Notation vs. Tabs debate

Notation vs. Tabs

I saw a post recently where someone was talking about remembering the tabs for songs and it got me to thinking...

I started out playing ukulele by looking at tabs and not paying attention to the musical notation. After a year of playing, I have started covering up the tabs with tape on a song so that I concern myself with only the true musical notes themselves and not be tempted to look at tabs for help.

For me, using tabs is like reading the the abridged and simplified language version of a Shakespearean play. Sure, you might get the general idea of the major themes and symbolism in the story but you miss the way the man wanted you to experience the story...
all the wonderful word play and rhythmical flow of the dialogue, etc
.
The same can be said of tabs, they "get you through the song" but understanding the notes, their lengths, rests and how these all work together in each measure and how the measures connect to each other give the music it's emotion, power and rhythmical nature.

Furthermore, tabs never helped me to be good at keeping a beat because the numbers on the lines never tell you how long to play them or when a rest comes or anything else about the color of the note and how it flows to the next note; all you get are numbers on lines.

I personally wish I would have taken the time to read music notation first, it is a task in itself; but in the end, I believe the benefits far outweigh the time spent learning to play a song "the right way" using music notation.

Thoughts?



How I am improving my reading of music notation:
A free iPad app called Music Tutor. And lots of practice on my uke. Also, I put Mel Bay's Modern Ukulele Method Grade 1 into my practice book rotation. There are no tabs in the book; although he shows you were the notes are on the fret board at the beginning.

I read music notation in high school but most of it is long gone. I prefer it when both notation and tabs are shown, that way I get the notes from the tab and the timing and nuances from the notation.

That said, I've recently joined a group that does some picking interludes from notation. I'm struggling with whether to put in the time to relearn how to read music. I know it's the right thing to do.....

This subject comes up frequently in guitar forums too. Personally, I think that both TAB and standard notation serve a purpose. If there is a certain fingering needed to get a specific type of sound (i.e. cross-string for a harp-like sound - for ukulele it is called campanella, for example), then it might be easier to notate that in TAB rather than cluttering up standard notation with string/fret numbers. There have been some TAB experiments to try to provide rhythm, but that can get cumbersome.

The problem stems from the fact that the ukulele and guitar are "matrix" instruments, rather than being completely linear as is the piano where a given pitch only occurs once in all 88 keys (i.e. every piano key has a unique pitch, where the same pitch can occur in several places on a guitar or ukulele).

In my personal experience with both guitar and ukulele, rather than being mutually exclusive, why not use both with the advantages each brings to the table? Also, don't ignore the ear. Music is a HEARING art form, and being able to play what we hear is central to fully utilizing one's instrument.

Edit: An added thought...my favorite fingerstyle ukulele album is Daniel Ho's Polani. I have the book and the CD. What I do is figure out a tune on the CD by ear, only checking myself after the fact with the sheet music. In other words, I treat the sheet music as the answers in the back of the book. Being able to HEAR first, and SEE after the fact just seems "right" for me. Others may prefer to be really dependent on having sheet music for everything they play. Many players of other instruments seem to be comfortable with that. However, to me it would be embarrassing if somebody asked if I could play some tune, and I was completely lost if I had not fully memorized somebody else's arrangement of it or had the sheet music on hand. Being able to hum the tune and then work up at least something on the spot would be a really good musical goal - and I am still working on that.

Tony

I like sheet music that has both - one for reminders and one for nuances.

I agree with what's been said. Let me add the following:

At a minimum a player should learn to read the melodic line in standard notation. Ohta-San says that you should always begin with the melody. Learn to play the melody and memorize it. If you really want to get even better, transpose it into different keys but learn the melody line. If you're using a simplified version of a song such as the arrangements in the Jim Beloff Daily Ukulele fakebooks, learn to read the melody line before playing the chords. Sing along with the melody and get it down exactly. Then play the chords. You'll be a better musician and you'll see where the melody notes occur in the chords or you can even add the melody note to the chords and discover the subtleties of extended and altered chords.

Curt Shellar has a book that teaches how to read. It is well worth the price. I taught myself in less than two weeks and I have read melody lines for years now. I always start with the melody line when I use a more advanced fake book such as the Real Fakebooks.

The Pekelo books got me on the road to learning how to read chords and double stops in standard notation. I'm not quite there yet but slowly making progress.

I have heard that early lute music was a form of tablature.

Thanks for the Curt Sheller info, Kimosabe

In my home there is a copy of the Oxford Companion to Music, tenth edition, of 1974. I was feeling a little guilty because the book was not in the bookshelf where it undoubtedly should have been, but being a weighty tome it had been consigned to duty as a doorstop so that cooling breezes may enter the house in summer. A utilitarian use for such an august publication.

In recent times I had seen TAB referred to on UU as a “cheat” or a “shortcut” and considered both of these charges unjust. My understanding was that TAB is an ancient and honourable form of recording musical detail. Notation shows which note should be played but does not indicate where on the fretboard it should be played and in this it loses in comparison to TAB.

Seeming to recall that TAB was mentioned in The Oxford Companion to Music I thought I'd check what that authoritative work had to say on the subject.

“Tablature systems now linger only on the outskirts of musical art; simple tablature methods of learning easy instruments, limited in scope (eg ukukeles, zithers, ocarinas, mandolines and the like), are often supplied in the small music shops of the poorer neighbourhoods.”

“Tablature then has become the exclusive province of two classes of musician, the learned one who is making a study of the old music for organ, virginals, lute, etc. and the ignorant one who is trying to acquire the ability to draw some sort of a tune out of some sort of an instrument.”

Snobbery much?

That bloody book is back in the doorway. Guilt free.

pritch said:

and the ignorant one who is trying to acquire the ability to draw some sort of a tune out of some sort of an instrument.”

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Haha! That's me!

The thing is, I don't play for musicians, I play for people who like hearing me play music. And they really don't care if I read tab or music.

Learning from video is way better than learning from tab or from staff. You see the fingerings, and hear the nuances at the same time, so obviously anything else than this way is clearly inferior and everyone that doesn't learn it that way is dumb and crippled.

No not really. But it's what these debates sound like to me most of the time.

Use what works for you. Not everything works for everyone equally well.

The way I see it, notation is just another form of tab. Also, do we expect pianists to play from memory?

That being said, I want to learn to play from the notation as well as tab. I read music - I play the piano. But if I can learn where all the notes are on the uke and can play just from notation, then I can pick up any book and play anything I want. If I can only play from tab, then I have to wait for someone to tab the song for me.

UkeMania said:

The way I see it, notation is just another form of tab. Also, do we expect pianists to play from memory?

That being said, I want to learn to play from the notation as well as tab. I read music - I play the piano. But if I can learn where all the notes are on the uke and can play just from notation, then I can pick up any book and play anything I want. If I can only play from tab, then I have to wait for someone to tab the song for me.

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Absolutely agree

I learnt tab for the ukulele because there was some music, specifically claw-hammer and renaissance music arrangements, that was only available in that format. For the re-entrant ukulele, a well-written tab, that shows when to use a note on the G string, rather than elsewhere on the fretboard, can be a real advantage.

I've subsequently taught myself to read notation for the ukulele as well simply because I've got a hat-full of sheet music that I play on other instruments that I like to try on the ukulele as well.

For me it's not a case of notation vs. tab but notation + tab ... they both have their place

johnson430 said:

... After a year of playing, I have started covering up the tabs with tape on a song so that I concern myself with only the true musical notes themselves and not be tempted to look at tabs for help...

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Working from SMN instead of tab is great; I heartily agree it's useful to be able to read sheet music.

But let's be clear, little black dots on lines are NOT the "true musical notes" any more than tab numbers are. Both SMN and tab are systems for approximating actual music. Let a computer play a score note for note, with exact timing as notated, and it will sound terrible. Classical and jazz musicians struggle mightily to learn how to play the music, not the dots.

The last thing on God's earth an audience cares about is whether you learned a tune by ear, by SMN, or by tab. What's important is to make the music sound like it comes straight from the heart, not off a piece of paper.

acmespaceship said:

Working from SMN instead of tab is great; I heartily agree it's useful to be able to read sheet music.

But let's be clear, little black dots on lines are NOT the "true musical notes" any more than tab numbers are. Both SMN and tab are systems for approximating actual music. Let a computer play a score note for note, with exact timing as notated, and it will sound terrible. Classical and jazz musicians struggle mightily to learn how to play the music, not the dots.

The last thing on God's earth an audience cares about is whether you learned a tune by ear, by SMN, or by tab. What's important is to make the music sound like it comes straight from the heart, not off a piece of paper.

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Yes! Agreed!

I read both. Sometimes tab is useful for guidelines as to which string to play a note on (especially for campanella playing), but to me, tab is just about useless UNLESS there is also standard notation to indicate timing, rhythm etc.

And since it's been touched on - personally, I don't "memorize" even though I know some material so well it's committed to memory. I'm an instrumental-only player, a lot of classical, and I tend to take on fairly complex stuff. I just don't see the point of the added pressure of memorization. Regardless of the instrument, you just don't see a lot of classical players without sheet music in front of them, at least not at the performances I've attended. If I was a pop or rock entertainer, maybe I'd care about not having music in front of me - but I'm not, so I don't I also think it's more important to learn to hear and anticipate the intervals than it is to memorize tab numbers ("uke by number?"), and for me, the visual of sheet music helps reinforce that.

I have never had a good memory, but I know people who do seem to remember most everything. For me, it seems MUCH easier to retain stuff I learn by ear than from sheet music or TAB. I, like others in this thread, can read music just fine (guitar, piano, ukulele). This is a valuable skill because there is so much good music out there that the more ways we have to take it in, the better. However, for some reason I don't seem to retain what I play from sheet music, but do when figuring it out by ear off recordings. I think it may be possible that we use different parts of our brain for reading/seeing than for listening/hearing.

Anyway, in the end it is all good - the main thing is to make music however we choose to do it.

Tony

Some thoughts on memorization:

I like to memorize songs because I write songs. I am not a religious person, not an atheist, not an agnostic, just not religious, but a dear friend onece told me that only God creates from nothing. When I memorize a song, I am internalizing it and later that will give me the material to create, to improvise. I am getting my chops.

Inspiration is the divine wind blowing through you. You don't necessarily know where it came from or why but it did. So, you learn your jazz progressions, your ascending and descending chords movements, and it all becomes one big mishmash, one big cosmic potpourri and all of a sudden there is this Big Bang and out pops a song and maybe you'd never have written it if you hadn't internalized the blues, folk progressions, a little bit of Bach, 'Round Midnight, and Take Five. And even if it amounts to nothing, it's more enjoyable for me to memorize a song than for me to do crosswords, but my lovely wife loves crosswords and doesn't play. My thing, and hers.

Tablature and Standard Notation are tools that help me memorize and create.
I never expected Arthur Rubenstein to memorize Chopin's Noctures but his versions are still my desert island discs.

tbeltrans said:

I think it may be possible that we use different parts of our brain for reading/seeing than for listening/hearing.

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http://www.learningstyles.org/styles/

This is true. The ways our brains ingest information is different for everyone.
Music is aural, but playing is a kinesthetic abstraction that produces a sound.
To write it on paper, is a second layer of abstraction, because you still have to convert that into a kinesthetic to produce an aural result. How to best make that translation depends on the person.

I think in shapes/position
Some people think in staff/graphic
Some people think in word/letter labels, ie A, or chords
Some people think directly to sound
Some people think in muscle memory.

Everyone is different.

I have difficulty with staff on frets. But on keyboard, its very logical

So.. different strokes for different folks.
One way may be better for you. That's great. But not everyone is just like you.

tbeltrans said:

I think it may be possible that we use different parts of our brain for reading/seeing than for listening/hearing.

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Oh yes - visual learner/thinker here, with a good dose of kinesthetic learning as well. The standard sit in a classroom, listen to a lecture way of learning has never worked well for me unless there was visual or hands-on component... which has often led me to wonder why I've been drawn to music all of my life, since I'm such a poor listener, but there you go. I do know that I can picture the intervals on the staff a lot more readily than I can identify what I'm hearing, and that much of the time my hands know exactly where the song is going even if my ear and my brain do not.

spookelele said:

http://www.learningstyles.org/styles/

I think in shapes/position
Some people think in staff/graphic
Some people think in word/letter labels, ie A, or chords
Some people think directly to sound
Some people think in muscle memory.

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This is spot-on, in my experience. I think in pictures, and in muscle memory.

And I love discussions of learning styles - I'm hopeful that someday our educational system will catch on and less of a one-size-fits-all approach will become a reality!

janeray1940 said:

And since it's been touched on - personally, I don't "memorize" even though I know some material so well it's committed to memory. I'm an instrumental-only player, a lot of classical, and I tend to take on fairly complex stuff. I just don't see the point of the added pressure of memorization. Regardless of the instrument, you just don't see a lot of classical players without sheet music in front of them, at least not at the performances I've attended.

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I have a vague recollection, based on nothing whatsoever, that convention dictates that classical soloists playing with an orchestra don't use sheet music; accompanists, however, do. Of course, these things need not trouble us us until we are playing Carnegie Hall with the Berlin Philharmonic, which in my case will not be in this lifetime.

pritch said:

I have a vague recollection, based on nothing whatsoever, that convention dictates that classical soloists playing with an orchestra don't use sheet music; accompanists, however, do. Of course, these things need not trouble us us until we are playing Carnegie Hall with the Berlin Philharmonic, which in my case will not be in this lifetime.

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No idea about classical soloists specifically, but there is plenty of sheet music out every time I've seen the LA Phil - image for reference of what I'm talking about. The very fact that I will not ever be close to doing anything like that in this lifetime (or hey, probably not even the next) is precisely why I don't let the pressure to memorize trouble me!