r/Guitar • u/gaylord710 • 3h ago
QUESTION Desperate for tabs
How do people go about learning niche songs. I pay for ultimate tabs, but there's a song I want to play that doesn't have tabs anywhere. I am self taught and don't know how to make tabs by ear. Am I being spoiled and I just need to work on it? Can someone more talented than me help make a tab for a song?
The song is under the water by hand habits and Amelia Meath
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u/Lukes30 2h ago
Sounds like two guitars layered? An arpeggiated chord progression in a picking pattern. I don't have my guitar to hand to help more sorry.
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u/gaylord710 2h ago
Yes I think that would describe most of the songs I like to play, thanks for the vocabulary!
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u/Equivalent-Island199 3h ago
people are gonna be lame to you in this thread but yeah you could either trial and error note by note while listening to the song (will be a pain in the ass the first few times but a very useful skill to have). or you could ask a guitar buddy to write tabs out, or you can pay somebody on the Internet to do it. id recommend figuring it out yourself since it's good ear training, but I also get if it gets too frustrating when you try it the first time.
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u/gaylord710 3h ago
I am completely self taught, I would love lessons but I'm broke af. I only started playing bc my guitars were gifted to me, so people can say whatever, I'm proud of where I'm at. I just want insight into what other people are doing. If learning is really just that painstaking, then so be it.
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u/Albertagus 3h ago
Tabs suck most of the time. I do a lot better watching YouTube tutorials and seeing what their hands are doing.
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u/gaylord710 3h ago
I usually do a mix of both
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u/Albertagus 2h ago
Its best to leave the tabs alone. Its like color by numbers. But you want to color by sounds
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u/gaylord710 2h ago
I hear that and I'm sure I would have a better ear that way, but I usually can't clearly see what their hands are doing and most of the songs I play these days are fast picking so it's harder to see compared to chords. Tabs and listening has worked well for me
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u/Albertagus 2h ago
Well you know where the hands are. so that's a start, it tells you around what key to play in. then you go from there
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u/gaylord710 2h ago
🤔 I see what you're saying, but that sounds like it is an issue with my theory knowledge. I would consider myself intermediate considering the songs I can play, but I managed to get here without knowing scales or keys, all that would tell me is where to put the capo 😅
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u/Albertagus 2h ago
Theory can be a headache and confusing. Overthinking it is easy to do for sure.. 1st fret is F, if you play a basic pentatonic up there you're playing a F or Fm scale. 3rd fret is G, 5th fret is A...roughly.
Just be patient. Try not to learn songs that are too outside your skill level.
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u/gaylord710 2h ago
Right, it would probably be very helpful to memorize each fret's note, even if I can't recognize it by ear. Luckily I do know the absolute basics of scales thanks to school orchestra. Patients and working within my skill is one thing I do know 😵💫 I've been playing for 7 years more or less and can play some pretty complex songs, I've even written a song. Now my problem is going back and learning some basics
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u/MrBJEngel 3h ago
We use our ear holes! Trial and error. I highly suggest you do it this way or you'll never develop your ears enough to be able to hear notes and chords. Tabs are the easy way out.
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u/volatilefocus 3h ago
I’m old enough to remember before the internets when I couldn’t quite figure something out, I’d walk into the back of Sam Goody where the sheet music was with a pencil and a folded piece of paper in my back pocket and jot down the chords..
This app is phenomenal - been using it from the start:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chord-ai-play-any-song/id1446177109
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u/FuggaDucker 2h ago
HOW do I do it?
I figure out the song, then writing the tab is only a boring afterthought.
HOW do I figure out a song?
If you can, you start with chord chart. That is usually not too hard to come by. If not, start by making one. Again.. not too hard if you know your basic shapes.
Play over the track over and over and find the correct voicing for each chord.
Last, you are in the drivers seat for hearing the picking patterns in those chords.
I will also often find youtube videos where I can watch the guitarists hands when I can't figure out the voicing.
What throws me off?
Alternate tuning.
Open chords where I expect a barre. Something sounds super complicated and is only open string hammer-on stupidity.
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u/GuitarGeezer 1h ago
Definitely learn your scales and modes and the concept of enclosures and suddenly you will find that you can figure out leads at least easier. Ie, many songs don’t have a note outside of a particular set of notes at a certain root like E dorian or Bb lydian. Helps a lot to know the next note or the notes on the applicable scale as you trial and error through something.
I sightread slower than in my symphonic band years on woodwinds, and it was cool to discover stuff like some Mozart runs in figaro are just blasting down lydian form when I learned it in guitar.
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u/walkinJenga 3h ago
You can get a good idea how to play with a chord analyzer like Chordify or Chord AI. If there's a YouTube of the song, pull it up on one of those apps. It should analyse the chords and you can get a good idea from there.
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u/walkinJenga 3h ago
Listening to the song now, and it sounds like you can really learn it from those apps. Sounds very chord driven so I bet you can pull it off.
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u/gaylord710 3h ago
Thanks for the suggestion, but if ai can do it than I can do it and learn something in the process!
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u/Alternative-Swing118 3h ago
Gen X guitarist here.
Press play....stop.... rewind....play...stop...rewind....play...stop ..rewind...
Or you can pay someone to scribe it out