Saturday, May 2, 2009

Variation in Ab in Half-Step Down Tuning

If you don't know how to read guitar tab (as computer text), this section of a Wikipedia article may help.

This time, let's tune our guitars a half-step down, from low to high: Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb. We'll probably get into more detail about this tuning next week, when we are in E-flat. This time, we're playing the A, D, and E open chord voicings, since we're a half-step down, the key is Ab. Remember, like yesterday, keep it strum-happy and loose:


Ab Absus2 Ab Absus2 Ab
eb|--------0-----------0--0--|--------0-----------0--0--|
Bb|--------2-----------0--2--|--------2-----------0--2--|
Gb|--------2-----------2--2--|--------2-----------2--2--|
Db|--------2-----------2--2--|--------2-----------2--2--|
Ab|--0--0--0-----0--0--0--0--|--0--0--0-----0--0--0--0--|
Eb|--------------------------|--------------------------|

Db Dbsus2 Db Eb Ebsus4 Eb
eb|--------2-----------0--2--|--------0-----------0--0--|
Bb|--------3-----------3--3--|--------0-----------0--0--|
Gb|--------2-----------2--2--|--------1-----------2--1--|
Db|--0--0--0-----0--0--0--0--|--------2-----------2--2--|
Ab|--------------------------|--------2-----------2--2--|
Eb|--------------------------|--0--0--0-----0--0--0--0--|

Friday, May 1, 2009

Variation in G# with a Capo

If you don't know how to read guitar tab (as computer text), this section of a Wikipedia article may help.

We're essentially the same I IV V chords in Ab, but with a capo on the first fret. We're using the G, Cadd9, and D chord shapes (with a capo on the first fret, those chords are a half-step higher). So to try to make it easier to remember which chords you're playing, we're treating this key in G#. All finger positions in the tablature below are relative to the capo, i.e. and 0 = capo on the first fret, 1 = second fret, 2 = 3rd fret, etc. We're dealing with open chords, so feel free to be looser, strummy, and not precise to the written tablature:


G#
e|--------3--------------3--|--------3-----------3-----|
B|--------3--------------3--|--------3-----------3-----|
G|--------0--------------0--|--------0-----------0-----|
D|--------0-----------0-----|--------0--------------0--|
A|--------2-----------2-----|--------2--------------2--|
E|--3--3--3-----3--3--3-----|--3--3--3-----3--3-----3--|

C#add9 D#sus2 D#sus4 D#
e|--------3--------------3--|--------0-----------3--2--|
B|--------3--------------3--|--------3-----------3--3--|
G|--------0-----------0--0--|--------2-----------2--2--|
D|--------2-----------2-----|--0--0--0-----0--0--0--0--|
A|--3--3--3-----3--3--3-----|--------------------------|
E|--------------------------|--------------------------|

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