PlayJazzGuitar.com Forum

[kelticsol]

Why is there so much TAB out there? I'm trying to learn standard notation and have put away any book that has tab but I can't even pick up a guitar magazine right now because of the TAB.

TAB is everywhere. It's getting frustrating. Anybody share these frustrations?

[JakeJew]

[kelticsol]

I know. I can find it. I had just got back from the Border's and I picked up of Guitar Player at the newsstands to peruse while my wife shuffled through the discount section. I remember in days past one would not have found TAB in this magazine. It was just very frustrating to see a once well respected publication, in my opinion, succumb to the stereotypes about guitar players and put tab in every example.

I'm sure this was a business decision. As this would make the pub more accessible and therefore hit a larger demographic. But for someone trying to avoid any TAB right now.

And before anyone says it, I know tab has been around forever. Currently I am trying to learn standard notation and if tab is there I instinctively will use it.

Old habits are hard to break.

[Excel Player]

IMHO, I can't really look down totally on tab. I read standard notation but every so often when I read a transcription, by seeing the tab, I can tell how the guitarist approached the melody, chords, or solo on the fingerboard. Sometimes I look to see if there's a more efficient way to play the same thing.

[ptrallan01]

Share your frustration. If I know what the song sounds like, then I can kind of use tab to figure it out. But I'm then stuck playing it the way somebody else would. Not my personality! I prefer a lead sheet with chord names/diagrams or standard notation. Particularly for songs that I don't know the sound of.

One good way to learn to read standard notation is to buy a cheap keyboard and practice. In a couple of weeks it gets much easier.

[stratocasturbator]

I've got to say--in the non-jazz, non-classical world, tab is very useful. rock and pop music is often transcribed by piano players who put the music in wrong keys and translating it this way can be awkward and frustrating (I guess unless you're a piano player). in this context, tab is one way of translating the aural/oral tradition of play-it-by-ear rock music and communicating crucial stuff like fingerings and positions and correct (well not always) melodic stuff.

for jazz however it's not nearly as helpful due to the importance of rhythmic notation and because jazz isn't native to the guitar. the guitar is joining a party that started long before with pianos and horns. so it's important to get the written notation. in situations where I'm presented with standard notation and a tab counterpart, I've even gone the extra step of crossing out the tab portion in black marker. that gets rid of the distraction pretty well.

[hanni]

TAB is a very old thing from very old time, it was used before music was writen down in notation, so its everywhere, i think its good to know both and i realy need it to learn jazz, that make it easy (i can read notation too)
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hanni

[kelticsol]