Learning from tab

[6stringedRamble]

I've been trying to learn a song from tab. The tab doesn't match the instructional video that came with the book. Some people I have talked to said you can't learn to play from tab anyways, you can only learn from listening how to play a song. That's new to me. I mean I don't have enough musical skill to hear a song and then play it without any knowledge of what notes I should be playing.

I mean I understand the human element will make songs different from player to player, and that if you want to make your own style you will need to be able to hear a song and embellish it. But for just learning a song as an intermediate player is it really reasonable to assume can't learn from tab and can only listen to experts playing the song, and then know which notes to strum?

What takes do people on AGF have on this subject?

[Shuksan]

I've been learning songs from tab for decades so the idea you can't is nonsense. An important piece of information missing from most tab is the timing for the notes. You need to be able to hear the song to get the timing and to get the feel of the song as well. It has become more common for tab to presented along with the standard notation which does give you the timing of the notes if you can read it.

[reeve21]

Hi Ramble,

I learn from tab. If there is a recorded version of the lesson it may not exactly match the tab all the time, but most of the professionally prepared materials are pretty close. Every once in a while you will find an outright mistake in a tab, even a good one.

I'd like to be able to listen to a tune and make up my own finger style arrangement on the spot, but I'm not there yet and may never be. In the meantime I enjoy learning from tab. There is something of a "paint by numbers" feeling to it, but once the arrangement is memorized I find it easier to vary things a bit and play more expressively.

Some folks look down on tab, but I have found it very useful.

Edit: Most of the tab I use has standard notation above it, and I can read the rhythmic values. "Naked" tab isn't a lot of help unless I know the tune very well.

[rick-slo]

Tab is fine. Of course hearing the piece plus the tab is better. Tab even from the book with the video may not follow the playing 100% (though it should be close) as guitarists often play things a bit differently each time.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by reeve21

Hi Ramble,

I learn from tab. If there is a recorded version of the lesson it may not exactly match the tab all the time, but most of the professionally prepared materials are pretty close. Every once in a while you will find an outright mistake in a tab, even a good one.

I'd like to be able to listen to a tune and make up my own finger style arrangement on the spot, but I'm not there yet and may never be. In the meantime I enjoy learning from tab. There is something of a "paint by numbers" feeling to it, but once the arrangement is memorized I find it easier to vary things a bit and play more expressively.

Some folks look down on tab, but I have found it very useful.

If you want to do that, here is the guy who can teach you:

http://www.tomipaldanius.com/index.php/learn-to-play

Tony

[Cypress Knee]

Originally Posted by Shuksan

I've been learning songs from tab for decades so the idea you can't is nonsense. An important piece of information missing from most tab is the timing for the notes. You need to be able to hear the song to get the timing and to get the feel of the song as well. It has become more common for tab to presented along with the standard notation which does give you the timing of the notes if you can read it.

This is 100% correct. Every one of us on this board has a different level of talent. There are some people who can listen to a recording of the high E and tell you whether it was played on 1st string open, 2nd string fifth fret, 3rd string ninth fret, or 4th string fourteenth fret.

Then there are people like me who can't tell you whether the note is an E, D, C or G on any string. So tab is a huge help.

But tab is just a tool along the road. Actual sheet music, and actual recordings by the original artist will help you along the way too.

Just be aware that many music publishing houses may use software programs to help generate their tab books, and that the software may recognize the notes and give you a chord like this:

E--0
B--0
G--9
D--6
A--2
E--0

And you think "how does anyone do this?" and the answer is "Most don't".

So printed tab and sheet music are not always the Gospel. Just think of them as street signs on your path, and now and then one of the signs may have been turned around.

CK

[merlin666]

I started to learn playing guitar from tab and had no idea what the music was supposed to sound like. In our choir we just learn the songs from sheet music, though we have a pianist who helps putting it together. That's what written music is for. Learning just from videos is like limiting yourself to illustrated children's books or cartoons.

[reeve21]

Originally Posted by tbeltrans

If you want to do that, here is the guy who can teach you:

http://www.tomipaldanius.com/index.php/learn-to-play

Tony

Thanks, Tony. I have heard of this fellow, and even investigated it a little bit in the past. I'd be interested in hearing what others (who have tried it) may think about his method.

[RustyAxe]

Most tab is useless without hearing the song and version. All most tell you is what fret to play on what string. No tempo, no rhythm, no dynamics, no nuthin’. So having a good ear is still the primary requirement to learning a song. And no one “learns music” from tabs.

[rmp]

What everyone else says..

the tabs give you where fingers go, what strings, etc, but it doesn't give you the sense of measures, timing, rests, coda's and all the things that "make" a song the "song" It's a bit abstract.

Once you KNOW the song well enough, then the tab helps to accurately play the piece.

[rick-slo]

Most half way decent tab usually does give partial or full timing indications.

[TBman]

I use notation with tab and I listen to the tune numerous times and I will read the notation/ tab as I listen.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Unless you're taught a piece, or figure it out by ear (which is arduous but rewarding), or read notation, TAB is the only effective way to learn it, especially if it's in an alternative or open tuning.
My only pet peeve with TAB is when it is carelessly done, i.e. not checked over for suitability in playing: Displaying correct notes, but obvious improper fingering. (like a C# on the 2nd string, when the chord voicing is somewhere else on the fretboard, one of the niceties about guitar).
Unfortunately, I've encountered that too often. I can imagine how that would mess up someone just starting.
A simple read over would pick up the offending measures, but people are too lazy I guess, or rely on software too much.
Some transcribers, like John Stropes, go the other extreme, which is the best you can expect. But he's a rarity.
Most are fine though, or easily figured out.

[dkstott]

THIS!!!!

use tab along with listening to the song and you'll be fine

Originally Posted by Shuksan

I've been learning songs from tab for decades so the idea you can't is nonsense. An important piece of information missing from most tab is the timing for the notes. You need to be able to hear the song to get the timing and to get the feel of the song as well. It has become more common for tab to presented along with the standard notation which does give you the timing of the notes if you can read it.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by 6stringedRamble

I've been trying to learn a song from tab. The tab doesn't match the instructional video that came with the book. Some people I have talked to said you can't learn to play from tab anyways, you can only learn from listening how to play a song. That's new to me. I mean I don't have enough musical skill to hear a song and then play it without any knowledge of what notes I should be playing.

I mean I understand the human element will make songs different from player to player, and that if you want to make your own style you will need to be able to hear a song and embellish it. But for just learning a song as an intermediate player is it really reasonable to assume can't learn from tab and can only listen to experts playing the song, and then know which notes to strum?

What takes do people on AGF have on this subject?

Hi.

I think it is a matter of how your brain works.

I used to go to a bluegrass week, and studied with some of the greatest bluegrass guitarists and mandolin players around, but being a great player doesn't mean being a great teacher.

For me, to play a piece, then hand out sheets of tab, was a total waste of time -tab is NOT how I "see" music.

I was studying with John Lowell, a very fine player, and nice chap.

He was trying to teach us pieces and handing out paper, I got impatient, and said, "John, there is NO way, I could ever pick up the feel of this from tab -do us a favour, please just play the piece about three times over, slower, and let us just look at your fretting hand?"

He seemed a bit irritated, but did what I asked, then I played it back to him, it was pretty much OK with the minor stylistic variations only.

When we took a break, and I was playing the piece, then three or four guys came up asking me to show them!

Then John came up asking "what's going on?" he was rather annoyed.

We regrouped for another hour of people struggling through the tab, hateful.

At another time I was studying mandolin with Joe (k) Walsh. Joe did the same, played a piece, then handed out tab. I just gave up, but others could seemingly sight read tab .... I couldn't.

Some people see music as dots on lines on paper, I see music as the melody, in my head, somehow , I close my eyes, and see it and sooner or later my fingers see it too.

WE all have different ways of perception, that's all.