Which METALLICA TAB Book is the WORST? (and which is BEST?)

[@mcdon2401]

Bad tab books/sheets were probably the thing that turned off so many learner guitar players back in the day. Who knows what talent we may have lost because of it.

[@sole__doubt]

Part of the fun of playing is figuring out the songs for yourself. As long as the books are close you should be able to tell.

[@fuckinliveinsin]

​@@sole__doubtI disagree, when you are a beginner you want to know how it's played the real way, 99% of the time the real way of playing a riff is the most efficient and effortless way of doing it but as a beginner you don't know that. When you are an intermediate guitarist figuring things out could be fun for some

[@ImprovGuitarRAFAEL]

@@sole__doubtyea I was gonna say that, I started electric last year and most of the things I’ve learned was by ear. A problem with my generation is wanting to look up every tab and every song instead of putting in ear training, plus some of us get distracted and spend too much time from video to video

[@bombomshivaaluqah]

none, someone who is talented and commited to guitar wont be deterred by a bad tab book

[@bigmike9527]

I hear what you are saying but these Metallica books have made many many great guitar players for sure and if it weren't for these books I don't know what I would have done,I was 13 and fell in love with Metallica and wanted to play the guitar and these books got me in the ballpark and I was able to figure things out on my own as I got better. I was 13 when I started playing and now I'm almost 52 years old and I still play Metallica shit every fucking day and i still use them as a reference because now that's all I need to figure it out 🤘🤘.

[@Vidfavne]

For the longest time I thought official tab books were the best way to learn songs correctly, and I've spent years hunting for tab books I had in the 80s. This series has taught me how silly that is. They do look nice in the guitar-bookshelf, but I'll go to songsterrrrrrrrr if I want to actually learn a song.

[@cooperlittlehales6268]

Just... make sure the songsterrr tab is right lmao. There's been a couple times when I've gone to songsterr to learn a riff only to find out that it was completely wrong haha.

[@bigfig]

Songster is good to learn the song structure. After it, you should use your eyes and ears, watch a couple of live concerts , try to find isolated guitars etc

[@tritotrofo]

julien menard on youtube for metallica

[@JCetty]

@@cooperlittlehales6268one time i was trying to learn two minutes to midnight off of songsterr and there was a chord on the 3rd and 20th fret 😂

[@Mr.Potato420]

@@cooperlittlehales6268 I use songster to get the gist cause I don't know music theory AT ALL but I have a really good ear so I can get it from listing to the song from there.

[@CircleHunter]

Absolutely LOVE seeing Ronnie get some acknowledgment! It's my favorite song from Load and I feel like nobody ever talks about it.

[@Godmil]

I didnt' know a lot of those things were mistakes when I was a kid, but the one thing that really bugged me was not transcribing Kirk's atmospheric part during the chorus of Sad But True.

[@MetalSam11]

Me too!

[@anderslidstrom8240]

Could you do an interview with one of the old school guys that tabbed one of these books and learn about the process they had, time limits, constraints, methods, and so on? Would be fun to hear from the source - you know, their perspective on how it all went down.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

I interviewed the king of transcribing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZCwiWmPm8t1eKMsi=SiO7GOeoH9-KYlXn

[@3GPtv]

@@TheArtofGuitar Would have liked to have heard how & why he transcribed the tapping in Eruption on the wrong string.

[@bigmike9527]

Dude this was great,i grew up learning from all those bokks and this was a real throwback for me,the struggle is real my friend,Thumbs Up 👍

[@asbjrnandersen4222]

You should try out the book for Alice in Chains’ “Facelift”. Some really bizarre stuff there.

[@snoozer46]

we need more sanctus videos!!!

[@realJHerndon]

Reload, Garage inc, st anger, death, hardwired and 72 all have books too - would love to see the series continue

[@nessghyperion]

It's so impressive to me how Mike knows how to match his tone to the studio version's tone SO WELL every time.

[@JohnnyBargeldBoom]

The "Fight Fire with Fire" Intro -arranged for one guitar- is really played by James on the Ride the Lightning Tour on the early Shows. As a Metallica die hard Fan I just found out about it a few years ago. There is at least one Live Bootleg where you hear James play it on his Electric Gtr with a clean tone!

[@crippl4]

0:23 for whom the notification bell tolls

[@MrDenisoyd.]

🤣

[@dpinched]

NICE! Watching on my train ride home on Sydney Australia 🦘

[@bentravis99]

Thank you for talking about Ronnie! The intro in the tab I see most often online is obviously wrong but I hadn't seen a better alternative.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

I had to figure it out myself by watching the fuzzy footage of James.

[@bentravis99]

@@TheArtofGuitar good job, really appreciate your channel!

[@benkrecskay3378]

@@TheArtofGuitar I believe he used a Tele in the studio for that song, which would accentuate that harmonic thing even more.

[@mattstewart954]

Thank you so much for this video!!! I struggled with these tabs forever so good to see how they were really played! Great video!!!

[@andym2612]

I've got the newer version of the Master of Puppets tab book like Mikes. But in the original version of the book, that I used to own, it has an error in the actual title song. At the chorus where the vocal line says "Master, Master" E5 E5, F5 F5, it has the second chord as a B5 "Master, Master" with E5 E5, B5 B5 being played. There was also a stuff up in Orion, in the book I currently have, where near the beginning of the song where Cliff does his first bass run, at bars 57 to bar 72, it has it transcribed for the guitar instead of the for the bass. I've also seen 2 versions of the Kill 'Em All Book where one version has Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) transcribed for the guitar and the other, that is correct, has it transcribed for bass. I own with the bass version where a good friend has the version where it was transcribed for the guitar. And what about the Ride The Lightning tab book. Fade to Black's chorus has a lot of major chords being played where they should just be power chords like the errors that the Master of Puppets book has.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

I just find in hindsight when i got tab books in the 90s and 2000s....it never ever occurred to me tab books could make mistakes lol, though granted i did notice when they would miss stuff out

[@fortisch]

9:48 im always weirded out how someone can be so sure of themselves to transcribe a TAB Book, but then don't even know what a pinch harmonic is. That's actually not as emberassing as their full major chords in fast metal songs and notes that just arent there.

[@CaffeinatedCafe]

"...And Justice for Most" Hames Jetfield Hirk Kammett Uars Llrich Nason Jewstead

[@dust17111]

Have you ever done a video on rocksmiths tabs , rocksmith in 2017 really changed my playing for the better forced me to learn tabs and learn some musical concepts instead of just trying to rip off what i hear and make it my own , rocksmith like tabs might have some negatives, but overall the concept is brilliant! And helps impatient people with adhd like myself learn easier.

[@spicy321]

I'm going to be in the minority and defend the transcribers. Back then there was no KZbin, no isolated tracks, no digital speed control, etc. Videos on MTV were no help in seeing how a guitarist was playing, not that you would see Metallica on there anyway. These guys commisioned to do the whole album books might not have been metal guitarist and were given a short deadline to get it done to have the book out. Yes, it was frustrating but it was all we had. I'm not defending the Pornograffitti book, though. That is a mess. Sending the tab to an artist for approval would have done no good because most of them couldn't read tab to know if it was correct or not. I do know that over the years Andy Aledort revised many of his 80s GFTPM tabs to be more accurate for Guitar World, Satch Boogie and Little Guitars being 2 examples. That might make an interesting video comparing the improvements.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

I mention in almost every Bad Tab video that we’re lucky today to have our tech and that they didn’t have it back then. Great points.

[@spicy321]

@@TheArtofGuitar If people want to see some horrific tab they should check out issues of GFTPM in their first year. There is also a book Heavy Metal Guitar (Volume 1) by Cherry Lane that has tabs that are laughable. Some of it isn't even close. The original Alfred Led Zeppelin books are almost indecipherable but they have since revised them. Alfred tab books usually are pretty bad though.

[@kadugbuss]

I've never seen anyone complain about the transcribers themselves, that would be a really shitty thing to do really. Everyone just points out that the tab books are wrong, which is still true.

[@RMarsupial]

I always used to assume the people working on the tab books DID have isolated tracks. I mean, they DID have isolated tracks back then (that's generally how they were recorded). Obviously whether they were given them to work worth is a different matter but it was possible to do so. I've kinda went to assuming they didn't have them since no one in these kind of videos mentions it, but I can't really think of a good reasn why not outside of "no one cared enough".

[@DesuchanSugoi]

I think about this every time I transcribe something. Being able to access isolated tracks, using Demucs when the stems aren't publicly available, slowing things down and pitch shifting and using phase cancellation with Transcribe!, being able to have instant playback with Guitar Pro, etc. and I still struggle sometimes. It's crazy to me how people did this back in the 80's, constantly rewinding their tape, not being able to slow it down without changing the pitch. Much respect to the guitarists of last century.

[@justo316]

Mind blown about Ronnie! Love that riff

[@TheGalilee416]

As much as I love the bad tab series, the fact you’re doing vids on your guitars makes me nerd out big time 🤓

[@mcathawk1490]

I was a drummer who wanted to play guitar, so I went out and bought a guitar and an amp. My buddy gave me a tab book that was “and justice for all” AND the “Black album” together. That’s how I learned metal basics and from there I just went by ear. However wrong it might have been, it got me going and I got better over the years and learned how to hear the music and correct the mistakes.

[@SystemYTP]

Nice job! You need to rate the DM book as well :)

[@erozC]

Japanese tab book lyrics are the best and may bring a philosophical angle to simple innuendo! Actual UFO lyric: Seventeen and nature's queen, you know what I mean Tab book lyric: Some are drawn to nature's queer, you know what I mean

[@elwinamaya1889]

Oh my god that Orion book part for Kirk's outro on the solo 😅😅 sounds like you were having spasms 😂

[@eamonahern7495]

I still have ride the lightening too. Fade to black has that cluttered 2 guitar parts on one staff for the part that leads into and plays alongside the outro solo as well. But it also has a time signature chord chart along with it and never says what chords they are. The other thing fade to black has in the book is major chords instead of just power chords for the heavy sections between and after the verses.

[@ELVH1984]

0:23 that was cool! Wasn’t expecting that!

[@billallengo]

I appreciate this video. And I love the V behind you. I love V’s…🤘🏽

[@SuperPol1981]

I learned The Thing That Should Not Be in drop D and now I absolutely can not unlearn it. And to be honest, it's easier to play that way.

[@MasterOfTitties74]

Same except the chorus riff sounds so much better when you play it in the correct tuning

[@rsc2573]

what you play at 12:45 sounds like the riff from Alison Hell by Annihilator

[@murfdog19]

What's weird is that I bought an AJFA tab book when I was 12 years old in 1989. I learned the entire album from that book, and I play everything pretty close to the original. I'll have to try to dog up the book. The tabs must have changed.

[@MittensOnly]

17:00 Honestly, I hear the major harmony when I listen to the song. I don't know if it's chords or just overtones or what but I kinda like the sound

[@edwardbisono9889]

Ahh see the transcriber should have asked James and Kirk themselves instead of assuming that a note which could be played a numerous amount of ways on a guitar is the exact note it is. Some notes are obv much higher sounding but a G is still a G and if the octave isn’t that far off that is where the mistakes lay.

[@GnRmike]

Kill Em All is pretty accurate…most riffs sound pretty close for sure. Also learned a lot from Load(s) tab book. Death Magnetic tab book was pretty solid as well. Most riffs seemed accurate 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@konradfraczek6482]

Do you have all of them, Mike? I would love to see Reload, DM, Hardwired and 42 Seasons. I think there was also Garage one that is hard to get nowadays (covers but still) :)

[@DezTheBassGuy]

You should do some of the Metallica bass books, I'm curious to see how badly they messed up the cliff solos lol

[@TheArtofGuitar]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGPOgXd5fdOebdksi=lMrd30t81kLx850Q

[@DezTheBassGuy]

@@TheArtofGuitar I was more talking about the other tab books like kill em all and master of puppets because of the cliff solos, but thank you for replying!

[@xenowolfraptor]

i feel like you should make more videos about load era metallica load, reload and the originals from s&m are so unique compared to the rest of Metallica and i feel like they don't get enough love

[@dannydorton5980]

Thanks for doing this! I bought these books when I first started playing in the early 90's and was so frustrated... I thought it was me!

[@CrazyGuitarGuy]

I like this Logo "play it like it is" xD and it is defenitely not like it was played xD. I have a "5 of the best for Guitar Metallica" Guitar Tab books form 1990. I was born in 1996! and the Tabs are just bad :D MOP, CD, FTB, 1 and S&D. Copied right away from the Album Tabs books. The only reason why i don't throw this waste of Paper away is because its almost 40 years old and its from the US and i Live in germany

[@fortisch]

14:00 my ears also always heard thar chromatic walkdowm. it might come from the bassline, dunno.

[@sanyok9939]

You need to start releasing lessons on metallica songs, you have a good sound and skill...

[@SN8808]

Have you tried the 72 Seasons one, yet?

[@Chaos112880]

where's the death magnetic book? ;)

[@JJvienneau]

Pull out your favorite solos and riffs from Surfing with the Alien tab book! Any serious mistakes? Oh yeah, Satch interview!!!! 🤘

[@elemma_6486]

I love the Donnie Darko sticker. I watched the movie yesterday

[@lillyAvd]

Hiii love the videos I think The thing that’s should not be is in c# I think Kirk says it in a interview

[@Sighdaball]

Is that the SL3X DX? I can't find one in that color anywhere. I remember in an older vid of yours you mentioned how that particular model of yours is great. Could you remind me of the vid where you spoke about that?

[@loansharkbass]

6:58 so this is an actual technique, but it’s 100% not what’s happening here. Radiohead used on the title track of The Bends. Notably, though, Greenwood literally takes a few bars of rest before and after to do it, and it sounds nothing like the squeal from the Puppets solo.

[@mikeL65000]

I had the Justice tab book and the Garage Inc tab book.

[@konradfraczek6482]

How was the Garage one? Would love to have a flip through...

[@DarthV506]

I was just starting to play and a friend had the Puppets book, possible it made me better doing the acrobatics for TTTSNB! By the time the Black album was out, I was already learning most things by ear and would check tab when I was confused by something. Now, you just need to look up how to play songs on youtube, ezpz!

[@anthonyw5261]

I would be interested in what the release dates are for these books. As in curious were released in the same order as you ranked them 🤔

[@empirelight5477]

I learned guitar of the riff by riff book along with the cliff em all video and the we sold our souls for rock and roll book. So I was wondering how do those compare?

[@Mognam]

love the they live shirt, favourite movie of mine!!

[@paulgiggs99]

That Orion jump up the neck actually made me laugh aloud

[@leviathan_is_me]

Between these and the "in the style of..." vhs tapes I can legally say Hall, Leonard and Curt Mitchell taught me to play guitar.

[@damonsdeliberatedetour492]

Quick question did you ever learn Tell No Tales by TNT? Curious how you would play that song!

[@kayp7897]

Fire t-shirt btw!

[@danlewis8044]

I own many of these books. I learned how to play guitar from these books in the 80s. No wonder I felt like it was all wrong!!!

[@Marekxxk]

I absolutely agree with Blackened and TLITD. I was struggling to learn it and then it was all wrong😂😂😂

[@joncbartlett]

The biggest MoP mistake I recall was the “Why?” riff on Disposable Heroes. So simple in real life. Don’t know how the tabber heard that.

[@totalbullion5882]

Those tab books almost ended my guitar playing before it began, all those wrong notes made me think I had F'd up hearing.

[@PsalmFourteenOne]

Holy sh1t! The part at 14:00 I learned from the guitar mag 30+ years ago, and still played it this way! 😂 I had no idea that was wrong! And honestly, the wrong was still aounds right to me. 😂

[@pauljams6565]

Ur a great player Mike‼️😉✨. . .

[@CoolManOfficial69]

I love seeing my KZbin notifications and seeing a bad tab video

[@Beanie-Babe]

15:32, TRANSILVANIAN HUNGAAAA, COLDDD, SOULLL

[@torrentthom4734]

cool shirt, man

[@TheDarkmore]

Hi Mike, can you give an update on that jackson? Did you changed to schaller and changed the pickups? Thx!

[@WICKY.419]

Where'd you get your Donnie Darko stickers?

[@dcsabi1]

I think the Ronnie is played on a tele that has a b bender that aexplain what strings he uses and why

[@brianrowe8028]

This is kind of funny. I was playing back in those days. It made me feel like it was just me. I couldn’t do it. I stopped playing for about 25 years. Thankfully I’m back at it. There wasn’t much help back in those days. We didn’t have videos to watch. You learned by ear, a friend, or by tab books. I didn’t realize until this video that they were that off. They were after all the official version.

[@Krullmatic]

I'm surprised you haven't put any EMG's in the Donnie Darko Explorer.

[@FacePomagranate]

I would argue that major chords don't necessarily make things "happy" sounding - the heavy part of Aqualung ("eyeing little girls with bad intent") has the riff harmonized in major chords, and Close To The Edge by Yes has a really demonic section (after the synth solo), again harmonized in major chords. Of course, that's obviously not what's happening in Master Of Puppets.

[@TheArtofGuitar]

For sure, but compared to the actual sound in these instances it has a "happier" sound. Some of my favorite sad songs have plenty of major chords and vice versa.

[@mobeus84]

You know what about the same age and I've gone through a lot of these table books but somewhere in my mind about 18 years ago it dawned on me that these bands might specifically want them to not write these exact because when we were young a lot of these bands didn't want people to know how to play their songs and I just feel like Metallica is one of those bands that would have purposely told them to do it slightly different

[@endryus75]

the tuning that should not be !!!!

[@risodurkac677]

could you review Hal leonard Black album tab book i have it and there are so many bad tabs and notes

[@michaellorenz7177]

The ...And Justice for All bass tab book taught me many moons before the interwebz that a lot of those were only as good as the person transcribing. My sympathies to that dude.

[@rawkinj6609]

FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE intro tab turned me OFF of learning classical guitar cause it seemed so complicated ! KILL EM ALL book thought me so much and kinda made me a guitar player to reckon with when I was 14.

[@BrianClem]

I have been LIVING A LIE! AHHHHH master but all on the E string! That was my 1st guitar book.

[@chrisalexander1661]

You should take the Load book and compare it to a Japanese version on it.

[@skwidkid5519]

you should do this for all the steve vai books

[@bobsurface908]

Yeah, I tried to learn Justice songs from that book. After a few months I realised whoever transcribed it had NO IDEA how to play the songs, or how to play guitar AT ALL. Blackened was an utter disaster, but the intro to To Live Is To Die was utter nonsense.

[@Vulverine-thunder]

Legendary T-shirt…amazing film.

[@brydon07]

Songsterr has Dyers Eve the wrong way then!

[@MegadethFan9000]

I looked at the Dyers Eve transcription on Songster, it goes the 2222 way which is the correct way

[@danhguitardemos]

9:48 check out the tab for Good God by Korn

[@AndyD070568]

The AJFA tab book was the first Metallica book I had. I was convinced I was a hopeless guitar player because I couldn't get any of it to sound right. Turns out I am a hopeless guitar player, but at least now my Metallica covers sound a bit better.

[@Someguy-j9e]

Great shirt

[@kommissar.murphy]

Why aren't tab books spiral bound, so you can leave the pages open while you play?

[@josemanoel6208]

So weird seeing james playing a telecaster

[@oliverhayirli1709]

I got the reload book when i started to Play guitar.. it got me a little confused and angry at times 😂

[@billbob4856]

Hal Leonard books seemed to be better than the others in my experience. Although I found errors in them too they’re usually more subtle.

[@kklau4715]

I have the chance of buying those Metallica full band scores published by Japan music publishers, they are quite accurate indeed 😊👍

[@SixBladesKojiro]

What is the best/easiest beginner friendly Metallica riff to learn first ?

[@brydon07]

bro get the 72 seasons tab book and see if that one is good or bad

[@Hoscitt]

The Justice and Puppets books taught me guitar. Explains a lot 😄

[@UncleUncleRj]

I had the black album and justice tab books back in the day. It made me start watching James and Kirk playing on the VHS tapes I had to learn how to play their songs. Worked much better.

[@davidpeters8328]

Ronnie is my favorite song on that album! Now have a better way to play!

[@utubehound69]

One of the worst is Hells Bells I learned that by ear then I got the TAB in Guitar mag & it was all in open chords arpeggiated ??? , I went w/my version then years later they had a Angus interview & they showed him the TAB to Hells Bells & he said thats probably the correct way to play it but heres how we play it & he did it excatly like I learned it by ear. lol damn you Cherrylane

[@Riffman42]

I had a GFTPM with You Shook Me All Night Long in it and it was the same thing. The intro was completely wrong! It was years later when I discovered the correct and WAY easier way to play it.

[@SuperPol1981]

Absolutely no surprises, but I don't have Kill 'Em All so I couldn't judge that one.