Does anyone else find tablature to be cumbersome?

[jonkay1]

When you're looking at guitar tabs, you have to analyze the fret location, fingering position, which string to play on. It seems so tedious. Wouldn't it be simpler to just learn to read music? Whoever invented tablature wasn't doing anybody any favors. Learning to read music is not that difficult and is a good skill for any guitarist to have. When I look at tabs I get befuddled. Anyone that considers themselves a musician should learn to read music. It will be highly rewarding. This is not a rant, but just good advice.

[getbent]

Originally Posted by jonkay1

When you're looking at guitar tabs, you have to analyze the fret location, fingering position, which string to play on. It seems so tedious. Wouldn't it be simpler to just learn to read music? Whoever invented tablature wasn't doing anybody any favors. Learning to read music is not that difficult and is a good skill for any guitarist to have. When I look at tabs I get befuddled. Anyone that considers themselves a musician should learn to read music. It will be highly rewarding. This is not a rant, but just good advice.

for you.

Tab has its limitations, that is for sure, just as the nashville system has its limitations... just as notation has limitations...

Whatever gets folks to play and have fun is a good thing if you ask me, tab must be useful, you can find it all over the place and lots of guys have gone from ignorance, to tab, to notation, to being good musicians...

a tool's value is generally as much a statement about the carpenter as it is the tool.

[boneyguy]

Do you have the tabs for that?

I can't read tabs worth poo but I'm also a lousy sight reader. I can fumble through standard notation. I think tabs can have a place. Tabs attempt to provide information that standard notation typically doesn't I think but there sure seems to be an over reliance on them.

The battle cry of the younger guitarist these days seems to be "Do you have tabs for that?" I don't think the remedy is learning to read standard notation though. I think the solution to the tab epidemic is "Use your friggin' ears to figure it out!!" Tab seems to be more of an excuse for not putting in the time figuring out a song with your ears rather than an excuse for not bothering to learn standard notation.

[raito]

While I find tab to be combersome becauwse I can read music, I don't entirely agree with your reasoning.

With tab, you DON'T have to analyze either fret position or which strng to play on. That's the point of using tab instead of standard notation in the first place.

Yes, you still may have to figure out fingering, but you have to do the same with standard notation, so there's no advantage there. Additionally, if you have any experience with any sort of box-like playing, most fingering problems really don't exist. You figure out which box a particular passage is in, and maybe what key/mode/whatever, and the fingering becomes obvious.

If you use standard notation, you still have to figure out which string and fret and finger to use, and the choices becomes less obvious.

One advantage of tab is that by specifying fret and string, a particular sound is specified. Since there are several of each note on a fretboard, this is potentially useful information. For example, it's not automatic to use or not use an open string for a particular note. The author may want a particular sound there, and so specifies how that's played.

But I do advocate for being able to read standard notation.

[jsepguitar]

I find tab and standard to have their advantages and disadvantages. One of the problems I have with tab is related to rhythm. It's easier to pick up on the rhythms looking at standard than tabs. On the other hand, it's a killer trying to play a series of 5 or 6 note chords reading from standard, at least for me. I don't have problems with single note lines, but chords give me problems.

[klasaine]

TAB actually predates 'standard' notation - viols, lutes, etc.
First year music school students (used to, still do - ?) have to transcribe renaissance lute music into standard notation. *Which means you have to learn the tuning of a particular lute.

It can be useful for students and for anybody who wants to learn exactly 'where Clapton played it' - providing the guy that transcribed it knows where EC played it - ? That's the potential fingering advantage thing.

When I taught I occasionally used it. Mostly for teenagers and adults who I knew just wanted to learn riffs and probably weren't gonna take lessons for more than a year or two.

*The real advantage of standard notation over tab is that when you look at a line of standardly notated music you see and eventually (if you keep at it) hear the contour of the line. You can easily learn to recognize intervals (and chords) with notation. Music notation is actually 'music'. TAB is finger placement on the grid of one particular stringed instrument only. Not that that isn't 'potentially' music but there's an extra step involved if say a piano player needs to learn the intro to Layla (why is a whole 'nother issue ).
The ONLY negative about standard notation is that it's not instrument specific - which is also it's biggest (as well as historic) advantage.

[thunderbyrd]

i don't read music, so i can't speak to the advantages of it. but something i think worth thinking about is the fact that before guitar magazines and publishers like hal leonard, cherry lane, etc started publishing tab books, there was very little written music for rock guitar.

[Jefe]

Like many people, I learned to read music back in school, but quickly forgot it once school was over. Tab, on the other hand - well, it's almost like you can't forget how to read it, it's so simple.

Much more useful for me (as boneyguy mentioned) are my EARS. I sometimes rely on tabs to help me figure out the harder parts of the song, but I mostly try to rely on my ears to really learn the song.. you know, to memorize it, so that I don't need tabs or anything to play it.

[boneyguy]

Any visual map (TAB, notation) of an almost exclusively auditory process (music) will be hugely lacking in information about the thing it represents. That map will always leave out far more information than it provides because of the inherent limitations of translating sounds into visual representations.

That's the reason that all forms of notation can easily become cumbersome. A simple event in the realm of sound requires a huge amount of visual symbols to even begin to vaguely represent what actually occured.

Ever tried to describe feelings you're having using words. Words never quite get it right. It's the same type of 'mapping across' problem.


(I'm sorry but my mind always drifts toward making these sorts of connections. I can't help it.)

[waparker4]

I find it pretty cumbersome. I also find musical notation cumbersome. Tabs are easier to get to speed on a tune without musical training, but you have to provide information about dynamics and the lengths of notes with your ear. I know some tabs encode this information but the average internet tab is just a series of numbers with no indication of timing.

I thought you were going to say it's cumbersome to scroll through it/ flip through massive pages of tab to learn a song. It's certainly not as efficient as standard notation, because there are so many blank spaces... A short solo could take up several pages of tab.

I like tab to quickly figure out specific riffs or parts of songs, and fill in the rest by ear.

[sax4blues]

Tab is not a "sight reading" presentation in the way standard notation is, so there is not a comparison. Tab is what it is, and is useful but it does not provided tempo, note length, rests, etc...

I am a good sight reader for saxophone but I have never taken the time to apply that skill to guitar. I find tab very useful to give me a quick start on learning a song.

[chabby]

I never use tab unless I'm stumped as to the technique used by the actual original artist and I'm trying to nail an imitation. I've always relied entirely on listening and usually terrible sheet music, or guitar notation. But I can't sight read anything, just use tab for chord positions, scale positions etc., even then, it's only when time is of the essence, or I'm stumped as to what the guitar is doing.

They are all cumberson if you can't sight read very well.

[Modern Saint]

Originally Posted by klasaine

TAB actually predates 'standard' notation - viols, lutes, etc.

Just what klasaine said. To add to this, TAB was a way for lutest to have a written history of his own pieces for him to review if needed. He could even share it with someone else if needed. Many of the Renaissance period music were originally done on lutes and have been transcribed for the guitar.

As for advantages, a yes and a no.

Reasons for Yes:

1) TAB will put the player into the exact position the creator intended it for. As one knows, passages can be played in different areas on the neck.

2) TAB is simpler to view versus standard notation.

Reasons for No:

1) TAB is restricted to stringed instruments

2) Difficult to transcribe for other instruments

3) Rhythmic figures tougher to dissect as it gets messy on the page.

This is all I can think of right now.

[czgibson]

Yes, tab is cumbersome but so is standard notation. They approximate the sound. They also both start to look pretty hideous when you try to notate guitar specific techniques like bends and pinch harmonics. Still, they're the best tools we've developed so far. I'll stick with using both.

[straightface]

Originally Posted by sax4blues

I am a good sight reader for saxophone but I have never taken the time to apply that skill to guitar. I find tab very useful to give me a quick start on learning a song.

Sounds just like me.

[McGlamRock]

I think being able to read both well can be of great benefit. www.classtab.org has been a great resource for finding free (mostly accurate) classical music tabs.

Also www.acousticfingerstyle.com/ has some very good transcriptions of various finger-style guitar music. Some of the tabs also have standard notation some tabs do not include standard notation. Why limit yourself when there is such a great wealth of free music transcriptions?

[upinthemteles]

tab is amazingly easy to read to me, but it's how I started too so...

Learning standard now, and single lines of eighth notes can be pretty slow going for me... but put that passage in tab and I'll nail it

[' burn 08]

I started on just tab. it got me playing. But I use more chord charts and standard now. To be honest, I like a mix of tab, chord charts, and standard, just depending on what I'm playing. Funny, at first glance I though this was going to be about tabs for the song Cumbersome as it had just come on the radio.

[Scantron08]

I agree with the OP that standard notation is better - and this is why I decided finally just to learn to read music, after going through the TAB frustrations.

However, FWIW, I believe tab actually predates any standardized notation system. There were TABs written for the lute and harp such centuries ago. Thus, it is not an invention for rock guitarists.

[String Tree]

Give me the dang notes on a page.
Fastest way for me.

Cheers
~ ST