Help me read this guitar music

Cafe Society
1

So, I’ve been trying to learn a bit of guitar, but I’m confused over the music in a book I’ve got hold of.

Most of the score is standard music notation with the notes for the sung tune, but above that is the chord changes (G, Em7, etc). At the very start of the song is a set of guitar tab for two bars that tell you the ‘picking pattern’ for the particular tune. Which is all well and good, but the tab only actually matches the first two chords… and even then, it doesn’t.

For example, in the very first bar of the picking pattern tab, it wants me to pick the low E string on the third fret for the first note of the bar, and the 2nd fret for the final note of the bar - on the G chord the E is on the third fret, so what do I do when I get to that final note? I’ve been playing the second fret anyway, and coming out of G chord for it.

However, later on, I have to play the same picking pattern with a C chord - and in a C chord, you normally don’t play the low E string at all! Do I play it open, because my finger isn’t on it? In that case, what do I do for the final note of that bar?
I am very confused, and the internet isn’t helping - in fact, it suggests that my book is odd and that it’s normal to provide full tab for such songs. But surely they’ve given me enough information to know what to do?

My actual guitaring seems to be coming on alright, I just need to know which notes to play!

2

It would help to see the music you’re looking at.

3

It would, but I don’t really want to photocopy a book page to post here, although I can if it would help

4

You can double check with the Mods, but you are not posting the music to this site, just linking. And the link going to one page, or the top half of the first page would be considered “fair use”

5

I would do what the TAB says. The purpose of the TAB will be to show detail that the chord symbols lack. What’s the song?

6

That would be a G note.

Not sure what you mean here. There is no E in a G major chord. The 2d fret on the low E string would be F#.

The notes in a C major chord are C, E, and G. So you can play the low E string either by leaving it open, or put your finger on the 3d fret and get a G note.

Hope that helps. I’m not quite sure what you’re looking for here.

7

You might be getting fret numbers mixed up with finger numbers or somethjng. Also tabs and guitar books are often shitty. What are you trying to play? It’s easier to link to the music.

8

It could be G, then G/F#, G/E (G, with bass notes changing). Are these passing notes, for transitioning from G to Em7? I think some composers include that because they realize you may be a one-man band—if you don’t have a bass player but you can add the detail on your guitar sometimes.

It seems like the problem may be in the nomenclature the OP uses. Tabs are often used for people who don’t read music. They show where to finger the fretboard so that you can figure out a lick or melody. I wonder if the music uses arpeggios instead of strumming. Think about the Animals performing “House of the Rising Sun.” They’re not strumming all the strings at once; they’re playing that chord as individual, rhythmic notes.

That pattern is pretty straightforward.

Author is showing you that for the Am (first chord) you start on string 5, then skip string 4, then play 3-2-1-2-3 individually.

Of course, some guitar players use much more intricate patterns.
9

I have put a pic of the music here on imgur

It’s Hallellujah. As you can see, there’s a picking pattern at the top, and the chord shapes along the top of the score.

10

So T i m r m T= Thumb index middle ring middle Thumb?

Interesting! It looks like your left hand will form different chord shapes throughout the song but those are the strings you’ll play for your arpeggios. I suspect you could take the numbers and write X on each because where your fingers rest as you change chords has to change. Maybe they included them in the first two bars with the G and the Em7 to get you started, but IDK what you’re going to do when you play your D etc.

I never had the discipline to play the patterns correctly. I kind of fake it and a lot of people think I learned it correctly.

11

That F# on the low string is correct - moving between G and Em it makes sense and will sound great.

For your other chords you’re going to have adapt the pattern to fit the chords and the bass line.

12

Do you have a recording in G that you can play along with? It would be a far easier way to get the feel of the song I believe. Lovely song choice, by the way. And yes the F# is just a passing note between G and Em.

13

I don’t see where it tells you to play the same pattern over a C chord. The TAB is showing the picking for the G and Em chords only.

14

SO what’s the pattern for the C and D chords? Seems odd that it would score the entire song for voice but not bother to tell you what to do on the guitar for half of it.
This is one of the simplest ones in the book, but the rest of this style are similar - two bar picking pattern at the top, only seems to apply to some chords. It may well be that the book is rubbish, but I don’t know enough to know, which is why I’m asking here.

15

This kind of thing is hard to get across in writing, but here’s my stab at it. I’m mostly a bass player, but I have a passing familiarity with the guitar, and I’ve played this one on guitar before.

From looking at this page, this book isn’t necessarily rubbish. But it’s not giving you a script, it’s giving you the building blocks you need and letting you put them together.

With a song like this, there are several things to communicate:

  1. How does the melody go?
  2. What are the lyrics (if there are any)?
  3. What is the harmonic (chord) progression?
  4. What’s the easiest way to play those chords?
  5. For the accompanying instrument, how does the rhythm go?

#1 is the traditional music notation in the staff. #2 is printed below it. Those are the job of the singer, or another instrument.

As the guitar player, you’re doing parts 3-5. By playing the bottom note of each chord, you’re also the bass player.

#3 is the chord symbols printed above the staff: G, Em7, etc. #4 is the tab grid right below the chord symbol, indicating which strings are open, which strings are played at which frets, which strings aren’t played for that chord.

The two-bar bit at the top is telling you #5 - how does the rhythm go. This is a song which just wouldn’t sound right if you strummed the chords once or twice each bar. Instead, it sounds good if you play each chord as a sequence of 6 notes (arpeggio) that goes up and back down each bar.

The reason they don’t spell out that picking pattern for the entire song is the same reason they don’t write out the traditional music notation for all four or five verses of the song: it’s the same, and if there are little adjustments that need to be made to fit the number of syllables in a word or something, then make them. When you sing Happy Birthday To You and you get to “dear [person’s name]”, you don’t have to be told exactly what notes and rhythm will fit the number of syllables in the name, you just do it.

The important thing is that this isn’t classical music, where you are expected to recite exactly the notes printed on the page, no more and no less. Instead, this page is telling you how the melody goes, how the harmony goes, and how the rhythm goes; now go forth and play it like that! Everything on the page is advisory; nothing is dogma.

I believe it’s Justin of the JustinGuitar lessons on YouTube (which are excellent, by the way) who’s fond of saying “if it sounds good, it is good, and if it sounds shit, it is shit”. Don’t worry about playing exactly the right notes, play notes that fit and sound good.

Here’s an exercise for understanding where that F# (2nd fret) fits in. Sing or hum the melody, and play along on the guitar, but only play the bottom note of each chord. Every time a chord symbol appears, play the bottom note once and nothing else.

G - - - - - E - - - - - G - - - - - E - - - - - G

Sounds pretty dull, right? Now, the same thing, but on the 6th count, play a softer note that leads into the next one:

G - - - - f# E - - - - f# G - - - - f# E - - - - f# G

Sounds better connected, right? This is the “bass player” part of the role.

So, what picking pattern should you play? Play the bottom note of each chord on count #1, play other notes of the chord up and back down on the next four counts, and play a note on count #6 that will lead to the next count #1 note. What leading note do you play on 6? Who cares? Pick one that sounds good. If you like how it sounds, do it the same way next time. If you don’t like it, try a different one next time.

What about the part in the middle where the lyrics are “it goes like this, the fourth, the fifth”? There’s a C and a D chord in the same bar, so you can’t play 6 notes up and down for each one. What do you do? Well, pick three notes from the C chord and three from the D chord, and play them in a sequence that sounds good. Which notes? Doesn’t matter, pick some.

Or, towards the end of the verse where “Hallelujah” is repeated several times. The first four times, it’s over an Em7 chord and a C chord. But each chord is two bars (12 counts) instead of one. So what pattern do you play? Do you do the 6-count up-and-down arpeggio twice for each chord? Or do you start at the bottom, go upwards for 6 counts, noodle around for another couple, then back down, taking 12 counts total? Again, it doesn’t matter. Play something that sounds good. As long as you’re playing notes that are part of the chord, or fit with it, you can’t go wrong.

It can be hard to do this when you don’t have enough technique in your fingers that you can put the notes on automatic and just feel the music instead. But once you can do that, you’re playing music instead of just reciting verbatim from a script. And that’s a lot more fun, and lets you play the song the way you want it to sound, rather than the way the book publisher thinks it should sound.

The other thing you can do is listen to different recordings of the same song and see how different artists approach the problem, particularly the choice of chords and rhythm. There can be wildly different approaches to the same song. If it sounds good, it is good.

Hope this is helpful. Go forth and play!

16

I agree with Tierce above. The book is giving you some direction without telling you exactly how to do it. It’s the sort of book that is best used in conjunction with listening to the recording it is based on.

For the C and D, I’d do something like this (apologies for the poorly formatted TAB):



  C          D
E ————0-——-|——--2—-—-|
B ———1-—1--|——-3—-3—-|
G ——0-————-|—-2—————-|
D ————————-|-0————-0-|
A -3————-3-|————————-|
E ————————-|————————-|
17

Guitar isn’t my main instrument, but that’s exactly what I would do, as well.

18

Thanks for this, Richard, I’ll give it a go. I would try and play along, but I have a tin ear and don’t really have any idea what people even mean by ‘play what sounds good’.

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions, it’s much appreciated

19

That score is also interesting, because the original is in the key of C, but that music is in the key of G.

20

I’m guessing it’s probably to avoid the pesky F chord for beginners as it shows up in the verse, but also in the “Hallelujah” refrain as F-Am, F-C, and you’d have to bar that F to keep that picking pattern.