Tabbing out my Stuff

[chaztrip]

Hey all….. so here is my questions…. I have guitar pro and tabit the registered versions and I want to start tabbing or some how getting down all these riffs in my head. Let me preface this by saying I can play and write pretty good riffs but I am really lacking in my music theory. This is something that I will be working on. Anyway I want be able to come up with a riff on the guitar and then quickly tab it out in either of the above programs. The problem is translating all the notes to their appropriate time… ie.. Whole note quarter… triplets ect ect… I could do that but for me it takes a long time is there a program that you can enter in real time via midi keyboard or something? I know that I can just do a quick record of the riff into reaper and I have been doing that…. But If I come back 6 months later to it I might be like What the heck…..

I know that I should really learn more of the theory of what I am doing but with 2 kids and full time job that gets tough…. I will work on that. Maybe I have the tools in GuitarPro or tabit but I am not using these right. I also have a blackberry that I will hum the melody or rifff into but I would like to get into tab.

Thanks!!!

 

[exoslime]

hi,

why do you want it as tab?

i always record my riffs into an audio file when im at home, and i have a very small cheap recorder, that i use when i´m outside, at work, etc and have a riff or melody so that i can sing/buzz and record it to it.

at the beginning, i tried to tab them too, but at the end, i wasnt able to reproduce the original riff/atomsphere/feeling, , because of the tempo, the accents etc, is very hard to tab down,
so i ended up with it that i record it immediatly when i play something that i like.

and later on, with the audio file, after a few listen, i could always reproduce that feeling from back then!!
its also a very good training to analyse your recording and figure out what you are actually playing.

now i have a riff library with about 700 riffs as mp3 files, sorted in any kind of style, atmosphere, etc..

and when i dont have a clue what to do, i listen through some of them, get inspired, and then try make a song out of it..

when i think i have like 300 pages of tabs.. i would never take a look into that, haha

cheers
exoslime

PS: the important thing is, that you have to find a system to sort your ideas, if its just a lot of chaos it doesnt help too

 

[Chryst Krispies]

My little brother is a fuckin nutcase with Tabit. He has tabbed literally ALBUMS worth of original material.
He's also tabbed some covers.

I don't know how he does it.

 

[exoslime]

hi

i think tabbing for your own material is kind of limiting, except you can remember your material, but then, why would you tab.

when you tab covers its easier because you have the original song as reference and know how it should sound like

though, i like tabs too, for sure, and earlier, i also tabbed out some songs from band s and searched for tabs on the net too )

and i like tabs for a funny thing, each month, when i get the "gitarre&bass" magazine, there is a workshop section, with tabs too,

mostly i dont know the songs, but i play around with the tabs, its great to learn, and inspiring your creativity, even if you dont know how it "should" sound, but at the end, you find some nice sounding, same notes than the original, but sounding complete different then that haha

cheers and have a great weekend
chris

 

[Jackal_Strain]

Guitar pro can be very helpful when it comes to a band situation. A lot of the material that I write would take hours to teach at band practice, but when I send the file (along with an mp3 of the actual recording) to my other guitarist, we can spend the time together on more productive and entertaining things.

 

[exoslime]

Guitar pro can be very helpful when it comes to a band situation. A lot of the material that I write would take hours to teach at band practice, but when I send the file (along with an mp3 of the actual recording) to my other guitarist, we can spend the time together on more productive and entertaining things.

you are absolutly right from this point of view!

 

[chaztrip]

Yes i think that I am making this too hard then what it should be... I think that I just need to record the riffs as soon as I can and store them...

Thanks for the tips and help!!!

 

[Metaltastic]

Tabit is such fucking garbage, good god Guitar Pro is where it's at, though if you don't understand the basics of rhythm and note-length values you'll be pretty screwed, so I guess begrudgingly I'd say tabit would be the better bet! (since it doesn't use notes, the length is determined by the spaces )

 

[Fox Mulder]

(since it doesn't use notes, the length is determined by the spaces )

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Tabit is such fucking garbage, good god Guitar Pro is where it's at, though if you don't understand the basics of rhythm and note-length values you'll be pretty screwed, so I guess begrudgingly I'd say tabit would be the better bet! (since it doesn't use notes, the length is determined by the spaces )

They do that to keep people in line.

People get on software and think they know how to read and write standard notation. At least with tabit, cats realize that they suck at it, and they have accepted it hahaha.

 

[madbutcher]

I record stuff and then tab out with a pencil on notebook paper. Then transfer the paper to a notepad file once a song is complete. Old school numbers and dashes. Pretty easy if you just have a blank tab (6 lines of dashes) then insert the numbers. Then, paste a new one, insert the numbers.....

 

[Force666]

I use guitar pro. Yeah, it's a bitch to learn the note values but it comes in super handy to know when you're editing drums or whatever else.

The first song will take you long as fuck, the second will go quicker and so on and so forth. By the 5th or 6th song you'll be getting the hang of it and by the tenth you'll be flying. It's so worth it.

Yeah, it's probably not worth it if you're just doing it for yourself, but if you're in a band using it like Jackal said is great. Also when you get new members (guitar or bass obviously) it's a major time-saver.


I say just do it. It's so fucking worth it!!!!

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

tabs sucks, score sheets rock. If you can write on score sheets Music Masterworks is your Goddess.

http://www.musicmasterworks.com/

 

[Skinny Viking]

tabs rule

I don't know how to read music

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

I don't know how to read music

Which is probably why you wrote this :

tabs rule

 

[Metaltastic]

tabs sucks, score sheets rock. If you can write on score sheets Music Masterworks is your Goddess.

http://www.musicmasterworks.com/

Ok, well you can keep your snobby bragging rights, and I'll use what a whole lot easier and quicker (cuz even though I can read and write music notation, I choose not to!)

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

Well imho it is much easier to write and read score sheets. And from my understanding timing is not written in tabs. So wtf. It's like giving directions to somebody but without ever saying the words "left" and "right". "You must go to X road, you will then see Y boulevard and from there just go forward until you see street Z." It's like a highly undeveloped language that cavemans used to have. Me hungry me go kill. Me play fret 0 and then 0 and then 0 and then 3 and 4 but very fast.

And Music Masterworks has little "dotted lines" so you can not write in an imperfect timing. Unlike ALL the other programs I've tried. I fully agree that all the midi score sheets I ever came upon totally sucked ass on every aspect but not in Masterworks. I should work for Masterworks. :] Writing score sheets on paper also majorly sucks ass. But tabs also. I am using Cubase and when I edit some of the things I write in Masterworks I don't use the very badly thought of score sheet, I use the piano roll.

So yeah score sheets sucks but tabs also. Music Masterworks rocks. I am just so used to its smooth ability to let me create without wasting brain cells on stupid things like "how come the damn note won't go at stupid bar 3.75. It's because it's a stupid piece of crap that's why". Yup. :]

And it's easy to learn, there are like 10 bars and the lower A of a guitar is the lowest A in those bars. So if your guitar is tuned in B it is the B under that, which has no bar. And once you learned that you can be a snob! :Smokin:

 

[Djabthrash]

I use guitar pro. Yeah, it's a bitch to learn the note values but it comes in super handy to know when you're editing drums or whatever else.

The first song will take you long as fuck, the second will go quicker and so on and so forth. By the 5th or 6th song you'll be getting the hang of it and by the tenth you'll be flying. It's so worth it.

Yeah, it's probably not worth it if you're just doing it for yourself, but if you're in a band using it like Jackal said is great. Also when you get new members (guitar or bass obviously) it's a major time-saver.


I say just do it. It's so fucking worth it!!!!

+1

I use guitar pro because most of the time i come up with ideas without having my guitar with me... and i just wanna tab it as soon as i can so that i can come back at it later and not have to figure out for hours how the **** i was playing this thing.

Then guitar pro FORCES you to analyze and really know what you're playing... which comes very handy especially when you come back at your stuff after a while or in a band situation when somebody else needs to learn you stuff. I agree if you don't know the music theory so well it's a bitch at first but you can learn that stuff quickly (mainly rythms and time signatures more than the notes/pitch thingie... I do write my tabs in guitar pro without knowing where that G string 15th fret note is supposed to be on a real score... but i know the rythm thing pretty well) and that's totally worth it IMO.

One last thing, writing your stuff in guitar pro allows you to build entire SONGS and not only straight up guitar riffs, try crazy ideas, and edit the stuff right away. It gives you a lot of flexibility for changes afterwise. If you record a riff direct, then if you just want to change one detail you gotta record the thing all over again. In guitar pro once it's tabbed you just have to change THAT specific thing that needs to be changed.
And it's a great tool to try specific bass lines and see how they work with guitars, or write a guitar solo when you're not able to play it properly yet (story of my life ).

So Guitar Pro FTW !!!

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

+

 

[Skinny Viking]

Which is probably why you wrote this :

and yet somehow its never held me back

guess I'm lucky enough to be able to create lengthy, dense compositions and have everything mapped out right in my head where it belongs.