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How To Play Just The Way You Are?

Why do so many folks say that Guitar Tabs are a good way to learn how to play the Guitar?

  • I know you guys mean well, but TABS are for learning how to play SONGS, not how to learn how to play the GUITAR itself. Any beginner who wants to learn to play guitar needs to know chords and how to pick and press their fingers down. TABS don't tell you that. You need to know how to play a guitar before you can play a tab. And to those who say "That's how I learned" , then I wonder how much you actually KNOW about your instrument? Or are you just playing "monkey see, monkey do" ? Do you know why the chords are doing what they are doing? Do you even know the notes of the fretboard? I'm not trying to be a d**k head, I'm just trying to point out something all the people who really want to learn the guitar are doing wrong. And I wish all of you great success in learning...really! (I just started getting peeved at everyone who says to learn the guitar, just get some tabs and learn how to play them)

  • Answer:

    Well tabs are pointless to me. The sheet music is more important to me because tabs leave so many loose ends to exsplain timing, Some times tuning, and what I noticed the most is everyone writes then out so much I cannot ever find the right ones. It is pretty hard to mess up with sheet music in my opinion because it builds up your hearing more so that what is there in tabes. When I was learning mother from Danzig last week I noticed everyone excepted the wrong sounding tabs for mother where they were playing a Full on B cord that was 1 octave higher than the oringal B Flat that is played in the original song. It can be easyly confused but if you know sheet music then you would know the difference. I am not going to lie when I write a song down for quick referance I use tabs but later on put it into sheet music. Just becase my own fear dumb *** kids will get my music wrong or try telling me how I play my own songs wrong. Trust me I had it happen to me before. With sheet music that is next to unlikely for someone to mess up so badly. For the other yahoos on yahoo... Sheet music is important for music theroy so learn it because the longer you wait the hard it is to learn sheet music.

Russell E at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Go Russell!!! I can't add a thing because I'm in total agreement. However, an interesting take on the topic can be found here: http://www.betterguitar.com/blog/classic_6.html In addition, see "Tablature vs. standard staff notation" here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature#Tablature_vs._standard_staff_notation Kabum

kabum

Nah i mean you are right. People need to learn both tabs and how to read music. However, tabs do teach chords and the notes around the guitar if they are tabbed out well. Since i doubt many people just get plain tabs with no chord names or anything i can't see this as a major problem for anyone that actually PLAYS guitar. It does not really effect me since i play by ear also and just reinforce everything with tabs and chords. I am 16 and know that i don't know everything. When someone asks me how to play the guitar or where to start I say youtube lessons or tabs. By this I just mean get interested enough first so then maybe you will be dedicated enough to take lessons.

Kenny

I'm nearly 55 and been playing since I was 10, so I'm old school. I'm not a fan of tabs. When I go to a music store and just sit down and start playing songs (I mean playing chords and singing) the young guys will stop what they're doing and want to know what I'm doing. They're sitting over there playing runs and riffs and comparing tabs they saw in a book, but few of them know how to just sit down and play chords and sing a song.

Neil B

i agree completly. learning tabs before learning to actually play is like telling a baby to run before it walks.

oranges

You have to admit, tabs are a quick and easy way to learn to play your favorite songs, but I completely agree. It ticks me off so bad that I learned the notes, major and pentatonic scales, chords, barre chords, power chords, open power chords, and a Chuck Berry lick that is in a lot of solos ( and every time I end up improvising off of it, it usually sounds good), and then some bird-brain thinks he's better than me because he learned the Stairway to Heaven solo from a vidio on Youtube. Oh well, I guess it's just the way of things.

Ian E

U do "know" how to play if u play tabs... no, u dont know "everything" about guitar or how many frets or whatever.. u dont have to know that... if u know your tabs well enough you can start picking by ear and play anything and its easiest!! most songs have gutar solos.. and there are few chords to learn.. i learned tabs b4 anything!! and everything else i taght myself by knowing how to do tabs...

Sarah

I know, I hate tabs. simply because i've been taking lessons, and refuse to learn tabs because its completely different and would probably just confuse me...but then when i want to learn something between lessons, or for some reason am stuck on a cord, i can never find anything online with cords, its always tabs!

prplfae

I agree completely! I learned through tabs and am realizing every day that I need actual lessons. I learned bass first, so I know some basics, but nothing about chords or scales. That's where I need lessons!

SavdnStaind

I'm sure people are just trying to help. Everyone has an opinion on what works for them which might not work for others. It's ironic to be upset at something that generally brings pleasure to people.

Kaz

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