Ultimate Guitar Tab - A Guide to Finding Great Tablature Online

Learning how to play the guitar can be a intimidating experience for the beginning guitar student. Even though the guitar is a rather easy instrument to play with proficiency, you are faced with such decision-making challenges of which sort of a guitar do you play, what type of music will you play, and will you play chords or lead, or both, among other decisions.

Short of taking expensive formal guitar lessons, is there any other alternative for the novice guitarist? Well, let me acquaint you to guitar tablature.

Tablature Can Help You Out: TAB is short for the label tablature. It is a ideology of transcription, or a system of documenting guitar music to sheet music without requiring any theory or ability to read Standard Notation. Tablature is an shorthand interface that gives the guitar player graphical input as to the string number to play, fret number and some tablature even has ornamental indications, and proper left and right fingering.

How Do You Read TAB? After looking at the TAB staff, you may think it looks very similar to the standard notation staff. While they appear somewhat similar, there are major differences between the two. TAB's composition consists of 6 horizontal line in the staff, while standard notation has 5 horizontal lines. Each of the 6 lines represents one string of the guitar, with the top line representing the 1st string and the bottom line the 6th string.

Also, unlike standard notation, standard note indications are not shown on the TAB staff. Standard Notation indicates standard notes on the staff while TAB is a succession of numbers, with each being placed on the string line. While the string number is representative of the string to be played, the number is indicative of the fret number that is to be played on the string.

TAB Will Be Simple For You To Learn: Beginning guitar students will have no trouble comprehending TAB, thus opening an unbelievable number of guitar transcriptions to them. So without a impressive deal of musical understanding, or music theory, a guitarist can interpret TAB and play many songs right away. This opens up a wide range of compositions to the guitar player not concerned in learning either standard notation or musical theory.

TAB Drawbacks: Yes, there are many. A number of of them are:

Rarely will you see TAB that indicates the note timing within the TAB staff itself. To further clarify this, due to the graphical nature of the TAB staff, there is no indication of timing associated with the numbers that represent the fret numbers. (You will encounter the occasional TAB that does designate the timing on the TAB staff).

How do you then get the timing material? Look for TAB that includes both the TAB staff and the standard notation staff within the same composition. Usually with this sort of transcription, you will encounter the 2 staffs hooked together with the TAB staff being the bottom staff, and the standard notation being the top staff. It is easy to spot Tablature staff in that it usually has the vertical letters TAB at the beginning of each line of staff.

Discovering The Best Source For Your TAB's? Search for tablature that meets as many of the criteria outlined above and you will reap a wealth of incredible information and study material. There are several good sources available and you will discover many sites that offer this quality tab.

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Acoustic Guitar Manufacturers Ratings

Epiphone: Owned by Gibson, Epiphone makes one of the best quality acoustic guitars. They are most noted for their products in the $150 range, though high-end guitars are their forte. Especially the PR4E, EJ200 or DR100 models. All have great materials and features.

Fender: Fender is a privately held guitar manufacturer in Arizona. Known for remaining privately held and holding to craftsmanship, Fender is an American guitar maker for American guitarists.

Gibson: Gibson operates out of Nashville, Tennessee and encompasses several brands like Epiphone, Steinberger and Kalamazoo, to name a few. Also privately owned, Gibson is extremely well-known for high quality guitars like the Songwriter and the J160E. The average price range is around $1800, so these are pretty much professional instruments for serious artists.

Ibanez: Ibanez is privately owned and operated in Japan. They were the first company to produce seven string models on a large-scale. Ibanez prides itself on creating guitars that anybody can afford. That results in a diverse selection ranging in price from $199 to $499.

Martin: The C.F. Martin Guitar Company has been owned and operated by the Martin family since 1833. Largely renowned for extremely high quality instruments, Martin has a reputation for high-end prices as well. The do, however, have a level of guitars at under $400 for the beginner. Their backpacker series is outstanding in design and sound quality.

Seagull: This Canadian guitar maker is a sub brand of Godin and they make acoustic guitars exclusively. All their instruments are hand crafted and are of the highest quality and workmanship. As far as price, Seagull targets the working musician. Seagull does have a few entries for the casual player, with the S6 and the Q1.

Takamine: Takamine is a Japanese guitar manufacturer. Known for very high quality and sound, yet affordable for the masses, Takamine is really the one for beginners everywhere, although they do make some higher-end models.

Taylor: Taylor Guitars has only been around since 1974, but they have made their mark on the industry in that short time. The company is privately held and owned by Bob Taylor. The quality in every guitar is unrivalled by any American luthier.

Yamaha: The same folks who bring us those fast little dirt bikes and crotch rockets also gives us a sweeter sound; the sound of guitar music. For about $189, a Yamaha acoustic guitar can grace your lap. Models like the CGS104A and F345 are among the more popular ones. Based in Japan, Yamaha Corporation excels in the areas of electronics and musical instrumentation.

If I were forced to choose between these guitar companies, I have to go with the one that caters to the beginner with a limited budget; Takamine. They have a plethora of affordable models and more advanced models when I improve my playing. For around $1000, I could have the sound of a Martin at the price of a low-end Gibson. That's value you cannot deny. Happy strumming!

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How To Pick Blues Guitar Using Bare Fingers Or Finger Picks - What's The Difference?

There are literally thousands, possibly millions of acoustic guitarists in the world. It's the most popular musical instrument by far, because it is easy to carry and it's relatively easy to produce a simple tune in a short time. I write 'acoustic guitar' as this is my instrument and I want to discuss finger picking styles.

Normally, electric guitarists use a plectrum of some kind to pluck the strings in an up down motion. Mind you, there are exceptions to the rule, such as Mark Knoppfler, who prefers bare fingers for both electric and acoustic guitars. His self-taught techniques caused Chet Atkins to comment "I don't know how he's doing it, but he can sure do it! "

You don't have to follow the herd - we can always make new rules. Nevertheless, we have to start somewhere. This starting point is generally focussed on previous master players. In the genre of acoustic blues guitar, this means people like Robert Johnson, Lightnin' Hopkins, Doc Watson, Reverend Gary Davis and many others.

There are many variations in style, but players who play in the finger style can be broadly divided into two categories - those who wear finger picks and those who like to use their bare fingers. Let's not take into account how many picking fingers they use for now. What are the differences in sound and what effect does a finger pick finger pick have on style? I've watched ragtime blues artists play competently with up to three finger picks for the right hand, not including the thumb! At the other end of the spectrum, some master pickers only use just one finger, either steel or plastic.

Bare Thumb Or Finger Pick

Broadly speaking, the pick gives a sharper, harder sound and is a natural amplifier. Some striking actions are simpler to perform with a pick, like 'throwing' the thumb onto a bass string to get a percussive sound. A significant advantage is that it saves the thumb becoming sore. Bare finger players must practice very regularly in order to develop a thick callous so that they can play in comfort. Generally, picks are easier to get between the strings, so are very efficient for picking individual strings in quick succession.

Several later stylists, like Chet Atkins, strengthened their finger nails. I doubt that many older blues guitarists used this technique, but who can say? Many Texas players favored a plastic thumb pick and bare fingers, often just using one finger of the right hand with incredible dexterity. Blind Blake, the King of Ragtime, seemed to have played with bare fingers and some older bluesmen recalled that he had a hole in his right thumb, where it was rubbed down by the bass strings of his guitar.

The enigmatic Willie Walker, who only recorded two sides in the 20s, was a true master of the ragtime style. His songs feature extremely fast single string runs which seem difficult if using the thumb and index finger one after the other. He probably used a plectrum held between his thumb and finger, using this to
alternate the bass line while picking with one or two fingers.

Finger picks.

I prefer a steel pick, as they can be bent over so that the tip of the pick approximates with the contact point of a bare finger when it hits a string. This means that there's no need to make adjustments for the angle of attack. The plastic variety are generally thicker and protrude a little more, so an adjustment in picking style is required. This is important when playing some songs needing picks, and some that don't, let's say.

Use those bare fingers.

A bare thumb can hook behind a string, pull it away from the body of the guitar and let it snap back, making an accented beat common with some blues techniques. Bare fingers are very accurate and help to produce a bouncy style when playing ragtime music, either Joplin type piano rags or ragtime blues in the style of Blind Blake. The thumb rolls and triplets heard in Blake's music are very difficult to achieve when using finger picks.

There are many, many guitar finger picking techniques and we can use the example of the great guitar masters to help us to develop our own technique.

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Coffee Colored Guitars for Kids - A Great Way to Start Learning

Do you see your children possessing a great potential towards music? Begin indulging them with coffee-colored guitar for kids. History proves that most of our great musicians started early so initiate enhancing your children's talent at an early age. It does not only improve their cognitive skills in playing the instrument it also sharpens memory.

Parents always desire the best for their children either in academic or in extra-curricular activities. To advance your kids innate talent is to enroll them to a guitar lesson with beginner's curriculum. Doing so is extremely beneficial to them, the first one is it will accelerate the learning process and master the particular instrument more quickly and efficiently than those starting to learn at an older age.

Further studies also prove that exposing them to music at an early age may boost and polish their desire and joy to musical instruments hence, making them better in that field. In fact, children learn to appreciate the whole process of learning the guitar.

It is not amicable to wait for your children to grow older, by that time they may have established a different interests. It's good if they are involved in healthy activities or other field in music, but the problem may arise if they already have developed unhealthy habits and interests. Having a routine activity may lessen their gratification and pleasure for new activity. Asking or convincing your child to do so will only indicate as a burden and may even hate their parents for it.

Kids involved early in music may build broader and larger expansion of their interest and several levels in guitar lessons or other instruments with regards to music. Children are much easier to teach, versatile, more perceptive, more enthusiastic, and willing to learn than adult. Therefore, you can expect better results in teaching young ones.

So start introducing your children to coffee-colored guitar for kids to stimulate their interest and at the same time molding them to be dexterous in that area. Do not introduce it to them abruptly unless they asked for it. Make a gradual and a discreet presentation of the guitar in order to arouse its desire without demanding from them. This is a prolific way of convincing your kids without forcing them to do so.

Get their first guitar online. Let them browse and choose for the design and color. Letting them feel they are in charge is a good tactic of motivation. Shopping is a favorite activity of children therefore, instilling in their mind that you are going on a shopping spree will encourage them all the more.

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