I have been playing guitar for a few months and have grown to love it. I played sports and participated in 0 fine arts growing up, so this is all very new to me. I was excited to initially learn guitar tabs since they are so easy to read, but I've decided it is finally time for me to delve into learning sheet music and translating it into tabs for practice. As an exercise, I am curious in translating part of a score from a video game. The part I decided to start translating (along with the notation) can be found here (credit goes to 8-Bit Music Theory for the video content and Nintendo for the music itself). I am only interested in the top bar (the one that gets labeled as running up A lydian and subsequently down D lydian).
I believe I have derived the correct notes which are in the key of A, as seen below (this is just the first two measures) (I am also unsure how to depict stacked notes/chords when writing them out like this, so I apologize if this is incorrect.)
C - C - D♯ - D♯ - E - E - F - F - G - G - A - A - B - C - D♯
A - A - B - B - C - C - D♯ - D♯ - E - E - F - F - G - A - B
EDIT: I just came across this site which names chords based on the notes. So in my example it would be Am Am Asus2 Asus2... etc., but that is besides the point of this question.
Anyways, assuming I have the correct notes, I have tried to put them into tabs, but I can't really find anything that sounds "right".
- Should I stay on the same two strings? (I am ignoring note length and any other advance tab notation, again for the sake of example.)
E|------------------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------------------
G|------------------------------------------------------
D|------------------------------------------------------
A|--3--3--6--6--7--7--8--8--10--10--12--12--14--15--18--
E|--5--5--7--7--8--8--9--9--12--12--13--13--15--17--19--
I would assume obviously not, as this requires too much hand movement and sounds "stale" all being on the same two strings.
- Do I incorporate multiple strings that aren't consecutive?
E|--5--5--7--7--8--8--11--11--12--12--13--13--15--17--19--
B|--------------------------------------------------------
G|--5--5--8--8--9--9--10--10--12--12--14--14--16--17--18--
D|--------------------------------------------------------
A|--------------------------------------------------------
E|--------------------------------------------------------
Albeit sounding a bit nicer, I would also assume not since this is way too hard to play (at least for me lol) in rhythm and still incorporates a lot of hand movement.
- Do I stick in one general area, moving across multiple strings?
E|-----------------------------------------------
B|-----------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------4--5--8--
D|--------------------3--3--5--5--7--7--5--7--9--
A|--3--3--6--6--7--7--6--6--7--7--8--8-----------
E|--5--5--7--7--8--8-----------------------------
Or something different?
General questions:
- How do I know which note should go on top? ie
E|-----
B|-----
G|--8--
D|--9--
A|-----
E|-----
or
E|-----
B|--4--
G|--4--
D|-----
A|-----
E|-----
- How do I know when to move to the next string?
- Do I completely ignore the stacked notes/chords and play these as individual notes in a tighter area/shape higher on the fretboard? (This question I am especially intrigued by)
etc, etc...
It seems like there are so many different ways to turn sheet music into tabs. Is it a "feel" sort of thing? Do you experiment around until you land on something that sounds nice?
This is my first question on this site so I hope it is appropriate, in-depth, and valid while clearly conveying what I have tried. I understand this is a loaded post... so if someone experienced just wants to post their take on the tabs I could try and figure these questions out myself.
Thanks!
Note: I am playing on electric