Why Is Tablature Bad?

[s0c9]

I view online tabs like an online version of hooked on phonics - you are at the whim of an unknown ability player who can make you look like a fool.

That's why I validate against the original and correct where needed - and agreed, many [as written] are horrendously wrong!

Sure. Where does your tab show you time signature, key signature, tempo, dynamics? Hand that tab to your keyboard player and see what he can do with it. Tab isn't "bad" per se, but incomplete and non-transferable.

I get the above from working with the original.

 

[alembicguy]

It's not always the tab that's bad, more so it's the person tabbing it out isn't up to par and that's why I rely on myself and my ear to learn something.

 

[mpdd]

sometimes it's not even the bass part, it's the rhythm guitar part

 

[pappabass]

Tab is fine, it does have its limitations though. I have studied music since I was 12,, played brass, stringed instruments, & keys, personally, I am tired of reading music ! give me tab !!

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

here's what I used to tell students: "Tab is oversimplified / lazy. It's like changing how we spell to make it easier: Fite v Fight, wethur v Wheather, etc.

 

[socialleper]

I'm going to hold my ignorance up as a trophy here.
I've taken music theory classes and trained a little on sight reading. I understand the mechanics of proper notation, and if I spend enough time with something I can figure it out.
OK, great. Now what?
If I actually learned to read music perfectly, what does it get me? I will never play piano or do anything with a guitar beyond noodling, so the idea behind it helping me with other instruments is useless.
Professionally, I only play original work. I've NEVER been in a rock band where the music is written in standard notation. 99% of the time the writer just has it in his head and I write tabs out while he is showing me.
If I want to learn a cover for whatever reason I don't have to spend a nickle. I just fire up Google and Spotify or Windows Media Player and follow along with the tab a few times before I start playing. Only the very smallest amount of music is available in printed notation (especially for bass), so I can't learn much of anything from sheet music.
"Learn it by ear."
That ain't happening. With the density of modern recordings and complexity of modern rock, picking the bass out and getting it all right is a tall order. Again, why bother wasting the time guessing when someone else has done most of the guess work for me. There isn't an award for that or anything.

So, is tablature bad? Nope. I got places to go, people to see, $#!+ to do, and tabs get me where I need to be. Its a tool. That's it.

 

[carl h.]

Tab is fine, it does have its limitations though. I have studied music since I was 12,, played brass, stringed instruments, & keys, personally, I am tired of reading music ! give me tab !!

Seriously? In what venues do you play these days?

I've studied music since I was 8. First piano, then violin, then single reeds then percussion. I despise tab and would decline a gig where they handed me tab. On the other hand, hand me printed music and I'll play all night and people would never know I'd never even heard the songs before. It's what I do. I've played biker bars, domes, gazebos, and concert halls with players of all ages and abilities from guys playing for only months up to to top performers in the field. Kenny Rogers handed me music in the same format as Yo-Yo Ma, while the beginners were struggling from tabs. YMMV I guess but pros tend to use sheet music from my experience.

To socialleper who posted while I was typing. The Moody Blues also give sheet music to the musicians who join them on stage - I think they are some sort of rock music last I heard.

 

[socialleper]

here's what I used to tell students: "Tab is oversimplified / lazy. It's like changing how we spell to make it easier: Fite v Fight, wethur v Wheather, etc.

My response is "tablabure is like old fashioned short hand." Neither standard notation or tabs are the end result. If you write something out long form or shorthand for a speech, and can read either fluently, the resulting oratory is the same.

 

[Rogatien022]

As long as you understand the limitations of tablature, then there is nothing wrong with using it. My bandmates send each other tabs and videos of them playing riffs, and it works perfectly.

Yeah man, whatever works. No wrong or right.

 

[socialleper]

Seriously? In what venues do you play these days?

I've studied music since I was 8. First piano, then violin, then single reeds then percussion. I despise tab and would decline a gig where they handed me tab. On the other hand, hand me printed music and I'll play all night and people would never know I'd never even heard the songs before. It's what I do. I've played biker bars, domes, gazebos, and concert halls with players of all ages and abilities from guys playing for only months up to to top performers in the field. Kenny Rogers handed me music in the same format as Yo-Yo Ma, while the beginners were struggling from tabs. YMMV I guess but pros tend to use sheet music from my experience.

To socialleper who posted while I was typing. The Moody Blues also give sheet music to the musicians who join them on stage - I think they are some sort of rock music last I heard.

So those people are learning a cover on the spot. Cool. I don't play covers.
Orchestra players can sit down and read something and play as they go. Cool. I don't play in an orchestra.
A piano is too complicated to write tabs for. I bet. I have no interest in playing the piano.

The greatest tool in the world is a useless paperweight to someone that doesn't need it.

 

[Robroy]

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?

Several differences between tabs and sheet music. Sheet music is the better way, but tabs can work and actually do have a nice crutch for inexperienced players. That is, they don't just tell you what note to play. They tell you which string and fret to play. However, that is the sort of thing you learn as a beginner. You can figure it out yourself once you are reasonably skilled.

And sheet music deals, at a granular level, with timing, volume, key, etc.

 

[Robroy]

So those people are learning a cover on the spot. Cool. I don't play covers.
Orchestra players can sit down and read something and play as they go. Cool. I don't play in an orchestra.
A piano is too complicated to write tabs for. I bet. I have no interest in playing the piano.

The greatest tool in the world is a useless paperweight to someone that doesn't need it.

I played trombone starting in 1964, and picked up the bass in 1998. I naturally assumed I'd need to learn to read music. I obviously can already read bass clef for trombone, but I can't do it for bass. It takes practice. However, I've learned that it is, for my purposes, a completely useless skill.

I learn via listening to the cover and sometimes adding the use of chord sheets. That's it. I don't believe in music stands on stage. I memorize lyrics because I believe the human brain's storage capacity is, for all practical purposes, infinite. So far, it has been.

 

[socialleper]

Several differences between tabs and sheet music. Sheet music is the better way, but tabs can work and actually do have a nice crutch for inexperienced players. That is, they don't just tell you what note to play. They tell you which string and fret to play. However, that is the sort of thing you learn as a beginner. You can figure it out yourself once you are reasonably skilled.

And sheet music deals, at a granular level, with timing, volume, key, etc.

Tabs require a passing familiarity with the song. Its sort of a crib note for doing it by ear.

 

[Robroy]

Tabs require a passing familiarity with the song. Its sort of a crib note for doing it by ear.

Yeah. I've only used tabs a couple of times. It was when I had not played but a year or so and really wanted to know not just the note but the hand position and actual string/fret combo used by the bassist. It's how I learned the bass line to "Real Me" by the Who.

Also, because I use a computer with winamp and plug it into a Korg Pandora processor, playing along with the song is the ipso facto way I learn new covers. One important feature is the ability to change the key as well as the ability to remove the bass from the original.

 

[galonso]

In my experience, the biggest problem with tabs is trying to learn to play an instrument from them (be it guitar or bass). It gives you a false sense of confidence that makes it hard to learn the basics.

 

[buldog5151bass]

As @RustyAxe has said, it is far from complete, and works only with your instrument. When you read sheet music, you can converse with any musician, as they can with you. TAB also presupposes one way of fingering the notes (open A string v. E string fifth fret).

 

[bassbrad]

Tab is a great teaching and learning tool but there are a lot of players that never learn basic theory that makes it all make sense that leads to being able to build your own bass parts or figure out your own fingering from a sheet of music. When you get to the gig, especially with musicians other than guitar players, the music will not be in tab.

 

[stringtapper]

"Learn it by ear."
That ain't happening. With the density of modern recordings and complexity of modern rock, picking the bass out and getting it all right is a tall order. Again, why bother wasting the time guessing when someone else has done most of the guess work for me. There isn't an award for that or anything.

 

[StayLow]

It's personal choice.

It's also a very poor and ineffective choice. The chance of tabz being correct online are close to zero. In a book it's better, but if you're wasting time putting tabz into one of those conversion/audio tab-player programs the result is a disaster lacking any rhythm whatsoever. Not even simple lines like Iron Maiden guitar melodies come out correctly.

Another huge problem with tabz is that they force you to play where the tabz "artist" says you should, further hampering your development. There are many G's on a fingerboard, but only one ------3-----.

Parrots can't really "talk", they only pretend to. All the shortcuts lead to dead ends. Learn to play properly and develop your ear if you have any true interest or respect for music.

 

[Rogatien022]

I see tabs as a helper, nothing more. I listen to the song a couple of times, then if there's a passage that's real difficult to get, I go check out tabs. While they are never accurate, they send me in the right direction.

There are other ways to learn songs, like softwares that slow things up without messing with the pitch.

We're all different, some folks learn songs pretty quickly, others not that quick. Tools - like tabs - are out there, so why not using them? You can never have too many tools.