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Fret Filings - (Anne's Blog)
Friday, December 25, 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Topic: General


Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Friday, December 25, 2009 1:53 PM EST
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
CHRISTMAS ROCK MEDLEY
Topic: Bands/Music



Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:12 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, December 24, 2009 1:14 AM EST
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
DOUCETTE
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

Jerry Doucette's debut album Mama Let Him Play (1977) was an unqualified succes, quickly reaching platinum status in Canada. Interest was generated outside of Canada as he toured behind the album, opening for acts such as Eddie Money, Meatloaf, and Bob Welch. Singles from the disc included the title track, "All I Wanna Do", and the song whose Intro is tabbed here, "Down the Road", the album's opening track.

The video below of Doucette playing the song was helpful in getting the opening rhythm part of the Intro down. The tab is of the studio version of the song (linked to below), so the lead part is tabbed differently from the way it's played in the video. On the studio version, I'm pretty sure it's separate guitars playing the harmonized lead lines.

DOUCETTE - "Down the Road"

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/canriffs.txt

Audio/studio version (temporary link):
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/audio/doucette_downtheroad.mp3


 


Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, December 20, 2009 1:36 AM EST
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
CHRIS DE BURGH - "A SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING"
Topic: New Chords Postings

In keeping with the Christmas theme, "A Spaceman Came Travelling" is a re-telling of the Christmas story with a sci-fi twist. The song is from Chris de Burgh's second album, Spanish Train And Other Stories (1975). It's had good success, particularly in the UK and Ireland, where it's been released as a single multiple times, reaching the Top 40 in its 1986 release.

I've seen Chris de Burgh in concert twice, at Hamilton Place (theatre) in Hamilton and at Maple Leaf Gardens (arena) in Toronto. The Hamilton Place show was set up to be filmed for TV, and when I went looking for a video of this song on YouTube, I was surprised to find footage from that very April 1983 show. It appears below.

Video shows that de Burgh plays this song various different ways. It's in the key of D minor, and in the video below he plays it with his guitar capoed at the fifth fret, with the chords transposed to the key of A minor. In more recent video, he plays it without a capo on the guitar (and playing it in D minor, of course). Here's an example of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SowmY4C_naQ  I've transcribed it the second way, to be played without a capo. It's really the same key either way, just two different ways of playing it.

The chord chart:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/crd/deburghc-aspacemancametravelling.txt

Audio (studio version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By9128_X_bQ


Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 1:19 AM EST
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Friday, December 11, 2009
NEW LOOK
Topic: Website

If you visit the Canadian Tabs page of the site today, you'll notice a new look for that page. I thought it would be a good idea to start tightening things up a bit. The idea is to make the site more efficient, so the page has been adjusted to require a lot less scrolling, and to allow for more content visible on the screen at a time. When I first designed these pages, I didn't know much about coding (not that I know all that much now), so everything went down the middle of the page. But it doesn't have to be that way anymore. The page is still set up alphabetically by band name and artist surname, but now it's arranged into three columns.

The Canadian page was the first to get a make-over because it's the most visited page on the site, but all of the tab/chord pages will be changed to this more condensed format. I hope the new look appeals, and that you find the pages quicker and easier to navigate.

Also, a week or so ago, I added a page for Christmas/seasonal tabs, with a link to it from the Home page. The Christmas tabs (all 3 of them Tongue out) are all posted on their appropriate various pages on the main site, but it seemed like a good idea to also gather them together in one spot. That makes it easier for anyone who might come by looking for Christmas tabs; they won't have to search the whole site to see if there are any. That's a temporary page for December; the link to it will be removed after Christmas.

I think that covers all the site updates for now. If you notice any problems with the new formatting (broken links, anything), give me a shout. And, as always, thanks for visiting the site. Smile

Posted by planet/zerofret at 4:26 PM EST
Updated: Friday, December 11, 2009 5:15 PM EST
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
THE PRETENDERS - "2000 MILES"
Topic: New Tab Postings

The Pretenders' Christmas-themed song "2000 Miles" was released as a single in 1983, in advance of Learning To Crawl (1984), the album on which it appeared. The single had its best success in the UK, where it charted at #15. Upon its release, the album went gold and platinum in the UK and the US respectively, peaking at #4 on Canada's album chart.

Over time, "2000 Miles" has become something of a rock/pop Christmas classic. In recent years, cover versions have been recorded by artists such as Coldplay (in 2003) and KT Tunstall (in 2007).

The tab:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/vartab/pretenders-2000miles.txt

This video features the studio recording of the song, which the tab is based on:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xms97_pretenders-2000-miles_music

Edit: Revisions have been made to the tab since it was first posted earlier today.

Live version:

Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 2:49 PM EST
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009
NOVEMBER 2009 REVIEW
Topic: Website

Most-viewed tabs for the month of November 2009 (w/ view numbers):

33 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
32 - April Wine - Just Between You And Me
24 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
21 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
18 - Harlequin - I Did It For Love
16 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
15 - Max Webster - Battle Scar
14 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
13 - Harlequin - Sweet Things In Life
12 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
12 - Blue Rodeo - Lost Together
12 - Headpins - Don't It Make Ya Feel

Total Tab Views For November: 737

By section:  Canadian-525  Girlschool-53  Various-69  Chords-90


Most-viewed tabs overall (up to Nov. 30/09):

338 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
316 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
278 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
254 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
217 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
201 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
200 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
184 - Honeymoon Suite - Stay In the Light
172 - Max Webster - Battle Scar
170 - Harlequin - Innocence

Tabs reaching 100 overall views mark this month:
Devil's Deck, High Class In Borrowed Shoes

*Only tab views made by people (excluding my own views) are counted here. Webcrawler/bot views are excluded.


Posted by planet/zerofret at 5:23 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:28 PM EST
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Thursday, November 26, 2009
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Topic: Riff-In-A-Jiff

"Strange Magic" was the second single (after "Evil Woman") released from ELO's 1975 album Face The Music. The album went platinum in the band's native UK (gold in the US), launching a string of internationally successful multi-platinum albums for the Birmingham septet. Tabbed here is the Intro, a nice harmonized guitar part, ending on a cool little descending chromatic run.

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - "Strange Magic"       (J. Lynne)

https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/annesblog/varriffs.txt

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDfCpl82_10

Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, November 26, 2009 12:42 AM EST
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
ROCKIN' IN SASKATCHEWAN
Topic: Guitar

And not just because of a berth in this Sunday's Grey Cup Game...although there is that, too. In the course of working on this site, I often hear from other guitarists who have happened onto the site, then e-mailed me with comments about it. In some cases, those people will have online projects of their own, such as a guitar website, a MySpace band promo page, audio recordings, or videos.

One such guitarist -- from Saskatchewan -- goes by the screen name of "lickenitup" at YouTube, where he posts guitar demonstration videos, playing along to recordings of songs. Some of the bands he's covered include April Wine ("I Like To Rock", "Sign Of the Gypsy Queen"), Headpins ("People"), and Triumph ("Petite Etude", "Midsummer's Daydream"), as well as selections by Def Leppard, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden, among others.

If you look down the page listing of his videos, you'll notice how highly rated they are, fours and fives across the board...mostly fives (rated out of 5). He's a very talented guitarist, as you'll see if you look at some of his postings. These videos offer an excellent demonstration for anyone trying to learn how to play any of these songs, so I wanted to recommend them to site visitors here. And the Canadian content he covers made recommending them here a natural, since many people come to this site specifically for tabs of Canadian performers. His video of "Petite Etude" is a particular favourite for me.

His most recent posting (just a couple of days ago) is a cover of Saga's "On the Loose". I had a go at this song once myself, posting a tab of it at UltimateGuitar.com and here on this site. At UG, the tab garnered enough comments about all of the errors in it that I finally (recently) just added a note at the top of the tab (on both sites) advising people not to use it. Lickenitup's YouTube vid will show you how to play it right.

You can see the full selection of his guitar demo videos here:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lickenitup&search_type=&aq=f

This is his video of April Wine's "Roller":
  

Posted by planet/zerofret at 1:14 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 1:19 AM EST
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
LYNYRD SKYNYRD - "SWAMP MUSIC"
Topic: New Tab Postings

Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Swamp Music" appeared on the band's second album Second Helping (1974, pictured). This double-platiunum selling album is most noted for featuring the band's biggest hit, "Sweet Home Alabama". The album peaked at #12 on Billboard. "Swamp Music" has also been featured on many Skynyrd compilation/greatest hits albums, such as Skynyrd's Innyrds (1989), What's Your Name (1997), and The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd (1998).

Second Helping was the first of their albums to feature the three guitar attack that became a signature of the band's sound. In various parts of "Swamp Music" you can hear three guitar parts being played at the same time. I've kept the tab to two guitar parts, though, for the sake of clarity. (Sometimes just trying to follow a double-staffed part is confusing enough without getting into triple-staffing.) And even with two guitar parts it makes for a long tab. There's plenty going on in this song, so the biggest challenge was trying to separate the guitar parts, and figure out what each one was playing.

The tab:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/vartab/lynyrdskynyrd-swampmusic.txt

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qaQZxMRCuA

And a live version:

Posted by planet/zerofret at 12:01 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 1:42 AM EST
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