-
Reading notes and tabs–or not
I’m sure others do this, but I’d like to know if it’s a handicap or an advantage.
I read notes very little, just the basics, and tab I can read pretty confidently. But, even with bifocals, the tab notation is very small on the printed music sheet, so it slows me way down to read and play at the same time. When I had piano lessons ages ago, I learned mostly by ear as the teacher played a piece, then the notation acted as more of a cue of what to do next. I can’t follow Tony’s verbal instruction of where to put my fingers etc., as he goes too fast. And the video is mostly useless as it doesn’t keep up with the audio. (Yeah, I have a little, old, laptop,) But if he plays the lesson through, at least I know what it’s supposed to sound like as I work through the tab and gain muscle (and mental) memory.
Who else here does this, and have you found it more of a struggle to learn techniques and licks etc, or has it made it easier for you?
BarbaraM
PS, the piece I enjoyed most on piano was that Bach piece that’s often used as a backing track to “Ave Maria”. I’d love to learn that on guitar!
-
4 Replies
-
I use the tab for fingering and the note notation for timing. Tony’s instruction is often critical to show me which fingers to use and I will often stop, rewind, and restart the video to make sure I have the correct fingering. Trying to figure it out on my own is often an issue and results in problems playing because of using the wrong fingers.
If I print out a tab I enlarge it when printing, it most of the time, I just zoom in on the computer to make it large enough to read.
I’m really surprised that the audio and video aren’t synced for you. Even an old computer should keep them in sync. Do you have a smart phone? Perhaps play the video on that.
-
I could try the phone for the video, see if that works. But I do enlarge the pdf of the tab when I print it, but you can only go so far. Reading it on the computer is fine, but I can only view that screen so long without eyestrain, and I’d have to stop and keep scrolling, so I couldn’t use that to play along. I do get what you mean about using the notes for timing and the tab for fret position.
What I think I was trying to ask is, if you don’t read notes, does playing by ear and memorizing slow you down or enhance your learning?
-
“What I think I was trying to ask is, if you don’t read notes, does playing by ear and memorizing slow you down or enhance your learning?”
I don’t know the answer, but I have several thoughts.
When learning something new the brain needs feedback in order to learn. A good example of this is free throw shooter, they can see when the ball goes on the basket. Now if you hid the basket so they could not tell if the ball when it or not they would never get better. For guitar our ears are our feedback, so being able to determine by ear when a wrong note is struck or timing is off is essential.
This works great for songs where you know how they should sound. This issue is when you don’t know the song, you have to rely on the tabs/notes to figure out what it should sound like. Overtime you will learn what it sounds like and your learning with happen at a faster pace because you can rely on your ears, but until that time you will struggle. If trying to play mainly individual notes like we have been doing with Fast Car this week I find being able to read the notes as quicker than the tab.
-
-
-
Hi @BarbaraM You bring up such an interesting question, and I think the answer is it depends on the Peterson. Not everyone is astute at reading tab. They may be able to play chords or individual notes, but not really read tabs. Another person will be very astute at playing by ear. That is a skill that Tony introduces in the Fretboard Wizard course, but it really is an acquired skill that not everyone is capable of. I personally would not be able to do what you do. I need to watch the videos typically, but not always. I’ve gotten to the point where I can go straight to the tab sheet and typically understand and play what is shown. I don’t necessarily have to hear it played in order to play it. Others may or may not be capable of that. I’m not sure you’re experiencing the TAC training the way it was meant to be taught, but if it works for you, thempn that’s all that matters.
Log in to reply.