Chords vs Tabulature vs Music Notation
March 22nd, 2006
When learning songs from written sources like instruction books or online files there are three main forms of written music for the guitar. The three types are chords, tablature, and music notation. Each form brings its own advantages and each form is a bit more complex than the last.
Chords
Probably the simplest form of documenting a song is through chords. The chord progression for the chorus, verse, and bridge of a song is written out for the player to read and play. The advantages to chord files are they are simple and usually show you when the chords are played in relation to the lyrics. Singing guitarists may find this the easiest method of learning a song.
THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE D D/C G/B Gm/Bb C Esus4 E A7 D D/C I caught you knocking at my cellar door, G/B Gm/Bb I love you, baby, can I have some more? C F Esus4 E Oh the damage done.
The disadvantages are the player must know how to play the chords in the song and if the song includes any picking patterns, leads, or solo’s, the player will have to figure them out on their own.
Music Notation
Music notation is the most detailed and complex of the three. It provides everything the player needs to know to play the song including notes, tempo, rhythm, and timing. The advantage is musicians who can read sheet music should be able to play the song by reading the notation without ever hearing it played before.
The disadvantage is there is a lot of music and guitar theory required to read music notation. It is somewhat complex and it can be discouraging for someone who just wants to play the guitar. However, if one can read sheet music, and has memorized the notes on the guitar, sheet music is the best way to go for those guitarists.
Tablature
Tablature or tabs for short are a pretty good combination of the above two. The advantage to tabs is they show you exactly where to put your fingers on the fretboard. Tabs have a line for each string on the guitar and are read from left to right. As you follow the line the notes are played in the order they appear on the tab.
TITLE: THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE E|-----2-----0--------------|-----------0--------------| B|-----------------3-----3--|-----3-----------3-----3--| G|--------------------------|--------2-----------2-----| D|--0-----0-----0-----0-----|--------------------------| A|--------------------------|--3-----------3-----------| E|--------------------------|--------------------------| E|-----------0--------------|-----------0--------------| B|-----3-----------3-----3--|-----3-----------3-----3--| G|--------0-----------0-----|--------0-----------0-----| D|--------------------------|--------------------------| A|--2-----------2-----------|--1-----------1-----------| E|--------------------------|--------------------------|
The disadvantage to tabs is that they do not provide any information about timing. This means the player must be able to hear the song or know it from memory to learn through a tab. Tabs are also the easiest because anyone who takes 5 minutes to learn how to read them can use them to learn a song on the guitar. They don’t require that you know how to play any chords or know any musical theory.
Conclusion
I don’t know where my playing would be today without guitar tabs and the internet. The only reason I started playing was because it was so simple for me to download a tab and learn. The first song I learned was Nirvana’s Come as You Are. I had never played an instrument in my life and within a week I knew 3 or 4 basic rock songs and I couldn’t tell you a thing about music theory. I would suggest though that if you have any music knowledge under your belt, if you have played an instrument before and learned to read music for it, take the time and learn music notation for the guitar. Tablature is sort of a short form and most serious learning material will be in music notation. Finally some people just want to know the chords to a song so they can figure it out themselves. That is when the chord files come in handy.
tagged chords, fingers, guitar, learn how to play guitar, learning, sheet music, tablature and tabs
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