Why Is Tablature Bad?

[Nev375]

While we are on the topic of "Learn it by ear", here's what I want to know: How old and how simple is the stuff you are learning by ear? Are you learning ancient standards that people have heard a million times, with pretty straight forward lines on recordings where it is easy to hear bass?
When you can pump out some Mudvayne, Obscura, Nile, Black Crown Initiate, Karnivool, Ne Obliviscaris, or Decrepit Birth out without the benefit of tabs, we'll talk.

The fact that some forms of music mixes and obscures the bass in recordings is a separate issue entirely. Obviously you cannot recreate by ear what you cannot hear in the first place. But people can hear and recite some very complex things. How complex becomes a function of a person's working memory.

So if you have to learn to play something that cannot be heard we are back to debating reading tabs vs. reading standard notation.

Standard notation wins every time as a better form of communication. It contains more useful information in the same amount of space on the page and if you can sight read you need not even hear the recording first.

Tabs has a place in the learning curve of some students, but it is something like training wheels on a bicycle. You want to move past it and go on without it at some point.

 

[andreiscv]

Because tab is confusing and it's difficult to precisely convey note duration and rhythms. You need to kind of already know how the song goes in order to use it.

 

[carl h.]

Do you get many opportunities to jam on Vivaldi in the classical world?

Where do you think the cadenzas come from? Vivaldi left room for improvisation as did most of the classical composers when they wrote concerti. Just because the school systems have been dumbed down in their musical education don't think classical musicians aren't real musicians and are inferior to (insert your preferred genre) musicians. In strict classical training, improvisation is extremely relevant even though academia seems lacking in this area.

Top of my head, Eddie Daniels, Winton Marsalis are just 2 names of guys who can play hardcore classical and step out into other genres and be equally hardcore. Some members of the Minnesota Orchestra came over and sat in with the local orchestra I play clarinet in. Big surprise, they played the music at a high level, duh. Bigger surprise, they came to my house band gig and played a set and were tearing it up.

 

[Nev375]

Where do you think the cadenzas come from? Vivaldi left room for improvisation as did most of the classical composers when they wrote concerti. Just because the school systems have been dumbed down in their musical education don't think classical musicians aren't real musicians and are inferior to (insert your preferred genre) musicians. In strict classical training, improvisation is extremely relevant even though academia seems lacking in this area.

If my history education serves me well, Mozart was legendary at improv piano duels between other composers. They were big events.

Much like the "cutting heads" scene in crossroads between Steve Vai and Ralph Maccio, there is nothing new in the world of music.

 

[Weberman]

My two cents:

I have been playing classical piano longer than anything. I can read music very well. One day, I decided to learn to play guitar. I played by ear, or by using sheets with tabs. The thing is, I didn't put in the effort to correlate the notes themselves with the fretboard. As such, if someone had just put sheet music in front of me, I could read and recite it, but not play it immediately. If I had to relate to another musician, it took a lot longer, since I had to really think about what notes I was playing. Changing positions was harder.

In short, learning the fretboard is useful. Using tabs alone stymies that.

 

[Megalon]

Tablature has been around a long time. A lot of early lute music from the middle ages used a tab system. It seems to make sense for stringed instruments. I think it is a good aid and can be useful to save time especially if you have to learn a lot of tunes fast, if you know what you are trying to learn sounds like and you know where the notes are on the neck. I think traditional music notation is superior/required when you are expected to play a new piece of music that you haven't heard before-because all the info is there for you-you just have to sight read it correctly.

On a side note, I think knowing the neck is one of the most important things a bassist/guitarist must learn.

 

[Pilgrim]

To me, the good about tab:

- It's a good way to get a quick idea of a bass line without having to start from scratch.
- Someone else did the work to listen to the recording 30 times to figure out the note sequence.
- You can disregard any part of it you don't like and change it.

The bad:
- Tab's notations depend heavily on the style and fingering preferences of the person who wrote the tab.
- I like open strings and tab seldom uses them. It's like most tab writers scorn the use of open strings and play much higher up the fretboard than necessary. (Although sometimes it is in fact necessary - I have no problem with that.)
- It's moderately accurate. Sometimes the author just doesn't get it right.

 

[JimmyM]

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?

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.

 

[Max Blasto]

Am I playing that on B13, E8 or A3 (standard tuning)?

You tell us. You're the bass player.

If you need to be told how to finger a note, then you're not a bass player.

 

[fdeck]

Not bad, just useless to me, as I never expect to be asked to sight-read a bass part written in tab.

 

[Max Blasto]

Sure - it's a *tool*... but too often I've read arguments from folks who *insist* that tab is better than notation. And that's just silly.

Agreed, but comparing that to phonemic spelling is more than a little off target.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

Not bad, just useless to me, as I never expect to be asked to sight-read a bass part written in tab.

That's a really good point - if someone says "can you read", they aren't talking about tab, are they?

 

[physics]

I think it's just an alternate way to learn to play an instrument, neither good nor bad in itself but a method that may be the best for some players, depending on their goals and priorities. When I was young I started out on an acoustic 6-string and just memorized chords on the sheet music that I had and that was fun, I was hardly a master musician but I at least could play well enough that I sounded halfway decent. Later, when I developed a real appreciation for the finer points of musicianship, I realized that I didn't want to take any shortcuts in learning the bass. I made the commitment to struggle with sight reading the bass clef and knowing the fretboard by feel. I then developed a closeness with the instrument where I felt that it was a part of me and that we were working together in harmony in producing the good tone that was my goal. It has been time consuming and frustrating at times, but I'm glad that I stuck with it and didn't succumb to the advice of some to just learn tab.

 

[Humbled]

All I can say is that I've been doing this for 43 years, and the last 30 of it has been in a world where I've been expected to read charts in standard notation, and transpose them in my head when necessary.

IIRC, no one has ever handed/emailed/dropboxed me a page of Tab. Ever.

 

[lokki]

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?

for starters you may encounter a situation where you play original music that was written down. no tabs there and nobody to make tabs for you ...

or imagine you want to play a melody part from another instrument. either learn it by ear or... read it from the sheet that for example the piano player has.

basically it is just much more versatile to read music than to read tabs. more information in it really!! it is like asking: why do i need to read a book with letters when i can watch tv?

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Am I playing that on B13, E8 or A3 (standard tuning)?

And the answer to that is, "yes!" or, "whatever works best for you". "Classic or Traditional fingering" would be A3 but it depends upon what the rest of the notes in the passage are around it and what the most convenient fingering is to play that passage.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I was looking at some tabs for "Somebody to Love" by the Jefferson Airplane and it was all played up high on the neck. Had some rather contorted fingerings and just didn't sound right. And yet every tab I came across used basically that same fingering. Then I looked at an old black and white Youtube video of the Jefferson Airplane on the American Bandstand and Jack Casady was playing it down low on the neck; using open strings on parts of it; and never going above the 5th fret throughout almost the entire song. Much easier to play his way and the "tabs" weren't even close.

Also, hand size and finger use is different on different people. My hands aren't particularly big, but I use my little finger a lot including both hammer-ons and pull-offs as well as just straight up fretting. I've seen plenty of bass players who virtually never use their little finger on the fretboard and they seem to do just fine for the most part. The way I choose to play a pattern or passage may be entirely different than your choice on how to play it, yet they will sound "almost" the same. The timbre can be a little different depending on where you play the note, especially if one uses an open string and another does not. But, the choice is yours if you know what that note is. If you only know what fret # on what string that tab calls for and don't know what the note is, then you are really restricted to playing it in one spot while another may be far easier and possibly sound better than what the tab has written out.

 

[rogerb]

Tabs are just fretboard fingerings by guitar players for guitar players.

Musical notation is a universal language.

I find mostly bad examples of both online, rarely they can help. Mainly an understanding of music, so the universal language, and a good ear are priceless, so I work on those.

 

[Humbled]

...The way I choose to play a pattern or passage may be entirely different than your choice on how to play it, yet they will sound "almost" the same. The timbre can be a little different depending on where you play the note, especially if one uses an open string and another does not...

"Almost the same"... "a little different" ?

That's a knee-slapper there.

 

[vin*tone]

Rhythm. Tabs aint got it. If you've never heard the riff before you won't be able to play it.