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A track from "Amazing Phrasing" by Hal Leonard

I am trying to use a software called guitar pro to copy the sheet music and play the tracks. I am currently stuck in this track as I am not able to understand what does the dot and the little symbol above the notes (in the blue circle) mean. Any help is really appreciated.

Richard
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adhithya ravichandran
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  • It's always useful if the track has already been recorded, and one can listen to how they'd played it. – Tim May 18 '20 at 07:15

3 Answers3

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This is how bending notes on guitar is notated. The “dot” is the starting note and the inverted V connects to the note you bend to. The TAB is a big help in this case. In bar 1 beat 1 you play a G (2nd string 8th fret). On beat 2 you play a Gb (3rd string 11th fret) and bend up a half step to a G. On beat 3 you play a Gb (3rd string 11th fret). On beat 4 you play an F (3rd string 10th fret) and bend up to a Gb. This descending pattern continues to the end of the second bar.

In the second two bars the notation indicates you bend both up and down. On bar 1 beat 2 you pre-bend the Gb up to the G (parentheses around starting note and vertical instead of curved arrow in TAB) and play the G on beat 2. On beat 3 you bend down from G to Gb, etc.

John Belzaguy
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It indicates a bend.

That with the half sign means that the tab wants you to bend a half-step up. In the second bar it seems the tab wants you to bend a half-step up and then bend back down.

Neil Meyer
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While the above answers are correct for the first measure, the lines in measure 2 indicate pre-bends, not a bend up and back down. Bend the note to the correct pitch before picking it, pick the note, and then let the bend relax. This should help:

https://steinberg.help/dorico_pro/v3/en/dorico/topics/notation_reference/notation_reference_guitar_bends_c.html

B. MacKenzie
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  • So it’s a pre-bend, sorry I didn’t get that the first time I answered. The vertical up arrow in the TAB should have given it away. I’ll edit my answer and thanks! +1 – John Belzaguy May 18 '20 at 21:57