Tabs vs. chord symbols

SmilingPanda

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So I came across Brittni Paiva's awasome cover of "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift and the Civil Wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBwBlIBfpYY

and Brittni is kind enough to make the tabs available for free from her site...

http://content.bandzoogle.com/users/BrittniPaiva/files/Safe-Sound-tabs.pdf

My problem is that while the tabs are all there, I have trouble deciding which finger should go where... and while I can get a sense of the finger choices Brittni makes from watching the video, it moves too fast to really absorb it all (at least for my brain)

I almost feel like I would benefit more from a combo tabs/chord approach... like have the tabs but also provide the chords so that I can use the basic chord shapes for that chord to begin to make finger choices. I know tabs are used mostly for finger-picking style songs, but as a budding finger-picker, I often get stymied by finding good finger placement choices.

As a violin player I'm used to seeing the note in music notation and then for difficult passages there will be finger numbers over the notes to denote which finger to use to play each note in a passage so that it is easier to navigate.

Am I the only one who has this problem? I would think not... but maybe I am :p does anyone have any tips as to how I can get better at choosing the finger that make the most sense to play the notes in tabbed out songs?
 
Nope, you're certainly not the only one who faces this challenge.

I've seen some published books of tabs (like John King's classical book) where the fingers you should use are indicated. Only rarely have I seen any indication on tabs found on the internet.

However, it seems to me that most pop songs use standard chord shapes, frequently barre chord shapes, and then add picking on top for a different texture. My advice is to be patient and see if you can sort out which chord shapes the picking passages are based on. Sometimes it just takes a trial and error approach to find the fingerings that work best.
 
It really helps to know your chords backwards and forwards. Most "finger picking" is still based on chords - though they often get well off first position and move all the way up the neck.

If you know your chords in several forms and up the neck (I'm not where I should be on that last part, either) then it's a matter of studying the tab (or standard music notation) and deciding what chord shapes are going to lend themselves to being "picked around" for each passage. In most music there are no more than two basic chords per measure in the accompaniment (and very often only one) so the key is to look for the version of that chord that leaves you in position to get all the notes in the measure.

And by the way...just so you know...I still suck at this because I don't spend enough time working up my own arrangements and picking. LOL

John
 
It can be useful to have chord shapes when there are some (not so often sorry)... Another approach is to take each part independently and try all the finger combinations until you've find the easiest one (taking into account the progression from the bar before and after). When you've found the best combo write your fingering on the tab and move on. This is an excellent exercise to improve your tab reading skills and playing skills. After a few tabs you'll notice it becomes easier and easier... Of course it would be awesome to have finger positions on tabs more often... but tabs are a rarity in the uke world...
 
Thanks for the tips. I think the trouble I'm having is that when I'm given a chord symbol, I know what frets need to be pushed down and I know the most common finger placement for that chord. I am not very good at looking at a tab and figuring out "oh, 0, 2, 3, 2... that's spelling out a GM chord so I'm going to put my fingers in that chord shape and then arpeggiate it through the picking pattern."

I guess it seems the only way to get better at it is to take the time to go through slowly and figure out what chord is being spelled out by the fingerpicking pattern, and then think about what finger placement/shape works best in relation to the other chords around it.

I was hoping there was some sort of magic formula :p but apparently not.
 
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