General principles
Chords and Chord names
Reading tabs (reading my tabs)
Fingerpicking
Open/alternate tunings
Harp Keys
Just a few words about the principles that (mostly) have been followed in making the tabs on this site.
First of all: this is a guitar site, not a "chord" site. The ideal "readers" I have in mind are the average (or average-to-good-to-very-good) guitar players, playing for their own enjoyment (let's not talk about the neighbours - just love them). That means on the one hand that I transcribe the songs into what is convenient to play on a guitar, not necessarily into what is actually sounding--in other words: I use the capo, just like Bob Dylan himself. Just because a song happens to be played in the key of Eb major, doesn't mean that it has to be tabbed in that key, when it is actually played in "C major" with a capo on the third fret.
2. A corollary of this is that my aim is not just giving the chords of a song, but also figuring out as exactly as possible what is being played in the version up for study.
3. On the other hand is the problem with the "piano songs". Whereas Dylan prefers the keys of C major and G major on the guitar, he delights in odd, awkward keys with lots of black keys, especially C# major (or Db major), when he's at the piano. In these cases it is of course impossible to reproduce exactly what is being played. I still use a capo (of course).
This means that there are three main types of tabs/chord-files on this site, corresponding to three kinds of arrangements: The solo acoustic songs, or songs where the guitar work is of some prominence. Here exactness is a goal. Then there is the big group of songs where no particular instrument is prominent, least of all Dylan's guitar. Here the aim of the tabs is to present an approximation of what is going on in the song, rather than figuring out exactly what Dylan is playing (which in these cases is quite uninteresting, actually). The piano songs constitute a sub-division of this group.
For beginners (ain't we all...). The tabs present what is being
played, by trained and proficient musicians (yes, I'm counting in Dylan). On the one hand
Dylan is an ideal artist for a beginner, since he always uses quite simple and logical
chord shapes, and licks and tricks that let him get maximum effect from minimum effort.
Still, the beginner may run into problems, with strange chord names, barré chords etc.
Here's just a few cheats.
(1) All chords, basically, go back to the three fundamental chords in a key (in C: C, G
and F) and their minor relatives (Am, Em, Dm). Most frequent are the variations to the
dominant chord, i.e. the chord on the fifth step above the key note (G in this example),
where the variations are different ways of creating and sustaining tension before the
return to the key note. That means that "strange" chord names can often be
replaced by the simple chord without all the fuzz behind it (Gb+, E7-10, Dm7-5, Cadd9
become Gb, E, Dm, C). This does not happen without loss: the "fuzz" is there for
some reason (e.g. the E7-10 is the quintessential blues chord, which is minor and major at
the same time; it is an E chord, but the plain E does not get the same effect), but
functionally the plain chord will usually do the job adequately.
(2) Chords can be replaced with their relatives. When I was 9, before I had the strength
to play barré chords, I discovered that I could replace most F chords with Dm or Am - one
of those would usually work. Now I know that the reason why it works, is that they both
share two out of three chord tones with F, which often is enough. I don't recommend this
method, however. It is cheatin', and the only person you're fooling, in the long run, is
yourself.
(3) Some songs are consistently noted with chords like Ab, Eb, Bb etc. That is because
they are played with those chords, as barre chords, and in those cases I've seen no reason
to introduce a capo. The easiest way to avoid those barre chords, is to drop all the bs,
and play E, B, A instead. this only works if all chords have a b attached to them, though.
Other chords you'll have to transpose based on the thorough knowledge of the outline of
the fretboard that you've gained, e.g. from the figure below.
Chord short-hand. I usually present the chords used in the song, unless it should be obvious (someone who doesn't know how to play a C major chord probably doesn't have anything to do in here anyway...). Chords are presented with one number for each string, beginning with the lowest (6th) string. An open string is 0, a finger on the 3rd fret is 3 etc. An unused string is marked by 'x', and strings that are disregarded are marked '-'. Thus C major looks like this: x32010, and the recurring fill in "Blood in my Eyes" like this: x32010 -53--- -64--- -75---.
Bass notes. A chord with a bass note other than the keynote is
indicated with a slash between the chord name and the bass note: C/g is a C major chord
with G as the lowest tone: 332010.
The slash and the bass note can be used alone to indicate a bass progression against a
sustained chord: C /b /a /g.
I usually use lower-case letters for these bass tones, because it looks less ugly.
Chord names. I usually also prefer simple names to "exact" names. A chord like 3x3211 should perhaps (but not necessarily) be called G11, but I prefer to call it F/g, since that more immediately says what is to be played (and because it retains the ambiguity inherent in the chord, between the subdominant and the dominant, which is so central to Dylan's tonal language). See Blood in my Eyes for a more extreme case. (I'm beginning to change my mind on this, though. In the more recent tabs, you'll see G11 more often than F/g).
'+' indicates an augmented chord (aug), i.e. the fifth tone from the keynote
is raised by one half step. G+ = 321003.
Approximated chord names are written like "G6" (x33000) or F#m7' (202200).
The tones are distributed on the strings as follows (e' is the lightest string, E is the darkest):
e'||-f'-+-f#'+-g'-+-g#'+-a'+-
b ||-c'-+-c#'+-d'-+-d#'+-e'+-
g ||-g#-+-a--+-bb-+-b--+-c'+-
d ||-d#-+-e--+-f--+-f#-+-g-+-
A ||-Bb-+-B--+-c--+-c#-+-d-+-
E ||-F--+-F#-+-G--+-G#-+-A-+-
To find a chord like Am/F# (the most important chord in Trying to Get to Heaven), start with the basic chord (Am)
and search out the bass tone (F#) on one of the darkest strings, where it can be played.
In this case there are two possibilities: on the 4th string:
e'||-f'-|-f#'|-g'-|-g#'|-a'|
b ||-c'-|-c#'|-d'-|-d#'|-e'|
g ||-g#-|-a--|-bb-|-b--|-c'|
d ||-d#-|(e)-|-f--|-f#-|-g-|
A ||-Bb-|-B--|-c--|-c#-|-d-|
E ||-F--|-F#-|-G--|-G#-|-A-|
or on the 6th:
e'||-f'-|-f#'|-g'-|-g#'|-a'|
b ||-c'-|-c#'|-d'-|-d#'|-e'|
g ||-g#-|-a--|-bb-|-b--|-c'|
d ||-d#-|-e--|-f--|-f#-|-g-|
A ||-Bb-|-B--|-c--|-c#-|-d-|
E ||-F--|-F#-|-G--|-G#-|-A-|
The second fingering is best, since it produces a fuller chord, and since you can use all the strings - unless you precisely want the higher sound, in which case the first fingering is better. In that case xx4555 is a third alternative. It even has the advantage of having the key note (A) on the highest string, thus emphasising it.
For a more comprehensive guide to guitar chords, see the ONLINE GUITAR CHORD DICTIONARY, or the other resources at Guitar Notes.
The principles I've followed in the tabs have varied a little over the years, but the following points apply, as a rule, to all files:
The rhythm is indicated above the tab, with dots for each beat and : for the heavier beats:
: . . . : . . .
In the cases where an even finer subdivision is needed, a comma is used:
: . , . , . , .
As far as possible I let the tabs be a graphical image of the rhythms, so that two spaces are of equal duration anywhere in the tab. That way one can easily differentiate between the triple time feel of this example
: . . . |-0---0--------------------| |-1---1(0---0-0---0-0---0)-| |-0---0(0---0-0---0-0---0)-| |-2---2-3---3-4---4-5---5--| |-3---3-5---5-6---6-7---7--| |--------------------------|
and the square rhythms of this (both from Blood in My Eyes):
: . . . |-0--0---------------------| |*1--1-(0--0--0--0--0--0)-*| |-0--0-(0--0--0--0--0--0)--| |-2--2--3--3--4--4--5--5---| |*3--3--5--5--6--6--7--7--*| |--------------------------|
Repeats are indicated as in the previous example, or written out ("x3")
Sometimes I've indicated rhythms also in the "chords" part of the files. Then the bars are indicated, and the main pulse within each bar. I'm sorry to say that I haven't followed any consistent system to denote subdivisions of the beat, but I've often joined such chords together with a hyphen:
| A . . . | D . A . |E A/e-E . . |
The last bar would be tabbed:
: . . . |-0---0-0-0-------| |-0---2-0-0-------| |-1---2-1-1-------| |-2---2-2-2-------| |-2-------2-------| |-0---0---0-------|
Special signs:
Sign Meaning Usage
p pull-off 2p0
h hammer-on 0h2 (or h2 if obvious or too fast to be significant)
/ slide up
\ slide down
b bend 3b5 = finger the string on the third fret, and bend it up
until it sounds as if it was fingered on the fifth fret.
r release release the bended string to normal position.
Some of the songs are in open tunings. The two most common are open D/E (so named because one can tune either in E or in D, which is more kind both to the strings and to the guitar neck) and open G (which, incidentally, can also be tuned in A, but it is always called open G). The tunings are:
Open D D A D F# A D
Open E E B E G# B E
Open G D G D G B D
See Andrew Mullins' essay at Expecting Rain for further information on open tuning.
Although he doesn't use it much these days, many of the old songs use what I call "standard fingerpicking". I don't know if there is such a thing, but here is what I mean. (Chords: G and C. 'h' in the second measure means hammer-on)
G
C/g
: . . . : .
. .
|-3---------------|-----------3-----| ring finger
|-----------0-----|-0h1-------------| middle finger
|-------0-------0-|-------0-------2-| index finger
|-----0-------0---|-----2-------2---| thumb
|-----------------|-----------------| (thumb)
|-3-------3-------|-3-------3-------| thumb
The variations are of course unlimited. The thumb alternates between the bass strings, and the other fingers fill in.
7. Many of these tabs are of rare live songs, and I presume that anyone who would want to use the tabs already knows what the songs sound like. Therefore any more specific performance indications, apart from the fingerings, are considered unnecessary.
Christer Svensson has compiled the following list of harmonica keys to Dylan's songs.