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WHy is so much tab wrong?

#61
It's like anything else- some are good, some are horrible, You need to develop your ears enough to know the difference.
Also- any guitar chords are highly suspect, as many of them are capoed and not indicated correctly...
Some of the dudes on here that post tabs like four string bass lessons, are the best I have ever seen!
 
#63
Stone Soup said:
Tab is almost a complete waste of time. Learn to use your ears. Taking shortcuts isn't helping you, at all. Listening over and over and trying again and again are what gets you there.
Click to expand...

If I had followed this advice when I was starting out I would have given up before I had learned one song.

The only way I learned any songs in the beginning was because of TAB. It took years before I could play a song by ear without already knowing the fingering.
 
#65
What's always bugged me about tabs is even if it sounds right, it isn't written in position or scales. I hate running up and down the neck using only two strings as if I were rubbing my puppet or something. I like to work smarter, not harder! :)
 
#66
ASCII tabs are usually awful.

The tabs for programs like Powertab and Guitar pro are much higher quality. Maybe because people listen back to what they've transcribed and realize their mistakes?

No lie, using those programs to transcribe made me much, much better at reading music.
 
#67
I use tabs quite a bit since I'm in a cover band and sometimes need to be pointed in the right direction.

I generally review many tabs per song and find the common denominators, then use them just as a general roadmap to figure the rest out. I have rarely found one that is entirely accurate, sometimes the notes are right but in the wrong position or a note or the accents are all missing or just wrong.

Sometimes even after I figure out the correct way to play something I end up figuring out something I like better anyway so I take liberties with the song. I do respect the people who make tabs for taking the time but many of them are no better at playing by ear than me.
 
#68
I have yet to find many bass tabs correct if it is even a complicated riff. I have only looked on 2 different sites. I have a pretty good ear can usually pick it out. A couple of songs that I actually looked to see if anyone tabbed correct were
Cemetery Gates - Pantera
Meet Virginia - Train
I feel that I have figured them both out, perfectly and it truly amazes me how many people will actually post Massively Incorrect tabs. Idk. Someone should start a page that allows nothing but absolutely correct tabs and structure, including brand and type of gear used on the particular song. I would prolly pay to subscribe to that.
 
#71
You find good ones and you find bad ones...I use them just to get myself in the right ballpark, then I try to listen and fix the minor details that need tweaking. The SYSTEM of tablature is a good tool for bandmates or when doing instruction videos for others. It's easy to pick up and doesn't really require an in-depth understanding of the musical alphabet to learn simple songs. I learned on tabs and it did wonders for my self-confidence to pick up an instrument and learn to play something that quickly. Firm believer in them if they are done right.
 
#72
Back in the 70's and 80's a fair portion of the published music was full of errors and/or omissions, too. I remember saving up and spending $15-20 for an 'official' published songbook, only to be disappointed, seeing parts of the song that were left out, or some that were just flat out wrong.

Another thing with tabs and tab sites are that they often have the same tab, written by the same tabber(?) but uploaded to a bunch of different sites. So it gets frustrating checking around to a half-dozen sites only to find the same incorrect tabs are all over the place. Even Songsterr, in my experience, has as many incorrect bass tabs as they have correct ones for the songs I'm learning.

After 4 decades of playing, I guess I'm going to have to try and develop my own ears!
 
#73
I remember this one time where I was teaching a beginner bassist how to play Enter sandman, and he was disagreeing with me (His teacher) on how to play it ^^

I think the main rules are use tabs if:
1) You're in a rush
2) Your speakers can't output bass well enough to transcribe it
3) It's for an instrument whose timbre you're not familiar with enough to identify (So if I'm not too good on drums, I might have a hard time distinguishing two toms apart, etc)
 
#74
I second prater's comment. I've often used 2 or 3 tabs to make one "master" tab of a song I'm working on. It seems that the song can generally be pieced together but it may take some time and different versions of the tab to get the correct notes down.

Coincidentally, I'm working on Enter Sandman right now and there are a ton of tabs out there that would work along with the song, but getting Jason's exact notes down is a hard tab to find. I used a combination of some Ultimate Guitar tabs, Songsterr, the master bass track recording from Rock Band-Metallica, and found the isolated bass track on YouTube. I think I'm finally pretty close to getting his line down note for note.
 
#76
Some tabs I have to transpose the entire song because I can't sing it in the key they presented it in.

But yeah.....many tabs are posted on sites by guys noodling around with a song.

Some are good........but a lot of times they screw up on certain chords etc.

Maybe this is their way of "faking through" a certain part because they can't play the real thing or don't know what it is.

Many tabs are pretty good........but you do get your assortment of mistakes in some.......
 
#77
There is lots of great comments here. If you go back thirty years or so I wonder how accurate everyone's bass lines were with no tab, YT or the like.

I started out with an undeveloped ear and little talent. Now my ear has developed some :) I can't spend all my bass time transcribing so tabs were necessary to keep me going. Now I'll grab a couple of tabs and watch Youtube videos. If I can find it I'll watch the original artists playing or perhaps some of the better YT players. Then I'll sit down and listen and figure out what I think is right. It comes together quicker now. Tabs do have mistakes and are often incomplete. I don't use them for timing as that part is done by ear. One other thing I discovered is that listening to songs when I'm in the garage with my hearing protection on really helps isolate the bass track. Really :)
 

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