Some of you are mentioning the intro where Tony holds the octave E while doing the bend. You're right but I'm only addressing the actual bend technique in this video. In a future video I'm going to cover the octave E as well as another detail for the intro. Very exciting times. :)
The original pearl jam 10 tab book was horrible. Even flow not even close not even the right key. They did redo the book and release a more correct one just recently.
hi Mike, do you have ‘21st Century Schizoid Man,’ by King Crimson anywhere in your backlog of vids? that would be a great tune for people to learn that aren’t yet aware of it. as you know, it has Licks for Days! unfortunately, I don’t think it’s widely known by younger shredders here.
This is totally new to me. By "octave E" do you mean the E on the D string, 2nd fret? Cool little detail if so, like Jimmy Page adding an open D to a D that's already there in the Whole Lotta Love riff to make it sound fuller.
The Nevermind tab book almost scarred me for life. The way they have "Lithium" transcribed is just a mess. It's funny, because I just started "leaving out" the parts that didn't sound right, assuming I wasn't skilled enough to play them properly, so I just played what felt right to me. Turns out, I was on the right track all along!
I remember trying to play that and it was so awkward in the position they wrote it, it was'nt until years later watching vids on UA-cam of Kurt that I saw how easy it was!
I started learning guitar in the internet era, and i think on the TAB side, its even worse now, becouse every confident Joe can publish a tab, they are so so wrong, that i gave up really quickly, and started learning by ear, which is a good thing, but i dont deny that the unlimited video recordings of the actual artists helped a lot too.
I pretty much got to the point where I will look at a few tabs to get some ideas if needed, but then I just compare it against the recording and learn that way.
There's also the fact that Tony Iommi did down-tune to compensate the string tension to his fingers (since he is missing the tips of two fingers), so it's also possible the transcriber just thought that was what Iommi was doing on those first couple of Sabbath albums before they started tuning down to C-sharp.
Years ago I had this book. In the song Paranoid they printed the lyric "People think I'm insane because I am browning all the time". It was not the worst book for tab at the time but pretty close to it.
Nowadays tuning down 1/2 step is common knowledge but 40 years ago it was not. As a kid i always wondered why learning from book never sounded right. Ended up playing by ear. How many people gave up because they thought they just couldnt get it. Great series man. Love it.
This reminds me of when I tried Rocksmith on my Xbox. I was playing "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden (I believe, it's been a few years... may have been the "Outshined" chorus), and the game was telling me to play notes on the A string when I was positive it was all E string. It didn't even make sense the way they had it transcribed, when it was obviously higher on the neck on the E string. Obviously, playing it the "right" way registered (because it was the right notes) but the fact that as an amateur guitarist I knew it was misleading me, it made me put the game down and never touch it again.
It was definitely Outshined. I remember exactly where you're talking about. It's the riff that starts immediately after the phase "till I'm down on my knees again". They have some weird string skipping thing when it's really all played on the low D string (drop D tuning).
Learned to play in the 90s and yes it was hard getting anywhere with just tab books. I found a series of books in my language that covered famous songs with a play along cassette that would do stuff like put the guitar on one stereo channel so you could pan and hear what was going on, or remove the guitar and play the parts yourself. That and a metronome was I had. UA-cam is an absolute goldmine for anyone learning to play today, or learning anything for that matter. I didn't even know I needed a distorsion pedal when I brought my first electric home after playing regular acoustic.
@@gergoretvari6373 Plus in the the 90s and earlier it's pretty much all we had plus our ears. I'm grateful for it as learning songs by ear really helped develop it.
I have this book, and when I was younger always struggled with Iron Man because of this! One little thing with the bend at the beginning, Tony actually plays it slightly different to what you showed. He still does the bend behind the nut, but he also adds the e an octave higher as well (played at the 2nd fret of the D string) which isn’t bent. It creates an awesome dissonance, that resolves when the bend is released. I always played it the way you showed, until Tony was showing me how he does it himself… never seen anyone else actually play it this way, so it’s gone completely unnoticed!
@@TheArtofGuitar looking forward to seeing it! Sabbath are my favourite band, and I’ve always been a massive fan of Tony, and his playing style (thanks to his ‘work accident’!)
Lol.Thanx for the memories. This was one of the first tab books I ever bought and for the longest time as a beginner guitarist I just thought I was doing it wrong. It wasn't until my ear was good enough and I was able to figure songs out by myself that I realized that not only this book but just about every one I had were garbage. I also had a subscription to Guitar For The Practicing Musician ( teens of the 80s will remember ) that had 4-5 transcriptions every month and were usually pretty accurate from what I can remember. I still have a bunch in storage. I am curious now about their accuracy.
I learned the pre-nut bend from Randy Rhoads and my guitar instructor. Half of my guitar lessons were writing in the correct numbers in the tab... I cannot stress how valuable a quality guitar instructor is.. and I think these videos show it!
Lol, I just left a message on another one of your videos referencing this exact song with that bend starting the song. I have that exact book and used it to learn Sabbath long before the internet
I still have this Anthology. We learned all of our Sabbath songs from this book and generally, it never was a major problem as far as the key went. We all were playing it a half step sharp. It sucks to find out that it was so hard to sing because of that though. I pulled double duty in all of my bands and had to deal with these kinds of errors daily. Live and learn ey?
Iommi also used really thin gauge strings so his bottom strings are not normal bottom strings. I think it actually sounds better with the root on the A string on my guitar
I learnt to play solely by ear, so when I have looked up tabs I've always been confused as they just felt and sounded off. So I've not bothered with them since. I think it serves you better to just figure out and practice scales. Every guitarist has 1 or 2 scales they rely on, so most of their riffs derive from them. Once you have that pattern recognition, when you commit sounds and finger placements to memory, figuring out songs becomes a lot easier.
Totally had that book and this video brought back SO MANY memories of embarrassment having to first tune my whole guitar down and then relearn the song all over out of frustration. I actually remember using my ZOOM 4040 pedals pitch shifter to try and lower my guitar so I didn’t have to relearn it. I can actually still remember the song the “wrong” way just like you played it…
This series is awesome! Thanks for demystifying these tab books. I remember the feeling of this inner struggle when I started playing guitar: the struggle between what the tab reads but what my ears hear. This will surely empower many players out there to trust their instincts and instructors. Guitar is not just playing, it's talking about it with others, it's discussion, it's philosophy, an art - And you Sir, are an artist! You also have a great way of putting these errors into a context, meaning it doesn't discret the authors but sheds a light on hypothetical scenarios of their work process and what might went wrong - all highly educational!
@@216trixie The one time I spoke to a guitar teacher, who is an accomplished Jazz musician, he asked what my goals were. I said, I've been playing a while and I'd like to clean up some of my bad habits. He said, 'there are no bad habits, but we can also learn good habits too. In my mind, learning only by TAB is incomplete, if your goal is to be a good mimic but I don't discount tabs as one of the many tools we can make use of.
I appreciate this whole series, it's so validating to find out for sure after a whole childhood learning sheet music for various instruments and thinking I couldn't make songs sound even close to correct because I was a dumb kid that in many cases where I suspected the transcriptions were flat out wrong they probably really were
This was one of the first tab books that I bought after I got my first electric guitar back in '92. Luckily I also subscribed to Guitar World magazine right around that time. Iommi had an Iron Man lesson in one issue that showed the correct way to play the main riff and circular riff, and also explained how to do the bending behind the nut technique.
nice video. I'm actually a bass palyer , and i've noted the "more difficult than it should be" situation on MANY black sabbath, Iron Maiden and metallica bass tabs. best examples is IM stuff though, quite often they'll have the learner runing up and down the neck ,when harris plays his notes up and downt the strings (ie he is baring strings and staying in what is called "the harris box" ) . they'll technically have the right notes , but in the wrong spot of the neck from where he actually plays it , thus making the whole damn thing harder to play than what it actually is. they do this real bad with butler's lines too. usualy the issue with metallica bass tabs is they'll have the bass just doubling the rhythm guitar , which is not at all what cliff or newsted is doing.
I remember learning how to play Iron Man as an early teen, by ear (never did bother too much with the solos, usually just wing it or what ever), and it took me years to realize how Tony actually plays the main riff; I taught myself doing B5 on the A and D strings at the 2nd fret, sliding up to 5th and then 7th, and so on, not realizing Tony did it on the low E and A strings, starting at the 7th fret and going from there. I did know how he did War Pigs though, so that should have clued me in earlier. Then later I got the Just Say Ozzy EP on CD, and hearing Zakk do War Pigs, I realized he was doing lower frets on the A and D strings similar to how I did Iron Man, so.... yeah.
Great video!! I got this tab book in 7th grade, and I still have it!!! My guitar teacher at the time hated when i brought it in to learn a BS song. He used to make corrections in pen on the tab sheets in the book. It does have cool song selection though, like Voodoo and Country Girl.
The one benefit I found to learning songs the "harder way" is if you've committed to them long enough before discovering the right way it's actually stillb good practice for dexterity and transitions and whatnot. Also just helps you learn your way around the fret board so if you happen to break a string you can still hack your way through to the end using the alternative notes instead of stopping a performance altogether
Your videos make me feel so much better about learning songs and thinking I was jus terrible at playing and now when I se some hard ass riff I just think wats the same notes but easier fingering? Thanks for doing this
Great video. Im so lucky that I learned it the way you play it. The CORRECT way. Love me some old Sabbath. This is exactly what I've been studying lately too, all the old stuff from them. Tony is a Beast. 🤘
I learned guitar by ear, long before the internet and before the mass availability of tabs. My motto is that if it sounds right, it is right. As videos became more and more available, i consistently found that my ear led me correctly in nearly every instance. I can't even get into tabs because its far easier for me to listen to something a few times and visualize the notes on the fretboard and then get on with playing it. If i want to check my work, i just watch a concert video. Not a fan of tabs at all.
I never would've guessed the "behind the nut" bend. The tab book I had told me to do a whole step neck bend to get the note Looking back I can't believe I didn't break my dad's guitar from it
The half step tune down was a standard thing for Tony Iomi. He had issues with finger pain/arthritis and regularly tuned his guitar down to lower the tension.
what about in the beginning of war pigs where you play the open E string along with the power chords? The guitar is tuned normally there. The same can be said for the solo where he also plays the open E string along with the A string.
I remember my mom buying me this book in the 90's and tuning to E flat so the tabs would match the song. I had no idea how wrong some of the parts were, but at some point I just started learning by ear with the cd's or tapes I had. I had forgotten about this book, it's been many years since I had it.
As a kid, my Dad would take my brothers and I to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago to see NWA wrestling. We loved the Road Warriors! Hearing Iron Man played as their entrance music was awesome. Not many people knew/remember they used Iron Man. 🤘🏻
Awesome video! Also Loving the Heisenberg t shirt! I was actually watching Breaking Bad when you uploaded this video. I seriously need to get learning this, not only because it's a killer tune and I LOVE it, but I have a black SG so I kinda feel a little obligated haha! 😂
Your tab series highlights the reason I learned by ear. I couldn't reconcile what I heard with the tab books, and always considered them idiots for writing these transcriptions, thinking "what are they listening to".
I must admit I like your videos, both when you show us the proper ways to play some of the more interesting riffs, and especially when you are humble enough to post an update to correct inaccuracies. Thank you for being a true musician. While we see video evidence of Tommy bending behind the nut on many of his newer instruments, I believe the original recording may have been done on his 62/63 Les Paul/SG Special, which had a bigsby style tailpiece. I agree the 'Behind the nut' technique comes close to replicating the original sound but it has issues. The string length behind the nut is a fraction of an inch whereas a movable tailpiece utilizes the entire string length. This implies less force is required to reach the starting note and the release can be more consistently controlled.
I had that book for a week when I was 15 and my friend's friend asked to borrow it at a jam session for a few days and I never saw him again! It bothered me for over 20 years but now this finally gives me some solace, lol
I’m watching without my guitar and saying, ‘Hold on. How DO I play it?’ I learned it from a magazine in the mid ‘80s. It was in the correct key, but you suggest more appropriate neck positions. It had turned into muscle memory fairly quickly when you only had 1 or 2 song transcriptions PER MONTH at your disposal.
These videos are the story of my early guitar career. As soon as I saw the title of this video, I thought "I bet that 3-1 thing in the intro is in there"...
This reminds me of the time Marty Friedman first heard Into The Void. He was so confused why his playing sounded wrong and convinced that Tony Iommi was untouchable, until he figured out that it was tuned down.
I remember getting my first electric guitar (standard strat) and learning this song soon after, and chipping off the edge of the nut at the low e string from bending behind it. Haven't played that part since ;-)
You need to find the Led Zeppelin books that were transcribed by a guy named Ray Donato in the 80s. I had the second volume which included a transcription to the Rain song that was presented as though it were to be played in standard tuning and that's how I learned it at 16. It had some weird chord shapes but it actually sounded cool
Back in the day (20 years ago), I flicked through a Dookie tab book, and every single song was entirely made up of 6 string barre chords!!! It put me off completely but luckily I had a friend who knew power chords who showed me how to do them.
@@muleblues71 when Dio joined on heaven and hell he started tuning to E flat and has pretty much used that exclusively ever since. Live he has guitars in different tunings for different songs.
I think that a lot of these old tab books, they were transcribed by pianists which were written in standard notation and then transferred into tab format by someone who didn’t check their work.
Tony did it as easy he could because of the fact he had lost the tips of his fingers that you use to make the chords, he made his own prosthetic fingertips, but he still had to simplify a lot of his playing, which made it easier for me to learn, I didn't use and don't use tabs cause I don't know how, but I'm ear and sight learner. Some people say that playing by ear and sight is hard, but not for me, guess I was just born this way. I'm too old to learn anything else now. Thank you for showing a new generation how to not suck through no fault of their own, bad tab books are to blame for a many guitar players bad playing, shame on the people who publish it
I notice you got the slash pick ups I like them I put a set in my 2017 les Paul studio really gave me that 80s sound I was looking for got a nice crunch but clear great sounding just on clean as well
I learned to play the opening note accidentally when tuning the E string and my friend said, "Hey, that sounds like Iron Man." I played it by turning the tuning peg up and down for years. Then I saw a video of Jimmy page doing a behind the nut bend (Song Remains The Same maybe?) and was blown away!
There is also a bass tab book for the We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll compilation. It also contains a lot of errors. This isn't surprising because many of the bass lines are really difficult to make out.
As I posted on other videos, these were never transcribed by people. This was done via computer software back in the day. The “transcriber “ only reviewed and if it was good to go it was published. Transcriptions only got better as technology transcription software improved.
Great video, factually very accurate. I saw a live Sabbath video years ago and noticed how he played a lot of classic riffs up high. He played really light gauges on account of his hand injury, perhaps 8-gauge on this. I wonder if his reliance on the low E is to compensate a bit? The main riff just feels better to me at the 2nd fret position with my 10-gauge setup. But the other riffs should be played at the original positions for all the reasons you mentioned.
Like 2 weeks ago I was watching something live streaming from Kyle Dunnigans and I saw you donated to his page. I've been watching so many of your vids since then. Yo!
Aww man!!!! I’m that 15 year old kid that bought this book in 1995, and actually thought this was right until this video. You’re correct, Sir! This hurts my soul
That book is a complete disgrace. The solo to Planet Caravan is all over the place. I think whoever did it understands music but has never played a guitar.
A lot of the older tab books were written by piano players, especially the easy or "EZ" guitar books. I have "Pop Hits" books written for trumpet and sax that were an equal waste of cash. (Wrong rhythms, key signatures, etc.) Music publishing has been a bit of an oxymoron for anything non-classical for decades.
My guess is it was written out in standard notation in some rudimentary PC software and used a script to generate the tablature. IMO this explains all the weird positioning issues.
Some of you are mentioning the intro where Tony holds the octave E while doing the bend. You're right but I'm only addressing the actual bend technique in this video. In a future video I'm going to cover the octave E as well as another detail for the intro. Very exciting times. :)
You have to do the Pearl Jam Ten tab book (original version). It's a disaster.
The original pearl jam 10 tab book was horrible. Even flow not even close not even the right key. They did redo the book and release a more correct one just recently.
In short, you hold the 2nd fret of the D string whilst bending the nut of the low E string, holding a power chord shape
hi Mike,
do you have ‘21st Century Schizoid Man,’ by King Crimson anywhere in your backlog of vids? that would be a great tune for people to learn that aren’t yet aware of it. as you know, it has Licks for Days! unfortunately, I don’t think it’s widely known by younger shredders here.
This is totally new to me. By "octave E" do you mean the E on the D string, 2nd fret?
Cool little detail if so, like Jimmy Page adding an open D to a D that's already there in the Whole Lotta Love riff to make it sound fuller.
This Iron Man tab plays more like Aluminum Boy.
ALUMINUM BOY lmaooo !
Mike needs to see this
Zing!!
/)
Winner!
I couldn't afford tab books back when I started out, so I had to figure out my own incorrect ways to play these riffs.
I used to borrow tab books from the library that were really messed up
even worse, i had to steal them,
playing the wrong way is called "Improvising", LOL
I love your profile picture!
That's the based way to do it
Dude you've found such a good, interesting and algorythm friendly video format with the 'bad tab book' format! I love them!
And it wont get old!
The Nevermind tab book almost scarred me for life. The way they have "Lithium" transcribed is just a mess. It's funny, because I just started "leaving out" the parts that didn't sound right, assuming I wasn't skilled enough to play them properly, so I just played what felt right to me. Turns out, I was on the right track all along!
I bought that book too as a kid and 75 percent of it made no sense lol
I remember trying to play that and it was so awkward in the position they wrote it, it was'nt until years later watching vids on UA-cam of Kurt that I saw how easy it was!
Props to those people who transcribed it
I started learning guitar in the internet era, and i think on the TAB side, its even worse now, becouse every confident Joe can publish a tab, they are so so wrong, that i gave up really quickly, and started learning by ear, which is a good thing, but i dont deny that the unlimited video recordings of the actual artists helped a lot too.
I agree, most important thing is listening.
I pretty much got to the point where I will look at a few tabs to get some ideas if needed, but then I just compare it against the recording and learn that way.
I learned Master of Puppets by ear as well and from watching now James Hetfield played it on Live Shit Binge and Purge
If I could go back I would definitely rely a lot less on TABs and much more by ear. Same with digital tuners as well.
I’ve always played by ear
There's also the fact that Tony Iommi did down-tune to compensate the string tension to his fingers (since he is missing the tips of two fingers), so it's also possible the transcriber just thought that was what Iommi was doing on those first couple of Sabbath albums before they started tuning down to C-sharp.
The initial bend, in the tab, sounds like the intro of kickstart my heart
Years ago I had this book. In the song Paranoid they printed the lyric "People think I'm insane because I am browning all the time". It was not the worst book for tab at the time but pretty close to it.
My copy says "counting all the time" (Sesame Street version)
@creamwobbly did you actually say ozzy is a shit singer wtf
That bending behind the nut technique is new to me. Can confirm after trying it out it also sounds cool on ukulele.
👀
I'd honestly like to hear that now.
👍😎
Check out John5 Behind the Nut Love. Incredible.
Here’s the link.
ua-cam.com/video/1I4HUzhKle0/v-deo.html
I don't think anything sounds "cool" on a ukulele.
@@charlesdarwin7253 truer words have never been spoken
I gotta say, as far as guitar channels go you're really nailing it. I love the way you come across as a fellow guitarist not a lecturer.
Nowadays tuning down 1/2 step is common knowledge but 40 years ago it was not. As a kid i always wondered why learning from book never sounded right. Ended up playing by ear. How many people gave up because they thought they just couldnt get it. Great series man. Love it.
Shout out to Mike for remembering the original entrance theme of THE ROAD WARRIORS!
The Road warriors were my introduction to sabbath!!
This reminds me of when I tried Rocksmith on my Xbox. I was playing "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden (I believe, it's been a few years... may have been the "Outshined" chorus), and the game was telling me to play notes on the A string when I was positive it was all E string. It didn't even make sense the way they had it transcribed, when it was obviously higher on the neck on the E string. Obviously, playing it the "right" way registered (because it was the right notes) but the fact that as an amateur guitarist I knew it was misleading me, it made me put the game down and never touch it again.
It was definitely Outshined. I remember exactly where you're talking about. It's the riff that starts immediately after the phase "till I'm down on my knees again". They have some weird string skipping thing when it's really all played on the low D string (drop D tuning).
Learned to play in the 90s and yes it was hard getting anywhere with just tab books. I found a series of books in my language that covered famous songs with a play along cassette that would do stuff like put the guitar on one stereo channel so you could pan and hear what was going on, or remove the guitar and play the parts yourself. That and a metronome was I had.
UA-cam is an absolute goldmine for anyone learning to play today, or learning anything for that matter. I didn't even know I needed a distorsion pedal when I brought my first electric home after playing regular acoustic.
Tab isn't a good way to learn.
@@216trixie it's a starting point and it can be good
@@gergoretvari6373 Plus in the the 90s and earlier it's pretty much all we had plus our ears. I'm grateful for it as learning songs by ear really helped develop it.
4:25 that behind the nut technique can also be used to add vibrato to natural harmonics without a whammy bar.
The main riff also switches to single notes across the E, A, & D strings, rather than power cords on the E, during the vocals
Iommi does that all the time during verses. Another instance is in their self titled song.
Have they lost their minds? / Can they write tabs or are they blind?
I even sang it in the wrong key. 😂
Can they transcribe at all? Or, if they do, will they fall?
I have this book, and when I was younger always struggled with Iron Man because of this!
One little thing with the bend at the beginning, Tony actually plays it slightly different to what you showed. He still does the bend behind the nut, but he also adds the e an octave higher as well (played at the 2nd fret of the D string) which isn’t bent. It creates an awesome dissonance, that resolves when the bend is released.
I always played it the way you showed, until Tony was showing me how he does it himself… never seen anyone else actually play it this way, so it’s gone completely unnoticed!
You're right but I was just focusing on the bend for this video though. In a future video I'll be showing the octave plus another detail. Excited.
@@TheArtofGuitar looking forward to seeing it! Sabbath are my favourite band, and I’ve always been a massive fan of Tony, and his playing style (thanks to his ‘work accident’!)
It isn't just a note, he plays the E chord when bending behind the nut.
Not necessarily the chord per se, but really, the E octave on the D string.
Pinky on the E and he plucks that and open E and with index he bends. There a video on you tube where iommi explains
A taint bend.
I love that you can refer to what 'Tony' did while talking about the Iron Man riff. One of those perfect coincidences.
Lol.Thanx for the memories. This was one of the first tab books I ever bought and for the longest time as a beginner guitarist I just thought I was doing it wrong. It wasn't until my ear was good enough and I was able to figure songs out by myself that I realized that not only this book but just about every one I had were garbage. I also had a subscription to Guitar For The Practicing Musician ( teens of the 80s will remember ) that had 4-5 transcriptions every month and were usually pretty accurate from what I can remember. I still have a bunch in storage. I am curious now about their accuracy.
I learned the pre-nut bend from Randy Rhoads and my guitar instructor. Half of my guitar lessons were writing in the correct numbers in the tab...
I cannot stress how valuable a quality guitar instructor is.. and I think these videos show it!
This series is just so damn awesome
Lol, I just left a message on another one of your videos referencing this exact song with that bend starting the song. I have that exact book and used it to learn Sabbath long before the internet
Loving your videos. Such an artistic way of unmasking tab books.
I still have this Anthology. We learned all of our Sabbath songs from this book and generally, it never was a major problem as far as the key went. We all were playing it a half step sharp. It sucks to find out that it was so hard to sing because of that though. I pulled double duty in all of my bands and had to deal with these kinds of errors daily. Live and learn ey?
I rlly love this guys videos, I’m not having any full lessons off him but the small tips (like the pinch harmonic one you did) are just brilliant
Iommi also used really thin gauge strings so his bottom strings are not normal bottom strings. I think it actually sounds better with the root on the A string on my guitar
Cool mention of the Road Warriors! Awesome video as always.
I learnt to play solely by ear, so when I have looked up tabs I've always been confused as they just felt and sounded off. So I've not bothered with them since. I think it serves you better to just figure out and practice scales. Every guitarist has 1 or 2 scales they rely on, so most of their riffs derive from them. Once you have that pattern recognition, when you commit sounds and finger placements to memory, figuring out songs becomes a lot easier.
Totally had that book and this video brought back SO MANY memories of embarrassment having to first tune my whole guitar down and then relearn the song all over out of frustration. I actually remember using my ZOOM 4040 pedals pitch shifter to try and lower my guitar so I didn’t have to relearn it. I can actually still remember the song the “wrong” way just like you played it…
love the videos man, you're one of the only channels keeping me learning. Also, I love the shirt man
This series is awesome! Thanks for demystifying these tab books. I remember the feeling of this inner struggle when I started playing guitar: the struggle between what the tab reads but what my ears hear. This will surely empower many players out there to trust their instincts and instructors. Guitar is not just playing, it's talking about it with others, it's discussion, it's philosophy, an art - And you Sir, are an artist!
You also have a great way of putting these errors into a context, meaning it doesn't discret the authors but sheds a light on hypothetical scenarios of their work process and what might went wrong - all highly educational!
Tab is a lousy way to learn guitar.
@@216trixie The one time I spoke to a guitar teacher, who is an accomplished Jazz musician, he asked what my goals were. I said, I've been playing a while and I'd like to clean up some of my bad habits. He said, 'there are no bad habits, but we can also learn good habits too. In my mind, learning only by TAB is incomplete, if your goal is to be a good mimic but I don't discount tabs as one of the many tools we can make use of.
I appreciate this whole series, it's so validating to find out for sure after a whole childhood learning sheet music for various instruments and thinking I couldn't make songs sound even close to correct because I was a dumb kid that in many cases where I suspected the transcriptions were flat out wrong they probably really were
This was one of the first tab books that I bought after I got my first electric guitar back in '92. Luckily I also subscribed to Guitar World magazine right around that time. Iommi had an Iron Man lesson in one issue that showed the correct way to play the main riff and circular riff, and also explained how to do the bending behind the nut technique.
nice video. I'm actually a bass palyer , and i've noted the "more difficult than it should be" situation on MANY black sabbath, Iron Maiden and metallica bass tabs. best examples is IM stuff though, quite often they'll have the learner runing up and down the neck ,when harris plays his notes up and downt the strings (ie he is baring strings and staying in what is called "the harris box" ) . they'll technically have the right notes , but in the wrong spot of the neck from where he actually plays it , thus making the whole damn thing harder to play than what it actually is. they do this real bad with butler's lines too. usualy the issue with metallica bass tabs is they'll have the bass just doubling the rhythm guitar , which is not at all what cliff or newsted is doing.
I remember learning how to play Iron Man as an early teen, by ear (never did bother too much with the solos, usually just wing it or what ever), and it took me years to realize how Tony actually plays the main riff; I taught myself doing B5 on the A and D strings at the 2nd fret, sliding up to 5th and then 7th, and so on, not realizing Tony did it on the low E and A strings, starting at the 7th fret and going from there. I did know how he did War Pigs though, so that should have clued me in earlier. Then later I got the Just Say Ozzy EP on CD, and hearing Zakk do War Pigs, I realized he was doing lower frets on the A and D strings similar to how I did Iron Man, so.... yeah.
Damn! your set up and tone sounds amazing on this vid!
That was my suggestion! I'm so excited to watch.
Great video!! I got this tab book in 7th grade, and I still have it!!! My guitar teacher at the time hated when i brought it in to learn a BS song. He used to make corrections in pen on the tab sheets in the book. It does have cool song selection though, like Voodoo and Country Girl.
This series is just awesome! What a great idea.
Love your mic'ing technique on that whiteboard. The tone you captured from it is incredible!!! ;-)
The one benefit I found to learning songs the "harder way" is if you've committed to them long enough before discovering the right way it's actually stillb good practice for dexterity and transitions and whatnot. Also just helps you learn your way around the fret board so if you happen to break a string you can still hack your way through to the end using the alternative notes instead of stopping a performance altogether
Your videos make me feel so much better about learning songs and thinking I was jus terrible at playing and now when I se some hard ass riff I just think wats the same notes but easier fingering? Thanks for doing this
Great video. Im so lucky that I learned it the way you play it. The CORRECT way. Love me some old Sabbath. This is exactly what I've been studying lately too, all the old stuff from them. Tony is a Beast. 🤘
As a young Metallica/Megadeth fan back in the day those tab books messed me up bad. Set me back for years.
I learned guitar by ear, long before the internet and before the mass availability of tabs. My motto is that if it sounds right, it is right. As videos became more and more available, i consistently found that my ear led me correctly in nearly every instance. I can't even get into tabs because its far easier for me to listen to something a few times and visualize the notes on the fretboard and then get on with playing it. If i want to check my work, i just watch a concert video. Not a fan of tabs at all.
I never would've guessed the "behind the nut" bend. The tab book I had told me to do a whole step neck bend to get the note
Looking back I can't believe I didn't break my dad's guitar from it
Good lord! That's not a bend, that's a kung-fu neck reset!
The half step tune down was a standard thing for Tony Iomi. He had issues with finger pain/arthritis and regularly tuned his guitar down to lower the tension.
what about in the beginning of war pigs where you play the open E string along with the power chords? The guitar is tuned normally there. The same can be said for the solo where he also plays the open E string along with the A string.
I remember my mom buying me this book in the 90's and tuning to E flat so the tabs would match the song. I had no idea how wrong some of the parts were, but at some point I just started learning by ear with the cd's or tapes I had. I had forgotten about this book, it's been many years since I had it.
As a kid, my Dad would take my brothers and I to the UIC Pavilion in Chicago to see NWA wrestling. We loved the Road Warriors! Hearing Iron Man played as their entrance music was awesome. Not many people knew/remember they used Iron Man. 🤘🏻
Awesome video! Also Loving the Heisenberg t shirt! I was actually watching Breaking Bad when you uploaded this video.
I seriously need to get learning this, not only because it's a killer tune and I LOVE it, but I have a black SG so I kinda feel a little obligated haha! 😂
Nice Heisenberg shirt
Your tab series highlights the reason I learned by ear. I couldn't reconcile what I heard with the tab books, and always considered them idiots for writing these transcriptions, thinking "what are they listening to".
I still have that book, now I want to revisit it after not looking at it for 15+ years
Love this channel
Fantastic Series.
Being a product of the 80s, I'm loving this. 👍🎸
I must admit I like your videos, both when you show us the proper ways to play some of the more interesting riffs, and especially when you are humble enough to post an update to correct inaccuracies. Thank you for being a true musician.
While we see video evidence of Tommy bending behind the nut on many of his newer instruments, I believe the original recording may have been done on his 62/63 Les Paul/SG Special, which had a bigsby style tailpiece. I agree the 'Behind the nut' technique comes close to replicating the original sound but it has issues. The string length behind the nut is a fraction of an inch whereas a movable tailpiece utilizes the entire string length. This implies less force is required to reach the starting note and the release can be more consistently controlled.
I had that book for a week when I was 15 and my friend's friend asked to borrow it at a jam session for a few days and I never saw him again! It bothered me for over 20 years but now this finally gives me some solace, lol
You've uncovered pain that I've buried deep down inside for years. Haha. Thank you for showing us that we weren't wrong about this tab book.
I’m watching without my guitar and saying, ‘Hold on. How DO I play it?’ I learned it from a magazine in the mid ‘80s. It was in the correct key, but you suggest more appropriate neck positions. It had turned into muscle memory fairly quickly when you only had 1 or 2 song transcriptions PER MONTH at your disposal.
Man, I've been playing this riff wrong. Thanks for the great lesson.
That book isn't wrong. It's the tab for the live at Twin Peaks version
These videos are the story of my early guitar career. As soon as I saw the title of this video, I thought "I bet that 3-1 thing in the intro is in there"...
I have this book. It was the first tab book I bought way back in 1988. I've always known it was off, but learned to make adjustments.
This reminds me of the time Marty Friedman first heard Into The Void. He was so confused why his playing sounded wrong and convinced that Tony Iommi was untouchable, until he figured out that it was tuned down.
The main thing I've gathered from this video is that book learning will never be able to compare to learning from your friend Steve in his garage
The Road Warriors were my introduction to Sabbath as well!! That intro was monstrous
I remember getting my first electric guitar (standard strat) and learning this song soon after, and chipping off the edge of the nut at the low e string from bending behind it. Haven't played that part since ;-)
Hawk and Animal rule! Rip!
I'm pretty sure this song and the LOD led me to guitar! Great videos, Mike!
Thanks🤘
What is that tailpiece all about? I've never seen one like that.
Looks like it might be a les trem 2.
You need to find the Led Zeppelin books that were transcribed by a guy named Ray Donato in the 80s. I had the second volume which included a transcription to the Rain song that was presented as though it were to be played in standard tuning and that's how I learned it at 16. It had some weird chord shapes but it actually sounded cool
It's so satisfying to hear him play it in the wrong key, and then suddenly hearing it the right way.
Back in the day (20 years ago), I flicked through a Dookie tab book, and every single song was entirely made up of 6 string barre chords!!! It put me off completely but luckily I had a friend who knew power chords who showed me how to do them.
It's possible that it's a half-step down because iommi tuned down for the subsequent albums, so maybe they transcribed it with the tuning he used then
First 2 albums, standsrd tuning. From there on, tuned down to C# mostly.
@@muleblues71 when Dio joined on heaven and hell he started tuning to E flat and has pretty much used that exclusively ever since. Live he has guitars in different tunings for different songs.
I think that a lot of these old tab books, they were transcribed by pianists which were written in standard notation and then transferred into tab format by someone who didn’t check their work.
I'd love to see you take a look at some old Guitar World magazine tabs. I lived and died by those as a kid!
Tony did it as easy he could because of the fact he had lost the tips of his fingers that you use to make the chords, he made his own prosthetic fingertips, but he still had to simplify a lot of his playing, which made it easier for me to learn, I didn't use and don't use tabs cause I don't know how, but I'm ear and sight learner. Some people say that playing by ear and sight is hard, but not for me, guess I was just born this way. I'm too old to learn anything else now. Thank you for showing a new generation how to not suck through no fault of their own, bad tab books are to blame for a many guitar players bad playing, shame on the people who publish it
Best series on UA-cam.
I notice you got the slash pick ups I like them I put a set in my 2017 les Paul studio really gave me that 80s sound I was looking for got a nice crunch but clear great sounding just on clean as well
I learned to play the opening note accidentally when tuning the E string and my friend said, "Hey, that sounds like Iron Man." I played it by turning the tuning peg up and down for years. Then I saw a video of Jimmy page doing a behind the nut bend (Song Remains The Same maybe?) and was blown away!
Used that same book. Found similar with the song Paranoid was a step up. My singer hated me when I first played it wrong.😅
Sick shirt Mike.
I feel a lot of us are tab players, me included, and yes I have this book. Thank you SO MUCH for these videos on correcting bad tabs!!
There is also a bass tab book for the We Sold Our Soul For Rock 'N' Roll compilation.
It also contains a lot of errors. This isn't surprising because many of the bass lines are really difficult to make out.
Damn man, if you were my teacher, I'd sign up in no time. You have the best vibes.
I own like everybook you have done this for....way too funny
As I posted on other videos, these were never transcribed by people. This was done via computer software back in the day. The “transcriber “ only reviewed and if it was good to go it was published. Transcriptions only got better as technology transcription software improved.
Nice series idea
I learned to play guitar back in 85 to this sabbath anthology
I really like the tone of that sg
I always thought I was bad,at figuring out songs,,,but I have found so many bad tabs,, im back to doin it myself.
Great video, factually very accurate. I saw a live Sabbath video years ago and noticed how he played a lot of classic riffs up high. He played really light gauges on account of his hand injury, perhaps 8-gauge on this. I wonder if his reliance on the low E is to compensate a bit? The main riff just feels better to me at the 2nd fret position with my 10-gauge setup. But the other riffs should be played at the original positions for all the reasons you mentioned.
Like 2 weeks ago I was watching something live streaming from Kyle Dunnigans and I saw you donated to his page. I've been watching so many of your vids since then. Yo!
Wow the Road Warriors were what introduced me to this song and to Sabbath too.
Aww man!!!! I’m that 15 year old kid that bought this book in 1995, and actually thought this was right until this video. You’re correct, Sir! This hurts my soul
That book is a complete disgrace. The solo to Planet Caravan is all over the place. I think whoever did it understands music but has never played a guitar.
Very true, the solo for PC in that book is a mess
A lot of the older tab books were written by piano players, especially the easy or "EZ" guitar books.
I have "Pop Hits" books written for trumpet and sax that were an equal waste of cash. (Wrong rhythms, key signatures, etc.)
Music publishing has been a bit of an oxymoron for anything non-classical for decades.
My guess is it was written out in standard notation in some rudimentary PC software and used a script to generate the tablature. IMO this explains all the weird positioning issues.
Bending that first bend behind the nut was how I learned it in 1990.
Oh, my Takamine GB-7C every time I bend behind the nut, and that's what she said lol, that string goes out of tune. Is that normal?