JFRocks.com TAB Notation Guide

Tablature notation guide

This is a page for those new here that are not familiar with my tabbing techniques. Let start by saying that I tab things in a way that quite frankly anyone under the Sun can easily read. I'm known for under-complicating or, UN-Complicating, complicated techniques, and tabbing them in a way that anyone can understand. Nobody is trying to impress anyone here, these are lessons, so I go out of my way to make things easy to follow and read. In fact I often simplify things in the tab to make them easier to understand, and then you can take it from there add in any extra flair that's needed...

This is a basic layout of the basic things you'll need to understand to follow JFRocks tabs. We tab in a 12 pt Tahoma font around here for ease of reading. I've put a short audio sample for each of the tab examples below to help you better understand how it should sound. Everything laid out below appears in JFRocks tabs, so once you figure it all out and get it down you should be good to go.

I will also usually give detailed notes along with my tabs, and of course everything has a video lesson anyway. Hopefully this page helps anyone having trouble following the tab.. Also note, that I usually space things in phrasing sections. What I mean by that is that I'll put notes close together that need to be played in a quick pattern, or space notes out more that are picked further apart..

Internet Explorer is our preferred browser around here with a screen setting of either 1280 x 1024, or, 1024 x 768.. 800 x 600 will not work well for our website and is NOT RECOMMENDED, in fact it will work like total crap for our website, virtually everything will go off the screen for you..

Kelly does design things to work with Firefox and other browsers like that, but if things don't line up for you for some reason, please break down and use Internet Explorer like 90% of the rest of the world does, the site will look a whole lot better to you... The whole point is the learning, not Browser Wars... lol ..

Fretted note example = 3rd fret, 5th string

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A___3__________________________________
E______________________________________

Bent note example = Bend 3rd fret 5th string up 1 step

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3^1_________________________________
E______________________________________

Vibrato = This example is NON-Whammy bar or standard vibrato

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A___3~_________________________________
E______________________________________

Vibrato = This example is with the Whammy Bar, or vibrato with whammy bar help in some way

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3~w.b~_______________________________
E_______________________________________

Whammy bar dive = To use the whammy bar to dive or bring down the note. Usually I will indicate if it's a fast dive, or a slow one but sometimes I don't..

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3>w.b slow dive>__________________________
E______________________________________

Bend and Release = Very Common, and it means to bend the note up to the interval indicated and release the bend back down to a natural state. Usually this is followed by a vibrato as indicated below.

E_______________________________________
B_______________________________________
G_______________________________________
D_______________________________________
A__3^1>release_3~__________________________
E_______________________________________

Bend and Release and pull off = Commonly this occurs, and it means to do the same thing as above but this time after you release the bend, you pull off to a note. NOTES in Italic are NEVER picked, they are always either hammered onto or pulled off to... This applies to scale downs, or any italic note that you see in my tabs...

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3^1>release_3-0_________________________
E______________________________________

Harmonic = This is a natural harmonic done on the string and fret indicated.. in the case of the example below, the 5th fret 3rd string.

E_____________________________________
B_____________________________________
G__5h_________________________________
D_____________________________________
A_____________________________________
E_____________________________________

Tap harmonic = These are easy to read in tab, the note not in parenthesis is fretted, and the harmonic is tapped at the fret indicated in parenthesis. In the example below you would fret the 3rd fret 5th string, and tap the harmonic at the 15th fret 5th string..

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3 h(15)______________________________
E______________________________________

Artificial harmonic = Sometimes these indicate a scream which means to make them louder. These are just the standard pinch type harmonics that are common with VH type playing. Sometimes they have a Vibrato ~ after them as well, and usually it's a good idea to give them a vibrato anyway..

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3a.h__________________________________
E_______________________________________

Hammer ons and Pull offs = These are always indicated with dashes between the notes. Sometimes the notes are in italic and when that happens it means that the pick never touches the strings..

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3-5-3________________________________
E_______________________________________

Trill = Trill is just that, it's a repeating hammer on and pull off pattern almost always without the pick ever touching the string, so they are in italic usually, or as most transcribers do are indicated with an example of where to do them followed by the word trill. Usually these are done to feel.. See example below..

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G______________________________________
D______________________________________
A__3-5-3>trill____________________________
E______________________________________

Any other odd ball or weird things are usually indicated by me with notes explaining what to do, or directing you to the video lesson.. Tunings are almost always given to the left of the tabs. I do it old school and indicate what the pitch of each string is in my tabs. The whole E, A, D, G, B, E thing. Sometimes if there is a Drop D tuning for example the bottom line will be changed from E, to D, as is the case in the example below....

E______________________________________
B______________________________________
G_______________________________________
D______________________________________
A_______________________________________
D_______________________________________

Chords = Chords are laid out in stacked patterns like any other tabs. If the notes are stacked they're hit together like a chord. Chord names are written above the chord in the tabs. This is so that you not only know what chord it is, but so that you can relate that chord to what's going on around it, or in the case of a solo, so that you know what you're soloing over....

E___0___________________________________
B___0___________________________________
G___1____________________________________
D___2___________________________________
A___2____________________________________
E___0____________________________________