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Three String Tab Song Book?

I've been building and playing for about 3 years now. I mostly play 4 string guitars because that is what Im most familure with and there are lots of places to find uke tabs.

At this stage on 3 stingers I've mastered the major, minor and 7th chords and I can play all kinds of shuffles but I still feel very limited on a three string.

I've seen some amazing 3 string videos here and would love to learn some more interesting arraingements.

Is there a source for 3 string Tabs?

Are anyone of the many advanced players out there willing to share some of there top shelf licks and song arraingements in an Ebook?

I know The CB Nation is always making E albums. How about a book to inspire floundering players like myself.

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Curley on January 29, 2014 at 12:34pm

I've taken the liberty of tabbing out your arrangement, hope that's OK.

Attachments:

goodnight-irene.pdf, 23 KB

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Permalink Reply by Angela Separovic on January 29, 2014 at 6:17pm

Cheers Patrick, that is exactly what I'm looking for - a conversion from standard sheet music to CBG for musically-illiterate wonders like myself :) I can use this as a template as such, so I can work backwards from my basic CBG knowledge (courtesy of Keni Lee CDs and a digital tuner) and learn to read sheet music, and convert stuff myself. I learn better with real examples rather than theory - plenty of music theory on the Net but when I read it my brain goes 'blah blah blah'!

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Permalink Reply by Patrick Curley on January 29, 2014 at 7:04pm

you should thank Jim, he did the hard part.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on January 29, 2014 at 12:25pm

Thanks so much Patrick. Your comments in particular are what made me want to post something! As in almost anything limititations are usually from within and I certainly understand all of your points about putting a decent arrangement together with 3 strings. I'll post something else soon with alternating bass thumb picking. A lot of times the chords are more implied than totally spelled out. I used to take jazz guitar lessons from a real good player and a lot of stuff he played was 2 or 3 notes that implied a chord. Often the tonic was nowhere in there but you could still hear a chord! I hesitate to get too technical because it's always - the heart and the ear.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on January 29, 2014 at 2:15pm

Yeah that's OK Patrick! Pretty cool to see something I played this morning in Tab this evening!

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on January 29, 2014 at 7:24pm

I'm liking the idea of making some tabs. I usually learn stuff on my 3 string from 6 string tabs and transpose/translate it to my tuning. Is there somewhere it would be best to post them?

Also - I liked the idea of the tab spreadsheet - anyone have one set up for a 3 string which is based on a fretboard diagram? Can't read music!

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Permalink Reply by Rand Moore on January 30, 2014 at 12:22am

There's a CBN discussion group called "CBG Tabs" which is a pretty good place to post tabs. If we want to do a project to put together a book of tabs, should probably start a discussion over there and decide on the tunings, number of strings, chromatic vs diatonic, the tab format to be used, and type of songs/music and then request submissions.

I have some tabs on CBN that I did in ABC music format for 3-sting diatonic dulcimers, and I could re-do those for 3 string chromatic with a bit of effort. My tabs are melody only as I'm pretty dense when it comes to playing chords. The melodies are mostly folk songs.

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on January 30, 2014 at 2:22am

Richey, learning to read music is big plus and it's not that difficult, much less so than it appears when first looking at a sheet.

One instant advantage is being able to "see" the timing of the notes for an unfamiliar piece, something that does not translate well to tab.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on January 30, 2014 at 3:58am

Don't get me wrong, I don't 'rely' on tabs, I mostly learn music by ear. I think that a lot of folks on here would be after a simple means of learning tunes, such as tab. Now if someone could program a spreadsheet which generates tab from a fretboard diagram, I'd get started straight away! As for learning to read music... always been a bit intimidated by it. Then again, if I taught myself how to make guitars with no experience...

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on January 30, 2014 at 10:49pm

"Then again, if I taught myself how to make guitars with no experience..." Exactly. :)

The Mel Bay beginning guitar books from the 60's and 70's have a pretty good intro to sight reading and a glossary of musical terms in the back. I find them in thrift and used book stores regularly for a $1 or $2.

Armed with your current musical knowledge and one of those you'd probably have sight reading worked out in a day. Lots of info online too but I still kinda like the hands on and "no batteries required" of a book.

As far as generating tab from a fretboard diagram check out the Tux Guitar program.

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Permalink Reply by jeff maurer on January 30, 2014 at 2:20am

in the words of mark morton and willie adler(lamb of god) TAB IS FOR SUCKERS!! learn to use your ears. that being said if i get stuck on a song im trying to learn i will turn to tabs, but only as a last resort. first ill look through all my old guitar world mags to see if i find it there and if i dont i will go to a tab website to find it. i play a 3 stringer tuned A E A and i use 6 stringer tabs to figure out what i need, but i always try to play by ear first. when i was younger i relied heavily on tabs until i got into bands and started playn and jamming with other musicians. one way to train your ears is to play your instrument along with songs that you already know.