How does a band follow up an album that charted Billboard's Top 200 for over 11 years? After The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's album Wish You Were Here is actually one of my favorites by the band.

Although Wish You Were Here has a lot of heavy synthesized sounds on it, David Gilmour's guitar playing truly stands out on the four memorable songs on this classic 1975 album. Each song in this Book Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here Guitar Tablature Edition is presented in TAB, and Music and also has the lyrics to the songs.

The Songs

The ultimate tribute song to Syd Barrett, Shine On You Crazy Diamond is both the opening and closing of the album. It is a nine part song and all of the parts are included in this book. Keep in mind that part one is not a guitar part, however the music for it is printed. It is in part II of "Shine On" that Gilmour's unmistakable guitar part comes in, and it is laid out note for note here in both music and tab. The opening solo is full of bends, noted here by a B over the top with the note to bend to in parenthesis. The first note for example is on the 18th fret at the B string, and it is bent a full note indicated by a (20) on the B string. In other words the note played at the 18th fret is bent to get to the note that would be played at the 20th fret. An R signifies release.

Other TAB books typically indicate bends with a line showing whether to bend a whole step or a half step and at what point it is released. In any event, in typical Dave Gilmour fashion the opening solo in Part II of the song is all about placement of notes, not speed. Yet, I would state that the solo here is much more memorable than dozens of lightning speed shred solos. Part III of Shine On contains perhaps the four most known notes in the Pink Floyd song book, represented here in TAB


_______________0*_______
________6_______________
____________0___________
____8___________________
________________________
________________________

* let final note ring

These notes repeat a number of times slowly and methodically and when played any Floyd fan will immediately realize it is from Shine On.

Keep in mind that many parts of Shine on You Crazy Diamond are played on keyboards and saxophone, so you won't get the full effect of the song, this is just guitar tab.

One of my favorite songs by Pink Floyd and the first one I learned to play is the albums title track Wish You Were Here Appropriately it should be played on a 12 string acoustic to be authentic, but the melody sounds fine on any other acoustic or an electric. The opening chords (the ones you first hear over the radio, then repeated live in the song) just mess around with an Em7 and G chord. I learned it nearly identically. However when the song gets to Dave Gilmour's first solo, it is note for note as I learned it from my guitar teacher, so the book seems pretty accurate. Again, this is a great book for a beginning guitar player or one who doesn't have fast fingers. Gilmour's solos are about letting notes linger, not speed. I was disappointed to see that the second solo in the song is on a dobro and its also tuned to Open G. So you either have to retune your guitar in the middle (not very good for playing a song straight through) or have a second guitar (or dobro) set up with the proper tuning (or have one of those cool new on the fly Fender VGs that change tuning with a simple knob twist).

Welcome to the Machine has those great powerhouse chords that open this song after the whirring of synthesizers and various sound effects. The guitar parts are all chord strumming, with no really fast changes, so that is not a complicated song to learn either.

The final song in the book is Have a Cigar another song about the music business.

My Thoughts

I really liked this book, because it gives me a chance to impress with some great sounding solos that take time to memorize, but don't require fast hands. My son may be able to handle the rapid double finger tapping of Joe Satriani's Midnight, but mine can't (yet). On the other hand, if you can play notes and have the proper ear for note bending and a few slides and hammer ons and pull offs, you can do a pretty good job on Gimour's solos on this album. Even a novice who can form a few chords can give a nice acoustic strumming of Wish You Were Here. The bends are the hardest part, because you need to really know how to hold your fingers to get a good bend and be able to hear when you've hit the proper bend. I would first play the song, and also play the designated note when I practiced all the bends in Shine On As my guitar teacher says a note not bent far enough or too far is a wrong note. However, once you master the bends, this book will help you do the really killer sounding guitar solo and guitar refrains from a classic Pink Floyd album. You don't always have to play fast to sound awesome. I have yet to notice David Gilmour's name drop off lists of respected guitar players, and Pink Floyd's catalog continues to sell.

Who this Book is For

I truly feel that this is a great book for a Pink Floyd fan that has started to play guitar. If I can learn to play these songs and really sound good, so can you! Wish you Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond are the first two songs I learned to play by Pink Floyd and two songs that people actually smile and say cool before they go back to listening to my son hammer out solos by Slash, Jimmy Page, and Kirk Hammett. Wish You Were Here is a great song to play if an acoustic guitar is in reach. I would recommend an electric guitar with a mild amount of gain and reverb for "Shine On". Much of "Shine On" is played way up on the fret board, so it's not easy to play on acoustics without cutaways. Of course if you want the other awesome solo from Shine on you Crazy Diamond you better get yourself a saxophone and some lessons on that!


Extras

The book had some cool interviews, quite a few color photographs and an explanation of all the tab.

Summary

Gibson SG Guitar $1,000.00
Line Six Spider III amp $300.00
Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here Tab Book $25.00

Being able to play the opening solo from Shine on You Crazy Diamond all the way through Priceless.

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


Recommended: Yes