Tabs..yay or nay?

[blue]

Well, especially for a beginner tab has a very valuable place. Many classically trained guitarists who abhor it had one thing the average tab user doesn't. A teacher.

It's fine to be handed a piece of a music and have a teacher tell you what position you might find useful for playing it. But Tab removes that issue. It tells you where a fingering happens.

As said above. It's all good. It's all useful.

[JanVigne]

I have no problem with tabs and truly don't understand why anyone would. What? you're not as dedicated to guitar if you read tabs? Sheer snobbery IMO. But then, humans always need someone to look down upon as inferior. Can't read musical notation? Well, LA-DI-DA! Can't play single notes? Can't play this inversion?

What's it matter?

I learned to play long before any form of standardized "tab" was available so I know how to read notation, time and key signatures. And I have many pieces from way back when which are filled with rudimentary tab that isn't very good or is so specific to the person who performed the transcription it's like learning a new language every time you open another book.

And that's the point, IMO, music is a language. Tab is like texting. It's not like reading the real thing to actually get the writer/composer's message. For that you need real words, nt bts of wrds. Do I read tabs? Yep, most of the time that's where I begin. Do I occasionally look at the chord forms above the notation? Yeah, I use those too.

Playing and playing to the best of your ability is the point of it all. If I know the shortcut to get across town in traffic, I'll use it. If I read tab, what problem should you have with that? It's the result, not the means which matter.

[callouses]

I used to use tab a lot, but honestly, it's to hard to read now, I've been playing by ear for years, next to that, if I can watch somebody play something i don't know, I like that. I read standard notation, esp. bass, but to me, it's just more challenging and more fun to try and see if i can figure it out on my own. Nothin wrong with tabs though, it's just that they confuse me for some reason.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

tabs are great, sounds recordings are great, videos are great, standard notation is great, help from friends is great, whatever you can find is great.

+1............

[sweiss]

I've never been able to warm up to tab. I find it slow.

I do a lot better if I can see and hear someone else play something. Youtube is a wonderful thing.

[islander53]

Originally Posted by aviatornation

Which is better,tabs or actually learning to read music?Your thoughts?

Depends on your own natural ability. Myself, I've never used tabs, notation or anything other than my ear, because that's what I can do. My wife, however, needs notation; very little by-ear.

I have learned to read tabs and notation to a degree, because it comes in handy now & then, but for the most part you need to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and go from there.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by islander53

Depends on your own natural ability. Myself, I've never used tabs, notation or anything other than my ear, because that's what I can do. My wife, however, needs notation; very little by-ear.

I have learned to read tabs and notation to a degree, because it comes in handy now & then, but for the most part you need to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and go from there.

Depends as much on how difficult is the material you are trying to learn, and upon what else is available.

[mr. beaumont]

Good tabs are fine. Most free tablature on the internet is awful.

dependency on tab is limiting, especially if you get into types of music that tabs just don't exist for. Tab also does not really show the flow in pitch, seeing voice leading is much easier in notation, for example... so sightreading tab can be daunting.

It seems a lot of folks I meet who use only tab can only "feel" rhythms...

I use both tab and notation with my students. Both have uses. If I could have one, it'd be notation hands down.

[jpd]

It's all good for something......................

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Fruitloop

I don't get all the hate for tabs. They are incredibly useful, especially for beginners.

Hi F-l...

I don't use them - and don't hate them. They are often inaccurate, they often don't have rhythm accompanying them, and students/players tend to lock into them like they are written in stone.

So I avoid recommending them as a teacher and player.

[rick-slo]

Tabs these days often have standard notation right along with them, measure for measure. If you can read standard notation it helps a lot.
Even better for timing issues is that software tab/standard notation programs often play a midi so you can hear it - that is the sort of software
I tab stuff with. Most of these sorts of tabs I have checked out are reasonably accurate and save you time. Songs usually are not played exactly
the same way every time by the original artist so it may depend in part on the performance the person doing the tabbing listened to.

[Roselynne]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi F-l...

I don't use them - and don't hate them. They are often inaccurate, they often don't have rhythm accompanying them, and students/players tend to lock into them like they are written in stone.

So I avoid recommending them as a teacher and player.

+1. That said, being able to correct bad tab is pretty cool! I also tend to add at least a little something of my own. Sometimes, it's a whole new tab sheet.

These days, tab with notation above it is easiest for me. I've got a book with blanks in that format -- when I'm noodling and come up with a potential keeper, I jot it down in tab. Later, if I decide the piece has potential, I'll go back and add standard notation.

Unwisely, perhaps, I'm learning standard notation and tab at the same time, while also doing ear training with software and just figuring out favorite songs ... as I coax old fingers to perform new tricks. Frustrating as [CENSORED], but when it comes together, it's so worth it!

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Tabs these days often have standard notation right along with them, measure for measure. If you can read standard notation it helps a lot.
Even better for timing issues is that software tab/standard notation programs often play a midi so you can hear it - that is the sort of software
I tab stuff with. Most of these sorts of tabs I have checked out are reasonably accurate and save you time. Songs usually are not played exactly
the same way every time by the original artist so it may depend in part on the performance the person doing the tabbing listened to.

What you do is not what most do, nor what most tab users can gain anything extra from.

id say what you're talking about is the best of both worlds, but I think few tab users can actually make sense of the notation above. With the students I get it seems that the ones who can read notation can understand tab too, but the reverse is rarely true.

but yeah, done WELL, that's as good as it gets (I have some published books that were obviously done via computer program using one or the other but show both, and there are definite errors...)

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

What you do is not what most do, nor what most tab users can gain anything extra from.

id say what you're talking about is the best of both worlds, but I think few tab users can actually make sense of the notation above. With the students I get it seems that the ones who can read notation can understand tab too, but the reverse is rarely true.

but yeah, done WELL, that's as good as it gets (I have some published books that were obviously done via computer program using one or the other but show both, and there are definite errors...)

Yes, and as I said, it helps a lot if one can read standard notation. But I also mentioned the midi which is also very helpful regarding timing.

Errors come from the person doing the tab. It is not inherent in the medium any more than errors would be in standard notation.

If one does not use tab or read standard notation just how does one make a note by note written record of the music? Does it just have to reside in your memory? Relearning old classical guitar pieces I would pull out the sheet music.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Errors come from the person doing the tab. It is not inherent in the medium any more than errors would be in standard notation.

Yep, there are several comments on this thread about tabs being "inaccurate". I guess the assumption is people are talking about "tab" mean free tabs by anonymous posters on the internet. Those transcriptions would be just as innaccurate (or more so) if they were standard notation. It's not the medium, it's the transcriber. If you get a professionally done tab, often done by the artist, they're likely to be as accurate as you can get. Pro "tabs" are also usually both standard and tablature, so you get the best of both worlds.