It’s so funny that in the book they spelled Givin the Dog a Bone incorrectly and I ended up spelling it “Given” just like they did and didn’t even realize it. Kinda symbolic huh? 🤣
I had the book for AC/DC Live and I'm pretty sure every one of those mistakes were in it too. I'm 100% certain on Hells Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long because I played them the same way you did for a long time as well.
it took me so many years to say "It can't be the right way to play hell's bells" that it still bother me. But the pleasure to finally find the right way by myself was immense.
One of my favorite things about wrong tab books is, once you figure out they’re wrong and you see a band doing a cover and he plays it wrong, you know they learned from the same book. Thats always made me laugh
I had the exact same problems with the songs! I only realized the correct way to play the riff to Hell's Bells only when I bought a Guitar World magazine with Angus on the cover, where he showed how he plays some of AC/DC's most iconic riffs. When I saw the tab of how he plays Hell's Bells I was like "what??? Is it so simple"? And I remember reading the interviewer asking Angus about this riff and mentioning the tab book and the way it's written in there and I remember Angus replied "maybe that is the correct way, because the people writing these books are from music schools and they know theory. I don't know music theory so maybe I'm playing it wrong". That had me in stitches!
I think TAB books are one of those few things that always have a sort of negative nostalgia. They're an integral part of so many young guitar players' journeys, but no one every looks fondly back on any of them.
A lot of TAB books try to keep you below the seventh fret, even if it's much more difficult to play it. Also, they're sometimes transcribed by computer, which tries to find the most efficient way to play it, even if efficient is more difficult.
You're really hitting your stride on the channel! So much relatable stuff lately. I'll probably never be to your level, even after 30 years of hiding my sloppy playing behind a wall of distortion (lol) but I've learned a lot this past year from you. Thank you!
I had Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom book, I'm sure that was bad too. I've seen videos of Eric playing Cliffs of Dover and it's nothing like the pull offs to open G string that the book showed.
I really enjoyed this video. Those bends you speak of... YES. I am an audio nut, and you are absolutely correct, it makes a huge difference. At the end of your video, you speak of the tab books being helpful pre-Internet: YES. Some kids these days don't know, but this was a start for me as well. Learning a Metallica riff, my buddy would say "Well it starts off 0-4-2-0," and that's how we learned, and if there was a bend or muting, we listened and learned how to do it. The best musicians on the planet played by ear, or in the case of Beethoven, no ears at all before he died.
That's mad, back in the late 80's when i was learning these songs from that book, I played Hells Bells as tabbed, many years later I seen another guy play it the correct way and was frustrated at playing it wrong for so many years.....but no internet back in the day!!!
I'm a massive Queen fan and after a 2-3 months of playing I started learning some Queen songs by tab and videos. They were OK but that wasn't good enough for me. Most of them were just powerchords or just straight up wrong notes in riffs. So I started learning by ear and that has helped me so much. I've been playing for 2 years now. Also some Queen tracks has multi tracks that you can download online so I listened to most of them as well and it's pretty interesting on how the guitars are laid out. For example Brighton Rock has 11 guitar tracks if I remember correctly. And most of them are just rhythm guitar!
Wolf Marshall made an excellent Queen tab book. The only thing that sucked was there were not complete songs but only certain parts and I'd prefer to have live versions of the songs.
Queen was pretty experimental. Although it's not uncommon to have multiple guitar tracks. It's pretty standard to do double tracks. Although 9 for one guitarist is a bit a much. But cool none the kess
i love the show must go on, it's in lydian mode! awesome band, the best vocals! i been playing years, but i never started of as serious and dedicated as you by the sounds of it, well done, that all sounds like great work you have done.
isn't brighton rock the one with delay pedal on the guitar, wiki says its one guitar then a second echoed guitar for one section on the record but two echoed guitars live.. i know wiki can be misleading but you now about delay right? as i say, i may be completely wrong here..
@@jibicusmaximus4827 That's correct, but that's later in the song as the solo. From what I see it's 9-11 tracks for guitar. Most of them are rhythm and some are just snippets in between. I'm sure some are mixed together because back then you couldn't have unlimited tracks. It's a really big sound. There is a double tracked guitar that's in a room further away (don't really know what they did, probably put the microphone far away). And then there's a double track again but up close and the guitar volume not cracked up full. And then there's bits and bobs on the other tracks and it's quite interesting to listen to. Also in some other songs for example, Long Away. The guitar has only two tracks but I'm 100% sure there are 4 or more guitars during the solo.
Great video. At first I was like 'Oh, no, how have I been messing up these songs', then I realised I learned Back in Black and Hells Bells from some guitar magazine transcriptions, so when I got this book I pretty much ignored everything it said about them. Always wondered what I was doing wrong on Shake A Leg, though. So thanks for that.
I feel this. I played the main riff from kickstart my heart wrong for so many years. Like almost 10 years probably. I did a pull off from the 3rd fret on the A string both times for the riff and only recently learned that the second time you have to pull off the 2nd, 3rd, then 4th string as kind of a walk up to the 5th fret power chord.
The intro of You Shook Me All Night Long is doubled. Both Angus AND Malcom play the intro, then Mal drops out. Hence Angus being in one channel and Mal being in the other.
For Hells Bells, I think I learned the part where you go 77/55/77 on the D/G strings a little different; I learned the main intro riff the way you showed it, but for the little secondary riff near the end of the intro, I use my ring and pinky to fret the 7th on the D/G strings, respectively, and then just lift my pinky and let my index finger fret the G string on the 5th while still fretting the D string on the 7th fret, like an inverted power chord. It kind of splits the difference between what the book shows, and what you show, but I think it sounds just a little closer. I love watching you fix these old tab books. I had a Black Sabbath tab book back when I was a teenager. It's still in my Dad's basement somewhere, but I imagine there's quite a few mistakes in it, too....
Hey Adam, I had the same thought watching and it was actually the way I learned it from an internet tab that must have been different than the book. Curious to go watch Angus play it now.
I didn't learn from that particular book. I got "The Definitive AC/DC Songbook" which covers a lot of their songs up to and including the Black Ice album. I did find the same issue(s) with some of the songs in there, particularly their more iconic songs
I learned on the same book! I've noticed Angus playing many of these live - of course just as you demonstrated the correct version to be. But thanks for calling this out, Mike! We're so lucky to have RUclips now compared to 25-30 yrs ago when I was learning from tab books.
I can totally relate. I had a similar 'Best of AC/DC' that was one of my first tab books when I started playing in the mid 90s. I played the Hells Bells intro in open position like it was in the book for well over 15 years till I saw in an Angus Young interview that it's played much simpler, basically using a power chord shape up the neck. Exactly like you show in this video. One tab book I'll always love is Megadeth Rust In Peace by Hal Leonard. Great tabs in that book. *Edit After seeing your video on it. Nevermind lol. Still though, just finding a Rust In Peace tab book back in the mid 90s was a pretty big deal. For comparison during the same time period it took me years to find a full transcription for the entire song of Smoke On The Water.
Not gonna lie this is my favorite series you’ve done because it’s super relatable. As a young guitar player in the early 2000’s my friends and I would get together with our tab books and talk about them and the wrong ones really made us think about where the substitute notes were on the fretboard. For example Black Sabbath books are notorious for showing Iommi play his power chords on the A and D strings when 95% of the time he’s live he plays the same chords but up higher and the E and A strings and early one I found that it created his signature sound. The chords although the same notes technically sounded more rough and full when compared the the power chords on the A and D which sounded thin and clanky.
@@hmpz36911 To be fair, everyone anywhere plays it on the 7th fret. Tony plays it where he does because he's missing fingertips. Same thing with Smoke on the Water. The REAL way Richie Blackmore plays it is honestly just asinine.
I love this series of videos you are doing. Seeing how even on RUclips there are hundreds of “how to play” videos and most of them are playing wrong or overcomplicating basic riffs. Hope there are more of these to come!
About the different positions, in particularly Hells Bells, I’m pretty sure (according to my ears) they use both. It’s a pretty good production technique to get a nice fat and wide guitar sound.
When I started playing in 1980, I learned everything by ear. In fact, I never even heard of tablature...I don't know if it existed back then. To this day, I still default to learning by ear first. Only if I have a hard time figuring out something, I'll resort to RUclips videos and tabs from different players. Thanks for the great videos, BTW! You're one of the best on RUclips.
How can someone hit 👎🏻🙄?! Meanwhile, I’m over here imagining myself learning how to play guitar 🎸 You’re a great teacher and pal, from what I’ve been told! 🌟 Keep up the great work! You might just have me as a student some day!
@@Impassion Why have the option to dislike then? That's how RUclips works. It caters to the individual based on what they like and dislike. You've never clicked the "Not Interested" or "Do not recommend channel" options?
When I play Hells Bells, your example is how I play it. The one in the book didn’t look or feel right when I was learning so I figured out the way you did it and it pay dirt. Great video. Just goes to show how a little different technique can mean a world of difference in sound.
yo! a guitarist just tried out for my band. they said that you straight up bought them a boss katana amp from the bloomington mn guitar center! good man! thanks for that
Exactly how I learned to play AC/DC and still how I play Hell’s Bells wrong and I need to correct that. Thank you for pointing this out and bringing up the memories of trying to learn the songs from this album which by the way is still a beast of a rock record!
Love watching these for a window into another time. Growing up with the internet, wrong tabs got buried while the best were rated to the top. The sad irony is, while tabs became infallible, players lost resolve. Whenever I struggled in lining up a great tab with the song in my head, I'd quickly give up and go to RUclips lessons. Maybe going by visuals is a return to form 70 years ago. Yet, the urge to experiment for as long as it took, until you got it right, has been lost. Then again, you did live shows off bad tabs, so what am I going on about? Can't fault you for trusting an official published source.
So far, I own every tab book you've critiqued. ...And Justice messed me up the most, as it is one of my favourite albums. After a year of practicing and failing to sound like the songs I was playing along with, I got to see them at Exhibition Stadium (great show: Black Crows, Warrant, Metallica, Aerosmith) and finally saw how they played them. It changed everything.
Had that book back in the day when I was first learning to play and I had to unlearn a lot of what it taught me. One of the things it got in the way of me learning was Angus' use of vibrato. Especially in the "You Shook Me" tab, if you play it in the way it's written it's almost impossible to vibrato the way Angus does without pulling the strings off the edge of the fretboard.
I also learned Hells Bells that way! I'm actually really glad I came across that tab on the internet because while it was very cumbersome to play, it really helped me clean up my technique in the long run.
The first song I learned on my dad's Tele was Detroit Rock City, so naturally my parents got me a KISS tab book the Christmas I got my first guitar. I was so excited to see how different the "official" tabs were going to be versus the tabs people had made and posted online, and then...! There were no tabs. Only chords and lyrics. A couple of solos were tabbed out, maybe. But the actual riffs of each song? Nothing but chords.
WOW! I shit you not! I've been playing guitar for 39 years. I started at 12 in '82, and now I'm 51. There were no tabs back then, and no RUclips to watch, I strictly was playing by ear. Well, in about 2 years, I was pretty decent, so I started learning some AC/DC. I learned the whole Back in Black album. I'm so freaking amazed that I learned them correctly, without the use of tabs, video or someone showing me. I did that with the first part of Diary of a Madman as well. By then, tabs were new and coming out. So I had subscriptions to guitar magazines, and one of them had Diary. I freaked out that I was playing it correctly. I'm by no means bragging or boasting, because that's just not me. I just figured I'd share, because it blew my mind! Rock on friends!♥🎸♥🎵🤘😝🤘
I may get this tab book, now knowing the problems and where to adjust! I'm old, but IMHO sometimes its easier to read/see more in a book folded open like Mike has than staring at a computer screen and reaching for the mouse to see a new page!
I bought this one as well. And as you say there wasn't a great deal out there for the wannabe hard rocking guitar beginner was there. And these books were pretty pricey at the time. And the B I B one may of been the most expensive one I bought. But like you showed us, it's beautifully presented and the photo pages feel quality. I learnt some of the easier parts of some songs that sort of sounded.. similar but not the same. The intro to Hell's Bells' Rock n Roll aint noise pollution.. And I did laugh when you said about 'You shook me all night long' and that stupid G to D bit! I love 'Shake a Leg' The intro riff is such a belter man but from what I remember its printed out with a ridiculous Andy Summers type stretch chord thing?! .. I think I may of overstretched this comment actually! So I'll leave it there. Great channel Mike. Good energy, relaxed, no pretentiousness or false persona. If you do actually read this comment Mike then Thank's buddy! I wouldn't blame you if you hadn't. I'm going to see if I can find out how the Young brother's actually played the 'Shake a leg' song now! Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane Mikey! Bless.
Yep, I have this book too. Got it in the early 90s. Fortunately I've always had a pretty good ear, and I used these books as a tutorial more than an exact pinpoint description... After I realized what I was learning didn't sound right, of course😋. Because I'm a drummer first, it was a little easier for me not to get hung up on 'playing what the book says'. These tab books drove myself and my guitarist friends crazy back in the day😵
Seeing those surprisingly difficult arrangements reminded of a tip from a video about AC/DC riffs, find the simplest way to play it as that is pretty much always the correct way to play it.
Great vid thanks! I had a lot of Rush tab books growing up and when I would see them live took note of the way Alex would play them. I found a lot of differences.
The intro to "You Shook Me"....I still play it wrong the way that book has it. And I can't fix it! Scary how you first learn things sticks with you for 20+ years.
These videos are great because for so long when I was just learning guitar I thought I just wasn't a good enough player because I couldn't get the right sound or the riffs seemed harder than they should be. And once I learned to transcribe myself I never really went back to those old songs I used to struggle with, but I'm thinking I should because it turns out we just had bad transcriptions at the time lol. Man the hours I spent trying to figure out You Shook Me All Night Long because the fast chord changes were so hard
Hey mike this is Ethan from that guitar center in Bloomington this is the only way I know how to talk to you so I just wanted to say thanks, what you did was awesome and helped me out so much, I wish I could have said thanks to you in person. You’ve been a huge inspiration to me since I started playing a few years ago so getting to meet you in person was awesome.
Hey Ethan. Great meeting you. That was funny how all of the sudden I'm hearing Megadeth riffs and licks being played correctly and it turns out you were recently watching my Megadeth videos. Hope the gear works out well for ya. See you around.
I actually got the same book a couple of years ago but have hardly used it. Unless it's for learning specific exercises I've quit using tabs and I'm just using RUclips tutorials for songs or watching covers. I find that learning that way is helping develop my ear.
I actually had that book in high school and that Hells Bells transcription had me thinking I just couldn’t play it right until RUclips lessons came along. I also had a Poison tab book that got the tabs for “Life Goes On” so incorrect that it just sounded like a different song completely.
Hell's Bells was also in a guitar magazine and that opening riff was transcribed differently. Instead of hitting the open high E, that note was done on the 5th fret of the B string. Played it like that for a long time. I also play that riff from Back In Black incorrectly on purpose. Hate trying to do that awkward 2 to 7 move, so I just keep all the notes on the low E. May not be authentic, but it's the way I enjoy playing it.
Thank goodness I had a different book and learned the right way for bells. But many books like you mentioned didn't put the bends in and I was knit picky like you and knew they were there
i think i have the same book as you and its the same as the tab in this vid lol. it has a red strip on top like the book in this video but its best of ac/dc
I don't think there is anything wrong playing cover songs with different fingerings than what how the band plays it. If it sounds good, it is good. Even better if you do a cover and make it your own like Jimi Hendrix All Along The Watchtower which Bob Dylan said that it is a Jimi's song. Ears are your best friends as a musician.
Because actual musicians "stole" their stuff, ahem are "infuenced by" other musicians before them. It's common practice that's how music works, sure there are some lawsuits, thats mosly greedy record companies.
There's an article in an old guitar mag that had an interview with Angus and they actually asked him about the incorrect tabs. And that was where I learned how to play Hells Bells the correct way. I forget his response to the question, but it sucks they didn't make publisher change it.
Watching these videos makes me happy that I never used Tab back in the day, I've always figured out how to play by watching video and figuring out the rest by ear,
Huh cool, Hell's bells was the firdt song i tried learning by ear and checking the tabs later and i was SO sure the tab was mistaken, cool to have that confirmed! Thanks for the cool video!
I did not have this tab book and I have always played Hells Bells by ear doing 799 etc. But hearing it now with those open strings position it sounds very cool, eventhough incorrect :). I really like it :)
I have the AC/DC Anthology tab book by that publisher (from 1991). It has the same transcriptions for Back in Black and You Shook Me All Night Long, with the same exact mistakes that you show.
I got lucky with hells bells being young and discovered it on accident and played it the "Correct" way. Because i do remember this tab, i stumbled across the riff just jamming and being like wait this kind of sounds like hells bells and worked it out. one of the few things i could work out without tabs way back in the 90s lol
Great Job , showing the bad tab. I like writting out my bass parts in tab it is easier , more precise than standard notation for me though I can read music . I play guitar too though it is now only for me due to tingling fingers in left hand along with burning , bass all is good , again great job enjoyed it very much
I have that same one, it was my first tab book..... It was a good start, but it took me about 2 years before I found the mistakes. It was probably still the best tab book I've seen though.
I never had that book. But I did learn it years later when it came out in a guitar world magazine and it was transcribed correctly. Possibly Wolf Marshall I think. Im glad too. 🤘😁
I like these videos. Back in late 90's I would go through tabs from books or online and it felt like they were riddled with mistakes but I figured since it was a book it had to be right and I was just the idiot that did not understand what I was doing. With online tabs, they would have 5 stars with comments like, wow this is great. Exactly what I was looking for or spot on and I just didnt understand what I was not understanding until years later when I learned more by ear.
I got these same wrong ac/dc tabs from a different tab book and it screwed me up also. Once I saw HB and You shook me.. being played live I realized how much easier and cooler the real way is.
I can totally relate to this. I know the correct way but if I were to play hells bells or shook me opening riffs without thinking I would automatically play the book way by muscle memory unless I held back and remembered. The bells opening riff I step with my fingers rather than hold the chord though.
I love your videos. They are always really great, informative and fun to learn with. You do make me laugh out load though, when you say how things troubled you or challenged you for “many decades”! You are what, 30ish….you’ve only been playing guitar for maybe 2 decades and a bit right? ;)
Hell’s Bells was the first rock song I learned on guitar. The tab I learned from was Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine and the riff was transcribed even worse than this. Thankfully years later Guitar World magazine had a lesson from Angus and he’s was like “You have been getting this song wrong for years” and printed the correct riff. I wish I still had my magazines but donated my collection like 10 years ago. I love this series. I’m bummed out because I was never really able to get beyond my frustration trying to learn from these same books. Have you ever seen the Def Leppard Hysteria tab? That was my favorite album when I was 10. At least that book was so bad that I knew it was wrong!
I still have that book somewhere. It was a good starting point to find the notes, but if you want the "feel" you'll have to use your ears and countless hours of listening to the masters perform their art.
All those tab books are so odd. It's strange how they get some parts spot on, then completely ruin other parts. I had a few TOOL tabs from Hal and they were so off, even as a newer guitarist that I knew to scrap them and stick with online tabs.
It's funny how you noticed the omission of 1/4 bends but you totally don't notice the vibrato on the very first chord of You Shook Me All Night Long. Makes it sound so much better. Try it.
I played hell bell wrong for so long that it feels right & had trouble doing it correctly. These tabs were definitely an important tool before internet was available. No matter how good your ears are I always doubted myself a little.
I’d love to see you do a tab book video for KISS ALIVE 2 Not sure honestly if the book is inaccurate or not but just a general video for that book would be awesome to see you play those songs.
FYI: I found in a Hal Leonard Eagles sheet music book on Hotel California the lead part for 4 to 8 measures was denoted with the correct notes but completely wrong location on the guitar and was much harder to play and didn’t sound right anyways .. I had to transcribe to where it really was played which sounded perfect AND was easier to play .. so watch (listen) for that!
Same book, same problems, just a world away down under. I knew something wasn't right when I start scrutinising the fret work on their "Live" footage, and that was only if I was quick enough to press record whenever they showed up on TV.
Bad tab books made me give up on guitar when I was younger. All the books that you've mentioned in your videos, I have. I always thought I was doing something wrong but after starting back up and taking lessons my teacher showed me just how bad some of the books were. I would've been better off just trying to play by ear.
It’s so funny that in the book they spelled Givin the Dog a Bone incorrectly and I ended up spelling it “Given” just like they did and didn’t even realize it. Kinda symbolic huh? 🤣
I suppose so.
23rd and 25th November is fine for us as
Actually there are different versions of that song title or sort of... Try to find this album on RUclips Music or read about it in Wikipedia.
I had the book for AC/DC Live and I'm pretty sure every one of those mistakes were in it too. I'm 100% certain on Hells Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long because I played them the same way you did for a long time as well.
I thought it was just a typo. If it's from the book, it's even funnier
it took me so many years to say "It can't be the right way to play hell's bells" that it still bother me. But the pleasure to finally find the right way by myself was immense.
I've heard Angus comment in an interview their riffs are always played the easiest ways possible. If it's hard you're doing it wrong.
except Thunderstruck. That's played with picking instead of tapping or hammer-on Pull offs
And except Who Made Who, which seems almost impossible.
also doesn't apply to the 2-5-2-6-2-7 part in back in black.
also doesnt apply to Stormy May Day
@@zeal7895 The picking is easier though
One of my favorite things about wrong tab books is, once you figure out they’re wrong and you see a band doing a cover and he plays it wrong, you know they learned from the same book. Thats always made me laugh
Quarter bend adds a bit of a blues sound, which is AC/DC.
True. The quarter bend on the minor 3rd is one of the pillars of blues guitar
I learned it from Metallica, but, any time I fret the G on the sixth string, I QSB it.
I had the exact same problems with the songs! I only realized the correct way to play the riff to Hell's Bells only when I bought a Guitar World magazine with Angus on the cover, where he showed how he plays some of AC/DC's most iconic riffs. When I saw the tab of how he plays Hell's Bells I was like "what??? Is it so simple"? And I remember reading the interviewer asking Angus about this riff and mentioning the tab book and the way it's written in there and I remember Angus replied "maybe that is the correct way, because the people writing these books are from music schools and they know theory. I don't know music theory so maybe I'm playing it wrong". That had me in stitches!
That's really funny🤣. Typical Angus comment!
I think TAB books are one of those few things that always have a sort of negative nostalgia. They're an integral part of so many young guitar players' journeys, but no one every looks fondly back on any of them.
Tab books are essentially sex ed
I personally look back fondly at the thousands of hours I spent in my room learning all my favourite songs from tab books. Good Times.
The Troy Stetina Sabbath one was good, minus Sweet Leaf and a lick here or there.
Not really, for someone learning they were good. As far as internet is concerned, not everything that is out there is accurate
Eh... I don't mind them. They were a starting point for some.
Angus himself has even mentioned about seeing TABs of Hells Bells way more complicated than the actual way it's played.
A lot of TAB books try to keep you below the seventh fret, even if it's much more difficult to play it. Also, they're sometimes transcribed by computer, which tries to find the most efficient way to play it, even if efficient is more difficult.
@@MKDumas1981 Surely it's not most efficient if it is noticably more difficult.
Playing the notes of AC/DC may be simple, but mastering the timing, rhythm, and feel is a whole new story!
That's the key to a talented experienced player! Acdc uses pretty simple stuff, but if you don't got the "feel" of it, it only sounds like 80% there
In my experience a lot of people get the notes wrong to.
@@jmabs5096 Same goes for a lot of ZZ Top. The rhythm and feel rule the sound. But both Angus and Billy can shred when it's appropriate.
You're really hitting your stride on the channel! So much relatable stuff lately. I'll probably never be to your level, even after 30 years of hiding my sloppy playing behind a wall of distortion (lol) but I've learned a lot this past year from you. Thank you!
I had Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom book, I'm sure that was bad too. I've seen videos of Eric playing Cliffs of Dover and it's nothing like the pull offs to open G string that the book showed.
Eric Johnson doesn't play guitar, he tickles if with its fingers until it starts singing on its own
I really enjoyed this video. Those bends you speak of... YES. I am an audio nut, and you are absolutely correct, it makes a huge difference. At the end of your video, you speak of the tab books being helpful pre-Internet: YES. Some kids these days don't know, but this was a start for me as well. Learning a Metallica riff, my buddy would say "Well it starts off 0-4-2-0," and that's how we learned, and if there was a bend or muting, we listened and learned how to do it. The best musicians on the planet played by ear, or in the case of Beethoven, no ears at all before he died.
And trying to explain TAB to a beginner. It’s not rocket science but a lot of people can’t grasp it. 😂😂😂😂
That's mad, back in the late 80's when i was learning these songs from that book, I played Hells Bells as tabbed, many years later I seen another guy play it the correct way and was frustrated at playing it wrong for so many years.....but no internet back in the day!!!
There was a guitar world article with Angus years ago that showed the right way to play HB, YSMANL,etc. Because I played it wrong also 🤣
I'm a massive Queen fan and after a 2-3 months of playing I started learning some Queen songs by tab and videos. They were OK but that wasn't good enough for me. Most of them were just powerchords or just straight up wrong notes in riffs. So I started learning by ear and that has helped me so much. I've been playing for 2 years now.
Also some Queen tracks has multi tracks that you can download online so I listened to most of them as well and it's pretty interesting on how the guitars are laid out. For example Brighton Rock has 11 guitar tracks if I remember correctly. And most of them are just rhythm guitar!
Wolf Marshall made an excellent Queen tab book. The only thing that sucked was there were not complete songs but only certain parts and I'd prefer to have live versions of the songs.
Queen was pretty experimental. Although it's not uncommon to have multiple guitar tracks. It's pretty standard to do double tracks. Although 9 for one guitarist is a bit a much. But cool none the kess
i love the show must go on, it's in lydian mode! awesome band, the best vocals! i been playing years, but i never started of as serious and dedicated as you by the sounds of it, well done, that all sounds like great work you have done.
isn't brighton rock the one with delay pedal on the guitar, wiki says its one guitar then a second echoed guitar for one section on the record but two echoed guitars live.. i know wiki can be misleading but you now about delay right? as i say, i may be completely wrong here..
@@jibicusmaximus4827 That's correct, but that's later in the song as the solo. From what I see it's 9-11 tracks for guitar. Most of them are rhythm and some are just snippets in between. I'm sure some are mixed together because back then you couldn't have unlimited tracks.
It's a really big sound.
There is a double tracked guitar that's in a room further away (don't really know what they did, probably put the microphone far away). And then there's a double track again but up close and the guitar volume not cracked up full.
And then there's bits and bobs on the other tracks and it's quite interesting to listen to.
Also in some other songs for example, Long Away. The guitar has only two tracks but I'm 100% sure there are 4 or more guitars during the solo.
I remember reading a quote from Angus (or maybe Mal?) once that was pretty much "If our stuff seems hard, you're probably playing it wrong"
Man, even with bad tabs, the riffs on this album were legendary.
Great video. At first I was like 'Oh, no, how have I been messing up these songs', then I realised I learned Back in Black and Hells Bells from some guitar magazine transcriptions, so when I got this book I pretty much ignored everything it said about them. Always wondered what I was doing wrong on Shake A Leg, though. So thanks for that.
I feel this. I played the main riff from kickstart my heart wrong for so many years. Like almost 10 years probably. I did a pull off from the 3rd fret on the A string both times for the riff and only recently learned that the second time you have to pull off the 2nd, 3rd, then 4th string as kind of a walk up to the 5th fret power chord.
Best looking SG ever: finish, hardware, pickups, it's perfect...
The intro of You Shook Me All Night Long is doubled. Both Angus AND Malcom play the intro, then Mal drops out. Hence Angus being in one channel and Mal being in the other.
For Hells Bells, I think I learned the part where you go 77/55/77 on the D/G strings a little different; I learned the main intro riff the way you showed it, but for the little secondary riff near the end of the intro, I use my ring and pinky to fret the 7th on the D/G strings, respectively, and then just lift my pinky and let my index finger fret the G string on the 5th while still fretting the D string on the 7th fret, like an inverted power chord. It kind of splits the difference between what the book shows, and what you show, but I think it sounds just a little closer.
I love watching you fix these old tab books. I had a Black Sabbath tab book back when I was a teenager. It's still in my Dad's basement somewhere, but I imagine there's quite a few mistakes in it, too....
Hey Adam, I had the same thought watching and it was actually the way I learned it from an internet tab that must have been different than the book. Curious to go watch Angus play it now.
I didn't learn from that particular book. I got "The Definitive AC/DC Songbook" which covers a lot of their songs up to and including the Black Ice album. I did find the same issue(s) with some of the songs in there, particularly their more iconic songs
I learned on the same book! I've noticed Angus playing many of these live - of course just as you demonstrated the correct version to be. But thanks for calling this out, Mike! We're so lucky to have RUclips now compared to 25-30 yrs ago when I was learning from tab books.
Could you please do a video on good or accurate tab books?
I remember some Steve Vai tab books claimed to been revised by Vai himself. Passion and Warefare comes to mind.
I can totally relate. I had a similar 'Best of AC/DC' that was one of my first tab books when I started playing in the mid 90s. I played the Hells Bells intro in open position like it was in the book for well over 15 years till I saw in an Angus Young interview that it's played much simpler, basically using a power chord shape up the neck. Exactly like you show in this video. One tab book I'll always love is Megadeth Rust In Peace by Hal Leonard. Great tabs in that book. *Edit After seeing your video on it. Nevermind lol. Still though, just finding a Rust In Peace tab book back in the mid 90s was a pretty big deal. For comparison during the same time period it took me years to find a full transcription for the entire song of Smoke On The Water.
Not gonna lie this is my favorite series you’ve done because it’s super relatable. As a young guitar player in the early 2000’s my friends and I would get together with our tab books and talk about them and the wrong ones really made us think about where the substitute notes were on the fretboard. For example Black Sabbath books are notorious for showing Iommi play his power chords on the A and D strings when 95% of the time he’s live he plays the same chords but up higher and the E and A strings and early one I found that it created his signature sound. The chords although the same notes technically sounded more rough and full when compared the the power chords on the A and D which sounded thin and clanky.
Waiting for the Sabbath one, surely they fucked up what Tony plays easily
Like Paranoid at the 7th fret, haha
@@hmpz36911 To be fair, everyone anywhere plays it on the 7th fret. Tony plays it where he does because he's missing fingertips. Same thing with Smoke on the Water. The REAL way Richie Blackmore plays it is honestly just asinine.
@@jojoversus1100 paranoid sounds thicker at 12 fret where afaik was originally played
@@jojoversus1100 I like playing Sab on the 6th, it sounds thicker and sludgier that way.
WAR PIGS!!!
I love this series of videos you are doing. Seeing how even on RUclips there are hundreds of “how to play” videos and most of them are playing wrong or overcomplicating basic riffs. Hope there are more of these to come!
About the different positions, in particularly Hells Bells, I’m pretty sure (according to my ears) they use both. It’s a pretty good production technique to get a nice fat and wide guitar sound.
Also quite apparent in You Shook Me All Night Long
When I started playing in 1980, I learned everything by ear. In fact, I never even heard of tablature...I don't know if it existed back then. To this day, I still default to learning by ear first. Only if I have a hard time figuring out something, I'll resort to RUclips videos and tabs from different players. Thanks for the great videos, BTW! You're one of the best on RUclips.
How can someone hit 👎🏻🙄?! Meanwhile, I’m over here imagining myself learning how to play guitar 🎸 You’re a great teacher and pal, from what I’ve been told! 🌟 Keep up the great work! You might just have me as a student some day!
I know, right? Why bother? If you don't like a video, click off and watch something else, don't be a negative turd!
@@Impassion Why have the option to dislike then? That's how RUclips works. It caters to the individual based on what they like and dislike. You've never clicked the "Not Interested" or "Do not recommend channel" options?
watching these bad tab vids of yours had made me feel a lot better at my poor guitar skills because I was doing it all wrong in the first place! lol
When I play Hells Bells, your example is how I play it. The one in the book didn’t look or feel right when I was learning so I figured out the way you did it and it pay dirt. Great video. Just goes to show how a little different technique can mean a world of difference in sound.
yo! a guitarist just tried out for my band. they said that you straight up bought them a boss katana amp from the bloomington mn guitar center! good man! thanks for that
Jeez, I've been playing Hell's Bells and You Shook Me longer than you've been alive because of that book. I bought it back in the 80's.
Exactly how I learned to play AC/DC and still how I play Hell’s Bells wrong and I need to correct that. Thank you for pointing this out and bringing up the memories of trying to learn the songs from this album which by the way is still a beast of a rock record!
I hear the Iron Maiden Seventh Son tab book is a little iffy
Love this series. It makes me know I’m not crazy. This really sucks for beginners. It’s criminal.
recently started guitar at 51. Found that same old music book, with the same mistakes. lol
Thanks for saving me (years) of heartache
Love watching these for a window into another time. Growing up with the internet, wrong tabs got buried while the best were rated to the top. The sad irony is, while tabs became infallible, players lost resolve.
Whenever I struggled in lining up a great tab with the song in my head, I'd quickly give up and go to RUclips lessons. Maybe going by visuals is a return to form 70 years ago. Yet, the urge to experiment for as long as it took, until you got it right, has been lost.
Then again, you did live shows off bad tabs, so what am I going on about? Can't fault you for trusting an official published source.
So far, I own every tab book you've critiqued. ...And Justice messed me up the most, as it is one of my favourite albums. After a year of practicing and failing to sound like the songs I was playing along with, I got to see them at Exhibition Stadium (great show: Black Crows, Warrant, Metallica, Aerosmith) and finally saw how they played them. It changed everything.
Learning from others instead of a tab book is really different
Had that book back in the day when I was first learning to play and I had to unlearn a lot of what it taught me. One of the things it got in the way of me learning was Angus' use of vibrato. Especially in the "You Shook Me" tab, if you play it in the way it's written it's almost impossible to vibrato the way Angus does without pulling the strings off the edge of the fretboard.
I also learned Hells Bells that way! I'm actually really glad I came across that tab on the internet because while it was very cumbersome to play, it really helped me clean up my technique in the long run.
Thanks for the quarter bend tip, I really like that, I am probably going to use it in my improvisations
The first song I learned on my dad's Tele was Detroit Rock City, so naturally my parents got me a KISS tab book the Christmas I got my first guitar. I was so excited to see how different the "official" tabs were going to be versus the tabs people had made and posted online, and then...! There were no tabs. Only chords and lyrics. A couple of solos were tabbed out, maybe. But the actual riffs of each song? Nothing but chords.
That Hells Bells tab was also in one of the guitar magazines. That's what I learned it from and still play it that way to this day.
WOW! I shit you not! I've been playing guitar for 39 years. I started at 12 in '82, and now I'm 51. There were no tabs back then, and no RUclips to watch, I strictly was playing by ear. Well, in about 2 years, I was pretty decent, so I started learning some AC/DC. I learned the whole Back in Black album. I'm so freaking amazed that I learned them correctly, without the use of tabs, video or someone showing me. I did that with the first part of Diary of a Madman as well. By then, tabs were new and coming out. So I had subscriptions to guitar magazines, and one of them had Diary. I freaked out that I was playing it correctly. I'm by no means bragging or boasting, because that's just not me. I just figured I'd share, because it blew my mind! Rock on friends!♥🎸♥🎵🤘😝🤘
I may get this tab book, now knowing the problems and where to adjust! I'm old, but IMHO sometimes its easier to read/see more in a book folded open like Mike has than staring at a computer screen and reaching for the mouse to see a new page!
You always perfectly choose the same tab books I used to learn these songs. Feel like these vids are made for me haha
I bought this one as well. And as you say there wasn't a great deal out there for the wannabe hard rocking guitar beginner was there. And these books were pretty pricey at the time. And the B I B one may of been the most expensive one I bought.
But like you showed us, it's beautifully presented and the photo pages feel quality.
I learnt some of the easier parts of some songs that sort of sounded.. similar but not the same. The intro to Hell's Bells'
Rock n Roll aint noise pollution.. And I did laugh when you said about 'You shook me all night long' and that stupid G to D bit!
I love 'Shake a Leg' The intro riff is such a belter man but from what I remember its printed out with a ridiculous Andy Summers type stretch chord thing?! .. I think I may of overstretched this comment actually!
So I'll leave it there. Great channel Mike. Good energy, relaxed, no pretentiousness or false persona.
If you do actually read this comment Mike then Thank's buddy! I wouldn't blame you if you hadn't.
I'm going to see if I can find out how the Young brother's actually played the 'Shake a leg' song now!
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane Mikey!
Bless.
Yep, I have this book too. Got it in the early 90s. Fortunately I've always had a pretty good ear, and I used these books as a tutorial more than an exact pinpoint description... After I realized what I was learning didn't sound right, of course😋. Because I'm a drummer first, it was a little easier for me not to get hung up on 'playing what the book says'. These tab books drove myself and my guitarist friends crazy back in the day😵
Seeing those surprisingly difficult arrangements reminded of a tip from a video about AC/DC riffs, find the simplest way to play it as that is pretty much always the correct way to play it.
Great vid thanks! I had a lot of Rush tab books growing up and when I would see them live took note of the way Alex would play them. I found a lot of differences.
The intro to "You Shook Me"....I still play it wrong the way that book has it. And I can't fix it! Scary how you first learn things sticks with you for 20+ years.
These videos are great because for so long when I was just learning guitar I thought I just wasn't a good enough player because I couldn't get the right sound or the riffs seemed harder than they should be. And once I learned to transcribe myself I never really went back to those old songs I used to struggle with, but I'm thinking I should because it turns out we just had bad transcriptions at the time lol. Man the hours I spent trying to figure out You Shook Me All Night Long because the fast chord changes were so hard
Hey mike this is Ethan from that guitar center in Bloomington this is the only way I know how to talk to you so I just wanted to say thanks, what you did was awesome and helped me out so much, I wish I could have said thanks to you in person. You’ve been a huge inspiration to me since I started playing a few years ago so getting to meet you in person was awesome.
Hey Ethan. Great meeting you. That was funny how all of the sudden I'm hearing Megadeth riffs and licks being played correctly and it turns out you were recently watching my Megadeth videos. Hope the gear works out well for ya. See you around.
I actually got the same book a couple of years ago but have hardly used it. Unless it's for learning specific exercises I've quit using tabs and I'm just using RUclips tutorials for songs or watching covers. I find that learning that way is helping develop my ear.
I didn’t have this book but whoever transcribed the version I learned online must have. I’ve been playing Hell’s Bells wrong my entire life.
Wish you showed the correct ones in tab form like the bad ones
I actually had that book in high school and that Hells Bells transcription had me thinking I just couldn’t play it right until RUclips lessons came along. I also had a Poison tab book that got the tabs for “Life Goes On” so incorrect that it just sounded like a different song completely.
Hell's Bells was also in a guitar magazine and that opening riff was transcribed differently. Instead of hitting the open high E, that note was done on the 5th fret of the B string. Played it like that for a long time.
I also play that riff from Back In Black incorrectly on purpose. Hate trying to do that awkward 2 to 7 move, so I just keep all the notes on the low E. May not be authentic, but it's the way I enjoy playing it.
LOL! I used to play the You Shook Me intro that same way. It wasn't until years late that I learned to play it correctly. Same with Hells Bells.
Thank goodness I had a different book and learned the right way for bells. But many books like you mentioned didn't put the bends in and I was knit picky like you and knew they were there
Oh man, I've been learning Hells Bells. I better compare it with the best of AC/DC tab book I've got and see how incorrect it is haha.
Just checked my best of TAB Book and it's wrong too, nooo haha!! 😂 So glad my teacher taught it to me the right way first.
i think i have the same book as you and its the same as the tab in this vid lol. it has a red strip on top like the book in this video but its best of ac/dc
I don't think there is anything wrong playing cover songs with different fingerings than what how the band plays it. If it sounds good, it is good. Even better if you do a cover and make it your own like Jimi Hendrix All Along The Watchtower which Bob Dylan said that it is a Jimi's song. Ears are your best friends as a musician.
I don't know how the actual musicians aren't bothered by this. I wouldn't want my stuff tabbed without my approval if I were them.
why would they care? sure, the tabs are wrong, but all they care about is the money they get from them
$$$...
@@arcanehornet Because it's wrong.
Because actual musicians "stole" their stuff, ahem are "infuenced by" other musicians before them. It's common practice that's how music works, sure there are some lawsuits, thats mosly greedy record companies.
There's an article in an old guitar mag that had an interview with Angus and they actually asked him about the incorrect tabs. And that was where I learned how to play Hells Bells the correct way. I forget his response to the question, but it sucks they didn't make publisher change it.
That tone sounds friggin awesome
Watching these videos makes me happy that I never used Tab back in the day, I've always figured out how to play by watching video and figuring out the rest by ear,
Huh cool, Hell's bells was the firdt song i tried learning by ear and checking the tabs later and i was SO sure the tab was mistaken, cool to have that confirmed! Thanks for the cool video!
I did not have this tab book and I have always played Hells Bells by ear doing 799 etc. But hearing it now with those open strings position it sounds very cool, eventhough incorrect :). I really like it :)
I have the AC/DC Anthology tab book by that publisher (from 1991). It has the same transcriptions for Back in Black and You Shook Me All Night Long, with the same exact mistakes that you show.
I got lucky with hells bells being young and discovered it on accident and played it the "Correct" way. Because i do remember this tab, i stumbled across the riff just jamming and being like wait this kind of sounds like hells bells and worked it out. one of the few things i could work out without tabs way back in the 90s lol
That's how I learned it too. Playing and then being like, wait, that sounds like hells bells.
Great Job , showing the bad tab.
I like writting out my bass parts in tab it is easier , more precise than standard notation for me though I can read music .
I play guitar too though it is now only for me due to tingling fingers in left hand along with burning , bass all is good , again great job enjoyed it very much
I have that same one, it was my first tab book..... It was a good start, but it took me about 2 years before I found the mistakes. It was probably still the best tab book I've seen though.
I remember that tab book specifically. I tried to play Hells Bells like that for a while until figuring it out by ear.
Super authentic tone there, nice
I was JUST learning guitar way back when and that damn tab for Hells Bells almost made me want to give it up!
I never had that book. But I did learn it years later when it came out in a guitar world magazine and it was transcribed correctly. Possibly Wolf Marshall I think. Im glad too. 🤘😁
I like these videos. Back in late 90's I would go through tabs from books or online and it felt like they were riddled with mistakes but I figured since it was a book it had to be right and I was just the idiot that did not understand what I was doing. With online tabs, they would have 5 stars with comments like, wow this is great. Exactly what I was looking for or spot on and I just didnt understand what I was not understanding until years later when I learned more by ear.
I got these same wrong ac/dc tabs from a different tab book and it screwed me up also. Once I saw HB and You shook me.. being played live I realized how much easier and cooler the real way is.
I can totally relate to this. I know the correct way but if I were to play hells bells or shook me opening riffs without thinking I would automatically play the book way by muscle memory unless I held back and remembered.
The bells opening riff I step with my fingers rather than hold the chord though.
It is not strange a tab is way more difficult than the real version. They usually make guitar solos unplayable.
I love your videos. They are always really great, informative and fun to learn with. You do make me laugh out load though, when you say how things troubled you or challenged you for “many decades”! You are what, 30ish….you’ve only been playing guitar for maybe 2 decades and a bit right? ;)
Hell’s Bells was the first rock song I learned on guitar. The tab I learned from was Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine and the riff was transcribed even worse than this. Thankfully years later Guitar World magazine had a lesson from Angus and he’s was like “You have been getting this song wrong for years” and printed the correct riff. I wish I still had my magazines but donated my collection like 10 years ago.
I love this series. I’m bummed out because I was never really able to get beyond my frustration trying to learn from these same books.
Have you ever seen the Def Leppard Hysteria tab? That was my favorite album when I was 10. At least that book was so bad that I knew it was wrong!
That is how I learned to play You Shock Me... the wrong way. You can really tell the difference. Thanks for the Video.
I had that book (still got it somewhere). Many nightmares were had trying to get my playing to sound "right"......
I still have that book somewhere. It was a good starting point to find the notes, but if you want the "feel" you'll have to use your ears and countless hours of listening to the masters perform their art.
I was just wondering when your next bad tab book review would come out!
All those tab books are so odd. It's strange how they get some parts spot on, then completely ruin other parts. I had a few TOOL tabs from Hal and they were so off, even as a newer guitarist that I knew to scrap them and stick with online tabs.
It's funny how you noticed the omission of 1/4 bends but you totally don't notice the vibrato on the very first chord of You Shook Me All Night Long. Makes it sound so much better. Try it.
That vibrato really makes it sound amazing
Damn it. I must have learned from tabs based off this book because these are the ones I learned. The correct ways feel so much better!
I played hell bell wrong for so long that it feels right & had trouble doing it correctly. These tabs were definitely an important tool before internet was available. No matter how good your ears are I always doubted myself a little.
Great video as always. Awesome. I heard u said " easy dissy " AC/DC at the end. Hahahaha
The cilor scheme is hugely classic. Those were my high school's colors before the name and colors were changed.
I’d love to see you do a tab book video for KISS ALIVE 2
Not sure honestly if the book is inaccurate or not but just a general video for that book would be awesome to see you play those songs.
FYI: I found in a Hal Leonard Eagles sheet music book on Hotel California the lead part for 4 to 8 measures was denoted with the correct notes but completely wrong location on the guitar and was much harder to play and didn’t sound right anyways .. I had to transcribe to where it really was played which sounded perfect AND was easier to play .. so watch (listen) for that!
Hell's Bells blew my mind! the real way to play it sounds exactly like the recording
Same book, same problems, just a world away down under. I knew something wasn't right when I start scrutinising the fret work on their "Live" footage, and that was only if I was quick enough to press record whenever they showed up on TV.
Honestly these series of videos cracks me off.
Bad tab books made me give up on guitar when I was younger. All the books that you've mentioned in your videos, I have. I always thought I was doing something wrong but after starting back up and taking lessons my teacher showed me just how bad some of the books were. I would've been better off just trying to play by ear.