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Free Cigar Box Tablature Library

Did you know there is a fast-growing collection of FREE tablature for 3-string cigar box guitars over at CBN's sister site www.CigarBoxGuitar.com? It's true!

For those of you who aren't sure what tablature is, it is a way of writing out songs that shows you exactly where to put your fingers on the instrument to make the notes. There's even a video lesson by Glenn Watt to show you how to read the tablature and play it on a 3-string CBG.

The tab collection is up to about 45 songs, with 3 new ones just added in the last couple of days:

Build Me Up, Buttercup as performed by The Foundations - arranged by Glenn Watt
Camptown Races by Stephen Foster - arranged by Glenn Watt
Royals by Lorde - arranged by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker

Here are some of the other categories of song tabs that have been posted:

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Permalink Reply by Percy Phelps on February 20, 2015 at 7:34pm

Just wondering is there, or will there be, a selection of tabs for fret-less slide CBGs?

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Permalink Reply by TN Twang on February 21, 2015 at 4:47am

There's a real need for slide tabs. It takes a little practice to get the finesse to play lead with just a slide, but it can be done. When Glenn first started publishing fretted tabs, he and I had some communication over on another discussion area. Here are a couple of my responses (excerpted):

Oct. 18, 2014

"...I can make everything work on an unfretted, slide 3-string except for the 2-0-2 pattern 4 measures before the end. For that I need to put the slide on the 7th fret position and strum just the middle and bass strings--leaving the treble string silent. (I guess the tab would be x-7-7.)"

Later, Oct. 25, I got a little smarter (?)

"...After pondering some, I realized that I CAN play your "2-0-2" tab with the slide if I don't actually play the bass string. That way I can play both your tabs so far and the "2-0-2" just becomes "X-0-2" because I put the slide against the top string, second fret; play the middle string open; and don't play the bass string."

Meanwhile, in December, I got a copy of Justin Johnson's tutorial DVD for slide guitar. He doesn't use tabs, but offers some excellent rote-learning lessons on a 4 string. For 3 strings, when he tunes D-F-a-d, leave out the F; when he tunes A-C#-E-a, leave off the low A; when he tunes A-E-a-c#, also leave off the low A.

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Permalink Reply by TN Twang on February 21, 2015 at 5:00am

http://www.cigarboxnation.com/forum/attachment/download?id=2592684%...

Here's a sample of what I've been trying to do with slide-only.

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Permalink Reply by nacho on November 3, 2015 at 2:07pm

I can´t see any tablature :-(

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Permalink Reply by TN Twang on November 4, 2015 at 6:11am

Yeah! Took me a few minutes to figure it out. It's been a while since I looked at this.

1) Go to Ben's message at the top of this thread and click on a category: "Americana," "Spirituals," or whatever you want.

2) You'll get a page listing titles and part of their descriptions.

3) After choosing a title, click on the "Read More" button for that entry. Then (and only then) will a small version of the tablature appear--which you can click to download a full-sized PDF.

In short, the handy-dandy shortening of the descriptions causes the tabs to be hidden unless you click on the "Read More" button for a particular title. Possibly a bad design feature, but it makes the pages load faster because you don't pull down all of those images that you are not interested in.

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Permalink Reply by Edward Hardin on April 4, 2016 at 3:50pm

I've started to make/translate some songs from either 6 string or 3 string into 4 string. Can I submit them? Is there anyway to get more 4 string tabs?

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Permalink Reply by 3pefhwwnvfj2q on July 19, 2016 at 7:10pm

Are they blues songs? I would like to see them if you put them up anywhere. You probably can just post them on this thread.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Murphy on October 2, 2017 at 3:59pm

HI, Anyone know where to get chord charts for a cbg 3 string tuned to DAD?

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Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on November 15, 2017 at 3:49am

AC/DC's TNT

Tune to EBE

0*0*0 3*X*X 5*5*5 pause(mute strings after power chords played)

3*0*0 5*5*5* 3*X*X 0*0*0(tiny hesitation) repeat several times

T*N*T 5*0*0 3*X*X 0*0*0

There's more, the break down which starts on first fret 1*1*X then 2*2*X 3*3*X then continue on the fret marks to the bottom

I'll post a video soon of this, I'm just learning to play, but I play this half way decent and it makes it a little easier to play when you see and hear the cadence and mutes pauses etc.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Schoonmaker on July 3, 2019 at 3:52pm

"I am just starting out and want to know what is the first song I should learn on a 3 string "Tuned to open G". I guess the easiest so I will feel accomplished. I have no music background and wanted to pick up a hobby. Thanks…"