I've loved music all my life, and the one band that has persevered from when I was just a boy straight up to now has been The Rolling Stones. At the beginning of this year, I took up an instrument I hadn't played since I was a teenager, the electric guitar. Now that I've learned my chords and my scales I want to PLAY SONGS. My fingers aren't quite as fast as my 12 year old sons fingers. He manages to riff off solos from Jimmy Page, Slash, Angus Young, Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammett with no problems.

Myself, to start, I need some songs that aren't too fast, and I was surprised at how many songs by the Rolling Stones are actually pretty simple!

What's in the Book?

This TAB book contains almost 60 songs by the Rolling Stones including big hits like: It's All Over Now, Good Times Bad Times, Time is On My Side, Heart of Stone, Last Time, Play with Fire, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Get off of my Cloud, As Tears Go By, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint it Black, Mother's Little Helper, Lady Jane, Ruby Tuesday, Let's Spend the Night Together, 2000 Light Years from Home, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Brown Sugar and Sympathy for the Devil.

The book has all the songs that were on the release The Rolling Stones Singles Collection - the London Years and they are all written out in music and in easy to follow guitar TAB. At the end of the book, there is a complete guide to guitar tablature, so you will understand where you are supposed to hammer on, hammer off, mute notes, slide, or create harmonics. Each song shows the basic chords used in the song, the music written in regular musical notes, and the music written in TAB. You also get lyrics, and indications of what type of guitar was used in the original song (no specifics like '59 Telecaster with classic Marshall Stacks, just general indications like acoustic, steel guitar, electric etc.)

What is TAB?

TAB is a simple way to tell you how to play the guitar parts of a song even if you can't read music. 6 lines indicate the six strings EADGBE. You read left to right same as music, and place your fingers on the fret indicated. Numbers are printed on the lines representing the strings. A 0 will mean an open string 2 second fret, 4 fourth fret, 16 the 16th fret and so on. So if you see a 2 3 2 on the top 3 lines in a row, you know to play a D chord. If you see a vertical row of 5s with slashes to a vertical row of 7s, you know to slide your fingers from the fifth fret to the seventh.

(Can't Get No) Satisfaction for example is on electric guitar with fuzz (aka distortion) as noted and played moderately. In Tab it looks like this:
___________________________ E
___________________________ B
___________________________ G
___________________________ D
__2__2______2_4_5_(5)______ A
___________________________ E

You place your finger on the second fret of the fifth string (A) and hit it twice, then again followed by holding the fourth and fifth fret of the A string, then the fifth fret muted then repeat. Sure enough, you play this and you hear DA DA DA DUM DUM (Dum) DA DA DA DUM DUM (Dum). The song isn't very fast, and only involves simple fingering and chords. In other words, if I can sound like Keith Richards, so can you! Just so you know where you are in the song, the lyrics are written out as well. Since I can't read music, it helps a lot to read the lyrics as I play the notes because I know what it is supposed to sound like, and approximately how fast to play it.

Value This book was 30 bucks and with 58 classic Stones tunes, that's about 50 cents a tune. With many tab books having 10 or 12 songs from ONE album going for 22.95, this TAB book is a bargain.

Summary I've enjoyed this TAB book even more than some of my others because I was pleased to find, not only a plethora of Rolling Stones hits, but also Stones hits that I could play at my beginners level. So don't play with me, cause you're playing with Fire!

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