Guitars, Music, Reviews!

There are a lot of tab websites that aren’t really worth much as far as the site layout but they have the tabs you need so you spend hours looking for the right ones. But really, these websites just take them (mostly) from other websites, and I’m pretty sure there’s nothing wrong with it. Kind of like putting a YouTube vid on your website that was created by some guy 1,000 miles away from you. Actually alot of times the major websites put a signature on all their tabs so you can find the good site.

My favorite tab websites are:

www.ultimate-guitar.com

UG has all kinds of tabs. They kind of lean more to the rock genre but its all user generated so it is really everything you can think of. I use powertabs and Guitar Pro tabs, and usually they will have every instrument that’s on the recording ( and are almost always RIGHT so you don’t have to waste your time repairing the tabs). UG also has video lessons and what I believe to be (I never use it) a pretty large community and  forums which are often helpful, especially for beginners.

www.chordie.com

Chordie, is sort of like google for music. It is a search engine type thing for tabs from websites like UG and others (it doesn’t show nearly all of them though) but they also have lots of tabs created for chordie specifically. Chordie also has a mobile style setting that you get when you go to it with a iPod or a cell phone which is often helpful (see below post if you’re interested in mobile tabs). The major downside to chordie is that it only shows text tabs or chord tabs, which are basically the lyrics of the song with the chords placed where they should be played. I prefer chordie for acoustics and UG for everything else.

If you have a powertab or gp5(6,7 whatever version) viewer you can go to the company’s website and usually find some good ones there.

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     Recently,  Agile Partners ( the creators of GuitarToolkit, a best selling music app) came out with a new app for music tablature on your iPod or iPhone. It’s basically like a updated version of  Guitar Pro or Power Tab for your iPod, except you cant create tabs from the program itself, just view and play  them.  It has capability for alot of instruments with GP tabs or Power tabs. The sounds aren’t great and it doesn’t play bends ( though according to the developers they are working on that) it runs smoothly and sounds pretty good for a small mobile program.

     I was just gonna write a long explanation to how it works but I figured I should just write a short tutorial, which will show you how it works.

When you first open the app, it has some default tabs in it, like the Star Spangled Banner (the regular version, I prefer to play the advanced version which you can learn from www.JamPlay.com). To add your tabs, there are two different ways to do it. I will warn you that this app uses a pretty good bit of battery juice so the second option may be better.

1. There is a built in web browser with the app, get there by pressing the + symbol, and download tabs. This will bring you to the web browser ( and obviously this feature requires a Internet connection), from there just go to your favorite tab site. Search a tab and pick one you want. If it is a Power Tab or Guitar Pro tab, click download file on the page ( TabToolkit supports Guitar Pro tabs, Power Tabs, Text tabs, and PDF tablature). I use www.ultimate-guitar.com and I know that they’re tabs work, as far as I know all tabs do but I have heard otherwise. That will start downloading the file, which only takes a few seconds.  If its a text tab, load the page and wait a minute then you will probably see this:

Tap the red thing at the top and it will download and ask you to put in some info about it which isn’t necessary but very helpful.  That’s pretty much it for the first option.

2. Upload from your computer. At first I though I’d never use this but I actually love it. What you do is open the app and tap plus, but leave it on that page rather than tapping download tabs. It gives you a URL which is really http:// [your IP address]. Go there in your computers web browser, and if you should see this:

(I am assuming you have a GP file on your computer or a Power tab, or some form of tab.) Click “Add Files” and find the file if its a GP tab, etc. If its a text tab copy and paste it into the lower box. When you do this it sends it over your IP to your iPod, and your iPod downloads it. I usually do this while my ipod is charging. Please note that you have to be at the upload files page in the app, otherwise when you go to the page on your computer it won’t work and you’ll get an error from your browser.

So that’s how you get what you want on there, you just tap whatever tab you want to view and it shows up like this:

or if its a text tab like this:

 That’s the basics, but there are so many great features I decided to just add a couple videos from the developers.

This one is pretty much the commercial for it.

TabToolkit Intro from John Berry on Vimeo.

This one is demonstrating the sounds.

TabToolkit Instruments Sampler from John Berry on Vimeo.

Well that’s all for now, I will probably be putting some more posts involving any major updates. I really love this app and it can be purchased from the App Store for 9.99 it is a more expsensive app but it’s comepletly worth it.

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I’ve been messing around with some recording/mixing software lately (a.k.a  DAW) and one of the was this Sony program. It’s really amazing! It has great MIDI and looping features and is very easy to use with a little practice.

I found that the recording sound quality was slightly less clear than other DAWs, like Reaper (at least with my set-up).  But the features I think outweigh that because it is very minor. I’m just getting started with these programs and figured I would kind of write about them and show some features and how-to’s.

I really like the whole DAW (I actually forgot what it stands for but I’ll remember soon ) thing and I’m excpecting to get pretty good at many different programs. I will also be posting demos of things I make either with MIDI files I find, or original stuff I recorded.  Most of these demos I will not copyright and let you use with credit and telling me where and how you used it.

I made a kind of metal riff just a few minutes ago…acid_express_demo

That is made up of a couple 8packs that I got. I will write about them later because they are a very cool part of the Acid community.

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I went to see Disciple and everybody play the other day. Skillet has some great songs coming out on they’re new CD! More guitar (w/ heavy distortion…duh) and a heavier sound.  Kevin was playing bass for DD, and Micah (Disciple Lead Guitarist) now has a new hairdo and a slightly different style that I suppose originated with the new CD, Southern Hospitality. Instead of Gibson SGs, the band is using mostly Fenders and Paul (is it Read or Reed?) Smith guitars. Of course these Fenders are custom and have two humbuckers in them.  If you want to see if they are coming to your town, go to www.DiscipleRocks.com or www.Skillet.com, or www.myspace.com/skilletmusic .

P.S. Micah has now mastered his show. He incorporates BACKFLIPS and all the rest of the jumps that involve large amps.

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Ok, This is going to sound really nerdy and un-play4theworldish but I have finally made a video game! I have made small annoying little programs before but now I have made something that is actually fun to play! I have tried almost every free game engine out their and none had good results (except wild pockets but I can’t afford to get maya). I finally decided to use Roblox. I originally thought that it looked stupid because of the block people walking around. But it is actually really fun! The game engine is REALLY easy. Their is scripting but usually the models you insert already have it in them or there is another file for the script. It uses Lua, which is a simple game programming language. Much easier than any C type.

If  you would like to see my game you can go to roblox.com and search TheGuitarGuy or go here.

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     I got a new electric guitar! Or at least I have a new guitar, I got it a few weeks ago but haven’t gotten a chance to write about it. It is a Ibanez SA with two AXIS humbuckers in it (6 and 5) . It is the 120 model so it has the (I should say “the best”) dark mahogany stain finish. It has 22 frets and a rosewood fretboard. Another of my favorite features is the bridge and whammy. I almost didn’t buy it because there was no lock on the top of the nut to keep it in tune after a lot of whammy. This bridge sort of floats, it has a very light touch to use the whammy and (for some reason I can’t really explain) it doesn’t go out of tune unless you REALLY use it a lot. Also, I like the head. I am used to the Fender head on my silvertone copy of a stratocaster. When you play at the top of the neck (Bb F bar chord, etc.) it is hard to find a good hold with your thumb.  The head on this guitar has a almost carved groove to put your thumb! Not a huge thing but I like it.

If you want to know more ( specific specs. etc.) you can go here.

I would also like to anounce that I am no longer doing the tab tusday posts. There wasn’t enough feedback and it is on a bad day for me to do posts.

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Here is another of my tab Tuesday posts, if you want to see former Tab Tuesdays, you can look directly below this post . There was a small mix-up with last weeks  and I did a tab that I had already used. I didn’t notice until two or three days later so I am sorry for that.

My tab for this week is my own work (not the song but the tab).  I will also put the notes up for anyone who wants to play it on Piano. This song is In The End by Linkin Park.

As usual, standard E tuning and medium to heavy distortion (In my opinion, the heavier the better).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
-------4-4-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
--2---------5-4-4-4-4-5h-2-----------------------------------------------------------------|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

OK there it is, I added the after the hammer on because it is emidiately after, but actually you repeat, I some times change the rhythm after two or three times through.

And here are the notes for Piano in order:
B F# D C# D and repeat.

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This is week 2 of my tab Tuesday series.  If you came here from or are familiar with foreverwherever.com you should be familiar with this setup. I don’t have the same system though. This is supposed to be a community type thing where people put up their favourite tabs, or even songs they don’t like a whole lot but they know the tab works. If you would like to participate juts leave a comment with your tab.

Here is my tab:
It is not a very complete tab. The chords and rythem are right for most of it and the chords will work for the whole think but sometimes feel out of place. If you are playing for an audience you my have to work on it a little more.

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This is the tab day I have been talking about. I am writing a tab for Smoke On the Water.
I hope that some of you can leave a comment with your tabs or your favourite ones.
Here it is:

Tuning: EADGBe

——————————————————————————————|
——————————————————————————————|
——————————————————————————————|
——————————————————————————————|
—5–8–10—-5–8–111010–5–8–10—8–5————————————|
—3–6–8—–3–6–9-8-8—3–6–8—6—3————————————–|
That’s about it, it basically repeats the whole song.
I know about 5 different versions of this song and I may put up the other ones soon.

Please note that the numbers are supposed to be aligned and in one chord but the font gets messed up with the double digits.

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