Barenberg Clarence Book Gone Digital

SoundAsEver · Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 12

Just saw that Russ Barenberg has made his long out of print book of tabs of Clarence available for for sale/download on his website.

http://www.russbarenberg.com/digstore.cfm

freddairy · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 65

I've wanted this book for a long time. How are accurate are the tabs?

Murr · Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:09 pm Post subject:

It's not accurate. I'd look into Roland's stuff.

freddairy · Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 65

Thanks. I got the Roland book and see some songs on the Barenberg book are different. I really want to get I'm A Pilgrim down.

Brian · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:35 am Post subject:

Murr · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 4:34 pm Post subject:

I feel that real-time is best, especially for capturing the essence of a style.

Brian · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:26 pm Post subject:

Murr · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 7:34 pm Post subject:

Right, rote learning ..the concept has been around since record players. It has many shortcomings though.

Brian · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 10:00 pm Post subject:

Murr · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:00 pm Post subject:

I don't think it does any of those things. Plus, why slow it down? ..I like to hear and play it normal.

Don Miller · Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 215 Location: Anchorage, Alaska

Man, I gotta take it slow..neither my brain nor my fingers can go that fast. Seriously, slowing it down helps work out the specific licks, the muscle memory and coordination part...but to get the feel of the lick, I need to do it at speed....and alot of licks will have a different feel when slowed down.

I'm entirely self taught...in fact long streches where I didnt play with anyone else...so I aquired alot of bad habits....and end up playing alot of "default" licks...and Ive been sort of going back to the basics any trying to exorcise some bad habits...and pick up some variations on the stock licks ....and my basic skill level and the state of the muscle memory-coordination is such that I gotta start slow and then speed up..Im also coming off a strech where I played about 2 hours in the last month so I'm rustier than on old steel gate...

So...youre both right...

Bob Warford · Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 74

For those of you who like to slow down the music to learn it, don't feel too bad - Clarence and I spent 3 days (and nights) learning a particular Django Reinhardt solo by slowing down the reel-to-reel tape recorder from 7-1/2 inches/second to 3-3/4 inches/second and playing short passages time after time - sometimes there is just no other way to get all the notes and nuances.

Of course, we were never able to actually play the darn thing at Django's original speed, but that wasn't the fault of the tape recorder.

Bob

330rick · Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Tennessee

Brian · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 4:48 pm Post subject:

The original topic is about TAB. TAB is just another tool and some tools are better than others.. Including some TAB better than others. TAB is one persons educated guess at documenting what was on anothers' recording. The best TAB's are ones that were transcribed by the artist himself or ones that at least have been verified by the original artist. In Clarence's case we will never have that, but in the case of Roland's TAB book for me the best parts of the book are the written insight and anecdotes that Roland passes on with regard to some of Clarence's fingerings and approaches to tunes. Transcribing TAB is an acquired skill, and part of that is not only knowing what notes are played but what the actual fingerings and positions that were used. You can get real close and good at this from some common sense, and a good ear picking up the tone of certain positions. I went through alot of that sort of thing years ago when I learned transcribing fusion rock players like Eric Johnson and Steve Morse. Those guys would go out of their way to play legato with open notes ringing etc and certain positions were critical to getting it right. I knew from interviews and written articles that these players weren't always playing the easiest way to play something. So based on knowledge like that it's kind of of like piecing together a puzzle. I learned how to do this originally by observing a teacher that I had in the early 80's. I would want to learn a tune and this teacher with aid of a 1/2 speed cassette deck would transcribe it for me on the spot and I'd take it home to learn it. From that I just started doing my own transcriptions with a Tascam 1/2 speed cassette deck...which I eventually wore out and of course never had the ability to slow down without changing pitch or to loop on a specific phrase with absolute pinpoint accuracy..All of which the Amazing Slow Downer does easily, cheaply and never wears out. Of course you need to get it worked up to regular speed but I've learned (for myself anyway) that if you can't play something slowly with accuracy you wont be able to play it fast with accuracy either,, Same with golf, tennis, martial arts... perfect practice makes perfect or something like that... works for me anyway Wink

Murr · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:09 pm Post subject:

Still though, slowing is very limited ..i.e, if the licks you are trying to decipher are anything more complex than a simple sequence of single notes, good luck.

Clarence has several things going on at once .. and much of it extremely subtle, as we all know.

To be "amazing" ..I think a gizmo would have to provide a 3d hologram of Clarence and display every nuance. Laughing