Accurate Cliffs of Dover tab that accounts for EJ’s USX technique?

General Music Discussion
#1

I’ve got a student who’s been on a massive Eric Johnson kick lately, and lucky for him (and me!), CTC has given me a wealth of fantastic information to pass along. I’m really proud of the kid; he’s leveled his playing up to incredible levels since he discovered EJ’s music.

However: I’ve been looking for tabs for CoD that are as accurate to EJ’s own playing of it as possible, and I’m finding I simply can’t trust most of the popular commercially available ones. They often contain fretting choices that I know, thanks to CTC, can’t be accurate—one common red flag is fretting the 17 on B in the intro as 12 on high e instead, which isn’t USX-compatible.

So, all that said: does anybody have any recommendations for a REALLY accurate tab of Cliffs of Dover? Both for my student’s benefit, and for my own. (Thanks!)

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#2

I think if the notes are accurate enough and you know how USX mechanics work, you can always adjust the fingering. I do that kind of thing all the time for my students when I find tab that has wonky fingerings.

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#3

I know @Troy had a tab for the intro of the studio version which was available here. It might have been part of the Cascade seminar, but I can’t find it right now. Maybe he can point you to it.

It was obviously made with USX in mind and would definitely be worth studying. However, I don’t believe that all of the fretting choices are accurate.

This tab is the most accurate version of the ACL '88 intro I have ever found. It was made by Tom Mann, who was a member of the EJ Forum (which was shut down long ago). He was a cool guy and he was always willing to share, so I’ll post it here:

Cliffs of Dover ACL '88.pdf (115 KB)

I don’t know of an accurate transcription for the entire piece.

I would also mention that many of Eric’s lines are not strict USX. Eric actually has a functional medium speed double escape movement and some ad hoc helper movements he uses in specific situations. Of course, he also uses hammers and pull-offs to solve bad cases.

Also, if you want to understand Eric’s fingerings, you might be interested in my Higher Landrons article below:

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#4

Dang, Tom! As the frequently-quoted Shaq line goes, “I wasn’t really familiar with your game.” This is a truly impressive work of scholarship and musicianship, and I suspect that by the time I’ve absorbed it, I’ll be able to do what was suggested and find the most appropriate frets myself.

I’ll check back in once I’ve finished reading it and started putting it into application. Thanks for sharing!

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#5

Here’s my transcription of the ACL intro.

It’s compiled from a few of the tabs that I’ve seen, the one Tom posted included, that I’ve fixed, tweaked, adjusted and “CTC’d for EJ” over the years. Whenever I’d play along with it and notice something was off, I go back to this SoundSlice and fix it. I’ve done that with a handful of his solos, and though I don’t fuss with it too often anymore, I do make fixes on occasion when I’m in the mood. It’s crazy how off so many of the tabs are, and pretty much none of them are “CTC’d for EJ” at all. I’ve done it with Desert Rose, Venus Isle, the intro and outro of TEG, All About You and Lonely In The Night.

CoD-ACL-Intro.pdf (68.8 KB)

To make it take up the least amount of space possible, I removed things like vibrato, harmonics and such, and also added 8va and 8vb to the notation. There also might be a spot or 2 where there is a questionable tab in parentheses or something weird like that, but they’re easily ignored. I tend to use a lot of hotkeys and sometimes I’ll miss and hit the wrong one.

Since I made it in SoundSlice, I’m guessing (hoping) that it will also go right back into SoundSlice without a fuss.

#6

Thank you, it took a lot of time and effort to prepare.

I’m not particularly interested in playing note perfect covers anymore. For a long time now, my primary goal has been to develop an original vocabulary where my influences manifest clearly. For this reason, the project of making the most accurate transcriptions possible isn’t very appealing to me. For my aims, the return from making faithful transcriptions in meticulous detail just doesn’t justify the time investment.

I’ve had much greater return from studying a players picking mechanics, fretting mechanics, fretboard organisation and line construction. I build my own vocabulary which intentionally exploits the synergies between these elements. This provides insight and helps me to develop intuition.

I think without understanding these elements, undertaking the project of making “perfect” transcriptions is somewhat misguided. The results are not likely to be faithful. Even if they are, transcriptions alone don’t facilitate actually playing the music without understanding the underlying mechanics.

That’s not to say that faithful transcriptions are not very valuable, they most certainly are.

Let me know if you have any questions, I’m always happy to help.

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