black star tab

I know you're probably thinking this should be in the tab section but it is a techicality issue. I've gotten some tab of the internet, dispite how unreliable they can prove to be, and I just have one or two questions relating to it.

One riff goes (A):

20---12---17---12---12 (some half bends on those twelves)

now is that a problem with the power tab editor when the guy made it up (i'm not sure the process, i've got to assume it changes midi notes to notation) or is this guy actually and accurately reaching from the 20th to the 12th and back to the 17th? i can reach it but at those speeds it's impossible. another quote(B):

|-13---12---13---15
|-14---19---21---22

What is this? (played on the high E and B strings)


oh yeah, one more (C)...

|--20--19--17-15--19--17--15--14

is this sliding the index finger to hit the 4th note in each run (ie 15 and later the 14) or is each finger assigned to each fretted note, because that'd suck.

(all these are in E, the a,b,and c represent the indexed riffs)

I really don't know which part in the song you're reffering to with the first few, but on the last.. you can slide, or play it with 4 fingers. I prefer 4 fingers..but hey its Yngwie, is he EVER going to use 4 fingers? Of course you have to move your hand at some point, but if you use all 4 fretting fingers I think its a lot easier (once you get used to it).

just out of curiosity, why would someone NOT use all four fretting fingers? It just makes sense that one would use all four available fingers...

Because it's awkward I'd assume, and that space between the ring and the middle finger is hard to strech between two frets on a fast run. I'm working on stretching and stregthening exercises. Do you mean to say that Malmsteen doesn't use 4 fingers in his runs? Because I'd much rather not - I'm beating the crap out of my pinky every day to bring it up to speed. ... Actually now that I try it, it isn't so bad.

Well, Malmsteen uses all four fingers..but not at the same time. He always uses his index finder and pinky, but alternatves between middle and ring finger for that second one.

Yeah man, I've been going over that four finger per riff stuff and is that ever giving my hand a crap kicking. But just think, once you get fluent at it you can change patterns (or positions) of a scale with total ease. Not to mention the strenght I'm gaining in the pinky - that finger needs all the pain it get. The best is playing a natural Em scale fragment starting on a C. There was an other advantage I thought of but can't remember it.

[Edited by daveasdf on 12-11-2003 at 06:35 AM]

why would someone play this using only ONE string unless it is tapped???? ever thought about putting the e on the 12th fret down to the b string on the 17th fret? just because some idiot on the net cant tab a tune and write it down in a playable and economic way doesnt mean you have to play it that way. hell even if yngwie himself played it that way - who tells you to play it that way too? (im not talking about altering the notes - i´m talking about altering the positions on the fretboard)

Would I follow somebody off the bridge. I'm not sure what you're refering to, which riff, but nobody's telling me to play in any fashion. I'm just experimenting. Nothing is wrong with that unless it results in injury.

I think the problem is that this tab (like most yngwie tabs from that album) were probably written 10+ years ago. Even when I look at things published in a magazine, people had NO idea what Yngwie was doing back then. I have a great little printout from 1984 called "How To Achieve Great Speed, Like Yngwie". It boasts 20 licks straight from Yngwie's first solo guitar album, but I can't even recognize any of them because most of them are so innacurate.

So in other words: Maybe you should just learn it by ear? Its a pretty easy song.

I virtually never use tabs from the internet - a buddy showed me the power tab thing so I went for a Malmsteen tune. I'm going to use the four finger scale fragment stuff as a stretching exercises for now (like the chromatic stuff, just using scales) and if it goes anywhere so be it. Mind you, my hands are huge and I've been playing bass for a long time (a year more than guitar), including double bass so maybe I've got an advantage endurance wise. ..probably not.

[Edited by daveasdf on 12-11-2003 at 10:31 AM]