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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > You SHOULD use tab when ...
You SHOULD use tab when ...
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Shaganappi
137 posts
Dec 09, 2016
9:23 AM
Tab should never be used as a crutch. But other reasons...

1. Communication - "napkin scratching", email, forums to full detail.
2. Analysis - musical pitch, rhythm and mechanical patterns.
3. Learning - lick practices and accurate "classical" playing.
4. Transposing - movement of positions via a PC to re-tab licks.

I have just updated my web page to include more tab, including detailed RHYTHM of some Ronnie Shellist stuff. Hopefully it demos my point some.

See:
Beat Tab Notation
https://sites.google.com/site/btabnotation/home
- then go to TABS - then: - Beginning Blues Licks, etc.
Shaganappi
155 posts
Dec 14, 2016
9:42 AM
BeatTab is not JUST another tab system. A few reasons are:

- similar to regular tab when in skeleton form. VERY similar.
- has RHYTHM details. Precise and complete detail as needed.
- enables more complex CONTEXTUAL notation of triplets, 1/16th notes, etc.
- shows explicitly, the DOWNBEATS and upbeats within the rhythm.
- avoids the symbol COMPLEXITY of durations as per Standard Music notation.
- can easily and compactly notate for explicit SWING for straight/swung combos.
- employs underlining for blows. Thereby COMPACTING it a lot for blues.
- uses short one letter modifiers for all common CHORDING and tongue blocking.
- has convenient and consistent notating of CHROMATIC and other harp layouts.
- uses COMPACT pitch modifiers for regular bends, overbends and dip bends.
- enables notation for more COMPLEX ornamentation like glisses, rips, hammers.
- has easy ability to notate for POWER (emphasis/accenting of particular beats).
- has compact REPEAT symbols that enable less rewriting of licks.
- consistently puts ALL pitch, chording and rhythm modifiers AFTER each hole.
- allows for PC generation of sound and rhythm of the notated music.
- QWERTY friendly therefore easier to type or scratch on a napkin.
- QWERTY allows for PC manipulation of score into different positions.
- QWERTY allows for PC conversion of tab into Standard Music score.
- QWERTY allows easily modification on a PC per font SIZE and CONTENT.
- It’s basically REGULAR tab but with rhythm and chording OPTIONS.
Shaganappi
156 posts
Dec 14, 2016
9:42 AM
I have investigated a lot of past efforts of people that have tinkered to make a better tab system, in particular to have COMPACT and PRECISE RHYTHM. Well, it does exist now. And it is QWERTY friendly and very SIMILAR to regular tab. But it needs encouragement for it to fly for the detailed, archival and pedagogical uses that tab is suited for. One should not evaluate it by examining a very complex or difficult case and then saying that it is too hard to use. Most of the time we only require a skeleton form with the basic rhythm in order to have a useful notated form for later use. Particular for short riffs that we like to store and use later when improvising.

The most important thing when learning harp is to use your ears and feel the music - tones, rhythm and all. Taste the flavors of the notes like Gnarly has said before. But notation has its place.

Tab has its uses. It CAN be a crutch, but to dismiss it as just being a crutch can be roughly analogous to refusing to use a power saw when being a carpenter. Or for not taking penicillin when infection sets in. ...or trying to play/memorize / archive / analyze a piece of music simply by ear and then expecting to easily communicate same to another or to remember the details a year from now per the notes, rhythm, chording, etc. There is a place for tab.


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