[Menvi-discuss] guitar tabs

[Chris Smart]

Ok, here comes the anti-tablature rant. You have been warned. 
*laughing*

I'd rather just teach the student to read basic notation, for many 
reasons. Typing out seemingly endless lines of dashes and making 
sure numbers line up vertically for chords is tedious in the 
extreme, and really isn't doing the student any favors, especially 
if they plan on pursuing music any further than strumming basic 
chords. Besides, if they do some music in school, I can introduce 
them to the staff and treble cleff before they'll be seeing it in 
class, and it will seem easy when they do encounter it. I've had 
more than one student get A's in their first music class in school, 
simply because they remember how to count quarter notes in time, or 
that "every good boy deserves fudge". There are only seven note 
names, and counting to three or four shouldn't be tricky either.

I usually only take students who are eleven or twelve, thinking 
that they are old enough to focus for a half-hour lesson, and their 
hands are a little bigger. But, I was convinced to take on a 
neighbor's seven year-old, because she is incredibly well mannered, 
calm, and very very kean to learn. Working with her has taught me a 
lot in a short time.

Here's how things went with her initially.
First, we messed around with tab, for it, and for other songs like 
"When the Saints go Marching In", "Happy Birthday", "Jingle Bells" 
etc. I originally thought "ok, keep it as simple as possible, or 
she'll get frustrated and quit, or at least won't practice." But, I 
was wrong.

Something interesting happened. I thought that she would get the 
rhythm of these songs easily, since she's heard them all her life, 
not to mention sung them at Christmas, birthdays, etc.  And, she is 
taking dance classes too, so should be used to moving parts of her 
body in time, right?
But, it wasn't happening. No matter how much I tried to help her 
with the rhythm of what she was playing, through counting, singing, 
imitating what I'm playing very slowly, etc. she just wasn't 
getting it! Why? I think because it was not on the page. And, by 
the time I figure out how to write q for quarter, e for eighth 
above the tab and maybe some sort of fingering notation below the 
tab, it's just a confusing mess of seemingly meaningless letters 
and numbers. Is that 2 meaning 2nd finger or 2nd fret, and darn, 
what string is that again? It gets more confusing the more you try 
to add to basic tab, in an attempt to convey more than just string 
and fret numbers.

A friend of mine who plays saxophone chastized me for not just 
starting her off with actual music notation from the start. So, I 
rewrote the simple melodies on the staff, with every note named, 
fret numbers provided, and string numbers circled. We spent a 
little time learning the difference between whole, half and quarter 
notes, and what a rest meant. We clapped some simple rhythms, and 
since she'd just done fractions in school, this was not difficult 
for her to grasp. Then, she was off. Not only is she playing in 
time now, but she's moved on to playing the melody to the Beatle's 
"Let It Be", with me strumming chords to accompany her. And, most 
importantly, she's loving it.

Now, I have to add that her parents are extremely supportive, and 
her mom remembers how to read from her days as a piano student, so 
she's getting tons of positive reinforcement, help and supervision 
at home. If she wasn't so kean and able to focus for several 
minutes at a time, she probably would have given up by now. But 
mostly, it's coming from her. She's determined to learn this stuff 
and is excited by the challenge, and giving her tab only was 
selling her short, because it does not give nearly enough 
information about the music.


Now, I'm starting to give her simple things with less of the notes 
named, a couple less fret or string numbers each time, etc. so she 
has to start slowly learning that the note on the bottom line of 
the staff is at 4th string 2nd fret, or the top note on the staff 
is at 1st string 1st fret. But, do it gradually enough, and they 
start filling in the blanks.

Catch them early enough and you can start them out right.  It's 
usually adults who want tab only, and are really resistant to 
learning new things like chords outside of the open position.

Let's consider one more thing. For just about every other 
instrument you can name, including vocal students, learning to read 
standard music notation starts from almost day one. It seems that 
only guitar do you get this active resistance to anything but 
tablature.  I'm not sure why this is the case. Perhaps it has to do 
with the guitar being a folk instrument and not so connected to 
classical tradition and methods.

The end result though, is that by the time someone gets to high 
school or plays in a situation where reading is required, the worst 
readers by far are the guitarists, whereas the piano player or sax 
or trumpet are probably cruising along with no difficulty. The 
material people want to play is not a problem. I'm happy to teach 
rock and metal - I love that stuff and grew up on it. But they'll 
learn to read it too.

Or, alternatively, we'll do everything by ear and through simple 
imitation of the teacher. That works well too if someone absolutely 
refuses to learn a little reading, and ear training is important as 
well!

Ok, rant over. If tab works for you, use it. But if you are 
teaching it, consider how much information it does not represent 
spacially and visually on the page.  A good reader can pick up an 
unfamiliar piece of music, and just by reading it away from their 
instrument, have a good idea of how it will sound and how to play 
it. Simply from what is on the page, they can hear the music in 
their heads, or at least parts of it. That will never happen with 
tablature, no matter how much improvised non-standard notations you 
add to it.

Chris
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