It's a good point and there's many others. But I don't agree you shouldn't use tab. I think it's better to say continue using sheet music in your practice. I find tab extremely useful to write when I'm transcribing something. They're both good just one has more advantages if you can find it written for the music you're looking for.
He says "As you learn more and more patterns and more and more scales you don't need to be shown how to play the music, just what the music is."
Right. And I get that from tab. I can make sense of a chart, so I CAN also get that from sheet music, but much slower since I don't sight read.
My ear is not good enough to to consistently transcribe by ear. Tab identifies notes and intervals I may not be able to pick up by ear. But once I know the right notes from looking at tab, I quickly can identify and play the musical pattern(s) that make up the tune since I do know my scales pretty well. So I usually don't have to stare at the tab all the way through. Most music is made up of patterns and tab helps me identify those notes that are in the pattern faster than I could from sheet music.
So, while I agree with just about everything this guy says, I disagree with his conclusion.
I've been watching this guys videos for a while. I like his take. It's actually got me thinking about taking on sheet music again. I can play it on the baritone, and even singing a bit, but I haven't ever been able to get it with harp. Part of it is my dyslexia. The grand staff would just overwhelm my senses. I'm thinking what I should have done is approached it as flash cards. When I ran into the grand staff in theory classes I tried to read each note instead of trying to make sense of the chords as 'words'.
For harmonica though, I still think there is tremendous value in high quality tabs. Filisko tabs for example have all kinds of notation that is specific to blues harp (vibrato, slap, accent, tremelo, toungue effect).
I always like Barrett's transcribing style too of offering both the tab and the notation on the same page.
It's certainly been useful for me to use good tabs, sometimes I see things written that my ear may have missed otherwise.
Both approaches are valid, I think it's a mistake to be absolute one way or the other. IOW, use tabs and also don't use tabs sometimes too!
---------- 4' 4+ 3' 2~~~ -Mike Ziemba Harmonica is Life!
I agree that you shouldn't use tab, whether or not you read standard musical notation. I believe it is possible for anyone to develop their ear to a degree where you can learn a new tune easier and faster by listening to it and playing by ear than by using tab. This applies from everything from simple melodies to Little Walter's entire catalog and beyond.
Yeah, tab can be pretty bad if it becomes a crutch but when you learn a detailed lick, ending, etc., sometimes that detail is pretty complex, at least for someone starting out. Particularly the rhythm. The rhythm imo should be incorporated in the tab which is EASY to do. Yes, Barrett uses dual notation but so many harp players are not willing to use easily or fluidly.. QWERTY single line tab with rhythm makes more sense but is uphill to find support for it. Filisko, Gussow, etc with all the tab detail of nuances can be great to drill to the detail but I find it loses the simplicity. I think simple is best and then to let/ encourage the player just fill in / improvise the ornamentation, chording, etc..
I have to agree with harpoon_man. I've never liked tab although it can be helpful for complete beginners. I always tell people to train their ears not their eyes. Everyone is capable of developing their ear but you won't if you rely too much on tab. I wouldn't mind betting there isn't one top harmonica player out there who has learned a Little Walter tune using tab.
I've put a few videos on YouTube where i break down a song and play each 4 bars slowed right down (e.g Little Walter's My Babe) and often people complain that I haven't taken the time to tab out the song for them as well. When I ask how long they've been playing the usual answer I get is "a few months"! Geez, is there any other instrument where after three months playing people think they can tackle a tune by one of the greatest ever practitioners of the instrument?
if there's a + sign after the hole number then it's blow. This is Barrett's system I believe? The ' means half-step bend.
it's just a little ending lick 1847, not consciously from any tune.
While I overall agree that one must ultimately use their ear, I still think Filisko tabs (or any detailed quality tab) have a lot to offer. I've learned several Little Walter instrumentals and other classic blues harp solos from them and was grateful to have them.
---------- 4' 4+ 3' 2~~~ -Mike Ziemba Harmonica is Life!
I never really got proficient at reading tab in real time- that is, I can use it to look up the notes, but I can't read it and 'perform' the music. I learn a song and then play it.
That got me thinking though. Slight tangent- when I was a kid reading sheet music for a long time my mother would help me out by writing the fingering under the notes for me. Basically it was baritone tab, but by virtue of being under the sheet music it trained me what notes went where on the staff. It might be a useful trick for people who read tab to try to make the transition to full on sight reading. Alternately, there has to be some music software somewhere that plays the tune while highlighting where it is in the sheet music, right?
I think it's interesting thinking about the whole thing as a language question. Learning by ear is about talking with the music. Sheet music is about talking with the other musicians. Tab is about talking with other harmonica players.
Nate - Once you tab out a piece in QWERTY on a PC with rhythm included in it, then it can easily be played by the PC for any section highlighted. Or the PC will play just the rhythm part like a drum should you wish not to hear the melody part of the tune. Or play it in a different keyed harp even. Or of course at a different speed. Not hard.
Then most anyone could, by hearing the result be able to either replicate the piece in the normal manner, or else learn how to read the tab in a “word/phrase” sense and thereby become proficient of same.
Or of course, for those who never want to veer from Standard Music (SM) notation, the QWERTY tab can get converted automatically to SM for that use, or for the communicating with other musicians. And also once in QWERTY, one could also convert a basic piece to any other position (2nd to 3rd or whatever) if one wanted.
The main thing I don't like about tabs is there is no timing associated with the song. With sheet music timing is explicitly part of the song, you get both notes and timing.
I see very little discussion about timing on this site. The only time I do see it is when someone says harmonica players often get slammed because of bad timing technique.
Using sheet music you can improve your timing while learning a new song.
Detroit - BeatTab notation has full, explicit and precise timing which avoids the need for SM “sheet” notation. Is all on one line and is QWERTY therefore simple to read, write or type.
Shaganappi, your approach to using tabs is different from how I perceive using a tab. Perhaps, this is because I am a novice.
The way I see people using tabs is to learn a song, to me, this means find a tabbed song and learn to play it.
You seem to be saying use BeatTab notation to create, from scratch, a tab from a recorded song. There are 1000's? of tabs like the ones I am thinking of, are there sites where one can freely access BeatTab notated tabs? I have not been able to find any.
BeatTab looks well thought out but it is just another tab that makes little sense without memorizing the notation or referring to the website. I wouldn't expect too many people to know what
Ryan - Riff:#1 /[22''1][2''11']1 x / I= /4' 4w - - /4' 4w - - /4' 3 - - / Riff / IV= /{3= }}}}/{3= }}}}/4' 4 - 6 /- - x x / V= / Riff / Riff /4` - [3'2][22]/2 - [2''2]- / The above example was taken from “Fast Blues Licks” (Ronnie Shellist) whereby a Riff of 7 notes (see above) is inserted into 3 places of a 12 bar blues which is shown above (labelled as I=, IV=, V= per the start of each of the 4 bars). Each of the / / marks represents a bar.
Most musicians know that each bar normally contains 4 beats so even if a person was unfamiliar with BeatTab, by context alone, and without looking up any reference, one would likely see that the first bar had beats on the 4’ (4 draw bend), the 4w and the two dashes. I think most musicians would similarly figure out most of the rest.
The 4w means to play the 4 draw and add in a slight whisper of the next note to the right (5 draw). All chord symbols used are single letters so as to compact the notation.
For the first two bars of the second line, the 3= warble (between the 3 and 4 draw holes) is played four times (4 beats) for each bar. Again, the modifying symbol is a single letter to compact the notation.
The x x stands for two rests within the last part of a bar (no playing during those beats).
Whenever notes are within square brackets [ ], it means that those notes are played within the space of one beat. So when one examines the Riff that one plays, one sees 3 notes inside like [22''1] meaning that it refers to a triplet (3 notes played within one beat). Or if it shows as [3’2], it would mean to play 3’2 within one beat.
Therefore, each of the above bars has the full rhythm that Standard Music notation would provide. When it is shown in small print like here, it is rather hard to discern but normally the notated music would be in a much larger font.
Overall, once one has gone through even the exercise of the above for just one example, that most of the needed memorization of how BeatTab works, will be remembered. Certainly, the above is easier than what one has to know for Standard Music notation which would involve learning the duration symbols of the full note, half note ... 1/16th note, same for rests, dotted notation, ties and triplet representations. Also the notation would take up a lot more room for warbles/trills and chord representations. As well, Standard Music notation would take up considerably more space and not be easy to jot on a napkin or be done QWERTY-wise.
Agreed that few people could figure out all the above by himself/herself, but a lot could be done by most musicians, and with the help of reading about BeatTab, a quick summary sheet should educate easily for the overall use of same. But it is not learned overnight. Neither was Standard Music notation.
Ryan - Thanks for taking the time to look at the website and thanks for the compliment per being well thought out. Good to know someone is a bit familiar with the notation. Hope I have helped to demo some of the more mysterious aspects of same.
Detroit - Learning directly from tab can get one started but for most people, it generally is not a great habit to develop. Learning by ear is definitely recommended.
Transcribing to tab however can be an excellent lesson for training the ear as well as to the developing of other musical understandings. It certainly has for me. But we are all different.
