tab writer?

[Eric VB]

Originally posted by greenboy:

I suspect that the brunt of well-done tab (not that stuff on the internet) is used to learn how to play real showboat parts that one can haul out and say, Lookie what I can do!

Yeah, I bought mags with Jaco's "America" and Geddy's "YYZ" for just that purpose. I already knew most of "YYZ" but figured it would be easier to learn the rest with tab.

 

Sadly, I've not learned either. Other priorities. At least with the Jaco piece there's about a hundred different notations to try to figure out, and I don't have a recording to go by.

 

My showboat piece is something I wrote myself. It's probably better that way.

[jeremy c]

I'm not transposing the treble clef, I'm just reading it.

 

In music school we wrote four part harmony exercies in four clefs.

 

And in conducting class, we had to sit at the piano with an orchestral score and play it (while explaining the harmony to the professor).

 

It was not easy.

 

By the way, thanks for the compliments, but there are other players on this board who I look up to...for example...bassaddik (Adrian), Max Valentino, tnb..who can read anything. There are lots of great players on this board. I just post more than most.

[Tenstrum]

Still seeing no reason not to use TAB on the occasions that I need it.

 

Use your ear, TAB, sheet music, or whatever. Just play!

[BenLoy]

I'm a terrible reader and I think TAB is the antichrist for anything except teaching babe in the woods beginner players.

 

Learn to read chord charts, nashville numbers, anything that deals with actual music that can be interpreted on any instrument...but please don't use TAB!

[Tim C]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

Play the cd, listen and try to copy it.

It gets easier after the first 10 years.

that's the reason why people want tabs, so they don't have to spend ten years learning a song that isn't an original of their own. plus not all people can read sheet music and play by ear. i had the benefit of a teacher who explained to me how to read sheet music, he knew nothing about actually playing anything on the bass, but was great at teaching theory. but i digress, because i have began to ramble. not everyone has someone to explain sheet music and a tab is easy to read. but before going out and buying that software one may just want to visit the sites where people put their tabs up on a database, they're not always 100% accurate, but you can usually figure out the dicrepencies yourself. anyway here are some sites i know:

 

basstabarchive.com

fretplay.com

mxtabs.net

 

there are a million more but these are the best ones i know in descending order.

 

happy hunting

[jeremy c]

Let's just change the name of the place to:

 

Expert Forums for bass players who don't really care if they ever become experts and who prefer instant gratification.

[lug]

 

TAB is the DEBIL!

[jeremy c]

I guess it's time to go all Jeff Berlin on this place and say,

 

Name me one player in a major band who learned how to play by using tabs.

[Gruuve]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

I guess it's time to go all Jeff Berlin on this place and say,

 

Name me one player in a major band who learned how to play by using tabs.

Billy Sheehan?

[jeremy c]

Now that's funny!

[Tenstrum]

Originally posted by jeremy c:

Let's just change the name of the place to:

 

Expert Forums for bass players who don't really care if they ever become experts and who prefer instant gratification.

Getting a little righteous aren't you jeremy????

 

I also forgot to mention that I can read the Nashville number system WITHOUT taking my shoes off....

[Gruuve]

Actually, I guess I don't know for sure if Billy Sheehan learned to play using tabs...he generally gets some criticism for not reading standard notation, but that doesn't automatically mean he's a tab reader...

 

But, I think it's kind of pointless to build a list...there are plenty of players that I'm sure we could name who can't read anything at all and still play well. Learning to read any form of musical notation is, IMHO, a means to get there...it is not the end result. Your playing is the end result.

 

That said, some skills make that goal easier. IMHO, if you're going to learn only one way, then it's hard to argue that standard notation isn't a good choice. Pick up any book on music theory, and you'll find standard notation. If you can't read it, then you can't learn music theory from a book. There are of course other ways to learn music theory, but books with standard notation are the most plentiful source. For learning songs, standard notation is probably the best source since it has the tendency to be correct moreso than much of the tab available.

 

My stance is this: the ideal would be to learn how to read all of it...standard notation, tabs, chord charts, "Nashville charts", BUT to still work toward making your ear the best tool that you have.

 

BUT...for a beginning player who hasn't had exposure to music before, IMHO tab is easier to learn to read than standard notation is. The reason I think it's valuable is this: if standard notation was the only way to learn bass lines for really new players, then those new players might give up trying. Maybe, somewhere in the grand scheme of things, tab helps those beginning players become intermediate players, develop a better ear, and perhaps eventually decide that they need to learn to read standard notation to move forward.

 

With that in mind, here is the basic question: Is it better for someone to get to an intermediate level anyway they can (even if it involves using tab), or is it better for someone to just give up and not pursue playing?

 

Tab may actually be Jeremy's friend in a strange sort of way...perhaps it helps deliver beginner and intermediate bass players to Jeremy and folks like him by keeping them engaged with bass playing long enough to realize they need lessons, need to learn to read standard notation, need to learn music theory, etc. Just a thought.

 

Dave

[Stackimo]

"Woods, you may want to invest in one of those practice gizmo slower-downers. Like this one from Tascam. " by Ricbassguy.

 

Good suggestion to help the original question.

 

 

(Added by Edit: Ack! Dave Sisk beat me to the punch and extended my thoughts for which I have placed below.)

 

 

As far as the debate goes. I will agree with many of our life long experienced lowdowners. Ultimately, learning sheet music should be the goal. But I have, in my short career as a bass player, been able to play along with other musicians by initially, reading bass tabs. For the many of us that haven't had the opportunity to go to a school or have private lessons, telling us that in order to play the bass we would have to learn to read/play off of music sheets would have been our end.

 

I will learn to read/play sheet music some day.

[g.]

All I've really been saying is that TAB is not as quick a method of communication, and a lot of the people making it are not the people you want to be learning from anyway. The only time I resort to it is when I can't find a good recording or transcription. And most of it seems to be for real easy stuff to figure out, at that.

 

Yep, either tab or musical notation {what's with all the SHEET MUSIC mentions?;} is a form of communication and it's not actually playing, just as books, manuals, magazines, are not thought, but just representations of thought {usually;}, meant to connect with others.

 

So let's not dance out the I can play good can you? stuph when playing the axe really is more akin to talking, than writing or reading, in this simple little analogy...

 

I rip this off without too much concentration now because I know my ride will show before I finish typ---

[jeremy c]

Nobody said you had to learn how to read...just that tab is a shortcut which actually can stunt your growth.

 

Yes, Billy Sheehan can't read. However, he is a brilliant player who put a lot of work into getting that way.

 

Buddy Rich couldn't read. From what I hear, Dennis Chambers can't either.

 

Ultimately what you need to work on is not notes, note reading, technique, or whatever. It is your ear.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Ah, I always like it when some ignorant soul mentions the 3-letter-word on this here forum

 

I started of by using tab, because basically that is what was shown to me by others.

 

So I learnt to read tab, and I learnt to play a lot of songs that way.

 

Some really correct (some tabs are deadly accurate) and some really incorrect.

 

A light-bulb moment was when my dad said "you're playing it wrong" and my automatic reply was "but that's what's on the paper."

 

A light shone on me, a choir burst out into Handel's Hallelujah and it hit me that I had to move on.

 

I still revert to tab now and then, because I have too little time or too little interest to learn a certain song by ear.

 

And I will learn to read, and I do continuously work out songs by ear. But every now and then, a little tab makes my life so much easier

[lug]

The best use for TAB is when you have a gig tonite and need to learn 5 songs. Otherwise, I don't use it.

[Tim C]

Originally posted by EddiePlaysBass:

A light-bulb moment was when my dad said "you're playing it wrong" and my automatic reply was "but that's what's on the paper."

which brings up a great point, tabs can be useful but reliance on tabs is a bad thing to develop.