My $0.02 again on this course…even if you never read another notated score, you learn two valuable things faster than on your own…
Tempo - there is as much tempo reading as there is note reading. The Bellson book is another great resource for this, but is all based on a single E note. Mark combines with note reading, so may be harder.
Knowing the fretboard + without looking - to me this is a really good benefit from the course, being able to look away for more than a miro second and have the confidence that you won’t lose your place.
I disagree. Standard notation only shows what note is to be played, not instructions as to how to play it (fret & string). With standard notation, the player see the note on the page and simply plays it without having to think about which fret or string. The note is played by instinct and muscle memory.
It’s the difference between driving directions that say, “turn right at Main Street” and ones that say, “When you approach Main Street, gently press on the brake pedal with your right foot and as you begin to enter the intersection, turn the steering wheel clockwise, then turn it back counter-clockwise until you’re perpendicular with Main Street”.
I think most of us would prefer the former.
Yeah, we can agree to disagree. Standard notation is just as much
as tab is. Just because you prefer the “circle on the second line indicates a B” vs “2 on the second line indicates a B”, doesn’t mean that both aren’t following some “unseen person’s instructions” that a B should be played there, and for how long. You prefer standard, and that’s fine - everyone will have a preference, even if they can utilize both. And tab doesn’t tell me to “lightly pluck the string in an upward direction, coming to rest on the string above”, so I consider your GPS analogy a bit hyperbolic as well, but that’s tangential…
On topic, I bought this course a while back… Haven’t gotten to it yet though. Even though I can “read music” (for the most part, and I don’t mean sight reading at speed), I’m hoping it helps make the fretboard more “second nature” and improves my sight reading speed… Have to get through the scales and chord tone courses first…
Funny - I don’t recall stating that I preferred one or the other… Matter of fact, I clearly stated I could read music. But, go ahead, make it personal when you’re out of arguments…
Don’t get your feathers in a knot, I’m just being my usual smartass self. I only said that because you don’t seem to know the difference between playing from standard notation and tablature. Nothing personal, just an observation based on your previous comment.
I don’t think he’s the one missing it here, Pam. Unless you’re saying I don’t get it either, and I’ve been reading music for 40 years and have sight read for other instruments before - maybe poorly, but I could do it.
I would agree with more or less everything he is saying. Standard notation sight reading is simply “following instructions” as well. Sure, on stringed instruments you have some minor choice about fingering, but that’s pretty minor compared with the fact that you are reciting the musical melody as written. Especially given that the fingering in tablature is simply describing how one person played it; once you know the note you can play that anywhere as well, which is how most people really use tab - as a song learning starting point.
Note that the “choice” you are talking about is peculiar to stringed instruments as well - on other instruments you don’t even get that and are literally just playing back by rote with sight reading.
Weirdly, tablature is not just specific to stringed instruments, though it probably should be.
Not in the derogatory sense you mean. I mean in a song learning starting point, even as experts. It has nothing to do with player skill. You can learn and know a song via tablature to an equal or greater extent than with standard notation; the two are equivalent.
That wasn’t meant to be derogatory. Everyone has to start somewhere, and that is where I started. Unless I am misinterpreting your comment, you are saying even seasoned sight readers still rely on tab?
I remain steadfast in my position that playing from music notation is nowhere near the same as playing from tablature. The former is direction, while the latter is instruction. You can think what you want, but I’m sticking with my opinion. Notation is being told where to drive, while tab is being told HOW to drive. In my mind, there’s a huge difference. I’m sorry you don’t get that, but I’m okay with it
No, Pam, I am saying there are plenty of expert players that use tablature and don’t sight read at all. If you want one example that has played on lots of songs you like, there’s Pino Palladino.
The use of tablature or standard notation implies little about player skill, in and of itself.
This distinction you are referring to about direction vs instruction, as I mentioned, is pretty illusory. First, it only exists on stringed instruments. Everywhere else, sight reading is pure rote recitation. And even on stringed instruments, PEOPLE DO WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT WITH TAB. Seriously. You use the tablature as an initial map of the song, and then improvise fingerings of your own that are better. I do this all the time. So do most people, as far as I can tell.
Of the two, do I think standard notation is better? Well, I prefer it, but if I am honest, modern tabs convey exactly the same information well, and provide one person’s interpretation of the fingering as well, which you don’t get with standard.
Good, then we seem to (semi) agree. So why are we arguing? I normally charge $6 per minute for arguments (insults are extra), but I just announced a Black Friday special on which you can get a five-minute argument for only $18.00.
This one’s on me.
If I recall correctly there is a remark by Josh himself, or by Adam Neely, that there is one thing missing in tablature, and that is the relationship between the notes. You can “tablate” rhythm, rests and so on. But it is much easier to read a score and see that you are playing e.g. a root-fifth-octave rather than seeing that you are “offsetting by 2 frets”. I have taken the silliest of the examples but on this aspect (that is, the “relationship/meaning” of the notes) I think that musical notation has the upper hand. At least for me.
As a final note, I will put on record that the Sight reading course is helping me a lot, even if I could already read music (but not “so fast”, especially in the bass clef) and that Pino Palladino is a master, tabs or not.
Same here! That’s the message I have been trying to convey, but some people aren’t comprehending. The Sight Reading course is not about Tab vs. Notation, it’s about becoming a better and faster reader of scores, and being able to play on sight.
Yes, I still say it’s a great way to break away from reliance on tab, but that’s only for those that want to. If you’re comfortable with tab, keep doing it.
For me it comes down to the universality of standard notation. After all, there’s a reason it’s called standard notation. Whether it’s voice, piano, sax…or bass guitar-- standard covers them all. That is why for my time investment, I’d rather just skip TAB step up to standard notation. I can pick up music for anything and relate it to my bass. I can see intervalic relationships in standard notation; I can almost hear in my head those intervals and know what the piece is supposed to sound like. Maybe that can be seen in TAB, and if it’s possible it would be interesting to see.
That’s all true. But atthe same time, skipping tab really means “skipping 15 minutes of learning” since it is immediately and obviously graspable, and “skipping” it locks you out of 95% or more of the available song resources out there.
It’s not like you can buy a piano score and just play part on the bass clef. That’s going to be a completely different arrangement than the bassline 99% of the time. The availability of bass guitar sheet music is very, very small compared to the amount of tablature out there - and the quality of what is there (online at least) is not any better, either. I have found myself having to correct bass scores more often than tabs on average, if anything.
Choosing to lock yourself out of available resources seems like an odd choice to me; why artificially limit yourself?
Obviously (well, obviously to me anyway) the best answer is to learn and use both. And to be clear, I think everyone should learn to read music. Not sight read per se, just read standard notation. It will pay off a lot over time.
That’s a good point @howard My case is special, since I already possessed standard notation knowledge. Starting from a dead stop with the bass or guitar as the very first instrument, TAB does make sense. And, for a lot of folks, that is indeed the case. There are a lot of people who pick up the guitar and have no intention of learning anything else.
