COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION

COPYRIGHTS & PERMISSIONS: All arrangements and tabs in this blog are the original work of the blog owner, unless otherwise noted. They may be downloaded and copied at no charge, only for non-commercial church or home use. All other rights reserved. Ask for permissions-- I intend to be generous. Copyright information for each song is listed in its commentary. Arrangements and tabs of public domain songs are still covered by these copyright restrictions. Your cooperation is appreciated.

About the tablature

There is no recognized standard for how to write guitar tablature. I use an underscore (4_5) to indicate any ligado, either a hammer-on or a pull-off. I find it makes the tab easier to read than cluttering it up with the letters h (4h5) or p (5p4), and it's obvious which is meant. I use vertical lines for measures, and write time signatures outside the staff. Two lower case o's, placed vertically on the #3 and #4 strings, inside the staff, are a repeat sign. I use a zig-zag, vertical line at the left of a chord, to indicate a strum. All strums are down unless otherwise stated, or noted with the letters u or d above the staff. Chords tabbed without the zig-zag line are to be plucked or pinched, unless otherwise specified. If all chords in a section are to be strummed, I indicate that with a note, and leave out the zig-zag lines. Slow strums are tabbed note by note. Harmonics are indicated with an exclamation point: !12, double harmonics with two exclamation points: !!7. Double vertical lines indicate the end of the song.

Where the abundance of strummed chords makes the tab too busy for easy reading, I have employed several strategies. Sometimes, I write “All chords are strummed” at the beginning of the song. Where the same chord is strummed repeatedly, I may leave out the numbers, after the first strum, and use only the zig-zag lines. Spaces between notes do not usually indicate length of the note-- they are only added to allow the printed words to fit better. Except where the notes indicate a slow strum, I always allow at least one space (hyphen) between notes.

About the chords

Where possible, I include “standard” chord charts at the end of each song, with the chords in the order of their appearance in that song. Some tab artists write out chords like this:
C: x32010, meaning the sixth string is not played, the fifth string is fretted in the third space, etc. This takes a great deal less room than standard charts, but lacks the visual element, is confusing to beginners, and somewhat duplicates the chords as shown (vertically) in the tablature. I try to avoid such, but do use them occasionally.

I use a lot of barre chords. Selection of which voicing of a chord to use often brings out the melody. To distinguish voicings of the same chord, I use Roman numerals in smaller type after the chord name, to indicate the chord's position (where the barre goes.) For example, the C major chord is normally played without a bar, but is sometimes played as an A barred in the third space (A III), or an E barred in the eighth space (E VIII).

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