Lol...!

Thanks ,,, ,

I have a feeling I might have become a tad too "obsessed" about learning the "theory" as it were...but my goal when I first got serious about playing the harmonica was to be able to play pieces that were difficult to figure out "by ear" so I decided I needed to learn to read music...then I discovered "tabs" so I find myself trying to learn how to read music and how to "tab" as well as how to play...!...plus I've been "renovating" 7 16 holers that I bought on ebay, another learning exercise!...
...but anyway, as I mentioned before, I have attempted a couple of "tabs" one was "O Holy Night" and the other was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and both times I got stumped by the "enharmonics" and as you mentioned, the 16 holer has all the keys in on place (so to speak) and 4 octaves...but I take encouragement from your words (even though I suspect you're modestly minimising your skills)

GeorgeIII

This is the table I use to double check the enharmonic equivalents:

[www.cyberflotsam.com]

Although you can find plenty of other sites with the same thing. So, when you look at the layout of a 16 hole chromatic, it'll either be in sharps or flats. But all notes are playable. As you see there, F# is Gb, so if your layout is in flats and the sheet music calls for sharps, check the table to see what goes with what. You probably won't see double sharps or flats often or ever, so you can ignore those ones. C#=Db, F#=Gb, E#=F, etc.

As the site explains, " there is a gap of 2 semitones between C and D. The note in the 'gap' between the two notes could be called C# (a semitone higher than C) or Db (a semitone lower than D). They both sound the same."

Anyway, music theory can be intimidating, and I don't pretend to understand even the "simple tutorials" I find online. So you're right, you're probably too worried about understanding the mumbo and the jumbo rather than focusing on what you need to tab. I can walk you through the process, and I'm sure you'll find you can already do this. If anyone else notices me making a cock-up here, be it minor or huge, please butt in. I don't pretend to be an expert and I've never tabbed for a 16 hole chromatic before, but here goes nothing...


First challenge I see is the following info:

"Hole one blow is C below middle C, so the next set of C's are middle C. On some 16 hole harps the first octave holes are numbered 1 to 4 with dots above them, then the remaining holes are numbered 1 to 12. Other 16 hole chroms are numbered from 1 to 16. It depends on the make, model and production date."

So I'm not sure which way it's best tabbed: to go 1-16, or 1'-4',1-12. You're the chromatic guy, so I assume you know what's more common. This is a good point for anyone else to jump in. But I can move past it because going that high or low doesn't happen that often. Now, it said the 1st hole is an octave below middle C, and middle C is...



That one. So the second C on your harp starting from the bottom will be that note.

I'll use the layout I found here:
[en.wikibooks.org]


That's for a 16 hole chromatic, key of C. I don't even know if they make other keys for 16 hole chromatics, but it doesn't matter because you should be able to tab and play anything on it; you have all the notes.

So now I can see what note is what. Now I need sheet music to tab. Here's a Muddy Waters Song:


Or, part of one. It'll be enough. First thing to note is the key signature. Next to the treble clef there's a sharp symbol. What does that mean? keep this site handy until you've done it enough to commit it to memory:

[en.wikipedia.org]

It's a sharp signature, so you'll be looking for the table under sharp signatures to see what that means. This one:



There's one sharp, so under "number of sharps," find one. You'll see that means it's the key of G, and more importantly, you'll see under "sharp notes" it says F#. This means that every F note in the song, UNLESS specified otherwise, is an F#. There won't be a sharp note next to the F, you'll just take for granted that all F's are F# (again, UNLESS specified otherwise). Every other note will be normal (once again, unless it tells you differently). That's why it's important to know the key.

So looking back at that line of music above, the first note is a B. You can tell because going up the ledger the lines are EGBDF (every good boy does fine), and the spaces are FACE. So that's a B, and there's a flat symbol next to it. That means that this B, AND all Bs for the rest of the measure, will be Bb instead (unless noted otherwise... again...). See the vertical line up the ledger a little way's after the word night? That's the end of the measure. All Bs will be back to normal again in the next measure (unless-- say it with me-- you're told otherwise again).

Now this is the part I might end up boobing up since I'm not familiar with chromatics, but from what I read I assume that note is -3*. I'm starting at middle C and working my way up on the layout to find the first A#. This is the part that sounds like you got stuck on: the layout I'm following lists the notes as sharps. To figure out what the equivalent to that is I look at the table from that first site I linked:



And find the box that has Bb in it. Also in the box is A#, so I'll want to find A# on my layout. If I'm using the 1'-4', 1-12 style of notation, I'll find that particular A# in the 3 draw, button in spot. (if you're using the 1-16 style, I guess it would be -7*, and again, I'm hoping a chromatic player rescues me here, but I'll go on as though the first one I said is preferable).

Now, how you write "three draw, button in" is kind of up to you, I'd follow community standard as much as possible, and overall be simple about it. 'Round here we typically use a - before the note to indicate draw, and a * to indicate button in, though some people do it differently. Again, your call.

So to start

-3*
Baby all day and all night. Yes, I've been

Don't be a dick rule of tabbing 1: include the freakin lyrics, and try to line the tabs up with them as best you can. Some people just put down a sheet of numbers, and it's pretty much impossible to follow for a dolt like me. You'll be tabbing this once, but other people will be playing it hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of times. Do the greater good and put the little extra work in so everyone else doesn't have to.

That being said, we move on to the next note. That's a G. The second G above middle C. Back to the layout, find the 2nd G above middle C aaand... 7 blow.

-3* 7
Baby all day and all night. Yes, I've been

No * after the number because this is just with the key out, not in.

The G is held for a while, but it's not necessarily up to you to indicate that. Some tabbers like to. I personally think it adds clutter and makes tabs harder to read, and instead assume the person playing it knows how it goes (hey, I can ask that much of them, at least). Another thing that's your call, though.

Next word is all, and see that funny symbol in front of it? That's an accidental. Remember How I said all Fs in this key are sharp unless you're told otherwise? That symbol is telling you otherwise. It means that instead of the F# you would have otherwise assumed it to be, this is just a normal F. And like the Bb before it, this will apply automatically to all Fs for the rest of the measure. According the layout, that's 2 draw.

-3* 7 -2
Baby all day and all night. Yes, I've been

ok, now I'm going to skip ahead to the last word there, "been."



Notice how he changes notes in the middle of the word? That can be a little tricky, because you can't always realistically hear in a song what the sheet music says is happening. Sometimes it'll claim they're singing a certain number of notes, but you'll only hear some of them. Listen to the song when you tab it, and play that part back a few times (you can find just about anything on youtube) to confirm that you hear what you're reading. It's a moot point here because I definitely hear him changing to another note just as the sheet says, so I'd tab that:

-5 -3*
be-en

from D to Bb. But what I'm trying to explain is, sometimes, try as you might, you just don't hear what the sheet is claiming is happening. I find this happens most often if it calls for 3 notes in one syllable. Typically I'll hear the first and third note, but no matter how many times I listen I only hear 2 notes, not 3. When I first started tabbing I was very literal about it, and would have done as the sheet told me regardless. Now that I trust my instincts and my ear, I'll try it a few different ways and play it the way that sounds like what I actually hear. But that's me.

The only other thing to warn you about is this guy:



Which note to tab? Well, in this case you can tell which one is the main vocal because it's fatter, so go with that one (or you could instruct the reader to play both notes, but that's not always possible, and you want to be consistant, so if it's not possible to play both notes all the way through the song, you'll want to pick). Sometimes they're the same size, though. In that case, safe money is usually on the top one. If you think the other one sounds better or more like the main vocalist, your call, but when in doubt go with the top one.

Don't be a dick rule to tabbing number 2: tab the whole song. Sometimes the sheet music will only give the vocal notes for the first verse or so, and in that case it's forgivable to tab a song partially. But again, the greater good here is to tab out the whole song if you can, rather than half of it and saying "you figure out the rest."

So, that stuff right there? That's all you need to know.

Site to tell you the key signature and what that means for your tab: check
Site that shows the layout of your harp: check
Site that tells you how to convert the flats into what's on your layout, or vice versa: check

You're ready to tab.

All you need from there is sheet music and someone to confirm that I didn't steer you wrong (especially with the notation style, 1-4 and 1-12 verses 1-16). Because I'm not an expert. Oh crap, I probably should have lead with that. Yeah, I'm not an expert.

And if you want to thank someone, I learned 90% of what I know from Gene and Deb (they're the ones around here who, unlike me, actually know what they're talking about) so they should be first in line. Unless of course I did cock this all up, in which case they'll be distancing themselves from me and pretending they had nothing to do with that.

EDIT: oh, a few other warnings I forgot to throw in--

1: EGBDF and FACE is for the treble clef. The bass clef follows different rules, so make sure you're not looking at a bass clef.
2: Key signatures sometimes change mid-song. Be mindful of that as well. The sheet music will indicate it, but it can be easy to miss if you don't pay attention.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2014 04:45AM by ,,,.

Since you mostly play a chromatic you can pretty much scratch out everything I said above!

Wow...some great information here, thanks ,,, , I appreciate this very much.

Looks like I'll be able to get back to my abandoned effort with "...Getting Sentimental..."!

(got to admit my first attempts were confused by the ""Hole one blow is C below middle C, so the next set of C's are middle C. On some 16 hole harps the first octave holes are numbered 1 to 4 with dots above them, then the remaining holes are numbered 1 to 12. Other 16 hole chroms are numbered from 1 to 16. but I think I figured it out now...!)

I don't know if it's my age or what...but this music learnin' is tufff!! but this will definitely help.

GeorgeIII

Hang in there, Mike! Keep working on your tab! You'll get it finished eventually. Just keep chippin' away at it, little bit by little bit, and you'll get it finished. Make sure you use the "View Draft" tool before you post your tab. That way, you can see what it's going to look like once it's posted to the site. If there's any spacing problems, or it doesn't lay out the way you want, you can catch these and correct them before posting the tab. (OR you can just "Edit Tab" that works, too.)

Anyway, it took me several weeks (if not a month) to get my first tab done from start to finish. Second one took me nearly three MONTHS. So, just keep working at it. It will get easier, and the building of your tabs will eventually get faster and smoother.

Glad to have you join the ranks of "Tabbers".

Thanks for the encouragement EarthDogHarpin...I appreciate all the help I can get

I'm getting along s-l-o-w-l-y...but in the process of the tabbing I'm also (trying) to tech myself as much music theory as I can, so I find myself continually "interrupted" by my own curiosity...(and banging my noggin' against the wall takes time too) but I like what I've done so far...

BTW...your tab of "Air on the G String" was one of the first tabs I used from HT!

So thanks for that too and I will definitely check out the "View Draft" tool...

GeorgeIII

Thank you for the kind words, Mike. So very glad you enjoyed the tab, too!