@erniehaak I force myself to practice playing songs while not looking at my fingers when I use Rocksmith (RS). For some reason I don’t feel as much pressure to “get it right” when I practice on RS compared to playing along with a song on YouTube or something. For me I’m mostly ok except for the 6th and 8th frets. I swear they move around randomly at times!
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I’m sure not looking at the fret comes with time… As frustrating as it is that is what i want…
I’m not sure how long it takes but it looks clean and in control… Not dissing others by any means…
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You’re right, @fitt1959 . . . 
The longer you play and practice, the less you will need to look at the fretboard. Even so, it’s normal and natural to look at it . . . especially if you’re moving longer distances between frets.
Cheers and welcome to the Forums
Joe
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I look at it constantly and regret nothing 
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I look at it occasionally and regret nothing 
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I find it compulsory if I’m sliding from one fret to another for accuracy
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I really don’t get the stigma against it. I mean, I have to look somewhere. Might as well be an enigmatic shoegazer avoiding eye contact.
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I don’t really think there’s a stigma, I think it’s more to the idea if you’re sight reading, your eyes need to be on the music stand and not fixed on your fretboard. That’s pretty much what Mark Smith teaches early in his sight reading course. Much of the concept of that course is to be able to see a note on the stave and let your fingers automatically pluck the right string and strike the right fret with having to think about it or look at the board.
On the other hand, if you’re performing on stage and are playing from memory, that theory goes out the window. But still, it looks rather peculiar to me to see a bass (or guitar) player with their head down fixed on the fretboard during the entire performance.
When I went to the U2 concert a few years ago, I was standing right at the base of the stage watching Adam Clayton play bass the entire performance. I don’t think he glanced at his fretboard more than a dozen times the entire concert, and in fact looked at the audience pretty much the whole time (I think he made eye contact with me a couple times 
).
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different styles for different folks, I’ve seen plenty of bands where the non-singers pretty much stare at their instruments the whole time. Personally if I was on stage I would be avoiding eye contact with the audience at all costs lol. Though I do think it can project a certain comfort level with the instrument, and yeah for sight reading it’s required.
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Yeah I took a lot of comfort in being behind a couple keyboards, computer, and mixer at our gigs, lol
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The problem with that is that standard notation does not tell you where to go… in standard notation, E15, A10, D5 and G0 are all the same note but with a different timbre and only tab can distinguish between them. If the composer had a specific intent, one might find that important. Standard notation is fine for instruments that can only play notes in one place, like piano or even something like violin where you probably most often play in 1st position or have some very good reasons to play elsewhere… but it’s lacking for guitar; tab is a much more robust method of notation. The only shortcoming i find is it’s not as good at chunking as standard notation, but since i don’t need to sight read anything it doesn’t matter much.
As far as learning the fret board, I found the best way of doing it was play songs using the first 4 frets then 6, 9, and 12 and i often played in a mostly dark room where i couldn’t see the frets. Humans are “lazy”, they’ll do what’s easiest/most efficient unless forced to do something else
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Good tabs with timing info do indeed convey more information than sheet music. Tabs like on Songsterr now are quite nice.
That said I usually only use tabs as a basis for initial learning and usually come up with my own fingerings anyway.
One bad thing I have found with tabs is that many of the “pro” writers are anti-open-string snobs. It turns out that open strings often work better (and in context often sound better), despite what they taught in Jazz class
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Ah! So i’m not the only one! I’ve been noticing that more and more.
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Exactly!
And that’s the beauty of playing by notation. The player can use her own creativity to play the line in a way that’s most efficient, or to add interest here and there.
If I see a G on the 1st line of the stave, I know to play the 3rd fret of the E string or the 8th of the B string. If I see a G on the space below the 5th line, I know to play the open G, 5th fret of the D string, or possibly the 12 fret of the G string. I can make those decisions on the fly. When notes appear on ledger lines above the stave, now we’re in the higher register and moving toward the headstock.
I’d rather be my own player rather than a puppet for whoever created the tab sheet. And do you really think that person knows what the composer had in mind, other than where the notes are on the stave?
But, as I always say, to each his own.
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Yes because that’s exactly the choice here - be your own player, or be a mindslave to the evil tabmaster!
Seriously, let’s get real here. For learning songs, with good tabs (with timing) the two forms are equivalent. They give you exactly the same information in different ways, with the tabs also giving you a suggested fingering. It’s just two different ways to convey the same info.
For sight reading bass, yes, musical notation is more compact and a better format. But sight reading and learning songs are orthogonal. You can learn a song easily without sight reading.
For sight reading guitar, both tabs and sheet music seem super, super shitty. You would want chord charts for that and tabs for memorizing solos.
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I look at my fretting fingers too. But what I sometimes do is close my eyes when playing something that I’m quite familiar with. I can highly recommend it because it makes you realize that you might have already (muscle-)memorized something without knowing. Also, it cuts out the middleman (eyes) between your ears and your fingers. I do it when I try to really feel the groove and listen more carefully. Looking at my fingers seems a bit distracting in those instances. It’s a bit like dancing in the dark vs. dancing in front of the mirror: If you want to perfect your dance moves, a mirror might be helpful, if you want to get carried away by the music, switch the light off. 
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Knowing how to read sheet music and sight reading, although somewhat related, are entirely different skills. I agree that you can learn a song either from a written score or from tab if you so desire. You can also learn it by ear or devise it from chord charts, but this still requires some sort of notation (unless you have an incredible memory) which can be either tab or musical notation. I prefer the latter.
As to downloading scores or purchasing books, my preference is musical notation over tab. It makes much more sense to me, and I don’t have to look at the fretboard while I follow someone else’s step by step instructions.
This is my personal choice.
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I wish there was more sheet music available, actually. It’s pretty scarce online for many genres.
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Agreed 100%
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