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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 Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 29, 2014 at 4:26pm

Patrick,

I've been playing 6-string guitar since I was 17. I'm 54 now. I've been playing 3 and 4 stringed CBGs for the last 3 years. I usually play in 151, 153, and 147 (Keni Lee's A-D-F# with movable chord shapes). I can assure you, you can chord these things. If you don't believe me, check out my vids, especially my latest. Listen to the music on my Profile page. Yes, you are often playing chord fragments. Yes, you may have to learn to be a bit more nimble, in both your fingering and your thought processes. But you can play bass notes,either as drones, or as single note runs. I am making a conscious attempt to show what 3- and 4-stringed guitars can do, well beyond simple I-IV-V bar chords. I can also assure you, your 6-string playing will never be the same; it will improve because you've wasted your time farting around on with the limitations of a 3-banger. I'm with turtle and Robert on this one. Turtle plays some amazing stuff he calls boxgrass, and I can guar-on-dam-tee he's frequently chording his 3-stringers, because he comes from a banjo background.

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on January 29, 2014 at 5:24pm

Wouldn't A-D-F# also be considered the 513 for Dmaj?

Completely agree that the extra work of figuring out the 3 string definitely changes the approach to 6 string playing.

Turtle does some interesting things when he's playing...leaves me feeling like Timmy most of the time.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 30, 2014 at 6:22pm

robert,

You're correct. I was not thinking clearly when I wrote that, suffering after an evening of self-induced revelry. But it is an amazingly versatile tuning; I'm still exploring it.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Curley on January 29, 2014 at 5:27pm

I get it Ron, and I can see that my original post could have been a little more subtle. These guitars are clearly not useless for playing chords, that was a silly thing to say. I guess what I meant was there not much use to me, an important distinction that I regret leaving out.

Chord fragments are not chords though and the clear limitations of the instrument, while endearing, limit the music that you can make with it. That's fair enough, I can't play Beethoven's ninth on my 6 string resonator either. It's just that I think if you're trying to make interesting and accurate solo arrangements for a wide variety of tunes you're better off with an instrument more suited to that task.

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on January 29, 2014 at 6:31pm

Bet you can play the ending of the 9th...

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 30, 2014 at 6:20pm

Patrick,

No worries, I probably came off sounding cranky myself. I do understand where you're coming from, as sometimes I find myself wishing for a bit more bass oomph, for example. As my dad and granddad used to say "The proper tool for the job." But then I decided awhile back, as someone who has written lots of poetry in lots of forms, that a 3-stringer is to haiku what a 6-stringer is to blank verse; once you accept the limitations of the form, then your job is to figure out how to transcend the limitations, and create beauty. But, yeah, sometimes I still wish for more and deeper bass notes. Which is why I keep buying guitars…also, because my wife isn't willing to house a complete orchestra, and the only Beethoven's Fifth she'll tolerate comes in a bottle :-) .

Permalink Reply by TN Twang on February 25, 2014 at 9:43am

I've been tuning my 3-string slide instrument to G#-b-e. That's the top three strings of so-called Vastopol tuning. Just put the top 3 strings of a standard set on the instrument, but tune the G string up to G#. The unwound B and E strings are tuned like "standard" tuning--which helps you to learn regular guitar while practicing this.

This is the top half of "open E" tuning, which is pretty standard for slide players so they can chord by just laying the slide across the strings.

I'll try to upload a pdf of the music and tabs for "Amazing Grace" played this way and a computer-generated audio to give you an idea how it sounds. (Sorry I don't have a better recording.)

Attachments:

Amazing Grace--3 string slide guitar.zip, 21 KB
Amazing Grace--3 string.mp3, 537 KB

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Permalink Reply by Yankee Dog on January 29, 2014 at 1:12am

A point to remember with 3 string tabs written for a IVI tuned device is that they will work with any other IVI device. It does not have to be the same key. Thus, my DAD tabs will also work for EBE etc. It the relationships that matter, not the exact frequency of the notes.

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Permalink Reply by Yankee Dog on January 29, 2014 at 1:17am

speaking of writing tabs. I came up with this tab generator speadsheet. Put the musical notes in the top section and the tabs appear in the bottom. I wrote it specifically for DAD, but the same tabs work with any IVI tuning

Attachments:

Tab Generator.xlsx, 50 KB

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on January 29, 2014 at 12:15pm

Cool, thanks for posting the tab generator.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on January 29, 2014 at 11:11am

http://youtu.be/c3J9M7WQJ1E

Well Rob, I've listened to your uke playing and I suspect anything I can add would be a bit simple by your standards. You've done some beautiful stuff! Anyway some of the responses to your post suggest there might be some folks who could be helped by my meager knowledge. I don't really know how to post tabs but I've taught a bunch of people to play songs on 3 stringers and I'm more than willing to show how I put arrangements together. Don't know a bunch of slide blues but old trad and gospel is where my head's at right now.