Why Is Tablature Bad?

[pholli00]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with learning with tabs. I learned to play every song I know using tabs. I can read music, but it's easier for me to use tabs. I saw a lot of posts throughout this thread that had people asking "how hard is it to read blah blah blah? If you can read music, don't use tabs. Blah blah blah." It's personal preference. If you read sheet music, fine. Cool. I applaud you. If you use tabs, awesome. Nothing wrong with that.

There were also several comments about how different tabs look(in terms of sheet music, having the note above the tabs, etc), and the tabs I download for GP5 look like the picture I've provided. Some have the notes above it, some don't.

But, but, that's a hybrid!

 

[soflbass]

Can someone tell me where to find sheet music for Nazareth's 'Whiskey Drinkin Woman'? If you search the net, it is available from many sources in tab format. My method for learning covers is to find sheet music and if not available, tabs from various sources. Then, knowing the key of the songs, and listening to the bass lines, I can determine my interpretation of the song. My point here is that using whatever available resources there are to become knowledgeable about playing cover songs, is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[Altitude]

I suppose tab works great for someone learning parts on his own instrument, where the parts have already been recorded somewhere so that the person can listen to and copy them. Learning Iron Maiden songs in mom's basement, for example.

Obviously at whatever point a person wants to write music for any instrument other than his own, tab ceases to be useful.

Or, if a guy wants to function in any sort of professional music situation apart from ones with legendary rock stars who never learned to read. You won't get a pit gig for a musical if you can't read music - and before you laugh, I played my way through undergrad doing that and it beat the hell out of delivering pizza.

 

[Mushroo]

Nothing wrong with TAB. It's been around a long time, and it is what it is.

The thing that depresses me about how TAB is used by many teachers today is that beginners aren't learning songs by ear any more. It makes me so sad, when someone uses TAB to learn a three-chord pop song, or an easy riff like "Seven Nation Army."

Every time you learn a song, you are learning skills and reinforcing habits. If you learn, say for the sake of argument, 1,000 songs over the course of your musical career, then you will cement your song-learning habits 1,000x over. Why not start by ingraining good habits (i.e. using your ears) from the very first song you learn?

 

[carl h.]

Another grand fallacy that is floating around this thread is the notion that written notation is widely available.
It isn't. Especially for bass.
Only the smallest sliver of available music is ever published any printed form. The internet contains tabs, with varying degrees of accuracy, to fill the largest library. All for free, all without wasting paper.
Another related fallacy is the printed notation is authoritatively correct. I have music books of Metallica and Pearl Jam music that are well documented as being wrong or missing entire sections.

I call BS on this.There is far more sheet music out there than tabs, and it you only count the accurate tabs it isn't even close. Check out IMSLP.

Are tabs inaccurate? Well, they can be. So can standard notation. Our church choir recently sang a couple of pieces from Handel's Messiah and I had to make some corrections to the score in pencil in the bass line on one of them. And this on a piece that is well known and hundreds of years old!! The value of any specific example of any written notation is only as good as the skill and dedication of the person who transcribed it. Errors in tab notation do not prove that it is useless, they only prove that there are tab authors you should not trust. If they wrote out parts in standard notation they would look more authoritative because we all assign more authority to standard notation but they would be no more trustworthy!

There is a certain musical publishing house that is famous for errors in their product. Whenever I find glaring errors in parts I am handed, 70% of the time it is from this source. Fortunately accurate parts do exist if the librarian chooses to seek them out.

As a bass player, I've seen it approximately a jillion times, since I started in 1990. However, I've been disappointed in many of the rock music sheets that I've seen so I understand why people don't like them. But I was handed a lead sheet at a trad jam on Tuesday, learned an open mic folk set by ear on Wednesday, and played off a piano score for a musical last week, so I guess it really depends on your genre.

The worst thing I have been asked/forced to play was sheet music for a Mannheim Steamroller chart for a Christmas production I was involved in this past Christmas. I fell asleep sight reading it with the orchestra, god it was boring!! Tab would not have helped it either. Much of the EB stuff out there is so mind numbing (not all, there are good parts too) that it is quite pointless to go to the effort of fully notating it. Using the drum kit format of printing the riff and then giving the number of times it is played would have helped immensely.

Can someone tell me where to find sheet music for Nazareth's 'Whiskey Drinkin Woman'? If you search the net, it is available from many sources in tab format. My method for learning covers is to find sheet music and if not available, tabs from various sources. Then, knowing the key of the songs, and listening to the bass lines, I can determine my interpretation of the song. My point here is that using whatever available resources there are to become knowledgeable about playing cover songs, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Music Transcription Service by John Zechiel - I Will Transcribe Your Recording Into Sheet Music was the first thing to pop up in a search. There are many folks who do this and it isn't hard to find someone - but don't expect it to be cheap. If you want cheap go for the freebie online tabs and take your chances.

 

[DwaynieAD]

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?

It's really nothing more than elitist attitude among musicians. Par for the course really. Nothing to see here, move along.

Printed music can show pitch, volume, and duration.

so can tab

 

[carl h.]

It's really nothing more than elitist attitude among musicians. Par for the course really. Nothing to see here, move along.




so can tab

Show me a tab for articulation.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Everyone should know how to read tabs and chord charts. But if you want to be serious about bass and not miss out on opportunities you should be able to sight read notation. Nothing is written in the rule book that if you can read notation that it kills your ability to play by ear.

 

[DwaynieAD]

Show me a tab for articulation.

no, find it yourself.

 

[carl h.]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

 

[Altitude]

Show me a tab for articulation.

no, find it yourself.

Carl's position is that there is no such thing (he's right), and we don't prove negatives. Prove to me that a ten foot chicken did not just walk through my kitchen.

I, personally, would also be interested in understand how note duration, tempo, or dynamics are evident in tablature.

 

[CGremlin]

You won't get a pit gig for a musical if you can't read music - and before you laugh, I played my way through undergrad doing that and it beat the hell out of delivering pizza.

I've been known to eat pizza while playing pit gigs.

 

[DwaynieAD]

Carl's position is that there is no such thing (he's right), and we don't prove negatives. Prove to me that a ten foot chicken did not just walk through my kitchen.

I, personally, would also be interested in understand how note duration, tempo, or dynamics are evident in tablature.

well i dont have to prove squat to you, a cursory google search will turn them up, because I use them quite regularly.

guess I imagined it.

 

[Altitude]

I've been known to eat pizza while playing pit gigs.

Good point, me too. I didn't deliver it, though.

 

[Altitude]

well i dont have to prove squat to you, a cursory google search will turn them up, because I use them quite regularly.

guess I imagined it.

You are, indeed, a splendid debater.

 

[carl h.]

I don't believe all tab is bad. When I studied classical guitar I found tab very useful as the options on playing things can overwhelm at times. I enjoy a good puzzle, but seeing how someone else solves something can be a real time saver. Fortunately there is a historical precedent with guitar and lute of using tab that is much better than what typical online bass tabs present. I used it as a supplement to manuscript and not as a substitute.

 

[Benjamin Earl]

TAB has it's place. As you said, you have to look at the notation to find the duration, so that is a negative. However TAB enables the writer to indicate position, fingering, and string choice.

 

[carl h.]

Or, if a guy wants to function in any sort of professional music situation apart from ones with legendary rock stars who never learned to read. You won't get a pit gig for a musical if you can't read music - and before you laugh, I played my way through undergrad doing that and it beat the hell out of delivering pizza.

I would do a couple weddings a weekend (the services, not a long dance) and make more money than my classmates who worked nights and weekends. Theatrical productions can be one of the best gigs out there. Quality of musicians is generally high and pretty girls dancing around and changing in the wings is a nice diversion as well. Once you are "IN" you are set, but screw it up and you have to wait a long time to get a second chance.

You can't do either of these with tab.

 

[carl h.]

TAB has it's place. As you said, you have to look at the notation to find the duration, so that is a negative. However TAB enables the writer to indicate position, fingering, and string choice.

They are all done in standard notation as well, including which RH finger to use and where to play on the string with your right hand, if that context matters, can also be done with standard notation. Though a visual can be faster from a tab.

 

[40Hz]

Only read the OP, but honestly think it's this simple. 3 reasons:

• 90% of internet tab is wrong
• It keeps people from learning to use their ears.
• It keeps people from learning standard notation, which is much more precise.

Because take away the sheet music and you can't get the note values. Also, while you see the notes, most people who use tab see the fret numbers and string references.

Somebody better tell the person who created this tab you can't do what they just did:

There's tab notation and there's tab notation. Not all tabs are created equally.