Why Is Tablature Bad?

5544

5544

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Dec 1, 2015
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#1
In another thread, people are telling the OP to stop working with tablature learn how to read music.

When I read tablature:

G------------------
D------------------
A------------3--5--
E---3--5--3--------

I see the following:

G, A, G on E string
C, D on A string

I also look at the note lengths in the sheet music above the tablature.

Now can someone explain to me why that is worse than standard sheet music?
 
#4
5544 said:
Every book I bought with tab has the sheet music above it.

I must be buying the wrong books then.
Click to expand...
No, you are buying sheet music with tabs..not the same thing as just tabs
If you google for tabs for specific songs.. they mostly have no sheet music attached.. it's just tabbed versions of those songs.
THAT's what I believe they are saying not to use..
 
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#6
s0c9 said:
No, you are buying sheet music with tabs..not the same thing as just tabs
If you google for tabs for specific songs.. they mostly have no sheet music attached.. it's just tabbed versions of those songs.
THAT's what I believe they are saying not to use..
Click to expand...

If I google tabs for specific songs, then I will download the versions that work with Guitar Pro 6 - which has both tab & standard notation.

Besides, how hard is it to say "E8 is C" when looking at this:

G-------
D-------
A-------
E---8---
 
#7
5544 said:
If I google tabs for specific songs, then I will download the versions that work with Guitar Pro 6 - which has both tab & standard notation.

Besides, how hard is it to say "E8 is C" when looking at this:

G-------
D-------
A-------
E---8---
Click to expand...
No complaints here, but I don't use GP6.
Tabs are what I use to learn songs. I can read music, but don't sight read for bass - and to be honest, too old and lazy to bother to do so now - so I start with the tab I find then [usually] end up correcting it for personal use by working thru the entire song. The corrected version (with words) goes into my OnSong app for future reference.
No "sheet music" involved at all.
 
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#8
I find tabs useful for learning new tunes to play with the band. Sometimes it is difficult to hear what is being played. I usually, but not always, find the bass tabs I need on Ultimate Guitar. They are not always correct and sometimes the suggested fingering is insane, but it does help get the part right and more quickly than trying to get it by ear.
It has been so long since I've read sheet music, It takes too much time to stumble through it.
 
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#9
5544 said:
If I google tabs for specific songs, then I will download the versions that work with Guitar Pro 6 - which has both tab & standard notation.

Besides, how hard is it to say "E8 is C" when looking at this:

G-------
D-------
A-------
E---8---
Click to expand...
How hard is this?
mwZMMoK7xxCXK.gxPii--Q_m.png


Try telling a sax player to play E8 sometime.
 
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#13
TAB is a teacher's tool, to show a student how to play something so they can go home and practice it. It's easier to put on the internet than standard notation (no special software needed), so it's flourished in the internet era. In that way, it's just one person communicating to another, "this is how I play that song." It's often wrong but sometimes useful. Nothing wrong with that if you bear in mind that's all it is. What's not good is becoming a "tab monkey," a person who just learns TABs off the internet and thinks they "know the song" when in fact they have no idea what key it's in, what the chord progression is or even what notes they're playing. It can easily become a crutch that hinders advancing as a musician.
 
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#14
5544 said:
Am I playing that on B13, E8 or A3 (standard tuning)?
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter, it is a specific C & up to the player to determine the best position to play it. As you pointed out there are options available to the reader that a tab user wouldn't have.

And it applies to every tuning and all 4,5,6 or whatever stringed instruments. It is universal of itself.
 
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#16
Standard notation is too hard to type in and takes up too much screen space on a tablet. I like to get the whole song on a single screen. That's why I developed my own notation system, somewhat similar to the modern "ABC Notation". It's not perfect but does try to capture duration and the actual note name. I sometimes put in notes about fingering position(s):
Index of /abc
I can actually sight read it, at least on the slower songs LOL. I'm in five bands so have 100+ songs I have to be able to pull out of my butt, probably closer to 200 over the last year including bands I've moved on from.

...and for those curious here's the home page for "ABC Notation":
abc | home
It's again too verbose for my needs.
 
#18
5544 said:
In another thread, people are telling the OP to stop working with tablature learn how to read music.

When I read tablature:

G------------------
D------------------
A------------3--5--
E---3--5--3--------

I see the following:

G, A, G on E string
C, D on A string

I also look at the note lengths in the sheet music above the tablature.

Now can someone explain to me why that is worse than standard sheet music?
Click to expand...

You see scale notes because you know the scale notes, in which case using tabs can be a helpful addition to learning a passage of music. For people who don't know notes or scales on the fretboard (hell, even just on the E and A strings), tabs can help learn a song, provided they have the recording as a reference. It's a very limiting way for new players to learn songs.
 
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#20
hrodbert696 said:
TAB is a teacher's tool, to show a student how to play something so they can go home and practice it. It's easier to put on the internet than standard notation (no special software needed), so it's flourished in the internet era. In that way, it's just one person communicating to another, "this is how I play that song." It's often wrong but sometimes useful. Nothing wrong with that if you bear in mind that's all it is. What's not good is becoming a "tab monkey," a person who just learns TABs off the internet and thinks they "know the song" when in fact they have no idea what key it's in, what the chord progression is or even what notes they're playing. It can easily become a crutch that hinders advancing as a musician.
Click to expand...

My daughter will only learn tabs at school and lessons for guitar. She's not really very motivated. Given the choice between her actually playing an instrument or not at all is an easy choice to make for me. Sometimes I gotta choose my battles.
 
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