I think I first encountered tablature more than forty years ago in Pete Seeger's The Folksinger's Guitar Guide. As I recall, he wrote that it was based on a notation used by Elizabethan lutenists and predates modern western notation. I've worked through a few tabs but I always find it a chore. Like Dave, we just wore out our LPs trying to learn Etta Baker, Gary Davis and a host of other great players. Once we learned to hear the chords and figure out where they were capoed it began to be much easier.

After a time, one learns to “see” the hands of the performer while listening to a recording. This ability is, in my opinion, far more useful than working out music note-for-note from tablature. The tablature is useful for working out the mechanics of a difficult technique but once that purpose has been served the tablature should be disgarded and forgotten.

A longtime friend and super picker extraordinaire once opined that there is a big difference between learning to play a tune on an instrument and actually learning to play the instrument. Imagine not being able to sing a song unless the music is before you and, even when memorized, only being able to sing those particular notes and rhythms. It's just way to limiting for most purposes.

      - Mark