The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75147 Message #1317703
Posted By: GUEST,Jim
05-Nov-04 - 10:20 AM
Thread Name: Guitar - Learning by Tab
Subject: RE: Guitar - Learning by Tab
I'm very grateful for contributions and insight into tab from some obviously accomplished and experienced musicians – thanks to all. After almost 40 years playing guitar I'm trying to get my head, hands & fingers around tab for the 1st time myself, and finding it quite useful. I'm not a good copier though, so I find myself using it as a general "roadmap" that prompts me to venture off down my own side-roads.
My concern was specifically related to beginners who often ask me for advice and keep asking "How'd you do that!" or "What's that chord?!" – leaving me a bit flummoxed sometimes because I've never had any formal training, can't read music and don't know much about music theory or the science of chord construction. Often I've no idea what chord I'm playing – I know it just feels and sounds right. Playing by instinct has been fine for me but now I'd like to be more informed when trying to communicate some ideas to beginners.
One particular observation I've made about "Tab learners" is they often play melody using fingering that appears uncomfortable and convoluted, whereas often more natural and simpler fingering should (in my opinion) come from within the chords. They might, for example, use the 1st & 2nd fingers to play notes E and G rather than hold the full C Chord and just pick those 2 notes with 2nd & 3rd (or 4th) fingers. Every movement along the fret-board seems like a totally new journey to them without any of the anchor and reference points that a knowledge of chords would provide.
If anyone has learned, from scratch, using tab and feel that it is a good way to go I'd be interested to hear your views.