Quote:
Originally Posted by PHJim
You must be really old vindibona1. My first exposure to Tab was in Sing Out! magazine in 1961. Each Sing Out! had one or more columns called "Teach In" where players like Pete Seeger, Happy Traum, Bob Baxter, Harry Taussig. . . would teach folk-style guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer. . .to the folkies who bought the magazine. Most of them used the tablature that had been revived from the old lute music by Pete Seeger in his 1948 book How To Play The Five String Banjo. He also co-wrote The Folksinger's Guitar Guide Pete is the one responsible for the style of tablature we use today. He also was the one who coined the terms "hammer on" and "pull off".
If not for Pete, we still might be saying "left hand pizzicato" instead of "pull off".
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Interesting stuff!
Here in the benighted UK, I don't recall seeing tab until maybe the 70s at the earliest. As I remember, in the mid 1960s, only two books existed on how to play guitar. Two. Notation in both.
I learned from notation right from the beginning. I didn't find it hard at all, but I'm sure I'd have appreciated tab when learning fingerstyle tunes.
(Then again, classical guitar notation manages to include all the positional and fingering indications one needs, without resorting to tab.)
Adam Neely is a clever guy, knows his stuff, but I have real problems with his style and delivery - I find his videos very hard to watch.
I certainly have little patience with those who can't get to grips with notation (come on guys! I learned it easily aged 11), but I also believe tab has its place. The music I give my students usually has both staff notation and tab, to get the best of both worlds.
One instrument where I think tab makes more sense than notation is the banjo - which ties in with your Pete Seeger facts. Most fingerstyle banjo music is easier to understand from tab than from notation (at least from my guitar player's perspective), largely because of that high G 5th string. This is because you're rarely playing melodies (which is where notation wins by showing the melodic shape), more often playing arpeggiated accompaniments. It's really critical exactly where (on which strings and frets) you play the patterns, which is not always the case with guitar music.
Where I really do value tab for guitar is in alternative tunings such as DADGAD. My notation skills relate to EADGBE! I can translate them to DADGAD with a little thought, but tab sure helps. Again, it's because the exact fingering is important, and the freedom notation gives you to choose your position is not relevant.