Why are Notation and Tab always together?!

[SteveCS]

...if you sight-read and it makes you $$, that's great... I'm happy for you... I just don't think of music as little black dots on some lines on a piece of paper... and as stated earlier, YMMV...

Of course music is not little black dots on lined paper, but...

If I want to learn a piece of music it's a lot quicker - several orders of magnitude - to read a score a few times and play it right first time amd every time thereafter than it is to listen and repeat a few bars at a time and try to remember each section as I put together the part.

If the score is not available, it's still orders of magnitude quicker for me to notate the part from a few listens through then learn it back from the score I've written than it is to listen and repeat a few bars at a time and try to remember each section as I put together the part.

If I learn I peice by ear then don't play it for a while, in all likelihood I will have forgotten at least some of it. If I've notated my parts, not only do I have a reliable source of aide-memoire, I find that the act of writing actually commits things to memory more reliably and completely than just doing it by ear alone. And I do have a pretty good ear.

The point is I'd rather spend time performing, improving my playiing and expanding my musical knowledge than learning pieces.

 

[Vinny_G]

Every time you publish a sheet in standard notation, some people start whining "Where are the tabs? We need the tabs!"

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Because unlike most instruments you can often find the same note 3 different places on the neck. Sometimes it doesn't matter which one you choose sometimes it does. Each spot on the neck will have a different color or feel for the same note. Sometimes it makes a big difference on finding the next note or phrase. If you pick the wrong one you may not be able to find the next note as quickly and efficiently as you should.

Yes. And this is very easy to figure out on your own. This is how we LEARN.

 

[JimmyM]

Not wrong, but... Organ tabulature dates back to the 14th century, tabulature for lute/lyre etc was common in the 16th century, and plain-song notation is of similar vintage, yet looks a lot more like modern TAB than it does standard notation. What we might recognise as standard notation emerged into common use in the 17th century, around the time of Vivaldi and his cronies.

Some variants can show the rhythms as well (the third line), but it's pretty uncommon...
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I've seen that bottom line example before. My thought, however, is that you still need to learn the rhythmic markings of notation to understand that kind of tab, and that's half of reading notation, so why not go whole hog and learn the notes on the staves as well?

 

[Bob_Ross]

there is little in standard notation that full TAB, as opposed to the simplified TAB we see more commonly, can't represent.

Tell me more about this "full TAB" of which you speak. I have only very infrequently seen any published tabulature that even represented rhythm; I have never seen tabulature that represented articulation, dynamics, or phrasing.

 

[SteveCS]

Tell me more about this "full TAB" of which you speak. I have only very infrequently seen any published tabulature that even represented rhythm; I have never seen tabulature that represented articulation, dynamics, or phrasing.

I suppose its a question of how much effort the writers want to put in, and yes, you are right, its not something you see in published books often. But I was really talking about whats possible, making the point that TAB is capable of more than the basics seen in most BG publications. I use MuseScore, and all of the articulations, dynamics, etc placed in the standard stave appear in the TAB...

 

[EarnestTBass]

Fredrick Noad's book "The Renaissance Guitar" has a composition for the vihuela (six string guitar-like instrument) in the original "tab" as published in 1535.

Fortunately, you may agree, Noad transposed the piece to modern notation.

Putting aside, for a moment, the tab versus standard notation debate- It is hard to imagine that a musical composition from the 1500's would be known today but for the fact that someone took the time to accurately write it down on paper. Conversely, there are realms in music that would remain unknown to me if I had never learned to read.

I appreciate those who write out music, in whatever form, for the benefit of all of us students.