Here is the first part of an explanation on how the tab I use in my lessons works. I use a nifty program called
GuitarPro, and it generates the midi and image of the tab as I input notes. I'll add more examples as I find time, and I'll keep the thread locked so it remains nice and clear.
Time Values
First, let's look at the way it displays time values:
Midi of the above
Play the midi file and follow along. You'll see that the time values are indicated below the tab. The click track is clicking out steady quarter beats. I've chosen the I-IV-V chords of A for the demo ... A, D and E.
Nothing indicates a whole beat, one per bar. (
1)
A short vertical line indicates half beats. (
2)
A long vertical line indicates quarter beats. (
3)
Long lines joined by one horizontal line are eighth beats. (
4)
Long lines joined by one horizontal with the little 3 underneath, 12th notes. (
5)
Long lines joined by two horizontal lines, 16th notes. (
6)
All the bits and pieces in each bar (measure) must add up to ONE. So you can see in the last three measures (
4,
5 and
6) that I doubled and tripled up the first three beats, left the last as a quarter beat.
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Slow strums
Midi of the above
The long vertical arrows indicate that you should slow-strum the chord; the arrows show whether to do that from bass to treble, or treble to bass. You can do this with your fingers too.
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Arpeggios
Midi of the above
This shows what arpeggios are: chords played one note at a time. Here I've done a repetitive sounding pattern, but it could be any pattern. The little > above some of the notes indicate an accented note ... play it harder and stronger.
Notice this one is in 6/8 time, so six eighth beats make up the full measure. The last chord has a dot next to it. The dot means 'add half again'. So in this case, to make up six eighth notes, I had to put the dot next to the quarter note ... a quarter and a half a quarter = six eighths.
