An Explanation of my Notation
I have tried make the songs as comprehensive as possible, but at the same time easy to read. A very good idea is to listen to the song or the ra. files while following the tab, that way you will get a much better understanding of my method of tabbing. I recommend that you print this out and refer to it as your reading the tabs.
Every "-" represents a quarter of a beat (eg. 1 e + a 2 e + a. - more elaborately...
1-ee-and-uh-2-ee-and-uh-)
{3} - means the three beats directly below it is a triplet. (eg. 1TL2TL3TL4TL -
more elaborately... 1 Trip-let 2 Trip-let 3 Trip-let 4 Trip-let)
______X times______
when there is... / \ "X" represents the number of times those
bars are played, it does NOT mean play that bar once and then repeat it X
number of times.
p. - piano (soft)
f. - forte (loud)
mp. - mezzo piano (moderately soft)
mf. - mezzo forte (moderately loud)
c. - crescendo (getting louder - keeps getting louder from where the "c." is written to the end
of the "<" signs).
dc - decrescendo (getting softer - keeps getting softer from where the "dc." is written to the
end of the ">" signs).
Cym = Cymbals
^ - ride cymbal
~ - bell of ride cymbal (the bell of a cymbal is the raised part in the center of it).
x - hit fully closed hi hat
@ - hit loose hihat (used in loud, heavy parts)
= - close hi hat with foot (also used when hihat is to be choked).
o - hit open hi hat softly
+ - hit bell of open hi hat.
X - crash cymbal (Dave Grohl often uses the ride cymbal as a crash and also uses two at once
so I won't go into the specifics of what ones he used where, it's up to you.)
# - splash cymbal
other cymbal stuff..
Choke - choke the cymbal
shoulder - this means shoulder the cymbal, this usually only occurs for the hi-hat. Should-
ering means to play every second hit with more forte. If you don't understand this,
take a look at the Milk It tab and listen to the song; the shouldering happens in
the first bars of the song for example. Another one is to listen to In Bloom, he
does it in the verses, and if you have a copy of the video clip for it you will
notice how he does it.
S = Snare
* - soft snare hit (also not as ghost note).
o - normal snare hit
O - accented snare
/ - stick across rim
X - rim shot
f - flam
F - accented flam
B = Bass Drum
0 - normal bass drum hit
(Dave Grohl uses only two toms, a mounted tom and a small tom, so in the songs that he plays I
have used these...)
MT = Mounted tom
o - normal mounted tom hit
O - accented mounted tom
f - flam on mounted tom
F - accented flam on mounted tom
FT = Floor tom
o - normal floor tom hit
O - accented floor tom
f - flam on floor tom
F - accented flam on floor tom
(Chad Channing used three toms, in the songs that he plays I have used these....)
MT1 = Mounted Tom 1 (the smallest one)
o - normal small tom hit.
O - accented small tom
f - flam on small tom
F - accented flam on small tom
MT2 = Mounted Tom 2
o - normal medium tom hit.
O - accented medium tom
f - flam on medium tom
F - accented flam on medium tom
FT = Floor tom
o - normal floor tom hit
O - accented floor tom
f - flam on floor tom
F - accented flam on floor tom
NOTE: if you have trouble differentiating between "0" and "O", because of your browser then let
me know, thanx.
An simple example with some guidelines.....
__{one bar}__
/ \
| | |
Cym X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
FT --------------------------------|
S ----o-------o-------o-------o---|
MT --------------------------------|
B 0-------0-0---0-0---------0-----|
1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1 (it can be counted like this).
NOTE: the mounted tom (MT) and floor tom (FT) lines normally wouldn't be in there seeing that
there is nothing played on them.
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