Topic: tabs or sheet music?
are guitar tabs completley usless unless you know the song in the first place
Re: tabs or sheet music?
Well, on the down side in TABS there is no indication of counting ie: the value of each note and the pace of the piece, but how often are you going to play a piece you have never heard? The big plus in TABS, I think, is the fact that there is no need for a stack of ledger lines on the top of the staff- and, as for pace, most printed music I see now doesn't have a metronome setting anyway, so I guess the publishers assume the musician to have heard the piece before they first play it and therefore know the speed at which it is played.
Sheet music, though, is far easier to work with if you are playing the piece as a solo, that is playing the melody or voice line combined with the chords.
- Olly
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Re: tabs or sheet music?
I agree. Tab only tells part of the story. Often playing the right notes but the incorrect rhythm will make it sound like you are playing the wrong notes.
I don't get on well with reading music notation with playing guitar but it sure is helpful that it is there for timing purposes.
Often this is an advantage with purchased tab books - they have the tab and the music notation to give you a clearer picture.
Also Guitar Pro is another thing I use a lot. This does the same as tab books, showing both musical notation and tab but also has the benefit of the option of playing a midi file to the tab. This can be slowed down to really nail those faster parts. It also is a good indication of how accurate the tab is in the first place before investing a lot of time in learning a piece to find that it is wrong!
