"I also differ with Amos and Jim in their comments that laid this duscussion to rest back in Nov '04. Learning from tablature only is essentially the same thing as learning from standard notation only; the only differences are that tab provides an additional level of practical information, and SN has much greater snob appeal. Either method will result in skilful musical playing onlyif the student has a feeling for how the song is supposed to sound."

4 years or so on from when I started this thread I have to admit to using tab to some good effect now, but I haven't changed my opinion too much on its use to beginner guitarists. Unless you learn how to play chord shapes in both open and closed positions, and develop rhythm and good fingerstyle technique first, then I think Tab can be a hinderance and actually promote bad habits that are difficult subsequently to change. A friend of mine has been playing for a good number of years now and his playing is of an excellent standard so long as he is playing something he has practised sufficiently well not to have to think too carefully about how he is playing it.

He soon comes unstuck though when he hasn't put the time in, and he looks embarrassingly amateur when that happens, and it leaves his audience very puzzled when it happens.
Watching him play is very interesting because his playing style looks very clever, and is very difficult for beginner guitarists to get a handle on. This is because he never plays from within and around the basic chord, but uses unconventional fingering based on the numbers he has read from tab.
As a consequence he finds it very difficult to improvise and rarely plays along in any kind of session. When he first started playing, he appeared to make rapid progress and soon amazed his audience with that progress, but now he seems to have hit a brick wall and should really be much further on. I firmly believe its tab that has shackled him to some extent, and I fear it will continue to do so. I can detect some frustration now in his playing. Some have commented to me that he's even gone backwards.

I see similar problems in beginner harmonica players who play exclusively cross harp because they want to play the blues.