Tab/Sheet Music questions....

[Gazaridis]

I just got a tab/sheet music book for Christmas, but I cant understand some of it. What do mf , p, and P.M. mean? They all apeear between the sheet and tab, but I dont have a clue what you are meant to do. Thanks for your help.

[StoneDragon]

P or pianisimo loosely translated means soft (as in volume)

M or mezzo loosely tanslated means medium.

F or forte loosely translated means loud.

What we know today as a piano (as in the instrument) takes it's name from the fact that it was able to deliver both soft (piano) volumes and loud (forte) volumes. The instrument was originally named the pianoforte... but as time went on, everybody just called it a piano.

When you see something like PP... it means really quiet. When you see something like FF it means REALLY LOUD. MF means medium loud and MP means medium soft.

P.M. stands for palm mute. That is where you rest the karate chop part of your picking hand on top of the strings to give them a deadened thumpy sound. Check out Lesson Three (http://zentao.com/guitar/lesson3/right-hand.html) for all the details on this technique.

[This message has been edited by StoneDragon (edited December 26, 2000).]