tplyons said:
Then I'll be looking for an older version
tplyons,
I feel you, when it comes to TAB.
I resisted doing a TAB version of Slap It! for many years. Mostly because as a bass teacher I found Slap It! to be a really good "carrot" to get my students to master standard notation. Since I felt, and still feel, this is of the upmost importance, I didn't want to do anything that would take that carrot away.
In recent years there have been so many slap bass books published with TAB that my publisher felt we had to respond. There were certain retailers that would not carry my book because it didn't have TAB. So ultimately it became a business decision. Ironically the one retailer that influenced my publisher the most has still not added the TAB version of Slap It! to their store. Argh! (it's on their web site though)
Last spring and summer we had to totally recreate the manuscript for Slap It! in order to update the book and add TAB. Slap It! was published so long ago that there was no electronic version of the manuscript, it had been typeset by hand using press type.
In the process I discovered that TAB could be very useful in conveying more exactly how I intended a passage to lay on the bass (i.e. do I play that E on the D string, A String or E String?). Fingerings in standard notation take care of much of the same info, but not as precisely. The combination of Standard Notation and TAB provided more information than either by itself. I was pleasantly surprised when I came to this realization.
Of course this is only true if the student learns how to understand both forms of notation.
One reason to get the new edition of Slap It! (rather than searching for an old one) is that TAB is not the only thing that was added to the book. The CD that comes with the new book also has 28 additional tracks. Many typo's in the old version were finally corrected, and we only introduced a few new ones! Lol!
One reader sent me a great suggestion for those who do not want to "lean" on the TAB. He used the easy release Painter's tape (it's that blue masking tape that painters use) to cover the TAB in his copy of the new book. He can pick the tape up and peek if he wants to, but it prevents him from scanning the TAB when he's trying to read the standard notation, and he says it doesn't damage the book.
I haven't tried this myself, so if you're going to try it, test it out in a small section first. Don't use regular masking tape unless you never want to remove it. The blue tape is made to release without damaging what's underneath.
Of course there are great musicians that never learned to read music, and many who read standard notation that have never used TAB. My feeling is that in an artistic and business endeavor as competitive as being a musician you should take every possible advantage. Anything that helps you grow as a player is good.
That said, in all my years as a professional bass player I was never handed a chart with TAB on it, so even though I've added TAB to Slap It! everyone should understand that I see it only as a teaching aid. Standard Notation (and I'll add Fake Book Notation, ala the Real Book) is still what a working player needs to be able to read with confidence.
Great ears don't hurt either!
Cheers!
Tony
) I would certainly agree that the music is over the top, and I am sure there are lots of others that shop there besided the hard core rocker.
