Always struggled. At age 52 I have only ever learned 2 songs from tab! A long time ago I thought I'd have a go at the slightly cheesy film ballad 'Top Gun', partly because the wife hates everything I ever play but she likes that one. Anyway, being hopeless I have been struggling when it ups the stakes on the flash front. I was using tabs and a BT that was in Guitarist many years ago, and one phrase I could not get at all. Anyway, revisiting, I watched someone else play the bit that my fingers refused to accept and he played it a much easier way! Why do some published tabs try to play things in a difficult way? If it sounds the same then why not make it easier! I couldn't find a video of Steve Stevens plying it, so I have no idea how he does it, but most other videos I have looked at people play it the easier way.
Likewise, I have an official Thomas Blug transcription book, endorsed by him and with his notes through it. I checked a particularly awkward phrase on Youtube and even HE plays it an easier way! I can understand amateur TABS being off, but I think it's a bit poor when pro ones are not as good as they could be.
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Before Youtube and Internet, tab's were vastly more important. I learned loads from tab books and mags like Guitarist. Some were way off too despite costing a lot of money.
These days tab sites enable anyone who's been playing 5 minutes to upload their "version". It has made finding an accurate transcription almost impossible, I certainly don't bother anymore.
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Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
There are so many places on a guitar's neck to play the same thing that your particular notion "easier" is inevitably going to reflect the very way you learnt guitar in the first place.
And the other reason I can think of is simply that the "easier" way didn't occur to the transcriber at the time. E.g. I've been playing the solo in "Baggy Trousers" perfectly well but the other week it occurred to me that a couple of phrases are simply arpeggios of minor chords so my transcription from a month ago would look totally different to the way I play it now.
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But the other notes can be played exactly in the "cramped" way (skipping the G string) as an alternative to the "stretchy" way.
I'll see if I can do a video this weekend!
EDIT: Ah, I get what you're saying now I've seen your vid -- it's about the open E, the D, and the fretted E all ringing simultaneously throughout, and that sounds more exact than the way I play it which has those notes but only two of them at any one time. Basically your way uses the top three strings; mine, the top two only.
@bingefeller Holy crap! You reckon? Are you planning on using hypnotism? Accelerated learning? NPL? Scientology? Tom Hess?
Whatever it is, if it works I want to know how to do it!