Why You Shouldn't Use Tab (and it's not why you might think!) [ AN's Bass Lessons #26 ] 

I watched about half of the video before I realised this isn't about coding...

Can you just make 'how to' and explanation videos on everything???? Your videos are so great! Fast paced, to the point and is easy to comprehend. I want to learn everything this way lol

As a programmer I’m never giving up tab. It’s too useful for indentation and cycling through choices :-P

Old video, BUT, I cannot resist: 1. Standard musical notation is more efficient for communication purposes in the LONG run, but it requires a substantial up-front investment in both understanding how to read music, and how to apply that to your instrument (e.g,, do I play that 'e' on the 5th fret of my 'b' string, or is that an open 'e'?) So I don't think it's as clear as saying that musical notation is more efficient, full stop (not Adam's words exactly, but a fair [I think] summary). 2. I think a lot of the hate for tab (not necessarily coming from Adam, but the musician community in general) is related not to any perceived problems with tab. In fact, I argue it is precisely the opposite - it makes the guild way more accessible, and lowers the barriers to entry. Tab makes sense because you do not need an education in music notation in order to understand it. 3. Tab is more limited, but IMO it was never designed to show anything that complicated. It was designed with a fairly simple purpose - teach guitarists and bass players how to play something they may not have figured out by ear. At that, it excels.

Thank you for being one of the few youtubers who don't speak painfully slowly.

"Why not both?" - Guitar Pro Editor

i played piano and clarinet as a kid (still play piano) so I can read notation quite well, and i started playing guitar in the past year. I can read notation just fine for first position on guitar if I'm playing a simple classical piece, but the fact that you can play the same notes on various places on the neck trips me up. With the other instruments I've learned to play, each note corresponds to a single way to play it (and thus, usually, the fingering) whereas with guitar, there's different ways to play each note that you have to familiarize yourself with to competently read from notation. That's where tab comes in as a helpful tool. Sheet music with tab below a staff has been instrumental (no pun intended...) in learning. I think learning notation is ultimately more helpful to understanding theory and reading quickly, but tab has helped fill in the gap between the more general basic reading and music skills I already had and the specific complexities of the guitar.

literally 10 seconds into this video, and your point was proven, and I am now hating myself for not learning how to read sheet music.

As a bass player, I would much rather use standard notation than tab... however most songs I want to learn don't have standard sheet music available, or you are paying $30 for each book. Tab is freely available so that is what I use. Being proficient in standard notation (8 years in a concert band), I can honestly say it is far more efficient than tab. It also prevents you from having to listen to the song over and over again to get the rhythm down. Reading music, is better in every way imaginable. People just don't want to learn it, because they are comfortable with tab.

Oh god. This video displayed in my recommended vids. I thought it's about why you shouldn't use tab button in programming LOL.

I've been classical trained on trombone for nearly ten years and roughly a year I ago I picked up bass. For the first few months tabs was extremely helpful but now I'm having a much harder time figuring out what the music is asking for with tabs. Thanks to your video I think I know why. So from now on I'm just gonna learn and use standard notation on bass like I would on trombone

I strongly support the idea to change the English writing to phonetic as a standard.

This is like VSauce for music. Great content!

I use tablature primarily because of the type of music I play. When you play metal, no one you play with will know how to read sheet music and sight-reading will just never be part of the equation.

People talking about how they thought this was coding and here I am thinking it was about LSD

I know a guy who is a cellist for Hans Zimmer at Ramone Studios and he can't read sheet music, he can read piano roll in real time. Now that is... uh ... something.

This nigga is like the Vsauce of music. lmao

when i was learning how to play guitar, i would always turn to tabs. but i like to listen to sort of obscure music so finding tabs to songs i wanted to play got really hard. the solution i found was to dump tabs and just play by ear, its hard but with a lot of work and a lot of grinding, its possible even for an amateur.

As a musician and former linguistics major, this made my day.

I'm a bad sight reader, and my piano teacher often tells me to just 'not read every individual note' which confused me. I think I understand slightly more now.

I kind of agree, I use both too. The point that might not be in consideration is that tabs are used to learn songs, not sight read them like most of classical musicians work, there's a practical difference in the use of both which is how fast its for the bassist or guitarist to learn it, not read it while performing. And a huge difference too is the kind of music you want to learn, take a metal riff for example (like Megadeth for example, with lots of half steps, blues notes, and scale modifications), those things have A HUGE amount of accidentals, its really annoying to write that kind of stuff in classical notation.

And in the comments we see the music side of youtube and the programming side of youtube mingle with one another

The final example reminds me of how Chinese is written in characters “中文汉字” but can be written as romanized pronunciation “zhongwen hanzi”, yet the seconds is vastly not preferred for reading, even though it’s used very often

This makes sense when standard notation is available, but in many cases, standard notation sheet music will not be available, and transcription takes time and/or a good ear.

I think it can be useful for stringed instruments, you can indicate the "right" or "easiest" fingering. A piano has one key per note, but you can play the same note on different places of the neck with a bass. I don't know if it really matters tho.

You are one of the few (and I mean FEW) youtube musicians who know their shit

This video completely changed my attitude towards musical notation. I'm 25 years old and I've just now realised that I've limited my ability to write and understand music, in essence slowing myself down with tabs. Thank you so much Adam, I will finally learn the letters

As a trained English philologist and amateur musician I appreciate this video so very much! Thank you Adam! Subscribed with notifications on. Keep the good work pal!

I get your point, but if you're really trained in reading standard notation, of course it's going to seem more effective to you. In your first example, we can read the text easier because we've been reading words for our whole life. Tabs have the distinct advantage to tell you where you should put your fingers (which is invaluable to a beginner). As a non professional musician, I find tabs just as hard to read as standard notation. Slow, tedious, until I know the piece by heart. I find recorded live performances much more helpful than any written transcription, but then again I get that one would want to come up with a standard notation in a time when there was no Internet to help you learn an instrument. I would say that I'd like to get rid of tabs, but not really to replace them with standard notation sheets. I'd like to stop using tabs when I have a good enoughear so that I can get almost all parts just by listening. IMHO, that's what a musician should strive to achieve.

Came here looking for an argument to use spaces instead of tabbing for coding. Wth is this? Whats a bass? Is it like some kind of Emacs extension?

Thanks for this video! I’ve been playing for about ten years and this gives me a very good explanation of why I should be concentrating more on learning standard notation properly.

I think both systems of notation have their strengths and limitations, so I advocate for both. Most guitar and bass sheet music books I have seen use a double staff with standard notation on top, and tablature on the bottom. If only standard notation is written, players who can only read tabs will be lost because they won’t know which string or fret to play. If only tab is written, the rhythm (in some cases) and the contour of the music that is so important as Adam points out in this video is not there, so they won’t know exactly how to play it, either. But if you have both, everyone is accommodated and I think it is well worth the extra page space to avoid any confusion. In a way, a double staff could actually bridge the gap and help tab readers learn standard notation, since they can compare both by looking at it. Another reason I read that tab is important is that it can notate complex things that are peculiar to plucked string instruments like hammer ons, pull offs, and bends, which are either really awkward or virtually impossible to notate properly with standard notation. Generally speaking, though, tab is favored by amateur or self taught players in the blues, rock, and metal genres while notation is preferred by formally trained players in the classical and jazz genres.

One thing I think is really useful about tabs is that as a beginner you are forced to use your ears to get all the information tabs omit like the rhythm, lengts of the notes and articulation. These are skills that are extremely useful later on when at times you might have to rely on your ears only.

Fantastic video Adam, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it!

This is fantastic . I’ve always heard that “it’s not what professionals do” which I’ve always ignored. You provided a real motivation... time for me to start getting serious about reading music :)

I subscribed to your channel some time ago and I learn something new in each one of your videos. I have been a Hammond B3 player (amateur) for almost 50 years and the information you provide in your videos is nothing like I was taught in my music classes back in the days. Thank you so much for your interesting tips.

Very good, non-elitist points made here. I was pleasantly surprised :)

I would agree with you in general, and I'd add that tabs are a useful tool for teaching chords to new players who have no music theory reference.

Hey Adam I don't know how far back you look at old vids & comments, but your background music and the content of your essay here sync spot on delicious. kuuudooos

A friend sent this to me as I'm a theory nerd with a love of linguistics. I love it. Syntactic Structures is a real page turner.

Very interesting. As an educator I see the benefits of both approaches like you mention.

Tab's alright for learning wee bits of riffs.

Outsanding lesson! So much interesting and useful information in such a short amount of time! I will definitely continue seeing your videos. Thanks!

thx, i wasn't convinced that standard notation was any good but this has convinced me otherwise!

Sick video man, just found your channel and I'm really digging it. Keep it up!

“Simply Guitar is the best way to learn, practice, and master the guitar!”

Thanks Adam Neely. I'm going to share this my students. I used tab for teaching guitar and working on making all my students read standard notation.

Another stellar video. Interesting new perspective. Anyone who has you as a teacher is lucky, indeed.

In my opinion, the speed at which tabs can be read doesn't really matter as much for guitar players. Most of us generally only use tabs to learn and memorize a song, and then we don't bother with reading it again. I believe that if you compared tab and standard notation based on which was easier to memorize, tab would win because using tab forces you to think of what you're playing in numbers, while standard notation is less and less about thinking about what exactly you're playing as you get more used to it.

I appreciate your video, and realize that within the context of modern day tablature, a lot of what you say makes sense, but there are some things that you should be aware of (if you are not already). Tablature goes back to the 16th century (in the western tradition, and even further back in the eastern tradition) and has a number of advantages over standard musical notation in certain contexts. For example, when playing an instrument for which there are over a hundred different tunings (lute or viola da gamba, for example), it is far more efficient to use tablature and indicate where to put one's fingers than to try to learn where the notes are on the fingerboard in each tuning. What's more, is that at that time, there were a number of tunings and temperaments, which would render a stopped note equivalent of an open string, to sounds differently (this gave a lot of intended character to pieces). In order to capture the properly tuned note, it is important to indicate whether or not to play the note stopped. I should also mention that, although one does get a sense of the shape of a line with standard musical notation, when one has been working with tablature for a long time, one can get a sense of shape, as well. I can take a look at a page of tab, and get a pretty good sense of what it sounds like, as if I were reading standard notation. It is important to remember that musical notation and tablature are both abstract symbols combined to create a system in order to communicate musical ideas, and are not the musical ideas, themselves. What you might find interesting is that there are professionals who find that playing certain pieces that have been transcribed into modern notation from tablature, somewhat awkward to play; the character of the piece doesn't translate well, in some cases. Thanks for our videos, I enjoy your work. Regards

Playing guitar as a hobby over 22 years now, and this video summed up every grievance i have with tabs.. think its about time i learned to speak.

Neely. I've been trying to find a proper video to make this comment. But I'm going to go ahead and put it here. I am a composer and musician, and I am a hard core music theory nerd. And I just want to say, I absolutely love your deep dives into both conventional and sometimes not-so-conventional aspects of music theory. This kind of stuff is what I live for, and your YT channel easily is the best I've found to fit that need. Thank you!!!

But how i'll be able to play my 16th century lute pieces then!?

I guess I agree with your case for bass. Standard notation also works well for keyboard, as there's only, say, one A3 or C5 in the entire instrument. But with electric guitar, especially in metal/prog, not knowing which string to play a note is pretty difficult for learning a song. For example, some extended chords are only playable in a few parts of the neck. Also, some fast stretchy riffs have a big difference in difficulty depending on where you play them. Tabs take the guess work out of it. Yes, tabs don't work well for sight-reading. But it's not meant for sight-reading, just like car manuals are not meant to be read while you drive. Maybe a color-coded standard notation with notes colored according to strings may work for sight-reading? Who knows

This is a very enlightening video for someone who is not very proficient with notation, nice work!

You just combined music and linguistics. I love people like you.

Yeah, ok but as someone who never really learned to read music, I simply don't have the time or energy to go back and rectify this. Tab is a handy shortcut to learning new material. Your point about shape is well made.

4:55 Jokes on you, I'm fluent in IPA! :)

I love how you use analogies(and good ones) to convey concepts.

Wow. Such a clear and convincing argument. Well done.

One of my favourite guitarists (Dean Lamb) plays extremely fast metal and in his youtube series that covers how he learns songs he uses tabs. He's able to read the tab and play along with it at the same time, like a pianist reading standard notation. To me that's evidence of the same process

I tried responding by hitting tab, but it moved the function box to the cancel button..... maybe it was for the best.

EXCELLENT piece...rapid fire...no BS. I'm subscribing now.

As a linguist and amateur bass player, you have all my admiration.

Professional tabs do not work like simple numbers.Actually first tabs were made in medieval times,before notes we know today ever existed.Also playing on guitar is different then on piano.We have the same note on many places,and they all sound different too,for certain phrases its crucial to see in tab format,at least for my taste of learning when I play any electric string instruments. Also behind tabs on modern tabs you have notes as well with all lengths,pauses etc,so you really do not miss anything,just getting bigger picture how to play something on exactly what position.

Ive never liked using tabs much, i much prefer just to see somebody play the song/see the chords in action.

As I'm learning to read drum notation, I used to blame myself for not being able to read note by note. Instead of that, I always passed my eyes over the whole thing (saccade, now I know). I always thought I was doing something wrong, and the fact that I was able to play the music anyway was just because I already knew that music part. Nice to know that this is kinda normal, kudos Adam for this awesome informative video. Funny to comment in a 2016 video but yeah, it helped a lot, so thank you.

A logical argument, well presented Captain. Live long and prosper.

I play jazz, flamenco and classical guitar, and I find your reasoning to be true for the most part, however, I don't see tabs as essentially bad. When trying to play a complex solo piece (that is complex for my capacity) I find it is better to translate the notation into tablature in order for me to remember which position is the best suited to transitioning into the next part, especially since you can play the same set of notes in different locations until one extremely high or low note comes in or until two notes fight for the same string and you're screwed. Sometimes it also helps remembering the best position you selected. I wouldn't say it's a substitute for sheet music but I think it is a good addition to it but I usually recommend guitarists to make their own translations from sheets to tabs.

Tabs for me allow me to feel the music and learn the song by ear, since it's pretty much impossible to remember a tab I previously read and execute it from memory (even a short bit), I have to really remember where the notes were on the guitar and the shapes of the scales used to get there on the physical neck of the guitar. It's definitely a crutch I use for now, but I definitely try to minimize my use of tableture period, in order to keep my ear from going rusty, and to practice my mind sound. I will try to work out songs by ear and only use tabs if I really feel stuck, and then once I got it I try to remember the song in my head just as I would if I were working it out by ear. Doing this helps me since the only place I play is with other people at bars and I dont ever have sheet music to use anyway, so I pretty much have to rely on my memory to play songs, and the feel of the song often feels artificial for me when Im relying on sheet music. Like I want to use sheet music, but at the stage where I am now, it actually feels more like a crutch than tabs do since I use them sparingly, and I feel like if I used sheet music more often it would consume me lol

I've just now been introduced to your youtube page, Adam. I have a lot of catching up to do. Love your subjects, and espically love your discussion/comments on those subjects. Compelling and beautifully done.

This is awesome! It gives me the motivation I need to push through learning notation.

I really believe the guitar is the most difficult instrument on which to read music. It's because it is non-linear and the same notes may be found in multiple places. In the 16th and 17th centuries, tab was in common use on all fretted instruments. When I used to play the lute, I got very good at French tab very quickly. Also, I could read music on all fretted instruments even though they were tuned differently.

Hey Adam. Ex-music teacher here. I just want to let you know that I think you're a genius of education. Your ability to clearly explain and demonstrate complex ideas is such a pleasure to watch. Thanks for all the great work!

I 100% agree with this. I am a music educator myself and I teach guitar. When I have my students learn treble clef notation instead of just tabs (I have them learn tabs too) they ask why it's relevant. I have cited this video specifically on a few occasions. Thanks for making this!

I love your videos. I got out of playing music for a few years and your videos are great to get back to theory

To me tab is more of a guide. Since it is music, notation will always be abstract. Tabs are good to check if you heard it right and they give solid idea about rhythm. Actually they are the fastest way to play something also. It doesn't matter what a tone is called. They just tell you right away how to produce a certain tone. It's also easy to hear and locate a root and to apply a pattern for a scale or see such pattern in tab. It simply is a guitar notation thing whereas standard notations are overall for music. I really like that i do not know each tone on the guitar, although i also kinda do or at least can figure it out if i want to. It distracts from the music to think about tone-names. Overall guitar is a visual instrument among others and such shapes you cannot produce with standard notation. I also notate songs i write in tab like e: 2 4 5 h :0 2 under the lyrics. It keeps it at home where it was written.

You are a ridiculously intelligent human being.

I liked this video mainly bc you obviously are putting 100% effort into it. I can't exactly prove or disprove you on anything you said. I do believe you are most likely correct on most of your ideas. But like I said, it's too clear you are working very hard, which definitely deserves a Like

My friend is a mathematics student, and also an excellent classical guitarist. He says he just remembers all the numbers and sees them fly by. Pretty sure he has a good grasp of theory, and he can sight-read fluently, but just prefers to think in numbers (and of course muscle memory). Different strokes for different folks

what if i develop muscle memory for tabs? like - - 7 7 5 - is going to be a D5 powerchord with root on the a string and so i just need to glance at it to know what my fret hand needs to do

A recent study "september 1994" SeemsGood

I don't consider myself a musician, I am just learning piano but now you explain the whole "shape" thing to me it makes a ton of sense. Sometimes playing new music I find my hands just find the right place on their own and it's cause of the "shape" of the sheet music granted in still slow as hell

Great video! I've been looking for a way to explain to my students why standard notation works better in the long run.

I don't fully disagree with what you're saying, but I don't fully agree either. I've played bass for about 10 years now, and have mostly used tabs, upwards of 99% of the time. It was really useful to start learning songs and all because it told me how to play the music, even if some tabs - particularly the bass parts - are quite overlooked and mistranslated when the tabs are made by anyone other than the composer of the track. However, you can change them to adapt the fingerings to better suit your playing style, and where I am now I can do this automatically, while playing along to the tab, considering it's not a crazy prog lead or bass solo, in which case I must take the time to sit down and analyze which fingering I'm most comfortable in, and change the tabs to fit this. Also, I believe that, at some point, like with the classical notations and words in text, you become able to decipher the shapes of tablature, in groups of 3, 4, 5 or more numbers at a time, especially if you know the scale in which the part is played. If you're in Em, for example, and see a rising pattern beginning on the 7th fret of the A string, and there are three notes per string, you would assume it's 7-9-10, 7-9-10, and 7-9, and you would most probably be right. However, it depends on the forms of the numbers, and 7-8-9 is different from 7-9-10 and you'd know at a glance which is the correct one to play. Ultimately, why would tabs be any different from standard notation regarding shape pattern recognition? I will often play-along to tabs I don't know, and be able to make it through the whole song. Of course, more difficult songs will require me to look up parts and memorize them by heart or even modify the tab's notations, but is that really any different from any classical musician? Thanks for the video, it was an interesting point of view. -Dave

I go to tab first when learning a song on guitar, because sometimes playing the note on the 6 string has a slightly different characteristic than the exact same tone and pitch on the 5 and 4. So the distinction isn't conveyed in standard.

I think my favorite thing about this video is that at the end he has the disclaimer that tab is not something bad that no one should use. It has its place, and that place is for people who are learning. And then, once the person is good enough, they should use the skills they have developed and apply them to standard sheet music. Probably the most level-headed and agreeable approach to this subject I have seen.

Having learned how to read standard notation in school, I have applied it to learn how to play music on various instruments. It was how I learned to play the fife in drum corps. All of the vocal music I performed through high school was all in standard notation. It was when I learned guitar that I got away from using notation but didn't use tabs. Most of what I learned to play on guitar I learned by ear. When I started playing bass, I was able to use notation for some of the music I learned. For a lot of years, I didn't even know what tablature was. When I did find out about it, I didn't have much use for it, preferring notation. Of course, learning piano was all in notation. Today, I will occasionally use tab to figure out something I don't have sheet music for or if my ear isn't getting it. But as an aid to playing, I have never liked tablature.

allegedy?

Adam, I would love a lesson, or series, on learning to read standard notation, I consider myself a very strong player but I can't read notation very well, particularly rhythm is very very tough for me.

What a great argument. Never thought about it that way!

Very well put together video! Precise and to the point as always

There's a benefit to tab beyond that it's easier to learn - it's more explicit. Simple example, an A power chord - A2, E3, A3 - will sound different when played on the A string vs 5th fret on the E string.

Tab: for learning and figuring out songs Standard form: for playing live problem solved

Hey Adam, I have seen a bunch of your videos, all of which bring a great approach and energy to the geekier side of music. I remember, after getting into jazz when there seemed to be very little jazz oriented material around that was in TAB, being kind of disappointed when I saw a book of Wes Montgomery solos notated with TAB. I felt that lowering the bar, so to say, like that was actually going to do more harm than good for people in the long run. I could already get around the guitar pretty well when I started to learn to read, after a few years of learning Metallica solos and so forth from TAB books, and the 'learning to read' mountain was steep and fraught with frustration- it's a blow to a young ego to have to go from playing a tapping solo to slowly reading a simple melody in the open position..! In all honesty, I feel that having access to those songs I wanted to play in my early years in TAB, whilst providing a fast track, did me more harm than good. My ears took longer to catch up than even my reading! These days I feel that it's best to learn by ear first, then learn to read standard notation (in much the same way that one learns a language). It's funny that so many guitarists lament not being good at reading, yet don't actively work on it. It's like complaining that you are unfit, yet refuse to do any exercise. That said, there are are certain advantages to TAB, one being (as you mentioned) the fact that it shows you where on the neck to play the notes. Reading on guitar is tough, it has to be said. After playing various other instruments including trumpet and saxophone, I can say without a doubt that sight reading on them is considerably easier due to the limited number of finger options. There are simply more decisions to be made when reading on guitar. But, like anything, perseverance pays off, and all that can be solved with a few position, finger, and string markings on the score. The only time I would say that TAB is potentially better than standard notation is in the case of alternate tunings. Life's too short as it is! I'd still want both, so I could see what was actually happening in the music. Other than that I'd encourage anyone who want's to seriously learn music to stay as far away from it as possible... Learn by listening, learn by watching, learn standard notation. Then, in the words of a great master, forget all that and just play. AjC

I think your explanation of it being like an equation with a graph is pretty accurate, but I think there is a more apt comparison you could make. For context, I've played guitar for nearly 25 years, both classically trained and have played more modern styles as well. Also, I was a math/chemistry double major and have a M.S. in Physical Chemistry. What I'm going to say next is colored by this. I think a better analogy for TAB vs. Standard notation is vectors. A vector is represented in physics textbooks by an arrow in that it has magnitude and direction. In linear algebra courses, a vector is shown as a single-column matrix. In calculus, it is a polynomial. But none of these are actually vectors. A vector is a mathematical construct. It can be EXPRESSED on a number of different forms of what we call a "basis." So if we have a vector that is expressed as a matrix, we get a column. If we express it in terms of an expansion of x, it turns into a polynomial. The vector is the true thing, while the different bases are forms the vector can take, depending on the context. Standard notation and TAB are simply bases for the expression of the vector that is music. Standard notation's truest friend is the piano. It is a very accurate basis for music played on a piano, due to the fact that it is very linear. TAB fits well on the guitar, because the guitar has unisons. Unisons are not represented as well in standard notation. You can literally play the same phrase in different places on the same instrument. There is an information loss in standard notation (without adding a bunch of extra notation). Also, because we have the added freedom to change our tuning on a whim, TAB allows us to chunk our information in the form of shapes and structure on the guitar when we change tunings. It is more precise, and thus can be a better basis for our vector of music.

The issue here is that with enough practice, you can totally “chunk” tablature.

Thank's. You are completely right. I use tabs to find out what notes that is in a melody, but it is impossible to read tabs fast or just remember them. You must let the tabs go and play by memory.

Talented video editing. The speaker was very knowledgeable of the topic.

who clicked on this video thinking it was about the key on a computer keyboard no one ok cool