Online tabs and books

For guitar I don't buy books. I don't play that many covers and those I play are usually fairly easy to figure out myself. For piano I do get books: I've got enough problems reading it already without having to ask myself every time whether it is actually accurate or not, which is something I find myself doing with a lot of free sheet music.

I actually have been thinking about buying one of those generalized '1000 songs' books with just lyrics and chords, could be handy when on vacaction away from computers and the internet.

For guitar, I prefer online tabs and programs such as powertab and guitar pro. I don't really like to use guitar books because I prefer to hear what the part sounds like, rather then try to decipher it from a book. Lately, I've been learning how to play Beatles songs, such as Let It Be and Hey Jude from a lyric sheet and the chord written on top, and it's been a refreshing challenge since I've never done this before.

I use both.
I know a lot of online tabs are copied directly from books (you can find the same note-for-note mistakes in a number of transcriptions)
This is one of the reasons that I am more than happy to seek tab (or sheet music) online. I object to paying a hefty price for an incorrect transcription, when I can get one (that's just as incorrect) for nothing. Even if the transcription is correct, I find it hard to cough up €4 or more for one tab/sheet music download. I find it even more difficult to cough up €20-30 for a book of songs, from which I'm only interested in one, maybe 2 songs.
What I'm more likely to pay for is a book, with accompanying CD, containg tab/sheet music, full track and backing/jam track.
If it's a download, I look for Powertabs or Guitarpro tabs first, so that I have a listening reference.
I also, generally, buy an online MP3 of the track, if I don't already have it on CD, so that I can analyse the song and check/change the tab at leisure.
One of the things about both books and tab, is that they simply follow what's on the record, there's no attempt to make the piece of music that should have been played - as you say, David, they transcribe the errors, as well (it was something that, apparently, amused Jimi Hendrix, seeing his errors so faithfully tabbed out).

My preferences:

For performance, I do my own transcriptions, or I'll bring the specified version of a standard notation fake book - if a bandleader names a fake book I don't have, I buy it. But there is one situation where I always go for tab online: the artist doesn't allow downloads, and I only need to learn one of their tunes. I'd be happy to spend $1-2 to see that the artist gets the royalties they're due, but I won't spend $15 for one tune.

For teaching, I also do my own transcriptions... but I often use online tabs to illustrate one great point: trust your ears, not some unknown 12 year old's first tabbing attempt after 6 weeks of playing guitar. A good example from this week: one young lady is crazy about Aly & A.J. I grab a tab and print it, and we play it along with her CD. I ask her to point out where chords sound wrong, and we circle them.

Then we play the CD again, and I play different chord types. She identifies one chord as a minor sound on the CD. Now we try Dm instead of the tabber's D, and hey - it sounds right!

So I try to instill a healthy distrust of the work of unknown transcribers, and a sense of confidence that a student's ears are good enough to do the job. If I can get them doing their own transcriptions of songs they like, they have acquired a lifetime skill - whether they choose to do that with tab or standard notation.

I prefer books from the outset.Remember we are talking about good books.

Eg William Leavitt (Modern method , which , i am going to order in May) or Bass guitar for dummies etc (and hopefully david's book too , when , it comes out.)

Also , tabs take a lot of time and money and sweat in printing out , organising them.Same with the lessons.

Right now , i have 7 folders full of tabs , chords , guitar lessons.Ok , i can say , i have learnt guitar 'free' but that's very misleading.

No ,sir , i have spent 100s of hours on internet , i have taken sooo many headaches , and angry reactions when printer fails to take the paper itself or takes it the wrong way...

A book would be better , because , all the arranging stuff is done by the publisher and ideas flow in a coherent manner.

I have said it earlier and i say it again - GN needs to publish all of david's lessons even if they are to come out as a learning by playing song book.I am sure , there must be atleast ONE publisher who would undertake this duty.So many lessons are there and printing and keeping them is impossible.Or worst , just make a proper spiral binded Guitarnoise lessons file and sell them off on Amazon.com. (with a cd , containing all the david's mp3s).I can even give more ideas about how to develop that book...

I am sure , that people will benefit so much more then.

Internet tabs/chords are good for those who can recognise errors and play some parts by ear too.I don't think , i am on the level of figuring out every chord myself.Plus , i generally take out the lyrics of a song , so i print it the chords too.But i always play (strum , fingerpick etc) myself.

Rahul

Yes, I buy books, usually official transcriptions along with lesson books such as the "Fast Forward" and the "Play Guitar With"series but I do use internet tabs and chords also for older songs that you are not going to find in book form. I don't mind paying for my guitar transcriptions in book form and wouldn't mind paying for tab also if it were priced reasonably. The good thing about books is, you don't just get the music but the theory behind it all, how solo's are constructed, how best to use a chord progression etc.
I also tend to buy computer based software lessons as I find these extremely useful.

I fear GN is going to be in deep legal trouble if they publish their articles for a profit. Which is a shame since it would make for an awesome, if somewhat incoherrent, learning resource.

I go for the free stuff. This mostly because I'm poor. I figure no one is loosing money, because if it weren't free I wouldn't have it anyway. That said, I do own a few guitar books, and plan on purchasing Noteboat's as well. Mostly though, it's free or it's nothing.

As I rarely play cover tunes (and if I do, I almost always make my own arrangements), I generally buy books for study. Usually things I don't have time to transcribe myself, or simply can't...stuff like Pierre Bensusan, Alex DeGrassi, and Steve Vai (I've bought official transcription books by them all, and at least with Bensusan and DeGrassi, I'm pretty sure it was their own transcriptions). I also like collections, say bebop solos or classical pieces. I rarely get tab off the Internet, with a few major exceptions. I do frequent a celtic music forum and many of the users use TableEdit or Finale (or ABC, which I can can transform to notation), and most of the transcriptions and arrangments are pretty good (I hope mine are too :). I'll print those out. I'm a book junkie, which doesn't help the pocket book.

No legal troubles Arjen , since , this is only a source of education.

They can get royalities , if they are really going to pester GN that way.

But why the royalities... David , has done all the work... and remember , GN does sell a cd consisting of all its lessons.So what's the problem in a book ?

Rahul, you've a lot to learn about somethings...

This site is a source of education, but a book of the lessons taken directly from this site is a source of profit. As such, we would be in more copyright violation than you can imagine. In order to put together such a book, we'd have to get two copyright contracts set up - one to use the written music (it doesn't matter if it's my arrangement, it's still someone else's original song) and a second one to perform the material on a CD or other recording, such as a DVD.

But, as I mentioned at the outset of this thread, the purpose of this post is not to debate these aspects, but rather to explore why people use whatever material they use as sources. So, let's kindly get back on track. Thanks. If you'd truly like to discuss this side matter, write me directly.

Peace

I buy a lot of fake books, as Noteboat point out, band leaders will often specify which book they want the song coming from.

Other than fake books, I also transcribe most of my own stuff. For me it's an important aspect of my continued guitar education. You'd be amazed how much you can learn doing a transcription!

I've never understood the notion that tabs are free. Toner is expensive and paper's not cheap either.

Print out 30 complete songs and actually calculate what that cost you compared to a book of songs.

I only use tabs to get the chord progression and lyrics and maybe a riff or two and thats only if I can't figure it out on my own. I don't try to play any song note for note or just like the original but rather try to make a song my own so to speak( like I could really play like SRV :lol: :lol: ). I can usually just play it by ear, so I don't have much use for sheet music or tabs.--the dog

I use both books and online resources.

For study material, I generally prefer books because the lessons usually build on each other sequentially, and because the books I buy tend to have an internal theme (e.g., all blues-based lessons as in "Blues You Can Use," all rock-based lessons as in "Total Rock Guitar," etc.) Also, I like the instant portability of books.

Similarly, with collections of music (not lessons) in a common style, I also prefer books for the convenience of having everything in one place. An example would be the "Open Tunings Christmas for Guitar" book I just added to my wishlist at Amazon.

For individual songs, however, I prefer getting my tabs online. Convenience and availability are the main reasons - many songs I want to play are not available in books, or the books are out of print. Even if they are available in a book, I won't spend US$20 for a book of 15 tabs by a particular artist when I only want to play one of those songs. Especially when I can usually find a PTB or GP-format of that song so easily ... for much lower cost even after printing. I wouldn't mind paying to download "official" tab sheets, but not US$4.99 a pop.

Something else that's important to me, regardless of the tab format: multimedia. I'll only buy tab books that come with a CD so I can hear the music. If I download a song, I like PTB or GP files so I can play along. With the online lessons at GN, I'm very appreciative of the MP3s that are available with most of the lessons. Online video lessons are also a great idea: Doug Jones and Kirk Lorange (Little Brother and Planetalk here on GN) both offer downloadable multimedia lessons with video and tab at a very reasonable price. Maybe what it comes down to is value - I plan to pay 15 bucks for a one-song Little Brother lesson, but I won't pay five for a one-song tab sheet!

So, bottom line for me: if it's a collection of lessons or songs with a common theme, I prefer books. For one-off songs or lessons, I like getting them online. In both cases, what matters is convenience (accessibility) and value.

Sorry David - I gave a few "whats" in addition to the "whys", but hopefully they help explain what I'm saying. :)