Tab notations

Hi guys. I'm new to UU. I'm wondering what does the Q and E on some of the tab means? There's also double "o"s lined up vertically.


View attachment Utada Hikaru - First Love.txt

cheesielee said:

There's also double "o"s lined up vertically.

Click to expand...

I think those are called the number "8" jk

Welcome to UU! I'm not seeing the vertical double o-s on the tab. The Q and the E are explained a bit in the legend at the bottom of the tab, namely that a q is a quarter note and an e is an eighth note. I've actually never seen a tab written like this, but looks like the line immediately above the tab (where all the "E"s, "Q"s, "W"s etc are at) is giving you the length you should play the note on the tab directly beneath it. Are you familiar with basic musical notation (like the difference between quarter, half, eighth notes etc?) It's actually kinda nice they did that, and if you had the patience/desire you could easily write this out in standard musical notation, but that would also be somewhat redundant since that won't add anything to what the tab already gives you.

The line directly above that where you see things like Gsus2, G, Dsus2, etc are the actual chords that you could be playing if you're strumming. They also give you a hint as to how to form your hands over the fretboard and *may* make it easier for you to know where/when to move your hands between the different chord shapes naturally.

Looking at the tab, looks pretty normal other than that. Though, I'm not sure what the "L" means (in the 7th measure for instance). You got me there. As far as things being vertical to each other, that generally means that you play all the strings at the indicated fret at the same time. Does that answer your question about the vertical 0s?

Where did this come from? Can you ask the person who made it? I'm not sure what that L is either.

Hi Cheesielee

Q stands for a quarter note, that is one measure is made up from four quarter notes (4 times 1/4 = one whole measure). If you say "1 - 2 - 3 - 4", these numbers match the beats and you get quarter notes.

"Q." is a bit different. In music notation, "." indicates "one and half times" so "Q." means the length of the note is 1 beat plus one half beat.

Notice the first measure has two "Q." and one "Q". Two of (one and a half beat) notes make 3 beats and then you have "Q" which is simply a 1/4 note (one beat) so you get a total of 4 beats, which is one measure.

"E" is an eighth note, 1/8, aka, one-half beat.

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I don't know "L". Maybe it is a rest", meaning you do not play anything. In TAB, it's sometimes easier to put something in instead of mark the note duration carefully.

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I cannot find "double o's" in this TAB. Maybe it is the repeat sign?

Cheers
Chief