Since I purchased a black Gibson SG, and already own an AC/DC tab book, I decided to get a book of songs by that other famous Gibson SG playing lead guitarist, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath. His amazing guitar solos on the band's debut album Black Sabbath run on longer than my opening sentence.

Simply put, Hal Leonard publishes a series of TAB books that give you an albums worth of songs. This is the first Hal Leonard book that I have purchased and it is the guitar instructions for Black Sabbath's debut album.

Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

You don't sell many records naming your band Rat Salad, but throw in some satanic mutterings and come up with an "evil" sounding name, and you are well on your way to being one of the first groups to define what came to be known as "heavy metal". Was Black Sabbath satanic? I highly doubt it, their dark gothic (not to be confused with "goth") image did help them sell albums and become famous.

Most of you are familiar with their first singer John Michael Osbourne, or Ozzy, the nickname he was known by. What many may not know is Black Sabbath's first album had some really great guitar work in it by famous leftie Tony Iommi. Ignore the lyrics, and the music on this album was really heavy and really good. (actually most of the lyrics have nothing whatsoever to do with the Prince of Darkness and really aren't all that satanic)

What is TAB?

TAB is a musical shorthand that allows guitar players to read music in a simple to understand format. My 12 year old son can read tab, the ability to read music isn't necessary. Don't get me wrong, the Hal Leonard books all include both the music and the tab. (and the lyrics!) I usually only look to the music for the timing, I can't read music, but the tab is all easy for me to understand. TAB can also state some things especially for guitar that are not easy to express in music notes, like slides, pull offs, or hammer ons. Six lines represent the guitar strings, and numbers on the lines indicate what frets to put your fingers on. Bends are indicated by arrows up or down and hammer ons by arcs over the first and second fret positions.

A sample line, from the opening of Black Sabbath looks like this in TAB
__________________________________
__________________________________
__________________________________
___5_____5_______________5________
___5_________4~~~~~_______________
___3________________3_____________

The lines each represent a string and the numbers indicate which fret to place your finger on. More than one number indicates chord formations. The ~~~ is the closest I can get to the tremelo indication.

A complete explanation of TAB is included in the back of the book. All the songs include Music and Tab notation and the lyrics for all the songs.

What is Included?

The entire album is transcribed in this book. The songs are in the book in the same order as they are on the album, and songs that run into each other as one track on the album are listed separately. The songs on the album and in the book are Black Sabbath / The Wizard / Wasp / Behind the Wall of Sleep / Bassically / N.I.B. / Wicked World / A Bit of Finger / Sleeping Village and Warning. The songs are all old school heavy metal, this was one of the first bands to play what is now termed heavy metal.

Value

All the Hal Leonard books in this series are 14.95 and contain one album. The book cover is the same as the album cover! The series is called the Recorded Versions Guitar and has "authentic transcriptions with notes and tablature". I found it easy and fun to play along. I felt that the TAB was good, but I didn't like paying the same price for the book as the CD itself! Nevertheless, it is in line with the price of most TAB books.

Guitar Playing Level

I was pretty surprised that many of these songs I grew up with were actually pretty simple to play! Many of the riffs and solos are not complicated at all. To get the maximum Black Sabbath effect, you may not need to get a Gibson SG, but I would turn up the distortion on your amp. Black Sabbath's first album makes a good guitar tab book for beginners, much more than my Stevie Ray Vaughan tab book!

I tested this book with a (right handed) Gibson SG Standard (with a glossy black finish) All knobs were set to 10 and the pickup switch was set to middle position. My Line Six Spider III amplifier was set to heavy metal, with distortion and volume turned up high. No neighbors were harmed in the testing of this book.

Summary

This is the first Hal Leonard book I have picked up. I don't like that the book is as expensive as the CD itself, but I felt that the transcription was pretty good. I gave this book 4 stars.

Related Reviews

Gibson SG Standard The guitar of Black Sabbath Guitarist Tony Iommi
Epiphone G 310 A guitar that looks a whole lot like Tony Iommi's Gibson SG

Other TAB books and Guitar Books

The Best of AC/DC
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Black Sabbath Tab Book
Franz Ferdinand
Guns N' Roses Complete
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Metallica .. and Justice for All
The Rolling Stones Singles Collection - The London Years / Guitar Tab Edition
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Lightning Blues Lead Guitar
Neil Young Anthology

Chord Master - How to Choose and play the right guitar chords
Total Scales Technique and Application
Electric Guitars - The Illustrated Encyclopedia


Recommend this product?