Tab Sites - Are they making it too easy?

Honestly, I know of no advantage of tab over standard notation to someone who is can fluently read standard notation.

Well I can think of a couple, try typing notation into powertab editor !
Umm, there plenty of programs that make entry of standard notation very very easy . . . don't use broken software . . .

I find it pretty laughable that I would feel compelled to apologize for using TAB instead of standard notation. So I won't! I studied music as a young person and for a trumpet player it was the only way to become somewhat proficient. Knowing the way I am though, if there had been an easier way to do it, I probably would have taken that path. For guitar, there is an easier way. I will never be able to play like Dan Crary, Doc Watson or any of the (IMHO) great guitar players. I can live with that. I've yet to find someone who won't listen to a song I'm playing because I learned it from TAB. I also think that using a TAB is great training for the ear. What's out there is a representation of what the song sounds like to that particular person. For me, it's a nice start on figuring out the song as I hear it. I'm retired so I have all the time I want to study the fretboard and memorize where all the notes are located. I don't want to. I love playing the guitar, and my son thinks I'm a musician. I hope he doesn't run into a purist, he kind of likes me the way I am.

I think that people who exclusively rely on tabs have a major handicap, apart from the fact that their ears aren't well developed. What if no tabs exist for a song that you want to learn? Then what do you do?

That's what happened to me really. When I first started playing guitar 3 years ago, I only used tabs because I couldn't tell what was going on in a song. I hadn't taken lessons then so I couldn't ask a teacher or anyone else. So in that sense tab is good to get you started.

Then after a while when I knew the basic chords etc I could kind of recognize them when they were played in songs. But even then I used tabs, maybe because I was used to it. Then I began listening to obscure bands and old bands for which no tabs exist so I had to learn their songs by ear and that's what I did. It was hard in the beginning but now I feel pretty comfortable with it and I do trust my ears. The only time I have trouble is when something is played fast or when bend slides and hammer ons/pull offs are used rapidly in succession.

Anyways, all of that to say that my ears are now much better than they used to be and I have a much better idea of the structure of the songs I'm learning. If I was still using tabs I don't think I would know anything more than where to put my fingers, but that's me.

Denny: this is not a 'snobistic elitist vs normal people' discussion, nobody says you should apologize to anyone. If any apologizing should be done it would be towards yourself and that choice is yours. The only message is that relying exclusively on tab will limit your progress, no more and no less. If you don't care about that and want to stick with tab, fine.

The question for me is why/who am I playing this guitar for, the answer of course, Im playing it for me. And if tabs are a way for me to get more enjoyment out of playing, then Im all for them.

Paul

When I was a boy my father used to often say, "one of the hardest things to understand is that people do not always think the same way you do."

Wes,

I'm totally with you on this.

One of the surest paths to a frustrated old age is to spend too much time fretting about how other people seem to keep doing things the wrong way (which, by a curious coincidence always seems to mean "not my way"... :wink:

I have my preferences but it really doesn't bother me if other people want to use TAB or standard notation, an electronic tuner or a tuning fork, amplified guitars or an acoustic, drum machines or metronomes, or whatever choices they make. Good luck to them all. 8)

If TABs and power chords get people in, and seem easier, that's fine by me. And if others prefer to use only original scores and play only on period instruments, then that's good too. Long live diversity! I don't see life (or music) as some sort of exam that you have to pass in a certain way. :)

If I had to choose one way or the other, I would go for... but wait... who cares... I don't have to choose. Neither is particularly hard to understand so I'm perfectly happy to use whatever is available at the time. Quite a few of my 'teach yourself' music books have lines for both TAB and standard notation, so if I wish I can refer to both - and still test some alternative options out by ear as well... And sometimes - shock horror :shock: - I even let a friend or teacher tell me where to put my fingers and how to play a certain piece or phrase!

What a ratbag I am to be sure... :twisted:

Cheers,

Chris

You're right Arjen. I was looking at this question from the wrong end. As a beginning guitarist I agree that it could hamper learning. I believe we have to have some theory of why music does what it does. Nothing worse than a bad memory and a quick temper. Sorry about that.