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I'm interested in people's thoughts on the matter of traditional sheet music versus guitar tablature. Which is better and which should I focus on as a guitarist? |
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Sheet music is only better if you can read it. :-) Sheet music can display rhythm. Sheet music can tell you how long to hold a note. Sheet music makes it possible to read multi-part harmonies on the same page. This makes composition possible simultaneously for Bass, Tenor, Soprano, and Alto. This is far superior for piano, but also makes a lot of sense for classical guitar. I prefer tabs only for guitar solos as they are just easier to cope with outside of a sheet music. If I was going to invest my time on electric guitar, I'd stick with tabs. For classical, learn sheet music. |
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I would not bother to learn tab if you are serious. Learn to read the sheet music as it contains the universal language of all kinds of music and includes the note time value. Tab does not. Unless you are very familiar with the song, tab is no good. After you learn the music staff and scales, you can then learn tab if you like. Look at it this way, it is like learning just a part of the language. Can you imagine piano music written as tab? |
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No matter what is written down on paper, as long as it enables you to play a song then job done! |
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You can start reading tabs in one minute, but reading music will take a little more time for it to be useful. Also, most guitarists would prefer to write tabs than music, well because it takes a lot less brain power. So if your learning material created within the last 20 years, tabs are it. Other than that, R Melder said it all. |
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Sheet music is by far your best bet. Sheet music displays melody, rhythm, rests, song format, and gives an overall better rep of the song. Tabs are a convoluted way of playing chords and you learn very little. Always choose 'real' music over short-cuts if you can. If tabs were actually a good alternative to music playing, it would have been the mainstay long ago. |
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If you get an official tab, like in Guitar World, it shows rhythm, time signature, and all those things that sheet music does. Many great guitar players didnt read music, and they turned out fine. |
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Many rockstar guitarists became millionaires without formal music education. They read tabs. On the other hand, you can find more sheet music readers playing hotel lobbies or coffee shops for rent money. This is about money. Now, if you're into the great composers' stuff, or plan to become an arranger or band leader, go sheet music. Either way music is not about theory, it is about expressing your feelings not some other musician's. |
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I think a mixture of both like you get in graded guitar exams - Sheet music shows you how long the note lasts which tab dosent it also gives tempo (time signature) and Key (you'll what notes are likely to come up. BUT tab is also helpful 1) most guitarists can't read sheet 2) the nature of the guitar means that a sheet note could be played on a number of different strings the notation won't tell you where to play it |
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There are two awesome programs out there for this: powertab and Guitar Pro. Powertab is free, so I would try that first, but Guitar Pro has more features. These programs not only display the notation and tab, but also have an option to play the song to hear how it is supposed to sound and on guitar pro you can even listen to the drum parts for playing along. I use guitar pro, and one of my favorite ways to practice is I will type in a lick and set the bpm way down, then program it to gradually increase over time. Also, these are good for composing. |
