Reading standard notation vs TAB

paul_c2 · October 2016

Interesting video, which supports standard notation - but not for the reasons you might expect!

For those who can do it, it makes a lot of sense and analyses how its done - you go beyond a "that is the note of Eb" stage, and reach a stage where you directly relate the visual shape(s) to the muscle memory of that note.

octatonic · October 2016

He is completely right.

AustrianJohn · October 2016

octatonic said:

He is completely right.

Not for everyone. The plethora of guitar tabs on the internet shows that it's a very popular way to read guitar music. I learnt to read "proper" music when playing the piano in my youth. I guess I could (very, very slowly) read standard notation and work out which finger ought to go where to make the note, but tab is just so much easier (for me).

Different people work different ways. Both notations are valid. Take your pick. Mine is tab.

octatonic · October 2016

AustrianJohn said:

octatonic said:

He is completely right.

Not for everyone. The plethora of guitar tabs on the internet shows that it's a very popular way to read guitar music. I learnt to read "proper" music when playing the piano in my youth. I guess I could (very, very slowly) read standard notation and work out which finger ought to go where to make the note, but tab is just so much easier (for me).

Different people work different ways. Both notations are valid. Take your pick. Mine is tab.

Did you actually watch the video?

John_A · November 2016

Really well delivered and I agree completely

paul_c2 · November 2016

AustrianJohn said:

octatonic said:

He is completely right.

Not for everyone. The plethora of guitar tabs on the internet shows that it's a very popular way to read guitar music. I learnt to read "proper" music when playing the piano in my youth. I guess I could (very, very slowly) read standard notation and work out which finger ought to go where to make the note, but tab is just so much easier (for me).

Different people work different ways. Both notations are valid. Take your pick. Mine is tab.

I agree that there's more - FAR more - tab music out there for guitar than standard notation (bass is a bit different). Regarding your own slow reading speed, its simply because you don't regularly read (standard notation) music, or practice it. I can assure you that after reading a lot of music, it gets easier and easier. In fact that's the point (one of them) of the video - it actually gets easier than tab, because tab is a bunch of numbers to decipher which isn't intuitive compared to standard notation which has a more pictorial/graphical/relates to the pitch style.

This lack of standard notation is a bit of an issue, I feel, for me because I'd like to properly adopt it on (6 string) guitar but there's not the material out there. I guess for rock/pop, people put it in the lowest common denominator.

When you compare to other instruments I'd say guitar/bass is at a disadvantage, partly because its physical features lend themselves to play more informally than reading all the time (for example, a short riff on fret 15 is as easy as the same on fret 5 - a trombonist, or violinist, would have more difficulty in transposing up a minor 7th just like that) so its more open to improvising or playing along with other musicians or music. But also partly because other instruments tend to initially be taught classically, which have a somewhat narrow focus when it comes to certain aspects such as improvising, modes, etc and have well-developed methods for teaching (such as Suzuki method for violin) which naturally focus on reading standard notation from the outset. A beginner bass guitarist is much more likely to be first exposed to standard notation a number of weeks after starting playing, while eg a trumpet player or clarinet, from week one.

dern · November 2016

The plethora of guitar tabs on the internet shows that it's a very popular way to read guitar music.

That's mainly because tab is easy to create and reproduce using a fixed font.

I'm just starting to learn to play piano and standard notation is quite a jump from tab. Makes a lot of sense and conveys a lot more meaning than the tab I see on the net that has been created with a fixed font. Mind you, on a piano all the notes are in a straight line so that makes the job a lot easier.

William Williamson · November 2016

I don't buy this crap that tabs are for stupids, Lute music was using tab before standard notation was even invented. The main and true salient point IMO from Neely is that one needs to UNDERSTAND what they are playing, and not just read the tab and bypass the processing.

dern · November 2016

William Williamson said:

I don't buy this crap that tabs are for stupids

Who said they were?

octatonic · November 2016

William Williamson said:

I don't buy this crap that tabs are for stupids, Lute music was using tab before standard notation was even invented. The main and true salient point IMO from Neely is that one needs to UNDERSTAND what they are playing, and not just read the tab and bypass the processing.

No one said they were.
Did you watch the video?
Until you do, we can't have a worthwhile discussion.

paul_c2 · November 2016

William Williamson said:

I don't buy this crap that tabs are for stupids, Lute music was using tab before standard notation was even invented. The main and true salient point IMO from Neely is that one needs to UNDERSTAND what they are playing, and not just read the tab and bypass the processing.

Regarding "one needs to UNDERSTAND what they are playing" from, Adam never uses those words but I can kinda see how you might have interpreted it as such. Its true that when you read standard music notation, there's an amount of knowing/understanding what it is, for example in the video there's a run up and down a scale - you'd, as a musician, understand this is a run up and down the scale and that the standard notation represents this. But then as a TAB player, you'd physically need to sound the same notes, and play the same thing - I guess you might not understand its a scale, or what key you're in, etc but you'd still need to physically do the same thing.

I'm not sure if you're saying this requirement to understand is a good, neutral or a bad thing. I'd personally say its neutral, because those are the kind of things you'd naturally understand anyway. Putting it another way:

Written tab --> what to play & how to play it --> physical actions to sound the notes on an instrument

Standard notation --> what to play --> physical actions to sound the notes

The difference being, that the standard notation doesn't explain how to play it - but doesn't need to. The knowledge on how to play it are (pretty well) developed skills the musician already has, thus the standard notation saves repeatedly saying this again and again, and saves processing this (and is easier to read, ultimately).

I think we're basically in agreement, although its good to be sure.

paul_c2 · November 2016

Another, slightly at a tangent, thought of mine is: can you "play faster than you can read", or "read faster than you can play"? The guitar (and other polyphonic instruments, such as piano, etc) can play many notes quickly, so you could get into a situation where you can play faster than you can read. Take another example, tuba, the actual sounding of the notes requires a different and more difficult set of skills than a (eg) piano. So, its an instrument where one could read faster than you can play. Thus, the reading doesn't "get in the way" of playing once you're competent at it.

A double bass isn't that far off a tuba - it requires some amount of skill to play the notes nicely. A bass guitar is easier than double bass, a little bit, so I reckon (personally for me) its about in the middle of "play faster than read/read faster than play".

And personally for me, guitar is easier to play quicker than bass, especially chords (yes you can do chords on bass too.....but they are rarely found in written music stuff!!) so its edging towards "play faster than you can read" for me.

TheBigDipper · November 2016

Standard notation (SN) tells you more about the music than tab does - unless the tab is augmented with SN features like note duration and rests. Tab gives the player the specific frets and strings to use but doesn't suggest fingerings or if the left hand should barre.

I wouldn't like to learn a piece I didn't know just from the tab. I would need to have a recording to listen to. I think I could probably make a decent fist of it from SN - although I'd need to think about fingerings and strings to use if the SN didn't provide that info.

bingefeller · November 2016

Just play from whatever you like. All this "you should know this, that and the other" bollocks is stupid. If you can't standard notation and don't want to learn then it really doesn't matter. I read a Q&A with Guthrie Trapp on his Instagram and he said he can't read music, yet he seems to do pretty well in the Nashville session world.

paul_c2 · November 2016

bingefeller said:

Just play from whatever you like. All this "you should know this, that and the other" bollocks is stupid. If you can't standard notation and don't want to learn then it really doesn't matter. I read a Q&A with Guthrie Trapp on his Instagram and he said he can't read music, yet he seems to do pretty well in the Nashville session world.

I think that's a completely valid viewpoint too. SN is not for everyone, but serves a (useful) purpose, but doesn't particularly fit well with guitar playing or the world of guitars.

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Reading standard notation vs TAB

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