks for the
help :)

Submit
Your Comment

v2.0 2001-2004