Reading music

Do you read music or play by tabs?

  • music

    Votes: 29 35.8%

  • tabs

    Votes: 52 64.2%
  • Total voters
    81
D

Dave-0

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
64
Reaction score
0
I'm 4 weeks into this ukulele thing....enjoying every aspect of it. I really like the creativity piece, the physicality of trying to make my fingers do very specific things...and I especially dig the intellectual part - because along with learning chords, finger picking, strumming and learning where the notes are on the fretboard, I'm teaching myself to read music. I really want to be able to read music and not only play by tabs.

Do you guys read music?
 
I kinda lied when I clicked Music. I'm not at all proficient reading music ... Playing a uke. But I hate tabs. I've just been lazy about really buckling down and learning what I need to, in order to sight read like I'm used to when I play other instruments or sing. I had to click Music because I've been reading it since I was in 3rd grade. When I try tabs, it's like I've been playing for only 3 hours total.
 
Tabs when I'm ukuleling. :)

Although I'm completely proficient in reading music, I haven't made myself learn the positions of notes on the fretboard yet. As long as I don't have to move up the neck, I might be able to get through some simple fingerpicking...

Had anyone had experience with the Ukulele in the Classroom books? I understand those are entirely in staff notation.
 
Rawks said:
Tabs when I'm ukuleling. :)

Although I'm completely proficient in reading music, I haven't made myself learn the positions of notes on the fretboard yet. As long as I don't have to move up the neck, I might be able to get through some simple fingerpicking...

Had anyone had experience with the Ukulele in the Classroom books? I understand those are entirely in staff notation.
Click to expand...
We use the ukes in classroom books to teach music literacy so it's great for people who've not had that sort of training. For someone proficient in reading music, much of it could be redundant.
 
I read music and tabs. Both have their purposes.

Reading sheet music on the uke is very useful for playing the melody of a song off the sheet music. That's a very useful skill to have. TAB is good for notating guitar solos and fingerpicking, etc… Sheet music is well suited for the piano.

I don't know why some complain about reading music so much: if you can count to 4 and say the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G… and know where those letters are on the first 5 frets, that's basically it. hehe

I took my first guitar lesson at the age of 12 and I was afraid when my instructor was going to teach me to read music. The secret: Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. Those are the names of the staff lines. After one or two lessons, I could read the notes on the staves. Piece of cake.

Petey
 
I learned notation for guitar, but use tabs for everything else. Tabs actually give you more specific information about how to play the song. Many notes can be played in a variety of locations, and having specific information about the best fingering for that note (and the notes around it) is very helpful. On a piano, there is only one location possible for each note.

–Lori
 
Lori said:
Tabs actually give you more specific information about how to play the song. Many notes can be played in a variety of locations, and having specific information about the best fingering for that note (and the notes around it) is very helpful. On a piano, there is only one location possible for each note.

–Lori
Click to expand...
Totally agree!

Petey
 
Last edited:
The most difficult thing about reading sheet music is not the names of the notes, I agree with Peter that you can learn those fairly swiftly. But I still can't get the rhythm bit, no matter how many times I try. I pick up a sheet of music, try playing it on my fiddle and then, if I have access to it in a recorded version, find out that how I thought the tune went has very little to do with the tune as it should be played. Perhaps this is because I don't actually count in my head as I play; I just play! I find the counting interferes with my thought processes and threatens to make the most beautiful thing on the planet - making music - into one of the most dreaded: doing math! ;)
 
Last edited:
I took a number of years of classical piano lessons so I'm used it. You can use a metronome so you don't have to count, but counting is necessary in the learning process. Notes are great for getting the right melody line and you can then interpret it anyway you like rhythmically.

Going into a recording studio is a real eye opener for the amateur musician. You often play to a beat track and that is tricky to the newcomer. You're basically playing to a metronome even in pop music! ooh lala! hehe Peter
 
Yes, I remember when our band made our first album and we had to record to a metronome / electronic drum beat. It was a pain!

There was one song we varied the speed of between Verse & Chorus - it worked, live, so why not? But when we came to record it we had to subdivide it to fit a metronome pattern and it changed the whole feel of the thing and all because we had to keep in time with a mechanical contraption. Bah humbug! ;)
 
Yes, as has been said, your question does not quite make sense (no offence meant). It is like asking "Do you drive a car or drink coffee?" . It is possible to do both. I read and write music and have done so all my life. But, I use tab extensively because it make campanella voicing easier to notate.
 
Barbablanca said:
Yes, I remember when our band made our first album and we had to record to a metronome / electronic drum beat. It was a pain!

There was one song we varied the speed of between Verse & Chorus - it worked, live, so why not? But when we came to record it we had to subdivide it to fit a metronome pattern and it changed the whole feel of the thing and all because we had to keep in time with a mechanical contraption. Bah humbug! ;)
Click to expand...
Timing changes are very tricky! Transitions must be thought up and the song recorded in parts. Though, would a solo flamenco guitar player record to a metronome? Not sure. Sometimes a recording live off the floor works.
 
As a Singer/Strummer I use Song Sheets (Chords and Lyrics) mostly.

Next would be TAB for the reasons mentioned above.

Haven't invested much effort in learning the fingerboard notation... yet :)

keep uke'in',
 
Ken Middleton said:
Yes, as has been said, your question does not quite make sense (no offence meant). It is like asking "Do you drive a car or drink coffee?" . It is possible to do both. I read and write music and have done so all my life. But, I use tab extensively because it make campanella voicing easier to notate.
Click to expand...

No offense taken. I'm just wondering how experienced players approach playing the ukulele and thought I'd poll the group. I mean is my wanting to learn to read music simply overkill?...is it going to make me a "better" player (whatever 'better" means)?...is it going to enhance my musical journey? As I said, I'm really enjoying everything about learning and exploring the ukulele, the mental challenge notwithstanding. Luckily I've not been bitten by the UAS bug and continue to make my little Diamond Head work for me. I guess that's what really matters....right?
 
i am new to uke and i am learning to read tab music at moment with the book i am learning from seems pretty easy, some things still throw me but i do research and try not to let it beat me, must say i am enjoying it, so you could say i read tab
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

captain-janeway
Reading sheet music
Replies
8
Views
647
plunker
plunker
badscooter
Low G - reading music
Replies
7
Views
852
Kenn2018
Kenn2018
VegasGeorge
Wearable display for reading music
Replies
10
Views
854
VegasGeorge
VegasGeorge
T
Ukulele Beginning Music Reading
2
Replies
21
Views
4K
Alan S
A
M
Reading sheet music with a Low G uke
Replies
9
Views
2K
stevepetergal
stevepetergal
Top Bottom