An Explanation of my Notation



I have tried make the songs as comprehensive as possible, but at the same time easy to read. A very good idea is to listen to
the song or the ra. files while following the tab, that way you will get a much better understanding of my method of tabbing.





Every "-" represents a quarter of a beat (eg. 1 e + a 2 e + a. - more elaborately... 
             1-ee-and-uh-2-ee-and-uh-)

p. - piano (soft)
f. - forte (loud)
c. - crescendo (getting louder - keeps getting louder from where the "c." is written to the end 
                   of the "<" signs).
dc - decrescendo (getting softer - keeps getting softer from where the "dc." is written to the
                   end of the ">" signs).


Cym = Cymbals                                                                         
  x - hit fully closed hi hat 
  @ - hit loose hihat (eg. the first loud part of Milk It.) 
  = - close hi hat with foot (also used when hihat is to be choked).
  o - hit open hi hat softly
  + -  hit bell of open hi hat.
  X - crash cymbal  (Dave Grohl often uses two at once) 
  ^ - ride cymbal
  ~ - bell of ride cymbal
  # - splash cymbal

other cymbal stuff..
  Choke - choke the cymbal
  shoulder - this means shoulder the cymbal, this usually only occurs for the hi-hat. Shouldering 
         means to play every second hit with more forte. If you don't understand this, take a look at 
         the Milk It tab and listen to the song; the shouldering happens in the first bars of the song 
         for example. Another one is to listen to In Bloom, he does it in the verses, and if you have 
         a copy of the video clip for it you will notice how he does it.
 
S   = Snare                                                                                
  * - very soft snare hit (also not as ghost note).
  o - normal snare hit
  O - accented snare 
  / - stick across rim
  X - rim shot
  f - flam
  F - accented flam


B   = Bass Drum                                                                      
  0 - normal bass drum hit

MT   = Mounted tom
  o - normal mounted tom hit
  O - accented mounted tom
   f - flam
  F - accented flam 

FT    = Floor tom 
  o - normal floor tom hit
  O - accented floor tom
   f - flam
  F - accented flam      


NOTE: if you have trouble differentiating between "0" and "O", because of your browser then let
me know, thanx.


An simple example with some guidelines.....


       __{one bar}__ 
      /             \
     |               |               |
Cym  X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|
     --------------------------------|
S    ----o-------o-------o-------o---|
     --------------------------------|
B    0-------0-0---0-0---------0-----|
     1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1  (it can be counted like this).