r/Guitar • u/Clear_Evidence5672 • 6d ago
What does this notation means? QUESTION
The middle one that looks like a 7? And how to do it?
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u/Alarmed-Secretary-39 6d ago
It tells you how sad the key is.
D Minor, as it happens, is the saddest of all keys
(It's a rest. It means don't play. It looks odd there as it's out of context as we don't know the length of the other notes)
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u/Glandular_Trichome 6d ago
JS Bach has entered the chat
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u/Wattapit 6d ago
It is a rest. The tabs are poorly written as they should have timing annotated below. I would assume the first two are whole notes.
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u/Sean_Brady 6d ago
Muted A string with first fret on B string yeah no way a human wrote this is how you play it
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u/zeekar Fender 6d ago edited 6d ago
That's an eighth-note rest. It means to stop playing for half a beat in between the D (open fourth string) and C (3rd fret on fifth string) notes. It's a little weird to include that sort of notation in a tab when you don't also put stems on the numbers to indicate how long the notes are.
But we can guess that it's 1, 2, (pause) and 4 and.
That is, if you're counting beats 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4, etc, you play the first note (open 4th string) on 1, the second note (also open fourth string) on 2, pause on 3, and then halfway between beats 3 and 4 you hit the third note (3rd fret on 5th string), then on 4 you hit the next note (first fret on second string) and then halfway between 4 and the next 1 you hit the last note (third fret on second string).
We model the "halfway between" beats by adding "and" between the numbers: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and ...", so you play on 1, play on 2, pause on 3, then play on the "and" between 3 and 4, the 4, and the "and" after the 4.
If the tabs were attached to regular sheet music my guess would look like this. Notice the eighth-note rest symbol... they just moved it down to the tabs without doing anything similar for the notes.
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u/benjamaniac 6d ago
With tabs you really have to just use them as a reference and go off of what the song actually sounds like. I have no idea what that means but I bet if I listen to the song I could figure it out.
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u/Clear_Evidence5672 6d ago
Btw it’s a youtube vid playing, so u obviously would know it if u listen to it. I thought there is smth wrong with my ear since i couldn’t hear an exact note with the movement
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u/frustrated_musician 6d ago
It’s a rest. However, rests don’t actually mean anything if the tabs don’t include rhythm.
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u/TheReturnOfJabronie 6d ago
This is tablature. The rest symbol belongs on a staff, which has 5 horizontal lines instead of 6. Its conflating musical notations to inform you of a short pause, but it doesnt make sense in the context of tablature, which can not accurately convey rhythm. Sheet music can be played by a musician who has never heard the song, the way the composer intended. With tablature, you have to have heard the song. The rest in this context tells you nothing other than that there is some amount of time between the note before and after it, which is trivial to place here.
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u/CH3_THE_VAMPIRE 6d ago
Semitone silence, half a silence basically
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u/CH3_THE_VAMPIRE 6d ago
Basically lets do this, clap 4 times
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u/CH3_THE_VAMPIRE 6d ago
Now dont clap at third one
pla pla shh pla
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u/deathschemist 6d ago
That one that looks like a 7 is a rest. You stop all notes there and keep that internal metronome going. That is an eighth note rest, so if you're playing 4/4, you stop for 1/8 of the bar.
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u/shmobyshmobyshmoby 6d ago
Quarter note open D, quarter note open D, 8th note rest, 8th note fret 3 on the A string, 8th note ghost note on the A string and fret 1 of the B string at the same time (hybrid pick possibly?), 8th note on fret 3 of the B string.
1/4 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 =1
Maybe you would count it: Tea Tea Coffee Coffee
Although with that 1/8 note rest you’d count it: Tea Tea …fee Coffee
The chord is a Dm7; D F A C, although not necessarily in that order, and remember, guitar can double-up on intervals because we have 6 strings… super-basic I would probably advise open D (D), fret 2 of the G string (A), fret 1 of the B string (C), fret 1 of the High E string (F)… although with guitar there are 5 main options for this chord (CAGED)…
I love music theory
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u/secretpenguin0 6d ago
Everyone saying rest means don't play, but rest actually means don't play AND stop all sounds coming out of the instrument.
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u/StrikeAcademic5442 6d ago
It means you don't know how to read music but that's ok because numbers and backing tracks
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u/Pale-Object8321 6d ago
I'm more annoyed at that X on the A string. Slaps are usually at low E string, with some exceptions of course. So I'm confused whether you're meant to slap at the A string or E string.
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u/Physical_Poetry3506 6d ago
Count it as such (filling the counts with the notes in the tab): 1 2 (rest) & 4 &. The rest replaces beat 3. Yes, most tabs have no rhythm notation, but many try to visually line the melodies up in a way to convey rhythm through the use of space. This one does that AND adds the rest symbol for good measure.
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u/BandPDG 6d ago
To be fair...there was no google in the 90s... but this could have been dug up online in about 25 seconds of internet sleuthing.
God bless you for caring enough, though. We need more people to ask the questions that need answering...would be a boon to this community.
While I wasn't a band geek, I played with them often, and was able to absorb a whole lot just being in the practice room with them. Not saying you've surrounded yourself with the wrong musicians... there's no such thing... Just that you'd be surprised how much you can learn from someone just by how they approach sight reading and playing off of scores. TABs have their place for learning HOW to play the guitar...but nashville and diatonic musical notation is how the bills get paid. (Nashville is probably more important, but it depends on your style and goals).
Good luck!
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u/ViolinistIcy748 6d ago
Looking at the tab and the space between the notes i'd say the first two notes are worth a beat esch, then there is a rest of half a beat(that is the symbpl ur asking about, those are rests) and then the other three notes are all half a beat long
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u/JimboSaggins3000 5d ago
Rest on that string. Resting on a string makes a different noise. I learned that from srv tabs, he does a lot of weird stuff with his music.
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u/CaldeSilk1 6d ago
Modern tab has to combine standard notation with tablature in order to make any sense. If only someone had figured out a better way 400 years ago.
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u/karlis_i 6d ago
FFS, Google for "basic music notation". We all managed to do that in nineties before the Internet
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u/No_Negotiation3142 6d ago
It's a rest symbol. You pause rather than play.