An adventure in OCD.
Reflex
It was January or February of 2011 when my guitar teacher put on Christian Alsing's song "Reflex" from YouTube. I was instantly blown away by the attitude, the beefy low-C chuggy telecaster sound, the rich and playful production and of course the widdly-widdly guitar licks. It just clicked with me immediately. This was a niche of shred guitar that really resonated with me.
I wanted to play it, but there were no tabs for this obscure Swedish guitar album. So with minimal tabbing/transcription experience (I'd tabbed a couple of songs before, nothing of this difficulty) I decided to do it myself. It ultimately ended up taking years, as I started tabbing other songs out of frustration of getting stuck on some part of Reflex. Originally I wanted to just get the lead guitars and melodies, but some rhythms were so hard to figure out I needed the drums there too. And then I needed the bass to figure out some chords and then I just decided to tab all parts of all songs. I didn't have much of a life then so I had plenty of time. And boy did it take a lot of time.
I still haven't finished the intro and outro themes, I think I was too burned out, but I'll get to that someday. Some parts of some songs might have weird fingerings and chords that are off, I have marked them in the tabs. They are in GP5 format, opening the tabs in later Guitar Pro versions can cause some weird little changes (sometimes even missing notes), although I haven't tried it with Guitar Pro 8. PDF's and midi are provided as well.
(Btw I did manage to meet Christian and play some of his songs for him!)
Tips for Tabbin'
Tabbing for me is mostly an exercise in hitting your head against a wall. But with practise, you can do it with less pain and less brain damage. For what it's worth, here are some of my tips:
I like to start at the beginning. Songs are often structured in a way to introduce you to all the elements (big surprise!). Understanding the tones of the different instruments before it's one big sludge is a big help.
I try to get other instruments tabbed quickly. Having the drums can really help you figure out a lick, since you know that a certain note is played at the same time as a high-hat or whatever. Depending on the mix a bass part can cause a bit of tonal confusion, so knowing what belongs to the bass will help you "see" the guitar parts more clearly.
Get the notes first, figure out the fingering later. Although the more you tab, the easier you can do this simultanously. But if you're in a tricky part, just figure out the notes no matter how crazy they may seem. Some parts might be played by guitars in different tunings and you won't figure this out until later.
Really tricky songs can take a long time. Just set yourself a goal of doing four bars a day. Then again...
When the going's good, keep going! Sometimes you can get into a zone where you can really pick stuff up easily - don't waste it! Forget eating and going to the toilet, just chug along as far as you can.
If you're stuck on a part, going over it again and again for hours is generally not a good idea. You will desensitize your ears so badly you end up tabbing some hidden song in your head. Therefore...
Take a break. Switch to tabbing a different song. Listen to different music. Come back after a while and some stuff will stand out as obvious.
Harmonics are your friend. If the guitar is in a different tuning, harmonics will tell you.
Slowing parts down with programs (I found Ableton Live's "complex pro" or whatever algos good for this - nowadays I have Bitwig, it seems to get the job done too) is a mixed bag. Slow it down too much and you lose all the attack and the notes become an ambient haze - on the other hand, some parts can be so fast you can't figure them out without it. With practise, you will be able to hear fast licks much easier, and you will learn to rely on slowing down less. So I would compare to a practise wheel, totally necessary at some point but you're goal should be to get rid of it. Sometimes it's still necessary, but I don't go lower than 80% of the original speed.
If you can sing it, you can tab it! Sing the licks and tab your singing.
Covers
Below is my synth cover of Rubberbend It (recorded in 2012) and my guitar cover of Bro (recorded in 2019).