Tablature question

[Pinkeyes]

Quite often you get a tab which people write the chord above each bar.

Does this mean that is the chord you form, or that is the nearest chord, and then you figure it out ? Like this:

Do you form an Am and then just stick your pinky on the 3rd fret ? - because it isn't just an Am is it ?

If they don't write a chord, do you just have to figure it out for yourself ?

Go easy here, I am very new to this guitar lark...

 

[One More Solo]

You can just ignore that chord. The progression you play is Asus-Am-Aadd9, or these three chords as indicated by the tab;
Asus
0
3
2
2
0
0

Am
0
1
2
2
0
0

Asus2
0
0
2
2
0
0

The Am chord above indicates these chords are variations within the Am "bracket", and if you were playing with a friend one of you could play the Am while the other plays the picking pattern. Street Spirit of course.

This tab might help more;

    Am              Asus4           Am              Asus2                      
E-|---------0---------------0---------------0-----------------------|
B-|-----------------3---------------1---------------0---------------|
G-|-----2-------2-------2-------2-------2-------2-------2-------2---|
D-|---------------------------------------------------------2-------|
A-|-0---------------------------------------------------------------|
E-|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
                                                                     
FIG 2:-

    Em              Em7             Em6             Em               
E-|---------0---------------0---------------0-----------------------|
B-|-----------------3---------------1---------------0---------------|
G-|-----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0---|
D-|---------------------------------------------------------2-------|
A-|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
E-|-0---------------------------------------------------------------|

FIG 3:-
                                                                     
    C               Cadd9           C               Cmaj7            
E-|---------0---------------0---------------0-----------------------|
B-|-----------------3---------------1---------------0---------------|
G-|-----0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0-------0---|
D-|---------------------------------------------------------2-------|
A-|-3---------------------------------------------------------------|
E-|-----------------------------------------------------------------|

That's my understanding anyway, I await to be corrected since I have no formal training.

 

[Pinkeyes]

Thanks very much for that.

So how are you supposed to know that ? - Or do you just figure it out. I was under the assumption that you grab and tab and away you go. There seems to be a bit of work needed to actually use it to produce the song from it...

Another quickie:
you wrote;

Asus2
0
0
2
2
0
0

But I was watching a tuition DVD over the weekend that said that was A5 (or the A powerchord). I just doubled checked online and some sites have A5 as you have shown it and other have it as a 1 string thing.

Wow this is confusing !

 

[One More Solo]

Thanks very much for that.

The other sites are wrong I'm afraid! A power chord is by definition only three strings so an A5 is actually;

-
-
2
2
0
-

Thanks very much for that.

So how are you supposed to know that ? - Or do you just figure it out. I was under the assumption that you grab and tab and away you go. There seems to be a bit of work needed to actually use it to produce the song from it...

Nah, not really. The tab tells you the notes and all you have to work out yourself is how to finger (ooh er missus) the chords.

 

[alexthecheese]

Not strictly true, a powerchord is a 'chord' with only a 5th inteval, so with that you only strictly need to play

x
x
x
2
0
x

The second fret played on the D string is an A, just an octave higher, so it's the same note. A powerchord is such because it doesn't have the 3rd interval to say whether it's a major or minor.