Authentic tab books?

[Koss59]

I've not come across a book that's accurate yet, either accept it or start learning easy stuff by ear and work up to it yourself like others have suggested. It's not as hard as you think you've just got to start with the right stuff.

[drae]

Thanks for the helpful posts guys. I find it strange for those guys who've never used any tab or music books. I spent 10+ years learning woodwind instruments and piano and never once did my music teachers ever give me a cd and tell me to transcribe the music myself. Just find its wierd that its not normal for guitarists to learn from music, but I guess it reflects the vast majority have not come from a classically trained background.

[Not_the_DJ]

I'd actually guess that the majority of guitarists do learn from tabs. For me in the early 90s it was the guitar mags and tab books (I had lessons as well) but these days a lot of new players are at the mercy of the often hilarious tabs you find online.

[fretmeister]

Most "authentic" tab books are massively inaccurate.

That is the main problem with tab - it doesn't let you decide the best fingering. The worst one I've seen was a 'Best of 5 by Muse' bass book.

Whatever idiot tabbed it clearly didn't once have a look at youtube. The main riff is all about pedalling open strings, and yet the3 book had a load of string skipping nonsense in a fixed position instead. Made it un-necessarily difficult and ruined the groove of the entire thing.

Tossers.

[erictheweary]

Thanks for the helpful posts guys. I find it strange for those guys who've never used any tab or music books. I spent 10+ years learning woodwind instruments and piano and never once did my music teachers ever give me a cd and tell me to transcribe the music myself. Just find its wierd that its not normal for guitarists to learn from music, but I guess it reflects the vast majority have not come from a classically trained background.

You might be circling around the edge of the tabs versus notation debate here (plenty of previous threads on this) but I am guessing your piano and woodwind teachers didn't get you to use tab ( although I have seen piano and brass tab) so its not quite like for like. It also heavilly depends upon what repertoire you are looking at. With a classical repertoire then the sheet music is the original source whereas for rock or jazz then the original recordings are the source and any notation or tabs are just interpretations of them.

[erictheweary]

You might be circling around the edge of the tabs versus notation debate here (plenty of previous threads on this) but I am guessing your piano and woodwind teachers didn't get you to use tab ( although I have seen piano and brass tab) so its not quite like for like. It also heavilly depends upon what repertoire you are looking at. With a classical repertoire then the sheet music is the original source whereas for rock or jazz then the original recordings are the source and any notation or tabs are just interpretations of them.

Having that thing where I can post but can't edit posts so please mentally add an IMHO to the end of that post will ya?Cheers.

[Big Paulie]

...for rock or jazz then the original recordings are the source and any notation or tabs are just interpretations of them.

This is a very useful point to remember.

I have (and do) use tabs, but always with a pinch of salt.

Never hurts to put one's interpretation on how you think a piece should be played.

[ChrisJordan]

"I was fortunate enough to meet Frank Zappa, a truly great rock musician, and a very unorthodox and innovative creator. He was already very ill when I met him (I was working with his son in L.A. ) I told him I admired his skill and courage in improvising so much in his music, live in front of large audiences. He said, "Courage? - What do you mean?! " I said that I was always very aware of the possibilities of making mistakes. He replied, "How can you make a mistake? It is your solo, your guitar, and you are playing a piece of your own music. Who could possibly tell you you are making a mistake ? !! " - Brian May

i believe that this tells us that the spirit of the music is more important than the technical reproduction of it.

[erictheweary]

"I was fortunate enough to meet Frank Zappa, a truly great rock musician, and a very unorthodox and innovative creator. He was already very ill when I met him (I was working with his son in L.A. ) I told him I admired his skill and courage in improvising so much in his music, live in front of large audiences. He said, "Courage? - What do you mean?! " I said that I was always very aware of the possibilities of making mistakes. He replied, "How can you make a mistake? It is your solo, your guitar, and you are playing a piece of your own music. Who could possibly tell you you are making a mistake ? !! " - Brian May

i believe that this tells us that the spirit of the music is more important than the technical reproduction of it.

Yeh, but Frank never had to play Madness cover versions at a wedding...

[ChrisJordan]

Yeh, but Frank never had to play Madness cover versions at a wedding...

The point I was, rather ham-fistedly, trying to make was that for the average punter who comes to enjoy your music, who cares. Your wedding crowd isn't going to be that worried if you nail that unique Chris Foreman solo, of which I can't recall any. A mate's band do Sweet Home Alabama and there is quite a bit missing there, if you want to pick it apart; however, boozed-up punters do not give a monkeys.