Hi guys !!! I have just been learning guitar for about a month now. In my quest for tabs to some simple hindi songs, I came accross this forum. And man, this site really rocks !!! I have been reading posts on this forum for about a week now and finally decided to register. Guys, I have a problem. The teacher who teaches me the guitar discourages learning songs from tabs, he thinks playing by ear is a better practice. But, as I have been learning the guitar for only a month or so, I find it really tough to play by just listening to the songs and am more comfortable with tabs. Is it such a bad practice for a begineer to learn songs through tabs ???
Dont tell him about you learning songs from Tabs.. But you wanna learn by ear, Try the Tutorial.. It helps..
He's right. If you begin playing by ear and are good at it, it will definitely be much better for you in the long run. But if you can play by ear and also with tabs, its definitely no harm.
tabs are there for reading music, to be able to solo etc your going to need to know every sound the instrument can produce and you can become a better guitarist from it quicker.
Tabs are just an easy way out.. I find it really hard to read, use or make tabs. .Cause i never followed that route.. But i can play anything which is on Staff Notation cause I'm good at reading that..
argh staff notation is a headache for me! i end up having to work out using the FACE forumula wot notes are what. And then when you start throwing in accidentals like what the ****
I once had to have my car towed. I was sitting in the tow truck talking to the driver. This guy apparently was doing a PhD in music, and driving tow trucks part time. He was telling my how important it is to be able to read staff notation, and how you can go about learning it - You take your guitar, and memorize EVERY fret on the guitar. Like, u go E,F,F#,G,G#... B,C,C#,D,D#... and so on. Then you take the staff notation and memorize each note. Its a tedious job but once you get that in your head, it will open the doors to a whole new world in music. Well I'm still trying to open those doors though... Anyway, the importance of "knowing" your fretboard can never be understated. When someone says "B flat" then you must know exactly where to put your finger. Better if you can do that when someone PLAYS B flat instead of saying it. So In short, know your fretboard and know your notes! A cool software that'll help you with this is Fretboard Warrior (https://www.fretboardwarrior.com) Of course, intervals are a great way to train your ears.. and that leads to so many other things...
Hey thanks, I had no idea it was so important to memorize the fretboard... What are intervals, is there a thread on this site where I could read up some stuff on intervals ?? and by knowing B flat, do you mean knowing the sound of the note or just knowing where to play it ?? sorry for bugging you guys, but I am an absolute beginner as far as music is concerned...
This thread has some info on intervals: https://indianguitartabs.com/showthread.php?t=2442 look around for other threads. For you at this stage it is more imprtant to know the fretboard first. For instance, if you are in a band, and the keyboard player says "gimme a B flat" u shouldn't have to search your guitar for five minutes before you produce it! (keyboard players can sometimes get cocky.. they have it so easy!) Don't worry about finding what note it is just by hearing the sound - that will take LOTS of practise and effort and is not necessary right now. But of course, if you hear two instances of B flat then you must be able to say that its the same note. Right now try to learn your fretboard, like when you are learning chords and scales, find where you put your fingers and what note it is. Then you will realize why there are so many ways to play the C Major chord, say, at different positions on the fretboard. When you are practising scales, practise it on each string individually, reciting the note (aloud) as you play and then try to play the scale across several strings doing the same. Once you are familiar with notes (you don't have to be exact, you'll get that with time) and how they are arranged on the fretboard, move on to intervals.
Hmmm... I'll take your advice and go ahead and try to memorize the fret board. right now I know the notes on the fretboard but it takes a bit of time trying to figure out the position of a particular note. I think that will change once I have it all memorized. and yeah I can recognise different occurrences of the same note.
