Guitar Tab

TeddyTedson

Is tab a guitarists best friend or is it dumbing them down and not encouraging them to train their ear and learn sheet music?
I was reading an article against tab and the guy was making a lot of sense.
I'm still not sure what to think though.

Rigsby

I can only speak for bass, but I'm sure it is the same as guitar in this case. IMO it is of much more benefit to train your ear, and try to play what you hear. Tabs merely show note positions on the neck. They don't give the tempo, beat, etc. They are OK to a point, for example when trying to figure out a complex section of a song that you find hard to do by ear. Even then, tab is notoriously inaccurate. My advice is not to become too dependant on them, use your ear, and learn to read sheet music if you feel the necessity.

Malice

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Is tab a guitarists best friend or is it dumbing them down and not encouraging them to train their ear and learn sheet music?
I was reading an article against tab and the guy was making a lot of sense.
I'm still not sure what to think though.

Can you post a link to the article you read?

rickyjb

Tabs are fine to use once common sense is applied, you still need to listen to the song to make sure what you're playing is what you're hearing. They are particularly handy if you've no formal musical training. Knowing where to get good reliable tabs off the internet is a big part of it, the bigger sites tend to be better as the tabs are rated and there tends to be alot of versions of each song so you can mix and match between them.

TeddyTedson

Malice_ wrote: »

Can you post a link to the article you read?

Yea sorry I meant to post this
link

Rigsby

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Yea sorry I meant to post this
link

Interesting article, and I agree with what is being said.

Malice

A lot of what is in the article makes sense and I agree with it. Not this part however:

Third, without notation you really lose out on being able to analyze the music, dig deep inside, and get a visceral understanding of the composition. You lose all of the voice leading, counterpoint, inner voice movement, and dynamics. The music – as tablature – is basically dead, and completely relies on the guitarist’s ability to correctly interpret the music.

What does that even mean in English? "Dig deep inside" or "a visceral understanding"?

vis·cer·al
–adjective
1.
of or pertaining to the viscera.
2.
affecting the viscera.
3.
of the nature of or resembling viscera.
4.
characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect: a visceral reaction.
5.
characterized by or dealing with coarse or base emotions; earthy; crude: a visceral literary style.

Nope, still don't know what he means. Notes on a page are notes on a page aren't they?

I'm not sure what he means by "voice leading" or "inner voice movement" but counterpoint and dynamics are illustrated on tab so how could they be lost? In fact, here's a couple of bars from a part of a song I wrote where the dynamics are missing from the notation rather than the tab . How do you palm-mute a piano chord anyway?



I also disagree with this:

For all guitar players out there, my advice; use both methods. Don’t skip learning to read music just because you think it’s hard and requires effort. Of course it requires effort; stop being a whiny sissy, get off your ass, and put in the dirt time. It will be well worth your time and energy.

So he's encouraging people to do something without justifying why they should? Good job.
In the years I've been playing music I've rarely encountered a situation where I regretted not knowing how to read music notation.

rcaz

Tab is like painting by numbers, it teaches you where to put your fingers, not how to play music.

I disagree about tab showing counterpoint and other things well, it just shows you where the fingers go. It doesn't tell you anything about key signatures, tonality, modulations, accidentals, any of the stuff you need to know to understand the music. It just tells you where to put your hands.

The point you made about the 'visceral understanding', Malice_, that's just self-important writing I think. His theory is sound though.

I think tab is a bad thing, a kind of crutch. I don't mean everyone should be able to sight read, but everyone should learn their theory, and tab gets people playing without needing any knowledge of how music works, so I reckon most don't bother to go back and learn. I've been in a few sessions with friends where we've been working on something and I might say "what if it went to C instead there?" or anything naming a note, and they've replied "I don't use notes, what fret is that?" or something. Does my head in.

Malice

El Pr0n wrote: »

I disagree about tab showing counterpoint and other things well, it just shows you where the fingers go. It doesn't tell you anything about key signatures, tonality, modulations, accidentals, any of the stuff you need to know to understand the music. It just tells you where to put your hands.

That's a fair point on the key signature, tab doesn't show you that . As for the rest, you don't necessarily need to understand the music to be able to play it. I don't think anyone's going to argue that it's not a good thing to know that you're in a certain key signature or playing a particular scale or chord progression.

This of course leads on to the second point:

El Pr0n wrote:

I think tab is a bad thing, a kind of crutch. I don't mean everyone should be able to sight read, but everyone should learn their theory, and tab gets people playing without needing any knowledge of how music works, so I reckon most don't bother to go back and learn. I've been in a few sessions with friends where we've been working on something and I might say "what if it went to C instead there?" or anything naming a note, and they've replied "I don't use notes, what fret is that?" or something. Does my head in.

That's just laziness on the part of the player. Them not knowing that a C note is the first fret on the B string or whatever isn't the fault of any tab. It's down to them as players not taking the time to know their way around the fretboard. As for people not taking the time to go back and learn, it depends on what they want out of their musical ability doesn't it? If they are happier not knowing then so be it. If they want to be as productive as possible in a band context they should soon realise that they need to know more or they will be left behind.

Sure tab notation lowers the barrier of entry but I would see that as a good thing. Getting more people playing musical instruments rather than sitting in front of the television watching the latest X-Factor would be great.

Rigsby

I suppose it all depends on what people want and how ambitious they are about playing an instrument or music in general. That said, a good grasp of basic theory will bring you a lot further than tab ever will. Being a good musician means being a good listener as well as anything else. The ear, via the brain, needs to connect with the fingers. This does not happen with tab. These days people, especially teenagers want instant success. They see tab as a quick way to playing an instrument. It is a quick way to start, but very soon you cant go any further. People are always looking for the "quick fix" in order to avoid the hard graft , time and patience, it takes to learn an instrument to any reasonable standard. For me, tab is that quick fix. It should only be used very sparingly, and is not a suitable substitute for learning basic theory and/or music notation IMO.

yesno1234

Definetely much more benificial to learn by ear. I kinda wish there was no tabs, I have been playing for years but still can't play by ear, have tried to learn to play by ear but for whatever reason I just can't pick it up. Wish I could play by ear though.

Hendrixfan

Guitar tabs will give you brewers droop, if you dont know what I'm talking about one day you'll find out.

Malice

Hendrixfan wrote: »

Guitar tabs will give you brewers droop, if you dont know what I'm talking about one day you'll find out.

Speaking from personal experience are we?