Simple Question

[Robert Spencer]

What are tabs & will it speed up my LEARNING PROCESS to learn their use? I seem to be getting nowhere and prefere to be able to get there faster so am willing to take time to learn if it will help in long term results. Thanks & take care. Bob

[Minotauros]

This is a tab for Blue on Black (Kenny Wayne Shepard).

Verse riff
G|--------------------------|
D|-----------------5--------|
A|5--5---355-5--233-53--2---|
E|------5---5--5---------3--|

Chorus riff (x3) chorus end
G|--------------------------|-------------------|
D|--------------------------|-------------------|
A|5--5--35535-553--3--2-----|-------------------|
E|-----------------------3--|5-55-5-555-3-33-3--|


Solo end
G|------------------------------------------------------|
D|3--3---3-3-3-3-5--5---5-5-5-5-3--3---3-3-3-3-5--55-5--|
A|------3-3---3-3------5-5---5-5------3-3---3-3---------|
E|------------------------------------------------------|

It's a representation of the frets on the strings to play. This is usually what you find on the internet. Tabs are used by lots of guitarists and bass players that don't read music. But they don't tell you the duration of the notes like standard musical notation does. Some people write tabs that have standard notation also. It's probably best to learn to read standard musical notation. It will take you far.

[Ibanez Bassist]

Tabs are a quick idea of whats being played.. not always accurate posted by other people and generally gets you in the ball park but thats it..If your looking for serious recording or dead on accuracy tabs are N/G

[JTE]

TAB is merely a physical representation of where someone thinks the fingers should go. It conveys NO musical information at all. It's a quick and dirty way to figure out where to put your fingers, but they really don't teach you anything about playing music.

In my opinion they will NOT speed your learning process, and they will in fact hinder it. If your objective is to be able to regurgitate the mechanics of being a trained monkey and putting your fingers in the right places, that's what tablature is going to teach you.

If your objective is to be able to play music on the electric bass, learn to read standard notation (it's NOT simply a more difficult code of where the notes are, it's telling what the music SOUNDS like), study functional harmony, and train your ear.

I normally stay out of the TAB section, but your question is directed at precisely the problems many people see with tab and needs to be discussed.

John

[Minotauros]

Not to pat myself on the back, but I'm starting to learn to use standard notation and liking it. I wish I delved into it more years ago, and took music classes seriously in college. Well...

This is what you find on the net: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/...ck_on_btab.htm. I don't have a 5 string, so this is useless to me.

This is published sheet music and sounds close to the song (no reverb, of course): http://www.sheetmusicdirect.us/ecom/...mId=1000048483

I'd like to do some kind of arrangement of this, all on bass (so if anyone has any ideas - *hint hint* ). There are no triads to play chords, but there are the notes of C#m and C#m7 individually and in one combo or another. My point is that imo you can't get that at a glance from tab.

[IPA]

Been playing for a while, would not recommend using tabs. Believe me it is frustrating to not get anywhere, but playing along with tabs ruined my ear. It's taken me ages to learn how to pick up a song by ear because I got lazy and would just look up a tab for any song I wanted.

[Scottgun]

If your objective is to be able to play music on the electric bass, learn to read standard notation (it's NOT simply a more difficult code of where the notes are, it's telling what the music SOUNDS like), study functional harmony, and train your ear.

+1 If you already can read, then occasionally grabbing a tab to learn a throw-away song quickly is fine, but it is no substitute for learning the language of music. And the sooner you do it the better, because if it turns out that you have some talent for music and want to seriously pursue it, you have the tools. Take a lesson from Jaco. He said going back to learn to read was very painful because he could already play, but couldn't get the gigs he wanted till he learned to read.