Do you play by "note" rather than tab?

hibiscus

hibiscus

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My eye sight isn't the greatest, and I can't see the tab numbers on most music. (Ukulele Mike's is nice and large!) I've been playing the piano and several other instruments for over 50 years, so learning the notes on the ukulele isn't all that difficult for me. I was just wondering how many of you play by note.
Thanks!
 
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I do a bit of both - I'm not a great sight-reader but I think it's a good skill to have and am trying to get better at it.

I've got terrible vision and have started having trouble with tab numbers often being too small. Sometimes switching from my distance to my reading glasses helps, but I'm at the point where I'm considering scanning my music and printing it out a bit larger just to make things easier to see!

Makes me wonder if there's a market for large-print editions of uke tab books :)
 
Well, I used to. Now, with the prevalence of tabs (not available 50 yrs ago when I was a lass) I am finding they ARE easier. It took a week but after a while I mix the notes above with the tabs below. Sad to say, this is going to ruin my scale and note reading on strings.
 
It's much easier for me to just sight read the notes. Most folks love the tabs but they just confuse me. I think it's cause of the years playing a piano. It is a bit harder going from soprano to tenor. Sort of like a stretched out piano with big keys.
 
Thank you for your replies. I hope I can do both, AND I wish the tab numbers were larger!
 
I hate tabs.

When you can read music and speak the language of music, then there's no one you can't jam with. No style you can't at least do a passable job with. There's no song you can't figure out for yourself. As you learn songs, you teach yourself theory and get better at the instrument all at the same time.
 
I studied Classical guitar for a number of years. Even though it has been over a decade since I've played, unfortunately, I'm still pretty good at sight reading for guitar. So, when I try to read music for ukulele, my fingers automatically go to where they should were I reading for guitar. After trying, unsuccessfully, to overcome it, I've just accepted it. Now I transcribe everything to tab. What Scott says is true, however, and I may try again to unlearn the guitar so I can learn the ukulele. On the bright side, the theory part is still good. I'm also having a lot of fun.
 
hmgberg said:
I studied Classical guitar for a number of years. Even though it has been over a decade since I've played, unfortunately, I'm still pretty good at sight reading for guitar. So, when I try to read music for ukulele, my fingers automatically go to where they should were I reading for guitar. After trying, unsuccessfully, to overcome it, I've just accepted it. Now I transcribe everything to tab. What Scott says is true, however, and I may try again to unlearn the guitar so I can learn the ukulele. On the bright side, the theory part is still good. I'm also having a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

I go back and forth between guitar and uke and the 4th interval difference still drives me crazy. Things that are instant for me on guitar take thinking about on uke. But it gets a little easier with each new skill that I acquire.
 
Tabs suck. I wish when I started playing uke, I'd been more methodical about learning scales and applying it to music to get that muscle memory. I guess I thought I'd get used to tabs. Yeah, I prefer actual notes.
 
I think it's worth noting that there are tons of great musicians out there that neither read tab or music notation. They simply play. I think what separates the "men from the boys" (in terms of playing in an ensemble or group) is the ability to speak the language of music. When players can talk through specifics of a song, the song usually comes together much quicker.

If you know what a II-V-I turnaround is, and know what "Rhythm Changes" are and it doesn't scare you when the leader yells out "16 bar blues in F! 1...2...3..."; you're probably going to do okay in a jazz setting.

If you know the difference between pianissimo and fortissimo, rubato and allegro than you'lll be able to hang with the more legit players even if you're not a master music reader.
 
I find it easier to read notes on a treble staff because of my musical history. Now I'm working on learning both bass clef and tab. I also play with people who say things like, "you know, it's a I-IV-V progression" so I'm starting to learn to interpret that. One thing I can say about learning an instrument that plays chords is that you never stop learning!

Nix
 
I'm a "classically trained" musician and can read standard notation just fine. But since my peabrain wasn't up to retraining itself when the notes were different, I basically learned uke from tab.

What's scary is when I do bust out a full-sized classical guitar, if the sheet has both standard notation and tab, I'll find myself automatically trying to read from the tab instead of the notes. :eek:

hibiscus said:
My eye sight isn't the greatest, and I can't see the tab numbers on most music. (Ukulele Mike's is nice and large!) I've been playing the piano and several other instruments for over 50 years, so learning the notes on the ukulele isn't all that difficult for me. I was just wondering how many of you play by note.
Thanks! (And now you all know I'm not such a young hibiscus.:D)
Click to expand...
Try Chief Noda's tabs... he puts like 3 staves on a page! Very easy to read, but uses a lot of ink to print and makes for more page turns on a longer piece.

But I agree that the numbers on some tabs can be really hard to read for those of us with "mature eyes". It depends on the number of staves per page and the tabbing software used. Some programs just output a more elegant and readable finished product.

I can't stand ASCII tabs and won't even bother with them unless I absolutely can't find anything else.
 
itsme said:
I can't stand ASCII tabs and won't even bother with them unless I absolutely can't find anything else.
Click to expand...

Same here. I'll re-copy the ASCII tab by hand onto a blank tab sheet if it's all I can find.
 
When I want to sing a song, I write the lyrics then put an A above the phrase if I should play an A, a B if I should play a B, and so on and so forth. I'm not very technical about anything I do (even when I was in school for photography, some people are all about the megapixels and equipment while I'm like, I don't know, art is about beauty and feeling!).

On Youtube when people ask me for strum patterns and that kind of thing I always have to explain that I don't know! :uhoh: I just do what feels right and hope for the best! I admire technical musicians that can read music and I did attempt to better myself by taking music theory (I got a D!) but my brain just doesn't work that way so for me it's always just been a matter of figuring out what I think sounds good and going with it. Sometimes it is embarrassing to now know all the technical lingo though!
 
janeray1940 said:
Same here. I'll re-copy the ASCII tab by hand onto a blank tab sheet if it's all I can find.
Click to expand...

Hey there's an idea. I could work on my skill there by copying into some form that I can read, then slowly make that switch to real notes. :)

I'll admit right here that I only remember treble clef, of all of them. If playing bass clef, which like never happens unless I'm at a keyboard, I can easily lapse into treble. That's after two years worth of theory courses so.. yeah. :(

Instead of just having a muscle memory of it, I sometimes have to do that trick of "The name of the note in bass clef can be found a third (a line or space) above the note I'm looking at, in treble clef." A C in treble becomes an E in bass, an A becomes a C, an E becomes a G, and so on.. That's so much to remember, may as well just remember bass clef!
 
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I use tabs, i have no previous musical training.
 
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