Pantera - Walk
Pantera are back out on the road with Charlie Benante channeling Vinnie Paul and Zakk Wylde on the guitar letting Dime flow through him.
I thought this might be a good time to take a look at a classic Pantera song that’s tabbed out wrong pretty much everywhere..
Walk by Pantera is an utterly iconic, anthemic song.
A simple, rhythmically relentless riff made of 2 notes that rivals the menace of the theme from Jaws, this song is a monster, chock full of riffs, swagger and an attitude of “I see you for who you are, get away from me before I do something you’ll regret…” it’s no wonder it’s a classic.
the right attack
Rex’s bass locks together with Dime’s guitar and with Vinnie’s kick to create a wall of sound and tightly wound fury.
To play this song properly, to give it the correct weight, it’s best to try and down-pick everything except maybe for the heavily accented triplet riff turnarounds.
And, as you’ll see, Rex is also playing power chords.
These are routinely tabbed out as single notes but power chords are a common feature of Rex’s bass work; it adds some extra heft to the guitar parts, especially when Dime’s soloing or the riff moves up the register.
The 3 T's: Tuning, Time & tempo
So, let’s look at the freely available “official” tab from Ultimate-Guitar and the purchasable tab from Sheet Music Direct and then contrast it with the JTR tab (created from listening to the isolated bass track)…
Both tabs have the tuning as being down in C# Standard (C#, F#, B, E) but the true tuning is somewhere between D Standard and C# Standard and closer to D than C#.
This could be a deliberate choice but it’s more likely a product of the recording and mastering process: slightly different tape speeds leading to faster or slower songs that create subtle variations in pitch.
For the sake of simplicity and because most people probably aren’t rocking super heavy guage strings that can comfortably deliver down in the low C#s I’ve tabbed it out in D Standard.
It’s actually odd, when you listen to the isolated bass track it’s actually pretty much slap bang in D but it’s noticably off by a small amount in the mix.
tuning
Both tabs have the tuning as being down in C# Standard (C#, F#, B, E) but the true tuning is somewhere between D Standard and C# Standard and closer to D than C#.
This could be a deliberate choice but it’s more likely a product of the recording and mastering process: slightly different tape speeds leading to faster or slower songs that create subtle variations in pitch.
For the sake of simplicity and because most people probably aren’t rocking super heavy guage strings that can comfortably deliver down in the low C#s I’ve tabbed it out in D Standard.
It’s actually odd, when you listen to the isolated bass track it’s actually pretty much slap bang in D but it’s noticably off by a small amount in the mix.
time & tempo
The UG version
The UG Version
The first thing to notice here is that UG have done it the hard way!
They have it in 4/4 at 120bpm and with an 8th note triplet feel applied.
The SheetMusicDirect Version
The SheetMusicDirect Version
They get the tempo and the time signature right 116bpm in 12/8
UG have opted for the REALLY lumpy way to tab it out; not only is it overly complicating things it makes for a very ugly tab covered in loads of triplet brackets!
A simpler, more elegant, and the correct, way to tab this is using 12/8.
It naturally gives you the triplet swing feel and removes all those cluttering triplet brackets. 12/8 also means you don’t have to keep “remembering” that it’s a “triplet feel” when you come up to two 8th notes together because it’s explicitly written out that way as a swung triplet.
One thing to note with compound times like 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 is that you have to set your tempo with a dotted value. In this case a dotted quarter note. Our tempo should be around 116bpm.
The Intro
The UG tab misses off the octave (which is odd as you can hear it plain as day in the recording) in the fading build up and then they put a quarter note rest and 2 dead notes inside what looks like a quarter note triplet for some reason…
SheetMusicDirect, however, get it right. Rex is playing the octave and it’s faded in over 1.5 bars with a little triplet + dotted quarter note turnaround.
Below is the JTR version (the adudio has the Guitar part in for context and because the 1st 2 bars are rests for the bass):
We need to talk about the bending...
There is no getting away from the fact that the Guitar part DOES have a 1/2 step bend on the 1st fret which gives the riff it’s character.
The bass DOES NOT.
It may be a simple mental trick: the guitar riff is so iconic and dominant and the bass so stripped back that we simply “hear” the bend where this none… An audio illusion.
It may also be that bass tabs have been tabbed this way because it’s hard to discern in the mix or because these tabs are copies of copies and it’s just become accepted lore that this is what Rex is playing.
It’s not what he’s playing though…
Let’s look at the Sheet Music Direct one first…
We’re looking at this one 1st because it may be the tab at the root of all the others that make this error.
Note the bends…
Here you can see the UG version and they have it tabbed out the same way with the bends.
They do, strangely enough, have the rhythm right where SMD have attmepted to map the bend to the triplet value!
So what's rex actually playing?
If you take the “average” of what he’s playing then he’s simply playing the 0-1 straight with no bends.
Makes sense: it’s the bass part so make it rock solid.
Now, if you really strain as you listen to his isolated bass track, you can hear the occasional bend here and there but they’re micro-bends and could be nothing more than a high action on the bass combining with a really heavy left hand press down on the 1st fret creating a micro-bend.
They’re also likely to be your brain playing tricks on you!
But he’s definitely NOT doing deliberate ½ step bends every time he hits the 1st fret!
Pre-Chorus Time
Let’s move on to the pre-chorus.
The Sheet Music Direct tab doesn’t have this on the page that’s available to view on the site but the UG version most definitely does.
Here we see the tail end of the verse riff and that they’ve got things half right from there…
The notes in the red boxes are the right notes, well root notes, but they’re not the power chords Rex is playing and several of them are in the wrong positions.
Not sure if this is how the tabber wrote it or how UG’s upload conversion process has rendered the positions. Chances are it was tabbed by a guitarist so I’ll go with the former! 😉
Note that the tab persists with the 1st fret bending motif…
So what's rex actually playing?
As you can see below, Rex is playing the power chords to really thicken up the riff. You can see how the UG tab has the right (root) notes but broadly in the wrong positions.
Best to down-pick these bad boys to get the most out of them…
The chorus: swagger like a Mofo!
Now we have that Iconic chorus riff.
Again, Rex is playing power chords to beef things up but UG hasn’t got them on their tab. They’ve gone with the right root notes though (last one is in the wrong position).
Still with the bendy!
So what's rex actually playing?
Rex is playing those big ass power chords in the C, B♭ and 6th fret E♭ positions and please note: NO BENDY!
I hope that helps you play it with more confidence.
It’s an iconic set of riffs and they’re simpler and more powerful than the widely available tabs make out.
Until next time,
Jack The Riffer…
