Tabbing out Classical Music

[Paul Strojan]

In my slow journey to expand my musical horizons, I have decided that I want to start to write some tab from classical sheet music. I want to begin with Ode to Joy and Jerusalem. I have a couple of questions what Nneck or tuning would would be best for classical music and what harmony notes should I include?

[Erv Niehaus]

Your harmony notes would be the notes for that particular chord.

[Bill McCloskey]

Here is Barry Minnick doing Ode to Joy. Looks like E9th to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw1YrEuOVO4

[Fred Treece]

Try parallel 3rds. That works for most of it. Where 3rds sound weak, try perfect 5ths. I would let the melody sit on top and put harmonies beneath, like the video guy in Bill’s post did. There are non-diatonic chords in the piece though, so straight diatonic harmony does not work all the way through.

[Ian Rae]

E9 is best for this kind of thing as you have all the notes of the scale available at the same fret and most of the relevant chords too. Mike Perlowin (RIP) called it the "Mozart neck".

[Paul Strojan]

I found this instrumental version of Ode to Joy from of all places colonial Africa. I believe that pedal steel has a place in classical music with its ability to play three notes with contrary motion is unique. Johnny Cox's D13 has all the range of a cello. Maybe, we could have a classic country string quartet with fiddle, pedal steel, acoustic guitar and bass.
https://youtu.be/oC9iES8XYJc?si=QnqT-j7LQuTbPbBb