Monday, March 21, 2011

Book Review: Pink Floyd: Guitar Tab Anthology by Alfred Music .

In the most basic sense, guitar tablature (or tab) refers to an alternative method of reading music. Standard sheet music contains the notes of a song written out on five horizontal lines, called a score. This character of note is universal, whether one is playing guitar, piano or anything else, the notes remain the same. One needs to love their instrument very good to be able to translate the written notations into music.

This can be very frustrating for the beginner, as it takes real commitment to get to this point. With a song written out in tab form, a favorite lick can be knowledgeable in minutes.

To briefly describe tab, it is something of a plot of your guitar neck, and where each line is to be plucked. Tab uses six lines to a bar of music, rather than the standard five. Each line corresponds to the six guitar strings. Replacing the notes are simple numbers, which constitute the grate the train is to be played at. In this manner, a strain like "Money" by Pink Floyd is completely worn out, all one needs to do is turn the chain at the bar indicated, and voila - they are suddenly David Gilmour.

Obviously there are drawbacks to this method; you are not really learning how to study music. I have seen a great many guitar students just open up after a while though, because they felt they were making no progress. For them, learning even only a favorite riff in this way can be a vast confidence-builder. Sure it is a shortcut, but one that often leads to a renewed incentive to continue with the harder work.

The Alfred Music Publishing company have just issued Pink Floyd: Guitar Tab Anthology. In it they feature 13 Pink Floyd songs, in both standard sheet music format and guitar tab. Pink Floyd are an interesting band to have chosen for a figure like this. For one thing, their songs are mostly not what one would consider easy to play - and many of them are rather long as well.

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