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Tabs. Don't Get 'em.

Woodchuck

Woodchuck

Apr 21, 2000
10,465
866
60
Atlanta (Grant Park!)
www.elpus.com
Disclosures
Gallien Krueger for the last 12 years!
#1
If this has been done, I apologize. This is not a tab slam, but a "maybe it's me" thing. I've looked at tabs, and personally, I've found it to be much easier and quicker to stick a cd in and learn the song that way. Been that way since day one. I don't think that tabs are neccessarily a bad thing, I think it has more to do with me. I just don't get 'em.
 
#2
It also pays off in the long run...

If you rely on tabs and a local band asks you to try out for them, asking for the tabs is sort of a shoot yourself in the foot thing before you even audition. Especially if the band has a decent following and hype in the music industry.

If they have songs and you learn them by ear then that would be brownie points before you walk in to audition.
 
#3
Yeah I always tell my friends who are starting out on guitar or bass, forget tabs learn by ear. It may be hard when you first start, but in the long run you'll get no where with tabs. These people are also amazed when a song is playing and I sit down and play along. With sheet music you can play a song you've never heard before, with tabs you can't as there is no real way of showing rhythms. Chord charts are also great. Tabs are a waste of time.
 
#4
Beware that there are a lot of bad TABs posted all over the Internet. Heck, there are bad published music notations, too. I sometimes wonder about the people doing these transcriptions.

a) Are they tone deaf?
b) Have they listened to song more than once?
c) Have they verified that the written music matches the piece?
d) Do they care if it's right or wrong?

Paul Mac
 
#5
PaulMacCnj said:
Beware that there are a lot of bad TABs posted all over the Internet. Heck, there are bad published music notations, too. I sometimes wonder about the people doing these transcriptions.

a) Are they tone deaf?
b) Have they listened to song more than once?
c) Have they verified that the written music matches the piece?
d) Do they care if it's right or wrong?

Paul Mac
Click to expand...


+ ad infinitum

My band rarely does covers, but when we do, my guitarist relies on tabs too much. I've had to transcribe some difficult solos because the tabs just weren't right, and my guitarist doesn't have an ear good enough to transcribe himself.
 
#7
Tabs are a tool and should be used as such. If you're not confident in your ability to use such a tool, dont use it. Tabs are very convenient for alot of things, and are often a much quicker way to learn songs for beginners who dont have developped hearing. If you started out by learning by ear, it is no surprise you dislike tabs today. However, saying people shouldn't use tabs because they're often wrong (if you can tell they're wrong, they're not useless, they taught you something obviously) or because its faster to learn by ear (that is a pretty bold statement, which works for people who've been playing for quite some time, but which is a total disregard of beginner players) when its obviously not.
 
#9
morf said:
And I might add that if tabs were so useless there wouldn't be a tab section for you to post in in the first place...
Click to expand...
Yes nothing on the internet is useless.

It would be a lot better for someone starting to try to learn easy songs with there ear, then slightly more complex ones, or evene easy ones from tabs. If they just learn from tabs their ear will take a whole lot longer to develop. I saw a post where people were asking for tabs for black sabbath songs. Those are perfect to start learning by ear. They have a familiar chord progression generally. Same thing with the request for a tab for Funky Broadway. You'll see people who can play all kind of licks, but can't learn a song or jam with others whatsoever. Besides if you're going to read something read sheet music, but that's a whole other thread on it's own.
 
#10
Woodchuck said:
If this has been done, I apologize. This is not a tab slam, but a "maybe it's me" thing. I've looked at tabs, and personally, I've found it to be much easier and quicker to stick a cd in and learn the song that way. Been that way since day one. I don't think that tabs are neccessarily a bad thing, I think it has more to do with me. I just don't get 'em.
Click to expand...


it helps to read the tab forum rules before posting in this section.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105377
 
#15
Scott Zoltok said:
You're not knocking tabs, but discussions of their merits are still prohibited. That's basically what this thread is.
Click to expand...

Uh no, I was saying that I didn't get them, and maybe there's something wrong or different with me. Since day one of my playing, I've found it easier to listen and play. I understand that everyone is different. Some people swear by tabs, some don't. I can't speak for them, only me. Read the post and take it for what it is. If I'm questioning anything, it's me. Maybe I should've posted in Hebrew since English didn't go over too well.
 
#18
flatwoundfender said:
Yes nothing on the internet is useless.

It would be a lot better for someone starting to try to learn easy songs with there ear, then slightly more complex ones, or evene easy ones from tabs. If they just learn from tabs their ear will take a whole lot longer to develop. I saw a post where people were asking for tabs for black sabbath songs. Those are perfect to start learning by ear. They have a familiar chord progression generally. Same thing with the request for a tab for Funky Broadway. You'll see people who can play all kind of licks, but can't learn a song or jam with others whatsoever. Besides if you're going to read something read sheet music, but that's a whole other thread on it's own.
Click to expand...

That only depends on what your needs as a bassist are. Some people simply want to play bass for fun, to relax, and dont want to get into intensive music sheet reading, they'd rather quickly learn a song from a tab and have fun with that.

I agree with your opinion, I myself have just started taking lessons after 8 months, I'm learning about music theory, reading sheets, learning where all the notes are by heart, etc, but I would have seriously never gotten to this point without having fun learning tabs and rocking over songs in 5 minutes time. Sure it may not be perfect, but it was enough then, and it may be the case for alot of people. Tabs are one of the tools that helped motivate me to go further into music, sure learning by ear is better, IF you want to go fast and learn quickly, but if you have no care for speed and want to just enjoy playing something simple without it taking half an hour to learn, you use tabs and it works great :)
 
#20
Woodchuck said:
Uh no, I was saying that I didn't get them, and maybe there's something wrong or different with me. Since day one of my playing, I've found it easier to listen and play. I understand that everyone is different. Some people swear by tabs, some don't. I can't speak for them, only me. Read the post and take it for what it is. If I'm questioning anything, it's me. Maybe I should've posted in Hebrew since English didn't go over too well.
Click to expand...
Think about the number of useless posts that this forum gets everyday, most of which are along the lines of 'tabs suck'. While I see it was never your intent to start a tab bashing thread, this thread could take no other course. People just love the opportunity to reprimand tab users.
 

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