Song chords & Tabs. Original vs whatever

Mark_H

So I’ve noticed that there are various different ways to play a song. You get the original chords/tabs as the artist wrote it and then there are other chords/tabs that sounds the same, but isn’t. So what is the right way to actually learn the song?

Bluetone

This is tougher for guitar players than for most other musicians: guitars can play groups of notes at once (so anyone transcribing will need to be able to determine the notes by ear) AND the same notes potentially appear in several places on the instrument. For a pianist working out how to play a song, sure, there are clusters of notes to decipher, but one pitch occurs in only one place on the keyboard, so you don't have as much trouble finding out where to play. The answer becomes more complicated when you think of someone like Andy Summers, who at first played Message in a Bottle using only the E, A and D strings (requiring a lot of sliding around up and down the neck) but apparently years later switched to skipping string positions and including the G string to make that riff "easier" or more ergonomic to play. In general, I tend to think there is only one way to play a song, because even the minor nuances of position and string choice can make or break a cover version if you're striving for reproducing the song accurately. But many people are happy to just be in the ballpark, so to speak. Hence the gazillions of incorrect tabs out there. And if playing the song close enough to correct to be enjoyable is all that's needed, that's OK. Most people won't notice.

guidothepimmp

Agree with Blutones assessment. The "right way" is also debateable. If you mean the right way as in the way the original artist played it, then I guess it would make sense to see how he/she played it.
As Blue mentioed already.. with the guitar, you can play the same thing and sound ballpark right in different areas of the neck and using different strings. I reckon if you are hitting all the same notes, then it is right regardless of where on the neck its played.

I also think the feel and strumming pattern is more important than hitting 100% of the notes. This is the beauty of guitar..

Mark_H

I do agree,I was looking at for example Led Zeppelin's Immigrant song,from what I could see in the video,Jimmy Page plays the riffs higher up the fretboard, but according to the “lessons" it’s lower on the fretboard.

Then when I learned for example,7 nation army, they taught my the lower section of the fretboard, yet the actual song gets played all over the fretboard.

You are right about the strumming pattern as I have noticed that the correct strum makes all the difference and why La Grange,White wedding and when and where to use palm muting on 500 miles or Barracuda

Bluetone

I was saying in your other thread that original artists tend to play stuff that's in their wheelhouse - shapes and positions they favour habitually. I remember reading the liner notes of a Smashing Pumpkins B-side compilation where Billy said he had been struggling to play Stevie Nicks' Landslide (incorrectly) for years and all of a sudden James came over and showed him how it should be played (simply). Because of the duplicate notes situation, there is usually a difficult way and an easy way to play a song, and the original artist almost always played it the easy way.

V8

@Mark_H Good question, this kinda question is a big step forward in your musical journey.

Why? Because you are wondering why the heck guitarists do what they do (or how musicians make sense of what they hear & see). Blue's & Guido's answers are worth re-reading.

If you wondering, but why, why why are there so many ways to play the same thing? Well...frikkin' vocalists and other limited instruments (e.g. Horns)! While guitar/piano can (fairly easily) play in multiple keys, vocalists and many orchestral instruments tend to have a range of notes they can sing/play (we are not all Mariah Carey..thankfully!) so we humble guitarists need to be able to accommodate them... (This is all said with tongue in cheek ;p)

Maybe try learning on guitar something you can hum/whistle/sing without thinking. For me, it's nursery rhymes (Happy Birthday, Row yer boat, Twinkle Twinkle, Somewhere over the rainbow, Old McDonald, etc...). It's that first step of ear training, but also gets you to try out playing with something you can vocalise and see how it feels/works.

I'm happiest playing Row yer boat in E, but a octave up from the low e on guiatr - there it feels 'right' for my crappy vocals. But Old' McDonald I play in C - feels right there. And somewhere over the rainbow feels right for me in G. Happy birthday I do in D - though that's not really most peep's preferred key, works for me.

While there are right n wrongs for covers - there's (like mentioned) a lot of ways to skin the cat. Learning them all is (unbelievably) half the fun!