I bought this book when I first started playing. You didn't mention that the best part is in 'Delivering the Goods'. For the lead break in that song, it simply states, "if you can play this, what do you need us for?" No tabs, no standard notation for that part, nothing! I'm dead serious.
I learnt early on my transcribing by ear days the mantra: "if it seems hard to play, look for another way". Most guiitarists play stuff that comes easy to them (discounting people like Jake E Lee with his freaky stretches). That lighbulb moment when you realise that the crazy-tricky lick or riff is actually easy if you play it on a different string is great. I suspect that a lot of these tab books were compiled by keyboard players.
a lightbuilb went on in my head when i relized ac dc is a mix of open strings, muted strings, ringings strings and chords thrown in, but rythm is everything. if you have a an easy to play thing but outstanding rythm, it will rock automatically. look at whole lotta rosie or let there be rock, those songs blow your socks off, but the secret is the thight rythm, not the overcomplicated playing
Two rules about guitar playing that i've learned early, and that helped me a lot, were : if tab looks very difficult, especialy if notes are all over the place, it's wrong - guitarists always use as little space as possible to convey emotion. And if something is played very fast, it's usually very simple, and it's because of the speed that it sounds confusing.
I swear to god man you nailed this real good. When I was a kid about 13 or 14, I had that book and others. I dumped my guitar and never went back. My thoughts were precisely as you described. I was like, what am I doing here. I can't play, I'll never be able to be as good as them in my life. I'm useless. Now at age 57, the wife bought me an Angus Young signature SG And a Marshall for Christmas last year. They still haven't been out the box yet. It terrifies me to even begin trying. At my age, I'll die a happy man if I could just play 2 or 3 AC/DC songs fully. But I swear, as a beginner, those tab books are evil and will crush your soul for a lifetime. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience.... or sever lack of, depending how you see it!! Excellent video and advice there young man. Very well done.
Don't give up! I'm 56, and I more or less abandoned electric guitar 30-odd years ago to focus on bass, which was more natural for me. I still strummed my acoustic now and then (so that I wouldn't forget my chords), but I more or less stopped learning anything new on guitar by the time I was 23 or so. Then, during the pandemic, I got bored and picked up a new Ibanez electric, and I've been having a ball with it since then. I still suck at it, but I'm having fun. Having RUclips available has allowed me to finally *see* my favorite players in action, and it's revealed a number of places where I was making something more difficult than it needed to be. The key, I think, is to follow the advice I saw on a T-shirt: "I play guitar because I LIKE it, not because I'm GOOD at it!" Especially if you don't have any plans to start a band or play in front of other people. Just have fun with it, and who cares what anybody else thinks?
@ImSunk_Too You should really open up that guitar and amp, and start somewhere. There are sooooo many good quality online learning opportunities out there, and I think Mike offers lessons as well, so I'll refrain from mentioning any of my favorites. You have WONDERFUL wife that provided those gifts, show your appreciation by finally busting them out of their boxes and starting the learning journey! You can do it! So many good opportunities to learn these days....give it a shot! You've got some great equipment to get started!
My old cover band played Living After Midnight and Hell Bent for Leather. Hell Bent for Leather usually went over like a turd in a punch bowl but we kept it on the setlist anyway because we liked it and it's a short song.
Me too. I use to have a stack probably a meter or more high. The strange thing is that there is either some copyright issues that have never been addressed or the band weren't given the option for approval or they didn't really care.
I swear learning music back in the days of gathering pieces of lore from guitarworld and melbay was awful youtube was such a game changer for learning stuff in 05.
Same experience. I blamed myself for "not doing something right" for years. I even gave up on some songs (or especially whole books) because I thought I was just not sharp enough to play guitar.
I’ve known several people that were pro transcribers for tab books like this, one even did the Hal Leonard Recorded Versions Guitar of the Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced album, and they were all high AF every waking hour of the day…
I must have had a later edition of that book (probably purchased in 1983), because the tabs were largely corrected (compared to the versions seen in this video), if still not perfect. The Hell Bent for Leather main riff was definitely transcribed differently in the copy I had. The first part of the solo was shown as being tapped, not picked, but it made the mistake of placing it all on the 1st string, so it required a bit more stretching than playing it on the 2nd string does. That book did, however, cause me to make one mistake that I think really hampered my playing back in the day. The edition I had included interviews with Glenn and K.K., and in one of them, Glenn says that he uses "thin" picks. Unfortunately, it didn't get any more specific than "thin", so my 17-year-old brain connected that to the extremely thin Dunlop nylon picks. The problem this created was that, because those picks were so thin and bendy, I ended up unconsciously using the tip of my index finger to reinforce them, with the result being the very tip of my finger striking the strings just ahead of the pick. I eventually dumped the electric guitar in favor of bass (which is really my true instrument). But I've picked up the guitar again now that I'm in my mid-50s, and thanks to RUclips and other sources I have learned that most metal guitarists use quite "thick" picks, and that's made quite a difference. I've gradually worked up through heavier picks, to where I'm now using 2.0mm Dunlop FLOW Ultex picks. And I've spent a lot of time consciously working on my pick grip to keep my finger out of the way.
Man, this video is so true. I learned in the heyday of the guitar mag and tab book, the late 80's and early 90's. For years I was frustrated by Rush's 'The Spirit of Radio'; every tab I saw in the magazines back then had Alex doing a weird hammer on from nowhere type lick on the 3rd and 4th notes (3rd to 5th fret on the B string) of the iconic opening riff that I just couldn't get down no matter how hard I tried. Then when I finally saw Alex's playthrough/lesson a few years back, I felt so vindicated. What I thought had been 'cheating' in the way I play it (pulloff 3rd fret to open B string) is the way Alex actually has been playing it all along. Score!
I actually gave up learning guitar when I was a teenager because of these crappy books and took up bass instead. Later on in life I actually learnt how to play lead guitar. So even tho I gave up as a teenager I did reach my goal as a guitar player in my 40’s. 🎉😮😂
being 22 and learning most of my guitar knowledge for 2 years on RUclips (can't afford lessons) this series is absolutely mindboggling to me. I dont get how these books that were printed and published could be so wrong. The internet truly is a wonder and a place to learn anything. If I was trying to follow these books back in the day, I wouldve 100% given up if I didnt have a teacher like fuck these books are terrible.
First time I noticed, can’t remember if it was KK or Glenn, getting that A on the fifth fret E string, instead of open how you played it… and how I see most people play it. I’ll have to try that sometime. I remember when I first learned it I guess around 1984, when I was 14, we would play it in the second position-using open A and E strings, ha ha. How a lot of beginners played it, and so did I. Breaking a law is a great first song to learn, no guitar solo. Back to Crazy Train, I’m sure you could find some great old funny tab for that song. I remember those tabs always being all over the place. Or even early tab for Eruption, took until just a couple years ago for someone great like Alan Garber to come in and transcribe such a great piece for guitar world. Even Steve Vai‘s transcription from the 80s is pretty funny. But apparently, legend has it, that he quickly transcribed it without even using a guitar. 🤘🏻😝🎸🇺🇸
Man, I just love these videos so much. Your style is so engaging and I really appreciate hearing your own story of learning guitar and tab books weaved in.
2:19 I write quite a bit of music (Jazz band) and a common mistake arrangers make is doing stuff like this to make it a little bit easier (less ledger lines) but forgetting to have the treble clef be the 8vb Bassa (a little 8 at the bottom of the clef that indicates you play what's written an octave lower. As for the tab, my guess is they did the common method of Copy+Pasting the Notation onto the tab and the tab suffered because of the initial forgotten Treble with the Ottava Bassa. This copy and paste method is my theory, but It explains why there are often inhuman jumps on the fretboard
Man, this is spot on. I can't tell you how many tab "books" I wasted money on over the years that were totally wrong!!! LOL. Great video! Oh..you inspired me to purchase this exact model Jackson with this color! :)
My first practice rig was a Crate GX15 and a DOD Thrash Master. I was finally able to play "One" and "This Love" without having to stop and switch channels on the amp, lol.
When I learn songs, I've always had to try and learn the whole thing. I'm kinda OCD that way, plus if I really love the song, I couldn't stand not learning it all lol. I started playing before there were tabs. I learned by ear. If the tabs were not right, I would learn it the best I could by ear. I used to rewind my tapes so much, that it wore thin, and I would have to buy another copy. CDs sucked to try and learn a song. One thing that blew my mind, was when I learned Diary Of A Madman. I started learning it by ear, and then when I finally got the tab, I looked at it, and had learned it right (that is if the tab was right) lol. You Rock Mike! Love this series!❤️🎸🎵🤟😜🤟🎵❤️ Edit: The tab version of Hell Bent For Leather sounds like a ZZ Top song!🤣
My very first concert was Judas Priest screamin for vengeance/ Iron Maiden Number of the a Beast so I've been a Priest fan forever, and since I started playing guitar I totally forgot about this song. IT'S SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY!!! Thank you!!!
I don’t know if they still have it, but they at least used to have The Ripper tabbed out on the official Judas Priest website incorrectly. It only has like four riffs in the whole song and they were all tabbed incorrectly.
Another nice video. So many wrong tabs/ tab books. When I started playing guitar I was not confident enough to trust my ears when I noticed something was not right. So frustrating And it always reminds me of an Dave Mustaine video where he said « all the tab books are wrong. If you wanna play a song, figure it by ear, or ask your teacher, or the guitar player who wrote the riffs » And I think that is was the way Dave learnt songs in the beginning…
Good quote there from Dave Mustaine. Marty Friedman was his bandmate for a short while and that's a club with many members. Marty is a trained musician who knows all the theory, scales, modes, techniques. He was asked if Mustaine uses theory to play or write. "Absolutely not, he doesn't know any of that, no theory, can't read music. I mean, obviously he KNOWS about that but he doesn't use theory to write songs or guitar parts. He just hears it and plays." So one of our most flesh-ripping metal guitarists, who comes up with some very complex music, plays only by ear. I suspect his old buddy James Hetfield is the same way.
What do you think about Anthrax Fistful of Metal tab book? The first book I learned out of ... I only bout it because it was the only metal tab book at the music store
Can you debunk how panteras intro riff in slaughtered is played, sometimes it sounds like its played, to keep it short, on all low E 0-2-3, but i see people playing it: E 0----3- A 2-2-5- D ---4---- Or E 0----3- A ---3-5- D ---5--- (How i learnt it. But also seems like the most common one, it sounds too happy to me) Like i said tried to keep it short but i hope you get the idea haha,
Every time you do these videos it brings me right back to high school when I wanted to tear these books apart no internet no help until I got to my guitar lesson for the week it would take hours to try and figure it out note for note myself cuz it was always so obvious that the books were just wrong !!! Lol the internet really changed how easy it is to figure out songs and learn the guitar.
Ha, I remember the add in Guitar For The Practicing Musician Magazine back in 1990 when that Thrash Master pedal came out. It had a couple other distortion pedals in the add. The description for that that one said "for those who deal only in death and destruction" my friend and I just laughed for days at that
A friend of mine had learned a ton of VH and had just figured it out by ear... He had a great ear but didn't know anything about tapping so he was manually picking almost every note... First time I saw/heard him do it I was floored... We were both jealous of each other lol. What he was doing had to be harder and that's why I wanted to learn how he did it. The opposite for him... Wanted that cheat code.
Man this brings back so many memories. These books were still bad 20 years ago. It made me rely on my ear more and get it better. So, silver lining I guess? Great video.
They’re still not good now, unless you get ones that were written or explicitly reviewed by the band. I find it quite fun to work things out for myself though where I can. Gives an extra sense of achievement and it’s a good skill to have.
When it came to learning songs in the 80s and 90s, tablature was how I did it. And these false tabs were all over the place. I remember I think it was Metallica, For whom the bell tolls, the slow beginning single note riff. It had to be wrong if after all these years, I am thinking of the right song. I would even, as a beginner, pluck out what I thought was right, instead of going with the tab. Back then I thought, well it must be a typo error. So much back then was probably wrong, and I am most likely still playing it like that today.
Have the book. Back in the day used it as a guide. I think The tab "Delivering the goods" has a litte disclaimer "If you can play this solo why do you need this book" something along that line.
I used to play hell bent for leather solo in that position until I saw Glenn Tipton play it on the G string. I found it annoying bringing back tab books to find they were god awfully wrong. Great video!
this tab book was the bane of my teenage guitar-playing self, my arch nemesis, i figured out more by ear than i did opening that damn book so i just started watching live videos and going by my ears and i never read a tab book again. the foul creatures that they are.
Ok so, right off the bat... I saw your "Slayer" T-shirt and thought "Huh, what's that shirt, I've never seen a Slayer shirt with the picture of a girl like that". But then I quickly realized that it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Sarah Michelle Gellar. I don't know where it comes from but it's a great idea, I love it !
I loved the Thrash Master back in the early 90's. Picked one up a few years back and was a bit let down. Didn't sound as I remembered. Then again I have a completely different rig..
Bro could u pls do a review for simply guitar , I just been using the app for a few days but I don’t know if it’s that that useful so I would like to get the opinion of a pro
I just found a PDF for the first issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician. I'm not sure exactly what the relationship was, but there was definitely some connection between that magazine and Cherry Lane Music, who published these "Play it like it is" series tab books. It's so sad how bad this was back then!! Thankfully, by the time I started reading the magazine and buying the tab books, they had some talented people working for them that I think made all the difference (Wolf Marshall and Andy Aledort are the two that come to mind). It's so bad that in the song "Hell Bent for Leather" they have you picking (the wrong notes) for a solo that's supposed to be two-hand-tapped! Holy shit I feel bad for those kids that tried playing this according to the tab!!! EDIT: HA! Just got to the end of the vid and I see it's the same tab in the book and mag. It. Is. HORRIBLE!!! And I think you're right - the person who tabbed it probably wasn't even aware of tapping. What's crazy... a few pages later in the magazine is an article on EVH ;)
Another great video. Something I’d like to know about is the Diary of a Madman tab book. Was learning Over the Mountain from it and some things seemed weird. Then I go on RUclips for some help, multiple covers, and see nobody play it like the book. Is it a crap book?
That's why I always tell my students (well, nowadays we can) to use multiple resources: tabs, as many as they can get, their ears and their common sense. And when they are really in doubt, to watch videos with them playing the part. Especially with bigger bands it's very likely to find a recording where the camera zooms in on the guitar.
I had the same problems with those books back then too. After i saw how bad they got some songs in the Master of Puppets book, i realized that i just needed those books as a quick reference. I can go on about this but I don't want to type a novel here.
I have hundreds of Guitar "Authorized Edition" / Cherry Lane TAB books from the 80's. But I never would just rely on just one source & not correct something that sounded wrong. But, for the most part, they have been very useful. And obviously, some publishers are more accurate than others. It is best to compare with videos or other books, if available & also to use your ear!
Hi..I have that same book..it makes me wonder how accurate the gear section is..i seem to remember the strings gauges were like 08-10-12 20..lighter than Billy Gs strings..i made those gauges up as my book is in a box somewhere..I have a bunch of books from the 70s none of them were ever right..Thanks...Dave
informative video. hey i got a dod thrash master it's my main go to distortion pedal. even tho i got roland gr-55 and boss gt-3. i grew up on judas priest.
I had the Thrash Master pedal and I'm pretty sure it's still in some dusty old box somewhere lost to time. And yes, it's much better as a page holder than a pedal.
Glad you cover these old tab books, I started out playing leftie upside down, and I had “master of puppets” “and justice for all” and “somewhere in time” Talk about the frickin’ deep end, knowing they were actually bad/wrong is useful to me, as those early experiences seriously discouraged me from getting into playing more, I guessed I was just terrible 👎
Back in the 80s and 90s, when I did the most learning from tab, I became so advanced at the process of reading tab, that I actually realized they were wrong. I think that is why I never just gave it up.
Here's the main problem with all of these books; a beginner who doesn't know any better believes that the sheet music/tabs were provided by Judas Priest, Metallica etc. You're thinking "Well this is exactly how you play it. It's Metallica's book with their logo/album cover/photos etc.". I think we all pretty much felt that way. I started in 1991 (I'm 51 now) and it took a while in bits & pieces to realize that a song that I learned from one of these books was played differently by say Jason Newsted when I'm watching live/studio footage. That's when I started realizing that I think their may be a few mistakes in the book. But how can that be? It's the "official" tab book for Ride The Lightning and surely Metallica wouldn't authorize incorrect ways to play their songs. Then a little while later I came to the conclusion that a lot of these books (or parts of them) are trash and it's just some clown thats not even that good himself trying to figure it out by ear. It's got no official stamp of approval from the band. Just someone trying to figure it out by ear that plays it completely wrong/wrong tuning/or in a way that's making you reach & stretch up and down the fingerboard. These videos are funny because they bring me back to when I was 19 yrs old and thought these books were the end all on how to play the songs. BTW - as far as bass goes one of the most egregious errors is when Guitar World tabbed (and maybe the tab book) out Man In The Box. That's one of my moments when I was like "Yeah, there is no A (flat) in the main riff whatsoever plus it's super easy to hear that there isn't. It's just the open E flat. Plus the tabs always have the wrong positioning for the prechorus (Mike played it all on the E string) and one time for the prechorus he plays it an octave higher on the D string which is never in the tabs. I just saw several of the incorrect ways to play it yesterday online. I guess why the pros always say the best thing to do is lock yourself in your room & try & decipher it yourself. But as a young person who has time for that lol? I just want to buy the book, plug in & start playing instantly. Cheers!
My Lord...the people or person(s) who transcribed this book were fucking STONE COLD DEAF! As a music teacher who uses tabs all the time, I see tons of books that are written entirely inaccurately. Curious, do you possibly know why the majority of instructional books with even snippets of song transcripts almost NEVER include the song tempos/BPM?
Remember having read somewhere that Priest were one of the first bands to use tapping although obviously the legendary EVH is widely credited for its introduction
Finally, a tab book that helps you learn all your favorite Judas Priest songs, done in the style of pop country so you can play them at family gatherings and church days! Guaranteed to not upset your mom! Seriously, if these songs lacked any more bite, they'd be national African cuisine.
Had this with a pantera tab book. Trying for years to master horrendous techniques that made no sense, sounded wrong and just demoralised me. Only to find out the real version was often much easier, intuitive and, you know, sounded right.
I bought this book when I first started playing. You didn't mention that the best part is in 'Delivering the Goods'. For the lead break in that song, it simply states, "if you can play this, what do you need us for?" No tabs, no standard notation for that part, nothing! I'm dead serious.
Are you serious? I didn’t even see that. Damn. I have to go check it out. Thanks for letting me know.
Now that's effin hilarious!
Wow what a clown book!
What does that even mean? It’s like a dictionary with an entry saying “if you know the definition of this word, what do you need us for?”
Ha just posted the same comment before reading yours :)
I learnt early on my transcribing by ear days the mantra: "if it seems hard to play, look for another way". Most guiitarists play stuff that comes easy to them (discounting people like Jake E Lee with his freaky stretches). That lighbulb moment when you realise that the crazy-tricky lick or riff is actually easy if you play it on a different string is great. I suspect that a lot of these tab books were compiled by keyboard players.
a lightbuilb went on in my head when i relized ac dc is a mix of open strings, muted strings, ringings strings and chords thrown in, but rythm is everything. if you have a an easy to play thing but outstanding rythm, it will rock automatically. look at whole lotta rosie or let there be rock, those songs blow your socks off, but the secret is the thight rythm, not the overcomplicated playing
Two rules about guitar playing that i've learned early, and that helped me a lot, were : if tab looks very difficult, especialy if notes are all over the place, it's wrong - guitarists always use as little space as possible to convey emotion. And if something is played very fast, it's usually very simple, and it's because of the speed that it sounds confusing.
Sounds stupid, but actually is true
THIS! I have developed this intuition about tabs also, if the tab looks odd then it's probably wrong
I swear to god man you nailed this real good.
When I was a kid about 13 or 14, I had that book and others.
I dumped my guitar and never went back.
My thoughts were precisely as you described.
I was like, what am I doing here. I can't play, I'll never be able to be as good as them in my life. I'm useless.
Now at age 57, the wife bought me an Angus Young signature SG And a Marshall for Christmas last year. They still haven't been out the box yet.
It terrifies me to even begin trying.
At my age, I'll die a happy man if I could just play 2 or 3 AC/DC songs fully.
But I swear, as a beginner, those tab books are evil and will crush your soul for a lifetime.
Trust me, I'm speaking from experience.... or sever lack of, depending how you see it!!
Excellent video and advice there young man.
Very well done.
That equipment reached you now for a reason. Give it a chance!
Go learn you shook me all night long & back in black! Marty Schwartz videos are straight forward and correct. He has full walkthroughs on both songs.
Don't give up! I'm 56, and I more or less abandoned electric guitar 30-odd years ago to focus on bass, which was more natural for me. I still strummed my acoustic now and then (so that I wouldn't forget my chords), but I more or less stopped learning anything new on guitar by the time I was 23 or so. Then, during the pandemic, I got bored and picked up a new Ibanez electric, and I've been having a ball with it since then. I still suck at it, but I'm having fun. Having RUclips available has allowed me to finally *see* my favorite players in action, and it's revealed a number of places where I was making something more difficult than it needed to be.
The key, I think, is to follow the advice I saw on a T-shirt: "I play guitar because I LIKE it, not because I'm GOOD at it!" Especially if you don't have any plans to start a band or play in front of other people. Just have fun with it, and who cares what anybody else thinks?
@ImSunk_Too You should really open up that guitar and amp, and start somewhere. There are sooooo many good quality online learning opportunities out there, and I think Mike offers lessons as well, so I'll refrain from mentioning any of my favorites. You have WONDERFUL wife that provided those gifts, show your appreciation by finally busting them out of their boxes and starting the learning journey! You can do it! So many good opportunities to learn these days....give it a shot! You've got some great equipment to get started!
I didn’t quit but I got very discouraged when I was younger by a few books that I now know we’re incorrect.
My old cover band played Living After Midnight and Hell Bent for Leather. Hell Bent for Leather usually went over like a turd in a punch bowl but we kept it on the setlist anyway because we liked it and it's a short song.
Well Bent For Trevor is a classic tbh. And yeah, at under 3 minutes, it doesn't drag on long enough that it kills a gig if it doesn't go down so well.
@Crap Tactular "Well Bent For Trevor" LOL
@@buttscarlton1830 ✨🤣🤣🤣& "doesn't go down so well" 😮🤣🤣✨
Hellbent for Leather is a homosexual anthem as well. Just an FYI not knocking it if you're into that.
Is it? I wouldn’t know.
As a youth, I spent hours with these tab books and trusted them. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't make it sound right.
Me too. I use to have a stack probably a meter or more high.
The strange thing is that there is either some copyright issues that have never been addressed or the band weren't given the option for approval or they didn't really care.
It seemed like Wolf Marshall wrote every one lol
I swear learning music back in the days of gathering pieces of lore from guitarworld and melbay was awful youtube was such a game changer for learning stuff in 05.
Same experience. I blamed myself for "not doing something right" for years. I even gave up on some songs (or especially whole books) because I thought I was just not sharp enough to play guitar.
Same😂 it used to get so frustrating as a beginner.
Our drummer had one of those Thrash Master pedals back in the 90’s. The circuit board caught fire. 😂 (He plays guitar and bass too)
😂
Classic! My first guitar solo I conquered many moons ago! Living After Midnight. Their version seems like a flamenco folk version
Hahahahha :D
I’ve known several people that were pro transcribers for tab books like this, one even did the Hal Leonard Recorded Versions Guitar of the Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced album, and they were all high AF every waking hour of the day…
I must have had a later edition of that book (probably purchased in 1983), because the tabs were largely corrected (compared to the versions seen in this video), if still not perfect. The Hell Bent for Leather main riff was definitely transcribed differently in the copy I had. The first part of the solo was shown as being tapped, not picked, but it made the mistake of placing it all on the 1st string, so it required a bit more stretching than playing it on the 2nd string does.
That book did, however, cause me to make one mistake that I think really hampered my playing back in the day. The edition I had included interviews with Glenn and K.K., and in one of them, Glenn says that he uses "thin" picks. Unfortunately, it didn't get any more specific than "thin", so my 17-year-old brain connected that to the extremely thin Dunlop nylon picks. The problem this created was that, because those picks were so thin and bendy, I ended up unconsciously using the tip of my index finger to reinforce them, with the result being the very tip of my finger striking the strings just ahead of the pick. I eventually dumped the electric guitar in favor of bass (which is really my true instrument).
But I've picked up the guitar again now that I'm in my mid-50s, and thanks to RUclips and other sources I have learned that most metal guitarists use quite "thick" picks, and that's made quite a difference. I've gradually worked up through heavier picks, to where I'm now using 2.0mm Dunlop FLOW Ultex picks. And I've spent a lot of time consciously working on my pick grip to keep my finger out of the way.
Man, this video is so true. I learned in the heyday of the guitar mag and tab book, the late 80's and early 90's. For years I was frustrated by Rush's 'The Spirit of Radio'; every tab I saw in the magazines back then had Alex doing a weird hammer on from nowhere type lick on the 3rd and 4th notes (3rd to 5th fret on the B string) of the iconic opening riff that I just couldn't get down no matter how hard I tried. Then when I finally saw Alex's playthrough/lesson a few years back, I felt so vindicated. What I thought had been 'cheating' in the way I play it (pulloff 3rd fret to open B string) is the way Alex actually has been playing it all along. Score!
I actually gave up learning guitar when I was a teenager because of these crappy books and took up bass instead. Later on in life I actually learnt how to play lead guitar. So even tho I gave up as a teenager I did reach my goal as a guitar player in my 40’s. 🎉😮😂
being 22 and learning most of my guitar knowledge for 2 years on RUclips (can't afford lessons) this series is absolutely mindboggling to me. I dont get how these books that were printed and published could be so wrong. The internet truly is a wonder and a place to learn anything. If I was trying to follow these books back in the day, I wouldve 100% given up if I didnt have a teacher like fuck these books are terrible.
Early Priest is one of my fav bands. Just something so good about it to me...
First time I noticed, can’t remember if it was KK or Glenn, getting that A on the fifth fret E string, instead of open how you played it… and how I see most people play it. I’ll have to try that sometime. I remember when I first learned it I guess around 1984, when I was 14, we would play it in the second position-using open A and E strings, ha ha. How a lot of beginners played it, and so did I.
Breaking a law is a great first song to learn, no guitar solo.
Back to Crazy Train, I’m sure you could find some great old funny tab for that song. I remember those tabs always being all over the place. Or even early tab for Eruption, took until just a couple years ago for someone great like Alan Garber to come in and transcribe such a great piece for guitar world. Even Steve Vai‘s transcription from the 80s is pretty funny. But apparently, legend has it, that he quickly transcribed it without even using a guitar. 🤘🏻😝🎸🇺🇸
Great vids man - got so much to say about this as a former music teacher, but might save it for another vid. keep them coming, I love your stuff
Priest!! 🤘🤘Even though it was a bad tab video, thanks for showing some love for the originators 🤘🤘
Man, I just love these videos so much. Your style is so engaging and I really appreciate hearing your own story of learning guitar and tab books weaved in.
For Breaking The Law, maybe they are tabbing the outro. There's an octave higher overdub there
2:19 I write quite a bit of music (Jazz band) and a common mistake arrangers make is doing stuff like this to make it a little bit easier (less ledger lines) but forgetting to have the treble clef be the 8vb Bassa (a little 8 at the bottom of the clef that indicates you play what's written an octave lower.
As for the tab, my guess is they did the common method of Copy+Pasting the Notation onto the tab and the tab suffered because of the initial forgotten Treble with the Ottava Bassa. This copy and paste method is my theory, but It explains why there are often inhuman jumps on the fretboard
Man, this is spot on. I can't tell you how many tab "books" I wasted money on over the years that were totally wrong!!! LOL. Great video! Oh..you inspired me to purchase this exact model Jackson with this color! :)
Are you collecting tab books now, Mike? 😆
Also, the way it's tabbed there and how you played it at 11:17 make it sound like Still DRE! It's wicked.
Yeah I was thinking The same. What in The fuck
My first practice rig was a Crate GX15 and a DOD Thrash Master. I was finally able to play "One" and "This Love" without having to stop and switch channels on the amp, lol.
I feel like I might’ve had that one back in the day! No wonder I gave up so easily.
When I learn songs, I've always had to try and learn the whole thing. I'm kinda OCD that way, plus if I really love the song, I couldn't stand not learning it all lol. I started playing before there were tabs. I learned by ear. If the tabs were not right, I would learn it the best I could by ear. I used to rewind my tapes so much, that it wore thin, and I would have to buy another copy. CDs sucked to try and learn a song. One thing that blew my mind, was when I learned Diary Of A Madman. I started learning it by ear, and then when I finally got the tab, I looked at it, and had learned it right (that is if the tab was right) lol. You Rock Mike! Love this series!❤️🎸🎵🤟😜🤟🎵❤️
Edit: The tab version of Hell Bent For Leather sounds like a ZZ Top song!🤣
the single picking of the tapping part at 11:00 turns the solo into a deathspell omega riff
Judas priest has a lot of my favorite guitar riffs of all time. I can't imagine buying this book and being mislead
I love that Slayer/Buffy Shirt!!!
My very first concert was Judas Priest screamin for vengeance/ Iron Maiden Number of the a Beast so I've been a Priest fan forever, and since I started playing guitar I totally forgot about this song. IT'S SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY!!! Thank you!!!
Congrats on 747k Subscribers! 🤘🏻🔥
Bad Tab videos are always a treat!
I don’t know if they still have it, but they at least used to have The Ripper tabbed out on the official Judas Priest website incorrectly. It only has like four riffs in the whole song and they were all tabbed incorrectly.
Still on there...lol
Another nice video. So many wrong tabs/ tab books. When I started playing guitar I was not confident enough to trust my ears when I noticed something was not right. So frustrating
And it always reminds me of an Dave Mustaine video where he said « all the tab books are wrong. If you wanna play a song, figure it by ear, or ask your teacher, or the guitar player who wrote the riffs »
And I think that is was the way Dave learnt songs in the beginning…
Good quote there from Dave Mustaine. Marty Friedman was his bandmate for a short while and that's a club with many members. Marty is a trained musician who knows all the theory, scales, modes, techniques. He was asked if Mustaine uses theory to play or write. "Absolutely not, he doesn't know any of that, no theory, can't read music. I mean, obviously he KNOWS about that but he doesn't use theory to write songs or guitar parts. He just hears it and plays." So one of our most flesh-ripping metal guitarists, who comes up with some very complex music, plays only by ear. I suspect his old buddy James Hetfield is the same way.
What do you think about Anthrax Fistful of Metal tab book? The first book I learned out of ... I only bout it because it was the only metal tab book at the music store
Olga online was about the same when the internet was new. I remember printing off like ten different songs and maybe one would sound right
Need that thrash master video pronto 🤣🤣 Love this series Mike. :)
Can you debunk how panteras intro riff in slaughtered is played, sometimes it sounds like its played, to keep it short, on all low E 0-2-3, but i see people playing it:
E 0----3-
A 2-2-5-
D ---4----
Or
E 0----3-
A ---3-5-
D ---5---
(How i learnt it. But also seems like the most common one, it sounds too happy to me)
Like i said tried to keep it short but i hope you get the idea haha,
Every time you do these videos it brings me right back to high school when I wanted to tear these books apart no internet no help until I got to my guitar lesson for the week it would take hours to try and figure it out note for note myself cuz it was always so obvious that the books were just wrong !!! Lol the internet really changed how easy it is to figure out songs and learn the guitar.
Ha, I remember the add in Guitar For The Practicing Musician Magazine back in 1990 when that Thrash Master pedal came out. It had a couple other distortion pedals in the add. The description for that that one said "for those who deal only in death and destruction" my friend and I just laughed for days at that
A friend of mine had learned a ton of VH and had just figured it out by ear... He had a great ear but didn't know anything about tapping so he was manually picking almost every note... First time I saw/heard him do it I was floored... We were both jealous of each other lol. What he was doing had to be harder and that's why I wanted to learn how he did it. The opposite for him... Wanted that cheat code.
Actually have this book
They tell you the scale forms
Man this brings back so many memories. These books were still bad 20 years ago. It made me rely on my ear more and get it better. So, silver lining I guess? Great video.
They’re still not good now, unless you get ones that were written or explicitly reviewed by the band.
I find it quite fun to work things out for myself though where I can. Gives an extra sense of achievement and it’s a good skill to have.
Eyo great video mike
When it came to learning songs in the 80s and 90s, tablature was how I did it. And these false tabs were all over the place. I remember I think it was Metallica, For whom the bell tolls, the slow beginning single note riff. It had to be wrong if after all these years, I am thinking of the right song. I would even, as a beginner, pluck out what I thought was right, instead of going with the tab. Back then I thought, well it must be a typo error. So much back then was probably wrong, and I am most likely still playing it like that today.
I believe at the solo for "delivering the goods" it says:" If you can play this solo why did you buy this book?"
Still loving the bad tabs series! Torn between wanting more videos, and hoping that the supply of bad tab books is dwindling!
I was the first Mike! Cheers from Plymouth!
Inherited this book back in the day. Never dove into it for lessons, but yeah can relate.
More tab videos there so great man
I've always assumed 'tab books' are designed to make everything seem impossible to discourage new players and maintain the 'guitar god mystique'.
11:30 A beginner would never attempt that lol
I love that shirt awesome, Buffy and Slayer together is a great fit.
Have the book. Back in the day used it as a guide.
I think The tab "Delivering the goods" has a litte disclaimer "If you can play this solo why do you need this book" something along that line.
Oh boy, Living After Midnight with the barre chords and new solo sounds like a beer commercial or something
I have a feeling many of those faulty tabs made their way to the internet. I always hope doing my own research makes me better at guitar :)
I was just watching JP live at the US festival in 1983!
🔥🎸🤘😎🤘🎸🔥
I was at the US festival the next day. We were there for U2. Amazing day. 150,000 people there. More on the metal day before.
I used to play hell bent for leather solo in that position until I saw Glenn Tipton play it on the G string. I found it annoying bringing back tab books to find they were god awfully wrong. Great video!
you know youre in sketchy territory when notation says "shake" instead of "vibrato"
tf "shake"
Love this! New Buffy/ Slayer shirt looks awesome 🤘🏻
this tab book was the bane of my teenage guitar-playing self, my arch nemesis, i figured out more by ear than i did opening that damn book so i just started watching live videos and going by my ears and i never read a tab book again. the foul creatures that they are.
Yep most tab books are shockingly bad. I suppose they’re a starting point. But can’t beat watching the band live to see how it’s played. Great vid 😂
the solo to livin' after midnight sounded like one of those downloadable ringtones from like 2004
I think i will use this book, i am so bad that maybe it works like a reverse "magic" on me and i became a guitar legend
Great video and sick jacket man!
Ok so, right off the bat... I saw your "Slayer" T-shirt and thought "Huh, what's that shirt, I've never seen a Slayer shirt with the picture of a girl like that". But then I quickly realized that it's Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Sarah Michelle Gellar.
I don't know where it comes from but it's a great idea, I love it !
I loved the Thrash Master back in the early 90's. Picked one up a few years back and was a bit let down. Didn't sound as I remembered. Then again I have a completely different rig..
Great video, I'm gonna start trying again
Really nice Jackson!
This video needs a Love button, not just like :D Had similar experience with the ...And Justice for All tab book.
Could you do the rest of the rust in peace book pls
Honestly if you played the solo for Living After Midnight as written the only people in the audience that would notice are other guitar players.
Videos like this are why one of the first things new guitarists should learn is how to transpose.
Bro could u pls do a review for simply guitar , I just been using the app for a few days but I don’t know if it’s that that useful so I would like to get the opinion of a pro
Man I love your t shirt ! So good
I just found a PDF for the first issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician. I'm not sure exactly what the relationship was, but there was definitely some connection between that magazine and Cherry Lane Music, who published these "Play it like it is" series tab books. It's so sad how bad this was back then!! Thankfully, by the time I started reading the magazine and buying the tab books, they had some talented people working for them that I think made all the difference (Wolf Marshall and Andy Aledort are the two that come to mind). It's so bad that in the song "Hell Bent for Leather" they have you picking (the wrong notes) for a solo that's supposed to be two-hand-tapped! Holy shit I feel bad for those kids that tried playing this according to the tab!!!
EDIT: HA! Just got to the end of the vid and I see it's the same tab in the book and mag. It. Is. HORRIBLE!!! And I think you're right - the person who tabbed it probably wasn't even aware of tapping. What's crazy... a few pages later in the magazine is an article on EVH ;)
You play that A and I hear smoking by boston
Please do a short video on the main riff of frayed ends of sanity brotha
Another great video. Something I’d like to know about is the Diary of a Madman tab book. Was learning Over the Mountain from it and some things seemed weird. Then I go on RUclips for some help, multiple covers, and see nobody play it like the book. Is it a crap book?
95% chance the book is wrong.
I'm jealous of that DOD FX-59 Thrash Master pedal. 😭
That's why I always tell my students (well, nowadays we can) to use multiple resources: tabs, as many as they can get, their ears and their common sense. And when they are really in doubt, to watch videos with them playing the part. Especially with bigger bands it's very likely to find a recording where the camera zooms in on the guitar.
I had the same problems with those books back then too. After i saw how bad they got some songs in the Master of Puppets book, i realized that i just needed those books as a quick reference. I can go on about this but I don't want to type a novel here.
I have hundreds of Guitar "Authorized Edition" / Cherry Lane TAB books from the 80's. But I never would just rely on just one source & not correct something that sounded wrong. But, for the most part, they have been very useful. And obviously, some publishers are more accurate than others. It is best to compare with videos or other books, if available & also to use your ear!
Hi..I have that same book..it makes me wonder how accurate the gear section is..i seem to remember the strings gauges were like 08-10-12 20..lighter than Billy Gs strings..i made those gauges up as my book is in a box somewhere..I have a bunch of books from the 70s none of them were ever right..Thanks...Dave
I'm kinda glad I've never had to deal with these tab books. I've only ever used the internet. Having bad tabs would've killed any motivation.
6:13 lol it sounds like the theme to a 90s sitcom 😂
6:13 Living After Midnight (Nashville version)
Because I was self taught, those books knocked 10 to 15 years of my guitar learning life. literally. Great that your talking about this man....
I see you did the upgrades to the guitar! When are we going to see the promised follow-up?
Damnit where was this video like 40 years ago when I tried to learn from this exact book? I think I still have it somewhere
informative video. hey i got a dod thrash master it's my main go to distortion pedal. even tho i got roland gr-55 and boss gt-3. i grew up on judas priest.
I had the Thrash Master pedal and I'm pretty sure it's still in some dusty old box somewhere lost to time. And yes, it's much better as a page holder than a pedal.
Glad you cover these old tab books, I started out playing leftie upside down, and I had “master of puppets” “and justice for all” and “somewhere in time”
Talk about the frickin’ deep end, knowing they were actually bad/wrong is useful to me, as those early experiences seriously discouraged me from getting into playing more, I guessed I was just terrible 👎
Back in the 80s and 90s, when I did the most learning from tab, I became so advanced at the process of reading tab, that I actually realized they were wrong. I think that is why I never just gave it up.
Did the book get Painkiller, Turbo Lover solo's right? Hahaha :D. They have long solos, I wonder how it could turn to be :D:D. Great songs btw!
Here's the main problem with all of these books; a beginner who doesn't know any better believes that the sheet music/tabs were provided by Judas Priest, Metallica etc. You're thinking "Well this is exactly how you play it. It's Metallica's book with their logo/album cover/photos etc.". I think we all pretty much felt that way. I started in 1991 (I'm 51 now) and it took a while in bits & pieces to realize that a song that I learned from one of these books was played differently by say Jason Newsted when I'm watching live/studio footage. That's when I started realizing that I think their may be a few mistakes in the book. But how can that be? It's the "official" tab book for Ride The Lightning and surely Metallica wouldn't authorize incorrect ways to play their songs.
Then a little while later I came to the conclusion that a lot of these books (or parts of them) are trash and it's just some clown thats not even that good himself trying to figure it out by ear. It's got no official stamp of approval from the band. Just someone trying to figure it out by ear that plays it completely wrong/wrong tuning/or in a way that's making you reach & stretch up and down the fingerboard.
These videos are funny because they bring me back to when I was 19 yrs old and thought these books were the end all on how to play the songs.
BTW - as far as bass goes one of the most egregious errors is when Guitar World tabbed (and maybe the tab book) out Man In The Box. That's one of my moments when I was like "Yeah, there is no A (flat) in the main riff whatsoever plus it's super easy to hear that there isn't. It's just the open E flat. Plus the tabs always have the wrong positioning for the prechorus (Mike played it all on the E string) and one time for the prechorus he plays it an octave higher on the D string which is never in the tabs. I just saw several of the incorrect ways to play it yesterday online.
I guess why the pros always say the best thing to do is lock yourself in your room & try & decipher it yourself. But as a young person who has time for that lol? I just want to buy the book, plug in & start playing instantly. Cheers!
My Lord...the people or person(s) who transcribed this book were fucking STONE COLD DEAF! As a music teacher who uses tabs all the time, I see tons of books that are written entirely inaccurately.
Curious, do you possibly know why the majority of instructional books with even snippets of song transcripts almost NEVER include the song tempos/BPM?
Remember having read somewhere that Priest were one of the first bands to use tapping although obviously the legendary EVH is widely credited for its introduction
DOD Pedals!!! I had the Death Metal one and it was excellent!
I guess I'm lucky that the internet already was a thing, and my guitar teacher had the right tabs on paper haha.
Finally, a tab book that helps you learn all your favorite Judas Priest songs, done in the style of pop country so you can play them at family gatherings and church days!
Guaranteed to not upset your mom!
Seriously, if these songs lacked any more bite, they'd be national African cuisine.
✨😁"Pop Country"....some seemed to me kinda Southern Rock style.
Had this with a pantera tab book. Trying for years to master horrendous techniques that made no sense, sounded wrong and just demoralised me. Only to find out the real version was often much easier, intuitive and, you know, sounded right.