Yeah, me too. I just love learning new things and seeing lightbulbs go off. At my age, I have to keep exercising my brain to prevent dementia and all those other old folks conditions, and constantly learning new things is a great way to do it.
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It makes sense to me 
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@PamPurrs I just realized why you and I could never agree on the use of TAB.
I not only supply some music to my jam buddies but also teach and instruct.
Let me ask you - If you had an absolute beginner come up to you and ask you to teach them to play Happy Birthday and they wanted the words and music written out, so that they could practice, what would you supply them with?
The opinions of any other teachers/instructors regarding the use of TAB would sure be appreciated here.
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I’m not a music teacher, therefore I abstain from the question.
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I think the bulb is supposed to go on though.
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On the top 10 list of things that will help people improve their musicality, theory is around 43 
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That’s your opinion. It really depends on the person and their goals and what instruments they play. The importance of theory is much higher on my chart.
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I’m not one either, but I’ll have a go…
When teaching a day one beginner sax, or flute, or piano, or ANY instrument other than guitar or bass (we will come back to guitar or bass) do we say “read this paper that says press this key with that finger, then this key with that finger, then ….etc etc”?.
NO!
So why does anyone do it with guitar and bass?
Honestly, its a cop out.
Day one with my private instructor he sent me sheet music, not tab.
So yes we older folks can say ‘I just want to play songs, i have no time” - but its a cop out.
You learn to read music if you play an instrument.
That’s the deal.
Tabs are always a cop out, a quick cheat win.
And they are fine if that is the path you want.
And you can cite Macca or anyone else that can’t read music…but no one reading tabs has the talent needed to do what those did, or they would be doing it.
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Amen!!!
I still remember a few years ago when I saw my first score for bass. I emailed it to my brother (guitar and trumpet player) and asked, what the hell is this underneath the stave with all the lines and numbers? He emailed me back saying that it’s tablature, a crutch for guitar and bass players who can’t be bothered with reading real music.
I’ve never forgotten that.
I’ve played drums, trumpet, and piano in the past. I currently still play piano along with bass. I have never before seen any instrument for which they write “paint by number” instructions along with the scores.
It is what it is, and as I’ve said, if this is how you want to play, I’m okay with it as long as you keep playing and enjoy it.
Well, having played violin, trombone, bassoon, trumpet and some piano… for the most part and especially piano, there’s one fingering you’re going to use to play a note. Violin you stick mostly to first one or two positions for quite some time so unless you want to stick to the first 5 frets on guitar, tabs are significantly useful as are chord charts. If I’m reading standard notation i have to convert it to tab in my head anyway. It’s very common to show someone how to play a song, by telling them which strings/frets to put their fingers on; that’s tab. All those other instruments are heavily influenced by classical European music history as well so that’s what they teach.
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Your confirmation bias is always amusing.
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I’m so pleased you’re amused 
And tab tells you which finger to put where…which, is subject to interpretation in many cases. And also wrong in many cases.
At the end of the day, a system came up to make it easier to play, its a work around for music theory. It’s fine, but let’s not try to make it something it isn’t. It is what it is, it is useful, but it is paint by numbers.
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I think we are mixing music theory and reading tab vs. reading sheet music.
Sheet music is no different than tab except you have to figure out which note to play in which position. You can read sheet music and no zero theory.
So there’s that too.
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BTW, I use tab!...wha???
Ya cause i have limited time and i want to play songs faster.
I know theory (poorly) and can read treble clef, and I am slow at it (which is why you won’t catch me playing much Charlie Parker on sax). And I have a horrible memory.
But i am still working the theory cause I choose to.
And the reading cause I want to sort out where my fingers go on my own, cause I want to.
Again, you can stick to tab forever, its all good, but its still a short cut.
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I’ll bet if you did teach you would see the importance of TAB for absolute beginners.
I have discovered that there are several things that you must do with beginners.
1-Keep it simple. 2-Stress the importance of practice. 3-Make it enjoyable for them by getting them to play whole songs, that they like, as soon as possible. 4-Provide them with positive encouragement.
Standard notation that includes TAB below it has worked for me for over 6 years, before COVID, for all absolute beginners, and some not so much beginners. 
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You should scroll up and read some of my earlier comments in which I stated that very thing. I also stated that tab is “training wheels” that need to come off at some point.
However, if someone want to continue riding with their training wheels on, that’s no concern of mine.
Really? LOL