Jim Baritone
Squier-holic
I know that "tablature" is a tremendously popular and common way for guitarists to write down songs. I have to admit that a) it drives me crazy, and b) I don't find that I can learn songs from it.
There's a third disadvantage which I'll get to in a moment.
If someone can suggest a good well-described method of learning to read and use tabs, I'd be grateful.
However, a guitar player who can only read tabs is at a huge disadvantage wheh it comes time to work with other musicians, usually at the pro or semi-pro level. Here's why. Just about everyone who learns an instrument _other_ than guitar learns, as part of his/her training, to read music written conventionally on staff paper - five lines and four spaces (e,g.b,d,f and a,c,g,e) (Every Good Boy Deserves Fun and All Cows Eat Grass was the memonic I learned it by). That's in Treble Clef, which covers the higher notes. Bass Clef is also written on a five-line four-space staff. At the beginning of the piece, there's a clef sign, a time signature, often a tempo, always a key signature. So, all musicians who learn to play instruments OTHER than guitar learn to read music written in this way, and learn to play the notes on their instrument according to what's written on the staff.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that notes in written music can have different durations, depending on their shape. An fat oval note indicates a "Whole note, which lasts four beats. A fat oval with a stick on one side is a half note, worth two beats. If the note is a solid, filled in oval, with a stick, it's a quarter note, normally worth one beat. There are other marking for faster notes. There are a variety of other symbols included in written music - repeated sections, rests (where you lay out while others are playing), key changes, changes in time signature. The most common time is 4/4, waltz time is 3/4, and there are also 6/8, 5/4, and a mutitude of others. Also, if you're playing along and the key you're in says the "F" you're coming to is actually "F sharp", a small symbol called a "natural" next to the note tells you to play F, not F sharp. These are just a few things that a page of written music will tell you.
The point is that EVERYONE who has learned to play music, and to play "written music", uses this system.
So, there you are, Joe Hot-Shoe guitarist, and you're meeting with, say, a bassist, a drummer, a piano player, maybe a sax or trumpet player. Most or all of these people will know how to learn songs from conventional written music, not from tablature. If you, on the other hand, have never learned to read music, and the band leader passes out a chart of a song the band is learning, you're going to feel really, really stupid and really embarrased. And, more to the point, you won't, in most cases, be able to play something that fits in with what everyone else is playing.
"Written Music" in Western music is a system evolved over the last 350+ years. There's a lot more to it that what I've mentioned, but leave that for now.
The real point is that if you take a sheet of tabs over to your piano player, he'll say, "Say What?" or something less polite, and so will all the others. It's true that what are called "Lead Sheets" are basically the melody written out, and chord symbols written above the staff. These serve two purposes - the bass player will use them quite often, but they provide a tonal framework for soloing for everyone else. When you play a song from a lead sheet, and play a solo if you're a piano, sax, trumpet, or whatever player, the chords give you an idea of what notes will fit, and what won't.
So, it comes back to the question: if you are going to play the guitar with groups that include instruments other than guitar, bass, or drums, you''ll need to know how to learn music. Because tabs are a "shortcut" way for guitarists who can't read music to learn tunes, but nobody else plays tunes from tabs.
So, FWIW, it's worth learning to read music and at least basics music theory - keys, major and minor scales, all sorts of chords, and how they're written "on the staff" as well as "G7" or "Emin". Because if you do intend to play with groups like that, professionally or not, reading music is an essential. Without it, you're illiterate in terms of how all other musicians read and play music. (I'm excluding self-taught prodigies, who can't read music either. They're the exception, not the rule).
I really wish the people who dash off a tab sheet would give their heads a shake. They're not doing us, as guitarists, any favours.
Me, I'm hopeless with tabs. I have to sit down and transcribe every tab sheet into "real" written music, even if only a lead sheet. Maybe I'll learn to read tabs eventually. But for the guitarist who wants to work with other instruments, learning to read music is essential.
Here endith the lesson. My two bits worth of it anyhow.
Jim Bari.
Well, that didn't take long. I got an e-mail from a fellow insomniac Squireaholic protesting that it's way to hard to play while trying to read music. Nonsense. When you start out learning music, you begin with the most basic parts, and gradually add more and more elements to your toolkit. Once you've learned it, it's the same as reading, or driving a car. Your brain follows the instructions more or less automatically, leaving your "active concentration" free to focus on what you're doing, and more importantly, what everyone else is doing.
JB
There's a third disadvantage which I'll get to in a moment.
If someone can suggest a good well-described method of learning to read and use tabs, I'd be grateful.
However, a guitar player who can only read tabs is at a huge disadvantage wheh it comes time to work with other musicians, usually at the pro or semi-pro level. Here's why. Just about everyone who learns an instrument _other_ than guitar learns, as part of his/her training, to read music written conventionally on staff paper - five lines and four spaces (e,g.b,d,f and a,c,g,e) (Every Good Boy Deserves Fun and All Cows Eat Grass was the memonic I learned it by). That's in Treble Clef, which covers the higher notes. Bass Clef is also written on a five-line four-space staff. At the beginning of the piece, there's a clef sign, a time signature, often a tempo, always a key signature. So, all musicians who learn to play instruments OTHER than guitar learn to read music written in this way, and learn to play the notes on their instrument according to what's written on the staff.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that notes in written music can have different durations, depending on their shape. An fat oval note indicates a "Whole note, which lasts four beats. A fat oval with a stick on one side is a half note, worth two beats. If the note is a solid, filled in oval, with a stick, it's a quarter note, normally worth one beat. There are other marking for faster notes. There are a variety of other symbols included in written music - repeated sections, rests (where you lay out while others are playing), key changes, changes in time signature. The most common time is 4/4, waltz time is 3/4, and there are also 6/8, 5/4, and a mutitude of others. Also, if you're playing along and the key you're in says the "F" you're coming to is actually "F sharp", a small symbol called a "natural" next to the note tells you to play F, not F sharp. These are just a few things that a page of written music will tell you.
The point is that EVERYONE who has learned to play music, and to play "written music", uses this system.
So, there you are, Joe Hot-Shoe guitarist, and you're meeting with, say, a bassist, a drummer, a piano player, maybe a sax or trumpet player. Most or all of these people will know how to learn songs from conventional written music, not from tablature. If you, on the other hand, have never learned to read music, and the band leader passes out a chart of a song the band is learning, you're going to feel really, really stupid and really embarrased. And, more to the point, you won't, in most cases, be able to play something that fits in with what everyone else is playing.
"Written Music" in Western music is a system evolved over the last 350+ years. There's a lot more to it that what I've mentioned, but leave that for now.
The real point is that if you take a sheet of tabs over to your piano player, he'll say, "Say What?" or something less polite, and so will all the others. It's true that what are called "Lead Sheets" are basically the melody written out, and chord symbols written above the staff. These serve two purposes - the bass player will use them quite often, but they provide a tonal framework for soloing for everyone else. When you play a song from a lead sheet, and play a solo if you're a piano, sax, trumpet, or whatever player, the chords give you an idea of what notes will fit, and what won't.
So, it comes back to the question: if you are going to play the guitar with groups that include instruments other than guitar, bass, or drums, you''ll need to know how to learn music. Because tabs are a "shortcut" way for guitarists who can't read music to learn tunes, but nobody else plays tunes from tabs.
So, FWIW, it's worth learning to read music and at least basics music theory - keys, major and minor scales, all sorts of chords, and how they're written "on the staff" as well as "G7" or "Emin". Because if you do intend to play with groups like that, professionally or not, reading music is an essential. Without it, you're illiterate in terms of how all other musicians read and play music. (I'm excluding self-taught prodigies, who can't read music either. They're the exception, not the rule).
I really wish the people who dash off a tab sheet would give their heads a shake. They're not doing us, as guitarists, any favours.
Me, I'm hopeless with tabs. I have to sit down and transcribe every tab sheet into "real" written music, even if only a lead sheet. Maybe I'll learn to read tabs eventually. But for the guitarist who wants to work with other instruments, learning to read music is essential.
Here endith the lesson. My two bits worth of it anyhow.
Jim Bari.
Well, that didn't take long. I got an e-mail from a fellow insomniac Squireaholic protesting that it's way to hard to play while trying to read music. Nonsense. When you start out learning music, you begin with the most basic parts, and gradually add more and more elements to your toolkit. Once you've learned it, it's the same as reading, or driving a car. Your brain follows the instructions more or less automatically, leaving your "active concentration" free to focus on what you're doing, and more importantly, what everyone else is doing.
JB
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