Should Clubs Tabs be Available To All?

A

Alleyoop

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I provide the songs that our Ukulele club uses for their meetings. I obtain these files from various internet locations where they are freely available. I then select and edit the files so they provide useful pdf's that are broadcast to a large screen at our meetings. I email a link to the songs for the members of our group. I usually remove the songs that we aren't currently using. Some members are irritated because I do not leave all of our songs on the online location.
I feel a bit selfish by removing them but, since I spend considerable time searching for and editing these songs it bothers me that they will quite possibly be used by groups other than our own. Am I being selfish in this regard?
 
That's what a leader does; provides songs for it's members and others who find their site. I'd drop out of a group whose leader did that.
Here's a good example of what a wonderful, growing uke club comprises of. Not only does he provide the tabs but he also has done audios of the charts for others to learn from and encourages others to glean what they choose. Check out charts and the audio sections.
http://www.seniorukeensemble.com

I lead a local group in Blaine. It takes a lot work just to get the material together and keep it organized. Using a large screen sounds like a good idea. If others wanted to use our material, I am more than willing to share; it's part of the ukulele Ohana togetherness.
 
Since you have put in work, I guess it is up to you, but......

You mention that you get your information, either all of it, most of it, or a good part of it from the work of others who have "done some work" and put them online for others to use and enjoy.

From a bystander, it seems like leaving your well presented versions online would be a way to "pay it forward" and help the wider Ukulele community.
 
Patrick Madsen said:
That's what a leader does; provides songs for it's members and others who find their site. I'd drop out of a group whose leader did that.
Here's a good example of what a wonderful, growing uke club comprises of. Not only does he provide the tabs but he also has done audios of the charts for others to learn from and encourages others to glean what they choose. Check out charts and the audio sections.
http://www.seniorukeensemble.com

I lead a local group in Blaine. It takes a lot work just to get the material together and keep it organized. Using a large screen sounds like a good idea. If others wanted to use our material, I am more than willing to share; it's part of the ukulele Ohana togetherness.
Click to expand...

Thanks Pat..i never saw your website before...good stuff
 
What's it costing you to make it available?
If it's nothing, you might as well just let people have it.
 
I understand where you are coming from as I have done something similar when I played bass at the church we were attending. I does take time and effort to pull everything together, make sure it was in the appropriate key, format it, (for me I had to put it in Word and Power Point, print everything out and then hand them out and over time they are copied and maybe used elsewhere.

But, unless these are your selections, without the original songwriter, you really would not have anything to format and distribute. Your effort, and mine at the time, is merely taking the work of someone else and making it more useful. Even public domain music was written by somebody.

If there are no copyright issues, I'd say leave them there. But as other's have said it is up to you.

John
 
Point blank: Yes, you're being selfish.

Leave them up. It's our duty as music "facilitators" to empower as many people as possible. There's no glory in creating or editing illegal tabs or sheets (which is what almost all of them are, like it or not). There's certainly no glory in "controlling" them. If you don't enjoy the time you put into editing sheets or sharing them, why do it? The "payment" should be the joy you bring to people by handing them the chords to their favorite song.

I've learned so many things from other people's efforts. When I make a tab I'm paying it forward for the next guy by sharing it.

Music is NOT a competition.

Edit: I live in Hawai'i where this sentiment is unheard of. It would be considered "haole style." So apologies if this seems harsh, but its my background and... ...you asked. :)
 
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I don't consider the responses to my query to be 'harsh'. They are honest answers to my question (am I being selfish). As a result of the answers I have rcd so far re this post ... I am strongly leaning towards changing my current method and ensure my tab versions will be made available to all. Deep down I have always felt that it's the right thing to do.
This is my first post to Ukulele Hunt and I am very impressed by the responses I have rcd thus far. I can only hope that I'm not looked down upon by posing the question.
 
Thanx for the straightforward reply .... you're absolutely correct. (I feel admonished .... think that's the word)
Have yerself a fine day.
 
I'm new to this community, but I think what I'm seeing between the OP and the respondents is a bit of an initial conflict of cultural expectations. At the risk of getting political, North America is primarily a capitalistic society which goes to great effort to protect it's interests at personal, corporate, and political levels, both to make use of advantage and to guard against being taken advantage of by others. On the other side we have the competing culture of inclusion, openness, collaboration. I think a great many people default to self-protective positions because it's their dominant context; it's what they've experienced most, despite the many internal contradictions involved in the closed model. I don't think there's any reason to look down on anyone for posing the question, especially when the response to the answers received is openness.
 
Alleyoop said:
This is my first post to Ukulele Hunt and I am very impressed by the responses I have rcd thus far. I can only hope that I'm not looked down upon by posing the question.
Click to expand...

Pssssssst this is ukulele underground... ;)

Nothing else to say as its already said.

~peace~
 
BTW, Richard Mityling(?) the leader pictured in the Anacortes Group, recently passed away, Tues of this week, I believe.
Please pass along any condolences you feel comfortable sharing. I'm sure the remaining members would be flabbergased
to receive world-wide response to their website and the generous benefits derived therefrom.

more to the point of this thread, I understand some of the concerns. My primary concern has to do with broadcasting copyrighted
material... even for the benefit of the world-wide ukulele community. I don't compose my own songs, but rather work out
chording and arrangements for popular favorites (generally 30's, 40's, 50's, Hawaiian, etc). As such, those are previously
copyrighted materials so we (song leaders, song sheet preparers) run the risk of offending or legally compromising the copyright
holder's property.

we try to get around it by making our materials available to our group as being for 'educational purposes/uses', and we do try
to use them to teach each other more about how to play the ukulele.

Anyway, it's a cloudy area in my mind... however, if it were not a problem (possible legal issue) I'd be on the side of making
just about everything we do available to as many people interested in ukulele-related materials :)

keep uke'in',
 
If you originally wrote the arrangement, I feel you have the right to keep it private if you are benefiting from sales of it.. otherwise if youre just taking others stuff and compiling them together for convenience and availability... it should be shared at no cost...its actually others work that you are passing on, like the original poster has done to pass it on at no cost, you shouldn't be benefiting from others work after you made your songbook for you and your club and hopefully you're not benefiting from it financially.. Your time invested was to promote the Uke movement in your group, why not the whole ukulele community and movement , other clubs share, why shouldn't you?
 
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I enjoy seeing and hearing others play tabs or chord sheets that I have arranged.

I wonder sometimes if folks are talking about tabs or chord sheets. I consider a tab to be an arrangement that shows you where to put each finger and how to play an arrangement note for note. Tabs usually have four lines (or sometimes five) for ukuleles and either each line or each space stands for a string. The timing is indicated the same way as in standard notation.
Most clubs use chord sheets with the words of a song and the chord changes indicated at the proper place. This is not a tab, though some folks tend to call it one.

This is a chord sheet:

It's A Sin To Tell A Lie Billy Mayhew

Be sure it's (C') true when you (Gaug) say, 'I (C6) love you'
It's a (C') sin to (E7) tell a (F) lie
(G7') Millions of hearts have been (B7) bro(C')ken
(D7) Just because these words were (Dm7) spo(G7)ken

I love (C') you, yes I (Gaug) do, I (C6) love you
If you (C) break my (E7) heart I'll (F) die (A7) (Dm)
So be (F) sure that it's (Fm6) true when you (C) say, 'I love (A7) you'
(D7) It's a sin to (G7) tell a (C) lie (G7)

This is a tab (Click on the image for a readable size.):
The Ash Grove for uke.jpg
 
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