TABS

[Pedro]

Occasionally note younger people copying tabs in WH Smiths and tabs frequently asked for on you Tube. I would find this embarassing. What i has happened to the ear?

[noelford]

Well, I suppose some folks find them useful but, personally, I agree. If you know your fretboard, tabs are superfluous, and it's much more enjoyable working out melody lines by ear. And the key to being able to do that is the usual one. Practice!

[neil2726]

I do find them useful - but then again people tell me I'm tone deaf anyway! I do find however find some tabs and chords are not always correct!

[RogerCook]

I find Tabs can be helpful in deciphering difficult passages if someone has put in the hard yards to work it out, but as Neil says many are not reliable. I also find it a useful way of remembering arrangements as my sight reading of dots is not up to the task and I find Tab a little bit easier

Roger

[Tim]

Tabs are just another way of reading music. And they are particularly useful for guitarists as unlike many other instruments the same note can often be played at different points on the fretboard. They are therefore a good way of learning the various positions on the fretboard. There is a place for everything in guitar playing: knowing the fretboard, scales, chord boxes, tabs, reading music, MP3s and of course playing by ear. These all add up to making the guitar the best and most versatile instrument to play. I wish tabs had been around in the 1960s when I was struggling with Bert Weedon's 'Play in a Day' and trying to make guitar sense of piano arrangements - the only format for sheet music in those days. We shouldn't exclude any format that makes our playing even more enjoyable.

[bassboogie]

If you are tone deaf like me anything helps. I've strained my ears for many years and have difficulty in telling one note from another. I use the "broken clock method" and keep playing the same note until it fits, then go onto the next. I say many thanks to all those transcribers of tab and music without whom I would never have managed to play a bass. To all those I do not know and especially to Jay Hartop and Roger Allcock, thanks and please keep transcribing.

Regards, Luigi

[kipper]

i dont think those who have a talent for playing by ear relize how gifted they are. charlie hall is brilliant on this, he can pick out thing sounds ect that most wont pick up. so can others on this site i think some of them are truly gifted. i have tried it but never seem to get the hang of it. others work hard at it with really good results. would be lost without tabs i`m afaid. peter

[neil2726]

When you'r in your sixties what you think you hear isnt always what you do hear! My missus will testify to this

[Geoff_W]

I know exactly what you mean Neil!

[Pedro]

i dont think those who have a talent for playing by ear relize how gifted they are. charlie hall is brilliant on this, he can pick out thing sounds ect that most wont pick up. so can others on this site i think some of them are truly gifted. i have tried it but never seem to get the hang of it. others work hard at it with really good results. would be lost without tabs i`m afaid. peter

Gifted! Well I never even gave it a thought and would disagree. After three active years playing around Wirral in the early 60s decided I was not going to be recognised as a successor to HBM and decided to join the Blue Funnel Line. If I was gifted I probably would have stayed at it.