GUITAR LESSONS - NJ and NY
Airmont, Allendale, Fair Lawn,
Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock,
Hawthorne, HoHoKus, Hillburn, Mahwah,
Midland Park, Montebello, Montvale,
New Milford, Oakland, Oradell,
Paramus, Park Ridge, Ramsey,
Ridgewood, River Edge, Saddle River, Suffern,
Tallman, Upper Saddle River,
Waldwick, Washington Township, Westwood,
Woodcliff Lake or Wyckoff
BEGINNER • INTERMEDIATE
ADVANCED • AUDITION PREPARATION
TAB VS MUSIC NOTATION
The issue of whether learning and
playing guitar music from tab
(short, for tablature) is as sufficient,
equal to, or better than
standard music notation
has continued since tab’s revival
in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
I write, revival, because tablature
was the original method of
conveying to a guitarist, lutenist
or player of one of the guitar’s
predecessors or close relatives,
how and where to place the fingers
on the fretboard.
The primary difference between
the tab of the 16th century and
today’s tab is that the
original used alphabet letters,
rather than numbers to indicate
the desired fret location.
In the case of chord forms,
in place or our gridded diagrams,
complete graphical renderings
of the hand on the fingerboard
and fingers at appropriate frets,
were the mode of the time.
Tablature is, primarily, a guide
by which a guitarist can determine
at what fret and at what string to play,
to effect the desired sounds.
If you can count,
you can employ tablature.
Notation is a fully detailed written translation
of the desired sounds,
their rythm,
the nuanced timbre (quality of the sounds) etc.
If you cannot read musical notation,
you cannot employ standard notation.
The two statements above,
would lead one to believe
that tablature is the best choice
because it does not require the prerequisite
of learning to read music notation.
And if you solely want to play the guitar,
why would you bother
learning to read notation, anyway?
Especially, if most of the music
you want to play is tabbed and
readily available online or in book form.
Well, you tabbers are saying, “Right, right....”
and you notation players are saying,
“I thought D A Arlaus was
supposed to be such a good teacher........”
You will not all agree with me on this,
but let’s compare tab and notation
for how they work, what they convey
and the results that are possible from each method:
Consideration |
Tablature |
Notation |
Indicates where to place a finger |
Yes |
No |
Indicates how long to play |
Relatively, But Not Actually |
Yes |
Is it logical and does it lead to understanding the music? |
No |
Yes |
Facilitates the best, most playable and most logical fingering |
No |
Yes |
Player learns the music faster |
No |
No |
Let’s examine each one of the considerations:
INDICATES EXACTLY WHERE
TO PLACE A FINGER:
Tab wins, hands down, here.
But is an exact indication of
where to place a finger a good thing?
If you are a pianist, it might be helpful,
but if you are playing a stringed instrument,
such as the guitar,
most individual pitches can be made
by fretting different locations
on several different strings.
The differing locations create differing timbres
or qualities of the pitch.
The highness or lowness of the pitch
remains the same but it may be bright,
resonant, harmonic, dark or
have some other quality.
Beyond the choice of sound quality,
there always remains a best position
in which
to play a particular passage in its musical context,
based on understanding the fretboard
and the philosophy of proper guitar technique,
which is pertinent to every genre.
INDICATES EXACTLY HOW LONG
TO PLAY A PITCH:
If your response to this consideration is,
“Who cares?” it means that you
only play music with which you’re familiar.
If it were not so,
you would think it’s infinitely important.
Most tabs give the player some idea,
in a relative sense,
how long to sustain a note or chord.
I say in a relative sense because
the indication of length of sustain in tab
is the distance from one tabbed note or chord,
to the next one.
Some unpleasant variables
creep in at this point.
Did the page actually print
as accurately as it was created?
Do those notes or chords look
as far apart to you as they do to me?
There are some tabs that use
standard notation stems, dots, ties
and other indicators of actual timing.
In my experience, I have found that
most tab players do not have
an in-depth understanding of rhythm,
in the theoretical sense, so they use their intuition
to determine how long pitches should sustain.
If the tab players do
thoroughly understand how rhythm works,
its nuances and how to count complex times,
then for them, tabs that are written
with rhythmic indicators are sufficient for them.
Not only are pitch lengths of importance,
but picking direction
is of paramount importance to all genre
s and the same comment follows:
if the tab player thoroughly understands
how the rhythmic indicators in their tab,
influence/mandate/dictate their picking,
then for them, tabs are as adequate as
standard notation
for this particular consideration in our table.
A notation player, knows (or can determine)
the precise duration
of every note in their music.
When one is trained to read
and interpret notation,
rhythmic theory is a part
of that training and understanding.
It is intrinsic to understanding
and correct playing.
If notation is correctly written,
a person in Guatemala
can write a musical composition,
send it to a person in Alaska,
and if the Alaskan musician understands notation,
the music will be executed in Alaska,
precisely as it was composed
and executed in Guatemala,
without the Alaskan ever having heard it.
Every note will have
the correct sustain and accent.
IT IS LOGICAL AND LEADS TO FULL UNDERSTANDING
OF THE MUSIC BEING LEARNED OR PLAYED:
Tab is logical in the sense
that if a number is higher,
it is closer to the body of the guitar
and higher in pitch
and if the number is lower,
it is farther from the body of the guitar
and lower in pitch.
It is logical in that a jump from
6 to 19 on the same string
will have a greater change in pitch
than a jump from 2 to 6
on the same string.
That is where the logic of tab
begins and ends.
Musical notation is a language,
no different from
any written and spoken language.
Forget what you’ve heard
about music being mathematical.
It can be explained by mathematics,
but how it works is utterly linguistic.
Think of how you sound to
the Chinese person at your favorite
take out place, when you order chow mien.
Have you every heard them say
"
chow mien" to the cook? Probably not.
The way you order Chinese food
is the way tab players play music.
The sound that someone told them should come out,
comes out.
They don’t really know why,
other than that the tab number indicates it.
When a Chinese[-speaking person
orders take out, the person at the counter smiles broadly
and you never hear anything that sounds
like what you order.
That’s because they are speaking
a common language that you don’t know.
A piece of music written in standard notation,
holds, for the notationally literate,
as much of a story as does
the daily newspaper.
From examining it,
without playing a note,
one can determine if the story is happy or sad,
if it’s fast pace or leisurely,
if there are supplemental stories,
if the story takes a sudden turn of emotion
and if the reader is skilled,
they can hear the music without playing it --
just the way you translate the words you read
into ideas and images that make
a sort of mental movie or slide show.
There is no contest, here.
Notation wins this very crucial consideration.
FACILITATES THE BEST, MOST PLAYABLE
AND MOST LOGICAL FINGERING FOR ALL PASSAGES:
Tab is DOA on this consideration.
Only a guitarist with a great ear
and fretboard knowledge
is able to choose the best,
most playable and most logical
fingering for all passages based on tab.
Those who have not been taught the guitar
in an holistic manner
may not realize that pitches
tabbed at 2 on the high E string,
3 on the B string and 2 on the G string
are the same as 7 on the B string,
7 on the G string and 7 on the D string.
(And there are other possibilities.)
The sound of the two groups of notes
is different in quality but not in pitch
(if your guitar is properly tuned.)
A tab player is not given
the choice of fingerboard positions.
Depending upon what precedes
and follows this D chord,
a notation player analyzes the context
in which they find this D chord
and plays it where ever it is most sensible
and where the sound suits the guitarist.
Music that is written in notation
does not put the guitarist’s mind in a “box.”
They are not constrained
to a predisposed place
in which to play.
They are solely considering
the sound that they hear
when they read the music.
It might be in the second position
or it might be in the seventh position.
The only thing of concern is the sound.
Playing the guitar or any other instrument
is never about a place
but is always about the sound.
Notation wins again.
ENABLES PLAYER TO LEARN THE MUSIC
FASTER THAN THE OTHER METHOD:
You die-hard tabbers think
this should be a YES for tab,
because that’s why you play from tab
and never learned standard notation.
The truth is, it’s the method of practice,
enhanced by the player’s understanding
that results in a shorter
or longer learning period.
The facts clearly point to notation readers
possessing more understanding
of the music they play than tab readers.
In the long run,
the guitarist
who understands what they are playing --
by that I do not mean the one
who merely knows the fret number
of every pitch and chord they will play,
but rather that they know the music
the way they know the words
to their favorite song or poem.
They know the individual words and
because they are speaking
the same language as the song or poem,
they understand what each word means
and what whole phrases actually mean.
So, too with music....
it’s a story, not just a lot of sounds converging.
The one who knows and understands the story
will be the better story-teller.
The musician who has this understanding
and practices assiduously,
is the one who will master their music faster.
No tablature will be used for any purpose
on this web site or
in any of the GTT Guitarists' Guides.
The purpose of this web site
is to assist guitarists in perfecting technique,
expanding their general musicianship
and mastering the guitar.
"Doing my part to spread the excellence,
one guitarist at a time,"
The Guitar Technique Tutor Podcast slogan
Email Me if you'd like to submit
a Question of the Week or
suggest an additional segment topic.
If I use one you submit,
I'll send you an official
Guitar Technique Tutor Podcast pick.
Tell a guitarist friend who might also have questions.
current podcast, show notes and archives
find a good teacher contact me
© 2012 D A Arlaus, all rights reserved
Sunday, January 1, 2012