I’ve been working on a piece that I’ve toyed around with for years but was never really comfortable with it.  I learned the it using tab and a recording that came with the songbook.  At first glance, the piece appears to be easy learn but it has to be played at a fairly high tempo (200bpm) so frustration began to kick in.  No matter how much I practiced it never sounded or felt right.

So what did I do?  I decided to look at the standard notation part of the transcription and noticed something that the tab doesn’t show.  I was not separating the melody with the bass line completely.  In short, my index and middle were playing notes my thumb was supposed to be playing.  The result of this mistake was the melody was getting muddied up with notes that weren’t supposed to be there.  So I made my thumb do it’s job and the song began to fell better; there is now a clear separation between melody and the bass line.  Only problem is that I now have to re-learn a bit a of the song to un-learn some of the bad habits I developed.   A small price to pay to get it right.

What’s better? Tab or standard notation?  For me, it’s both.  I can learn a song much faster using tab but the musicality comes out using the standard notation.  The separation of voices, dynamics subtle nuances that only standard notation can provide.  Tab is ideal with the help of standard notation but if you can read music well, then there is no need for tab, theoretically.  So maybe the edge goes to standard but that takes nothing away from tab because I owe of ton of my repertoire to tab.

List of Cockburn Tabs: (updated Sept 2025)

Sunwheel Dance:  I’m not a fan of ASCII tab but it’s fairly accurate/close to the version I have in my “All the Diamonds” songbook.  This version has you tune to open E(EBEG#BE) but I believe it’s tuned to open D (DADF#AD).  Both with the capo on the second fret.  The song is surprisingly easy to learn but incredibly hard to master, especially at the correct tempo.

• Pacing the Cage:  I couldn’t not find a free tab that was worth mentioning but I did find two versions that you can pay for.  Both are very accurate and are in a tab/standard notation form.
  Version 1: $5.50 to download from musicnotes.com
  Version 2: $3.95 to download from freehandmusic.com
• Foxglove:  Tuned to open C, this is transcribed to power tab and is almost identical to my “All the Diamonds” songbook.
• Wondering Where The Lions Are:  ASCII tab again but gives you the main motive pretty accurately which is pretty much 90% of the song.
• Dear Dancing Round a Broken Mirror and Water Into Wine:  Very good transcriptions, one in Powertab.  You will have to subscribe to the Bruce Cockburn musicians group in Yahoo groups and the tab can be found in the files sections.  Many other good tabs and ideas that will set you in the right direction in learning other Bruce’s songs.
• Also found the All the Diamonds Songbook on Amazon.  Expensive but if you really really want it, it’s there. However, I would recommend the following site: Granata Music. Better priced and a small biz you can support. I ordered a replacement one for me and it came pretty quickly.
• Since the writing of this post, I have found that Songsterr has some great transcriptions of Bruce’s work. Really nice that it syncs to the original recording (with paid sub). I highly recommend either version, it has helped me a great deal.

Playlist of Cockburn covers on my YouTube Channel.

I have sampled two two transcriptions; Borsalino and Bye Bye Blackbird(Up Close DVD).  Borsalino is fairly accurate but it’s hard to say because in the performance notes for the transcription, it says, “As seen in concert…”   What concert would that be?  Who knows but it fills some holes the other left.  Bye Bye Blackbird is OK as far as the notes and fingering but the rhythm was not as accurate as I had hoped.  In the “Up Close” DVD, Tommy did a lot of syncopation which wasn’t represented in the music.

Of course, a sample of two tabs doesn’t represent the whole of the transcriptions available.  Please check it out and leave a comment with your findings/recommendatons.  I am excited to see what others think.

Keep Playing!

http://tommyemmanuel.wordpress.com/gitar-tabok/

• Songster has a great Tab of “You Needed Me”.
  • *I like that Songster will many times, have the YouTube Video to play along with. If you upgrade to Songster Plus, you can then loop a section, slow down the music, print the tab, ect.. The free version is enough as well. If there is a Songster option, that is my goto and this particular tab for “You Needed Me” is pretty good.
• Freight Train/Trambone:  Pretty good transcription from, what seems to me, the “Up Close” DVD.  Very similar to the “Note for Note” transcription which was based off of that DVD as well.  Choose the acoustic power link and you will need Power Tab to read it.
• Dixie McGuire:  Another transcription that is close to the “Note for Note” one.  I used the Power Tab version from the Ultimate Guitar Archive.  It is worth noting that the “Note for Note” version was a great help filling in a couple of fingering holes that the other missed. The same goes for Blue Moon.
• Those Who Wait:  Great transcription and pretty accurate to the “Only” CD version.  I then used that to adapt it to the “Live One” CD and the PBS Sierra Nevada version.  He really never does it the same way twice, it seems.  Anyway, choose the Ultimate Guitar Archive link and the Guitar Pro and Power Tab versions are both good versions.
• Borsalino:  Currently working on this myself an it’s  the best version I can find and is accurate enough.  A few of the fingerings are wrong and the transcription is incomplete but if you have a video version of Tommy playing this live, you’ll be able to figure it out.  Used the the Guitar Pro version from the Ultimate Guitar Archive.
• Angelina:  My first Tommy E. that I learned.  I didn’t use this tab myself, I used the transcription that was in December 2005 issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which is the best Angelina transcprition out there.    I would use the Guitar Pro tab but there is a high rated ASCII version of the tab but I’m not a big fan of that kind of transcription. Hint: If your trying to figure it out yourself, it’s in drop D tuning with the capo on the 2nd fret.
• Blue Moon:  Once again this is very similar to the “Note for Note” songbook. I used the Guitar Pro transcription that could be found at Ultimate Guitar Archive.  Still struggling with this song, got the notes down but the feel is lacking.

That’s a short list on the Tommy E songs I have been working on.  Of those, I could probably perform Dixie, Angelina and Those Who Wait without too much trouble.  I would still say they need some polishing.  So if you need to Tommy E songs to work on, I hope this helps.  If you can afford it, I would strongly recommend getting the “Note for Note.”  Not only for the great transcriptions but there is some useful information on Tommy’s playing and his influences.  Like it says in the book, you need to learn about what influenced him if you really want to play like him.  Anyway, I hope this helps and if you find any good transcriptions, please leave a comment.

Keep Playin’

More Tommy E song books here.

Song List Includes:

• Amy
• Blue Moon
• Cascading Harmonics
• Countrywide
• Day Tripper
• Dixie McGuire
• Freight Train
• Lady Madonna
• Limehouse Blues
• Since We Met
• A Taste Of Honey
• Tom’s Thumb
• Trambone
• Up From Down Under
• Windy And Warm

I was hoping Borsalino would have been on it but no such luck.  If anyone who might read this, if you find a good/complete transcription of this piece, please let me know.  I’ll be anxiously awaiting this in the mail in the coming days and it’s guarenteed that my familiy won’t be seeing me much once I get it.

http://www.certifiedguitarplayer.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4

 Other Tommy tabs can be found here: Most are pretty decent but some shouldn’t even be up there.