TAB can notate an upstroke and a downstroke. However, it really needs to be able to notate two kinds of upstrokes and two kinds of downstrokes.
Can anyone think of a clever way to notate this?
I dunno I am of the play it however you can play it school, and IMO adding this in would just lead to more hyper fixation on something that would just get in the way of that.
This is not for you, this is for people that want to write something down with absolute clarity. The fact that there is no way to write it down without TAB and lots if associated English language descriptions means something is missing in TAB.
For now I put the letter t or f next to the pick stoke but something better might be possible.
Sure, but who is intended to get the most use out of it, the transcriber or the person attempting to take that transcription and execute it?
If the transcriber, and mostly for the audience here -sure, and use what ever you want to use and maybe someday over time it might be universally adopted. But the general phrase may already imply a lot of this information anyway.
But most things are transcribed with the expectation that they are to be executed by the general guitar playing community at some point, so again you have to ask who is this really for the benefit of? The transcriber or the general person who has to play it? Depending, it may or may not be necessary.
I read it as rather than just up stroke or down, adding in the trapped escape symbol would show what pick slant or escape is necessary to pull of a run.
Most notation only has up or down, no pick slant or escape?
Typically how the notes are sequenced/arrainged and the picking direction with the existing universal notation symbols will already imply a lot of this information.
Further if you add even more in the mix that is related like swipes, glides, glisses and globs, tybes, knibes, hisses and pobs it can have the opposite intention and make things a little too noisy.
Exactly, it never gives the escape and requires huge amounts of guesswork as to what is going on. I am regularly confused when I read TAB as there are all types of techniques going on.
The escape aspect is usually implied in the phrase as is tabbed out regarding string sets, and even further when utilizing the stroke direction symbols. A quick glance can usually give a good indication with out much head work. From there it’s up to the player to work out how they actually CAN play it.
It’s not a slag by any means. Some may find it useful, others may find it limiting, and it has potential to open up aspects of the same confusion that you are trying to mitigate in the first place. It also creates more work for the transcriber who may just see it as a redundancy. I see it both ways.
I know English text may not be 100% universal, but neither is Italian which a lot of the dynamic symbols and phrases common in musical transcribing derive from. Simply writing “implied USX” for example at the start of the phrase may do just as well and is quicker if you find that level of detail necessary or helpful. It also saves an extra symbol-to-concept mental conversion.
I think universal adoption of the practice on the other hand - no matter which direction you lean towards - would take a good long while to become commonplace.
Yeah it’s unlikely to happen, but I’d love some definitely in various runs.
I have issues with ocd n it can really mess me up if I don’t know for sure what happened.
I think an extra pick escape/angle would be welcome.
But most people don’t have an issuse with getting things exactly right.
I do think it would be usefull tho, If you can’t make the effort to learn the original work, how can you honestly derive something from it without it being lesser than the original.
The old saying, learn the rules then break them.
Having a differnt perspective is totally legit, yet ignoring an elders experiance is ignorent, they did what they did for a reason.
It sounds silly to apply that concept to something as unimportant as picking, but as above so below, also we’re on a picking forum lol.
Oh, no, most people are full of errors and guesses. TAB was invented before single-escape was understood, and that’s why it can’t directly represent the concept. What happens in practice is that even if it says (say) “USX” in English, in reality there will be some equivalent of DSX thrown in somewhere, etc., perhaps even the occasional DBX, or whatever—and it becomes a mess of guessing.
If I am working on a piece I write the letter t (trapped) of f (free) to the left (meaning “it started that way”) or right (“it ended that way”) of the pick stroke, and that’s exactly how I want to play it. I represent sweeping as a t on both sides, etc., and then I can easily understand what I figured out. I regularly get stuck trying to mark up a piece and have no idea what is going on.
I think what he means is that most people don’t care if it is 100% accurate to the T down to original performers exact picking structure.
Most of what you mention here are things that are just idiosyncratic from player to player, and highlighting them on tab doesn’t guarantee playability. You then have to examine who this will serve. Do you want the most accurate tab to the performance as it originally was captured in time and of which the original artist may not even be able to play. Or is it for the person trying to learn the piece, being only able to play mostly how they play?
Easily honestly, and lesser is super subjective if not a straight fallacy! A lot of the players this forum idolizes didn’t learn the pieces and phrases from players that inspired them note for note, and pick stroke to pick stroke, escape to escape. They had their ear to a slowed down record or tape with zero visual queues. I think they turned out okay.
Keep in mind not everyone will even be able to play the original piece exactly as it is/was. In that case if they adhere to this principle they will spin their wheels - for years even - and not learn a damn thing.
I agree with you, but I also need to know exactly how something was played or I’ll chase after it for years n years…
I have done that with van halen.
If you have the mind to play something exact, then why not have an exact tab?
It’ll never happen for me as Ed is dead n Jason is in a wheelchair… but… I want that definiate tab. Just so I know I can acually do it…
Even if I can’t do it, at least I have something to work towards even if forever lol
I’ll fuckin do it!!!
Also lesser is relitive to the original. We can all come up with new stuff, but we all have stuff we want to play n sound like.
I’d love to sound like Evh, Jason Becker, angus young, brian may n dave lister.
I’m half way there
