Dedicated Cat Stevens Guitar Tab Website

[Leonard]

I have recently begun to transcribe Steve's songs for guitar again, revising my old tabs as well as starting afresh.

To have a unified place with all the Cat Stevens guitar tabs under my editorial control, I have gone ahead and created the website catstevensguitar.wordpress.com. Go have a look!

As tabbing out songs is quite time-consuming, it will take me a while to transcribe Steve's stuffed catalogue raisonné. So expect a lot more content on the site as time goes by.

[Deleted]

Thank you so much. I took a look and the site looks like it's going to be a great resource.

We certainly appreciate all the work that's involved in creating tabs for all these songs.

[Leonard]

Thanks a lot! As I'm wrapping up Mona Bone Jakon this weekend, Tea is up next.

[Novim]

This is great, Jacky! I've been,on holiday with no internet (in Antarctica). If I'd seen your post earlier I'd have looked at reinstating the guitar tab boards. Can you pm me and we'll discuss what can be done!
Well done on the website! I'll have a good look when I get home.(I'm travelling back home at the moment, in a hotel with Internet! Luxury!
Best to all,
Chris

[Deleted]

Chris! Whatcha doing in Antarctica? That's awesome!

[Leonard]

I just finished transcribing "Fill My Eyes" and hope to complete the guitar tabs for "Maybe You're Right" and "Lilywhite" by the weekend.

Chris, it's great to hear from you! I sent you an email a week or so ago with some revised tabs. It would indeed be great to have a subforum again for those interested in discussing how to play Steve's songs.

[Leonard]

Various live performance by Steve have revealed that there be a lot more to "Maybe You're Right" than is traditionally understood to be the case. Steve plays the song with quite some variety on guitar.

The tab will follow tomorrow, making me wonder whether Steve didn't actually compose the song on guitar first and then decided to adapt it for piano later to have the melody with its high single notes stick out more.

[Deleted]

Hi Leonard. It's interesting to read your insights on the songs as you go through the process of creating the tabs.

I was also noticing that you play left-handed guitars. (I own an Ovation too. I should really bring that poor old thing out of the closet and try to play it. Bought it back in 1986 I think.)
Anyway, what I was thinking is that here you are providing all these detailed tabs in right-handed form and you actually play leftie. I am impressed. I don't know if my mind would be able to follow tabs in mirror-image formation. Very cool.

[Leonard]

I just finished tabbing Maybe You're Right and uploaded it on the Cat Stevens Guitar site. It shouldn't be long until it's up on Majicat as well.

As to the song itself, you might be surprised how varied Steve plays that song on guitar.

In terms of tabbing for right-handed or left-handed it's really all the same and not all that glorious: the base strings on my lefty guitar are on top as well, the treble on the bottom. There is no rethinking involved as far as I'm concerned.

I'm currently looking for an Ovation Legend Lefthand (L717 or something), but they are difficult to come by especially outside the States. I love vintage acoustic guitars with a fast, narrow neck.

[Novim]

Hi t4tillerman,
Antarctica was just that! Awesome! I love wildlife and travel. A friend was 60 this year and, after getting dispenstion from our wives we got to Ushuaia, boarded the good ship Ioffe and headed to The Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. We travelled with One Ocean so you could look up where we went online should you feel so inclined. We had the best weather ever, made all Zodiac landings and sitting with 600,000 penguins is pretty memorable! The doctor on board was quite withdrawn. You'd never get much of a conversation. He answered questions but never asked them! On our penultimate night all crew and passengers crowded into the bar for an impromptu sing along. Guess who ended up with the guitar! So I sang The Wind and I heard the doctor singing along with me! So I tried Where Do The Children Play. He was there again! Moonshadow got the whole bar and lounge singing! The doctor was a different guy the next day! So Cat melted the ice in Antarctica!
Keep well!
Chris

[Deleted]

Leonard, thanks for clearing that up on the string setup for L vs. R on guitar. I guess I was over-thinking it.

Chris, thanks for the stories about your trip to Antarctica. That is so cool that Cat's music brought out the best in people! That sounds like a fantastic vacation, and thanks for bringing some of our favorite songs to the faraway continent.

[Leonard]

Lilywhite has been completed. For now I'll leave Mona Bone Jakon (no worries, I'll return later) to begin transcribing the main of Tea.

[Leonard]

I'm making good progress tabbing Tea for the Tillerman. Where Do the Children Play? is up on the Cat Stevens Guitar site, with the original D-G strumming pattern Steve uses.

[Leonard]

One for the holidays, happy Xmas everyone! Hard Headed Woman is up on the site now. Not sure whether I went overboard with all the transitional chords, but better have it too detailed than the opposite.

[Leonard]

And one for Xmas Eve -- I completed transcribing Wild World, featuring all the original chords and riffs.

[Deleted]

Thank you so much!

Happy Holidays!

[Sir Lorry Load]

Dec 15, 2015 12:04:28 GMT -5 Novim said:

Hi t4tillerman,
Antarctica was just that! Awesome! I love wildlife and travel. A friend was 60 this year and, after getting dispenstion from our wives we got to Ushuaia, boarded the good ship Ioffe and headed to The Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. We travelled with One Ocean so you could look up where we went online should you feel so inclined. We had the best weather ever, made all Zodiac landings and sitting with 600,000 penguins is pretty memorable! The doctor on board was quite withdrawn. You'd never get much of a conversation. He answered questions but never asked them! On our penultimate night all crew and passengers crowded into the bar for an impromptu sing along. Guess who ended up with the guitar! So I sang The Wind and I heard the doctor singing along with me! So I tried Where Do The Children Play. He was there again! Moonshadow got the whole bar and lounge singing! The doctor was a different guy the next day! So Cat melted the ice in Antarctica!
Keep well!
Chris

Welcome back, Chris!

It sounds like you spent an incredibly memorable time cruising to The Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Absolutely loved your story of how you thawed-out the good doctor on board with your guitar playing and performances of several Cat Stevens songs. Terrific!

Happy that you enjoyed such a memorable sojourn and grateful, to, that you're back on the 'bridge' of the good ship "Majicat"!

Best regards, Chris.

-Bud

[Leonard]

Happy holidays everybody! The tab train keeps rolling, fully-tabbed Into White has arrived on the site.

PS. If there's anything I can do to improve the tabs or the site itself, please let me know. It's still early days, so nothing's set in stone.

[Leonard]

I've slightly reworked the fingerpicking patterns of Into White to become consistent throughout the different passages and to also better match what Steve's playing on guitar. It's difficult keeping the two acoustic guitars apart on this track and in live performances since Al does such a fantastic job complementing the piece.

[Leonard]

The Longer Boats guitar tab is up on the site now.

[Novim]

Happy New a Year all Majicatters!!!
Many thanks for your support through the year. I know Facebook has taken many from here, sadly but there is still a loyal following for this forum.
I will be looking soon at adding a guitar tab discussion group and also will try to upload a few tabs I've been sent to the website. Unfortunately, since I got back from Antarctica I haven't been well so I'll try to catch up when I can.
Once again Season's Greetings to you all!
Chris

[Leonard]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Chris, the tabs I sent you might be outdated by now since I did revise them quite a bit. I suggest I send in new versions for you to upload once you're fully back onboard. Hope you're getting well soon.

Well, I fully transcribed On the Road to Find Out (which see) on New Year's Eve. As is always on my mind, big thanks to DJ for all the fabulous groundwork to build upon.

[Deleted]

Thanks to Jacky for the tabs on all these wonderful songs.

Chris, I hope you get well soon, and thank you for all your work on this forum and website. I still don't have a facebook account and don't plan to do so. I've always preferred the forum method of communication. I guess you can say I'm "old school". Anyway, I appreciate having this forum available and hope it continues to thrive in the future.

Happy New Year to all!

PS: last night I watched the movie "Rushmore" for the first time and was pleasantly surprised by the Cat Stevens songs included in the soundtrack.

[Leonard]

I've completed transcribing Father and Son, the original intro plus Al's solo and more included.

[Leonard]

It's taking me a little longer than usual to transcribe Miles from Nowhere simply because it's a piano piece in the main that needs to be re-arranged for guitar first. I chose to do so because the basic rhythm guitar Al plays in that piece doesn't get the beauty of the song across without Steve playing the lead piano.

Fortunately, the high piano bits can be adapted fairly well for guitar. I'm almost through, stay tuned.

[Leonard]

This one took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Miles from Nowhere is now officially up on the site -- what a beautiful song it is!

[Leonard]

I'll be leaving Tea for the Tillerman for now to tackle the main of Teaser and the Firecat, but I have plans to return to Tea later to give "Sad Lisa" and Co. a proper adaption for guitar.

"The Wind", "Moonshadow", and "Tuesday's Dead" are currently on my radar.

[Leonard]

Tuesday's Dead and Morning Has Broken are up on the site now. More to come.

[Leonard]

Moonshadow is now up on the site, with the original chords, riffs, and fingerpicking patterns.

[Leonard]

A lot of work went into transcribing Changes IV, a rhythmically intense song. Alas, it's done! and up on the site now.

If a transcription or notation is unclear to you, please let me know.