can you stand another guitar question?

[gunsmith]

I've been playing acoustic off and on for 20 years and I got an electric
washburn (no whammie) and an amp but it's a whole different creature.

I can not figue out tabs and after all the craziness of family dying subsides
I plan on taking music lessons and finally learning to read music.

I know how to play an A chord at the 5th fret and an E on the seventh etc
Does anyone know what chords are used in that Bush song "everything zen"?
evrybody only list tabs and it doesnt make sense to me...

and my amp drives me nuts, it's allways hissing and crackling
and it seems to have two settings really loud and silent

[280plus]

Sorry I don't know the zen song but the amp problem could be a bad input jack or a bad cord. Always suspect the cords first.

[natedog]

This should get you going on reading tab:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/for_beginners/reading_guitar_tablature_ii.html

The only thing it fails to mention is reading chords from tab. When you have the numbers stacked on top of eachother, you know to play a chord, like

e----0
b----2
g----2
d----2
a----0
e----0

That would be an A major chord. If you want an easy way to figure out chords from tabs, go here http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/chord_name.php and plot the chord on the guitar, and the name will come up.

[Iain]

I assume you can barre chord, if so, an A major played at the 5th fret is a bar at the fifth, followed by the same shape you would use to play an e major at the first fret. Make sense? If so, then an Emaj on the 7th fret is a barre at the seventh fret followed by the shape you use to play A maj at the first fret.

[gunsmith]

oh I know that, when my nephew was (who lives on the other side of the continent) was showing me a song he said play a power chord on the 5th fret and I said "oh an A chord" strange...he can play lead but doesn't know the name of the chords or an E string from an A...I cant play lead but know all the chords up and down.

The Bush song "Everything Zen" is a perfect example it's a 3 or 4 chord song it sounds easier then lots of Rolling Stones songs I learned by looking at the chords and instead of playing (say) an A or C chord open I played it barred.
but in those seventies books they have the chord on top of the music, now everything is tab, I'm sure "Everything Zen" is something like E, A, G ...I just cant get it and it's driving me insane.
I can play "Paint it Black" by the Stones and "somebody got murdered" by the Clash and not this everything zen song?? aaarrrggghhh

[Iain]

Oops. You know sometimes I should slow down when I read. Every now and again I miss something important.

Does this help with the song at all - http://24.31.24.198:69/song.php?id=bush__EverythingZen - I don't know the song and oftentimes online stuff is just wrong, but you've got a mixture of chords and some basic tab, and maybe a decent starting point. I often use stuff like that as a starting point and then figure out which particular chord voicings and positions sound better to me.

When looking at the tab he puts there, see it as a progression. For instance, where he has 'E Thing' the tab shows that two open E chords are played (minus the high E) then a single G on the low E string (3rd fret) and then the lower three strings of an E chord.

[Guest]

I've been playing acoustic off and on for 20 years and I got an electric
washburn (no whammie) and an amp ...and my amp drives me nuts, it's allways hissing and crackling
and it seems to have two settings really loud and silent

That is unacceptable. What brand/model of amp did you get? Your amp is half of your instrument.

 I would advise not straying too far off the beaten path in both electric guitar and amp brands.

 One can still get a good Fender (Mexican) or Epiphone (like a Gibson) guitar for about $400. If you like your Washburn, keep it.

 The safest amp brands to get are Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa Boogie and Peavey. Yes, there are other good ones but leave that for the future.

Get a chord book and learn all of the first-position chords and at least the names of each note on the bottom (E) string, for starters.

[gunsmith]

Iain is a guitar God!  all ye aps thr posters with calloused fingertips must bow before him and offer indulgences!!!

[280plus]

No, I'm afraid CLAPTON is God. Iain can be a demigod if he'd like...

[Strings]

Tab is insanely easy to read, once you understand how...

Top line is the "high" string (E on guitar). The numbers indicate what fret the note gets hit at. So...

----------
----------
----------
----5-----          
----------
----------

would mean fretting the D at the fifth fret. There are other symbols: things for whammy dives, slides, bends, etc. But this is the basic stuff...


-------------------------------------------------0--1--3----
---------------------------------------0--1--3--------------
--------------------------------0--2------------------------
----------------------0--2--3-------------------------------
------------0--2--3-----------------------------------------
--0--1--3---------------------------------------------------

This is the tab for one of the basic scales I run. I've got several I run every time I pick the instrument up. I'll even sit in front of the TV with a movie in, just running scales: it helps limber my finger up...