TAB vs. Standard Notation

Guitar TAB (short for tablature) is the most popular way of reading music notation for modern guitarist. Hundreds of website on the internet offer thousands of songs in this 'easy to use' notation format and the majority of published songbooks now prefer TAB because of it's universal appeal, practicality, and efficiency of use to the modern recreational and professional guitar player.

This modern TAB trend has had it's fair share of critics and dissenters mostly among music teachers and professional players for it's apparent "dumbing down" of the process or art of studying music in the proper traditional way with the result of creating a world of illiterate musicians. Hence the proverbial joke being, "how do you shut up a guitar player? - put a piece of music in front of him/her.

Lute TAB from 1554

When confronted with this attitude,  I truly sympathize, understand, and clearly see the results of a general musical illiteracy and the decline of most modern music to the lowest basest form of mind numbing stimuli and soundbites for the purposes of entertainment only. The problem is, that if we look at TAB in the historical context (dating back to the 15th century) it has been around longer than the invention of the guitar and deserves to be critiqued within a broader picture and context. The descent of music is a mirror of the decline other things in our modern culture and must be viewed in the context of art and technology and the participation and use of music in our local economies and communities.

The Big Picture

As a professional guitar teacher I use TAB notation for 95% of my students studying for recreational purposes and 50% of the time for university and college music majors. Using TAB allows me to get my students playing and doing music more and reading and thinking music less. To me, that's a great starting point that creates momentum, confidence, and openness in the journey and process of the enjoyment and making of music. Once that 'playing field' is open there are many opportunities to fill in some of the missing gaps during the 'game'. 



Final Thoughts

Unless you are studying music for the purpose of becoming a music educator, studying traditional forms of music like classical or jazz, or as a professional guitarist, standard notation can be bypassed in favour of TAB as a more efficient, enjoyable way of learning the techniques of guitar. You'll fly through the music 5 times faster and once your on your way, standard notation might be something of value later in your journey.

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