Here are tabs for "Pirate John" by Steve Smith

[Marty Jacobson]

I ran across this tune a while back, and have been meaning to learn it.
Really cool tune, I believe written by Steve Smith (who is also playing in the video below). Check out his site, he's a great player and composer. http://desertnight.com/



So I tabbed out the basic tune. Just my interpretation, but it's fairly close.



TEF:
Pirate John.tef

Also ABC:


X:1
T:Pirate John
C:as played by Steve Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNeVE9u2qw
N:
L:1/8
Q:240
M:4/4
K:G
B,D/E/ |: zB, E/GF/ ED/E/ zB, | E/DB,/ G,3/2E/ zB, E/GF/ | EF/GA/B d/AG/ FD/E/ | \
zB, E/GF/ ED/E/ zB, | E/DB,/ G,3/2E/ zB, E/GF/ |1 EF/DE/F/E/ D/E3/2 B,D/E/ :|2 EF/DE/F/E/ D/E2AB/ :|: dB/AF/E/F/ E/DA,/ B,D/E/ | \
z/D/F E/Dd/ ee/de/^A/B/ | z/GF/ EF/GE/F E/DB/ | dB/A/ z/F/E/F/ E/DA,/ B,D/E/ | \
z/D/F E/DB,/ CD/EG/c | B/AG/ [B4F4] z/AB/ | z8 | z8 | \
W:Created with TablEdit http://www.tabledit.com/

[Tom Haywood]

Cool tune. I was in your neighborhood around 10pm and thought about stopping by, but I couldn't find your phone number to call. I had a bouzouki with me that would have sounded pretty good with this tune.

[Jordan Ramsey]

Hey Marty,

Good job! The notes are there, but rhythmically, you're a little off. Here's what I'm hearing...



I truly believe that the act of transcribing is one of the key factors in becoming a great musician. Keep honing your skills, you'll be a better player (and builder) for it...

Look forward to playing some of your mandos, take care.

[Tom Haywood]

One of the problems I have with learning from tabs is that usually it is shown in eighth notes, so the syncopation isn't there. Syncopation seems so important to mandolin technique, but I was trained on the piano and can't seem to help playing the music as written. I appreciate Marty's effort to write it as played. Sometimes the hard part in catching it by ear and writing it down is to get the notes on the first beats after the intro and in each measure. JRamsey got it laid out right.

[Marty Jacobson]

Thanks Jordan.. I was debating whether to lay it out ignoring the "swing", or to lay it out so the MIDI sounds correct. I thought it would be useful for someone learning it to be able to slow it down and hear what it's supposed to sound like... but to do that, I couldn't get the triplets to work out correctly.
In the future I'll just lay it out cleanly like you did.. it's definitely easier to read. Thanks for the tips.

[OldSausage]

I wrote to Steve Smith asking him if he had any recordings of this tune, and he kindly sent me the link to this YouTube where he plays it with the Hard Road Trio - well worth a look:



Pirate John starts at about 4:05, here's the link to that:

http://youtu.be/_PVON9GNNsY?t=4m7s

[Marty Jacobson]

Wow. Thanks.

[Eric F.]

Thanks for this, guys. Now i can't stop playing this tune. Those clips are very cool.