My thoughts About Notation and Tablature.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Hi this is in response to a question from Steve Frankin6041.
I am not a trained musician. I just wanted to sing and play acoustic guitar.
Notation, whilst essential for some still means nothing to me, and Tablature seems a painfully slow way to determine how to play accompaniments to vocals and/or instrumentals. What knowledge I have accumulated over the years has been acquired by , initially "Listening" and working out connections.
I'm not saying that leaning music formally is wrong - it just didn't work for me.
People ask me to teach/mentor them and it seems that I've been able to help many. I'm grateful for tat, and to their trust and commitment.
Recently, I became aware that there are two ways to acquire skills - and I'm still processing this - but it seems that we use , or develop both Cognitive and Motor skills, and the cognitive aspect is when we apply all our attention and intellect to solving a problem, and motor skills or "muscle memory" is, effectively "programming" aspects of our life to do physical things automatically - like walking, driving and , perhaps - playing a musical instruments. These are my thoughts -to date. Any further comments or knowledge on this would be received with gratitude.
One of the things I do is to develop guitar reductions of piano pieces, mostly ragtime. For most of these, reading the original sheet music and transposition and reduction of the original so that it can be played on guitar is required. When I began this (many, many years ago), I couldn't read music. However, I really wanted to do these things so I bit the bullet and taught myself to read piano scores (both clefs) so that I could obtain a result that was true to the original music. Admittedly, reading music is a pain, but for me it became a necessary skill. It didn't limit my improv skills and allowed me to learn stuff faster. I still play mostly by ear and improvise on tunes that way. I always will, but reading is a worthwhile skill to obtain IMHO.
😢I quit using tab this year as my #1 New Years resolution. I am still tab sober, not even a peek at any. Tab made me a very lazy player. 🎉
Tab shows you where to put your fingers.But not how long to play the notes for...
4 cont I learned guitar watching and listening. It was the Olde Tyme Fiddlers' association that showed me how I could do single note licks on paper (string, position) and I do that for guitar ( string-fret) about 3/4" (2 cm) high. Again, if I play it a few times, memory kicks in. This is valuable for songs I write.
3. Return to school, and the scales were fine, so I made band. I couldn't see to sight read a thing, but if I heard it once or twice, I had it. We also marched in formation on the football field. I memorized the song, steps, and turns. I remember the practice with the band director yelling "how come he (me) is the only one in this line that is where he's supposed to be, and he can't see!
I feel your pain. With 60 years of guitar playing under my belt, I have no knowledge of music theory, have developed absolutely no ability to read tabs, notation, do not understand the Nashville System. I could possibly name maybe 12 chords. I never play the same song, the same way, twice. Just a few years ago I learned the EADGBE were the standard string tunings. Before that I only knew EA and E). Learning this was very helpful clear up until I decided to tune down to D#... Long story, short, I play by ear. This may be a reaction as a child to my classically trained mother's piano playing at night as we fell asleep. For years I thought that classical music was supposed to have pauses in certain places (where she reached up and turned the page). Once I discovered the real reason, it became a pet peeve. Years later I dated a woman who did the same thing. I asked how long she had been playing. 27 years was her response. I told her that after that long, she should be able to close her eyes and imagine the music on the page. The next day she called all excited because she tried it and it worked. She had played an entire piece with no page turning pauses. And thus, I had taught her the bad habit of how to play by ear. Then I told her, if you hit a wrong note or chord and it sounds good, keep doing it and you are improvising. Do enough of that and you will be writing your own music. And that is how you gain the ability to release the beauty that resides inside your heart and soul. It is the sound of freedom.
We start speaking through hearing. Later, we learn to read, which is very important and helpful , being able to understand cognitive processes. The same is true with music. I learned to play by ear by myself, later i studied jazzguitar and i became a professional guitarist and had to learn sightreading but also music theory,
I think , you should think less about reading , the time you spent making your video you better should have spent, playing.
2. Cont Came high school, and many of my friends were in the band. I wanted to join. I negotiated with the band director and a history teacher to trade my lunch period for band and eat during a class. I was given a bass trombone and scales to practice during the summer. It took a few weeks to get the lip in shape, but then I started playing along with Dad's big band records. I knew I was making progress when my sister's complaint changed from "stop making that noise" to "stop playing that music. " no tabulation at that point, just ear.
I once dated a girl who played the flute.But she could only play by reading music..I played guitar but couldn't read music..only tab.
I have found Guitar Pro 8 computer software has helped me understand notation because you can have 6 line tab and 5 line staff above it on the screen.As you fill in the tab,the notation appears on the staff..
Great video, I used to be able to read notation (organ player decades ago), but complete overkill for most guitarists and TAB can be useful to learn, but you shouldn't be a slave to it.
Eric Clapton said you need two people to sing and play a Robert Johnson song...
Andy, at age 5, I "failed" accordion. Beibg legally blind, I would pull the music stand close to see the notes. The teacher would pull it away to where I could not see it with glasses. He told my parents I would never be able to play an instrument or sing, I would not be good at music. So the lessons stopped and my sister got all the lessons *including piano and organ.).
@@texhaines9957 what a terrible teacher. I’m glad you found your way in spite of him.
@alisonk3148 I'm not sure I am completely "found" because I am still learning. At 45, I took up fiddle with a friend. I was able to take it up pretty fast, but my friend needed "tiger stripes," tape on the neck to see finger positions. The issue was I could not sing and play fiddle at the same time. I picked up mandolin during COVID shutdown, and lately, octave mandolin (much better). Some where in here, I was asked to play banjo. It's slow, but progress is being made. My love, though, is guitar.
@@texhaines9957 if that’s how you measure it, you may never be “found”. I think the best and brightest in just about any field will tell you how much they still have to learn. I’m very much a beginner and am taking it pretty slowly, but the journey is a lot of fun!
@alisonk3148 oh, the residents and their families have "found" me. The music and spirit helps get them to remember, even for a little bit. I've seen miracles I would not have otherwise seen. But I do need to have some method to recall on paper how to do some of the songs.
Have you got the tabs is definitely a thing and something I don’t care to understand. To my mind it just sucks the fun out playing. What tabs can’t convey is how Robert Johnson could play something low sounding and pull off a high pitched singing part
Hi, Andrew, I got the definite impression that the transcriber for that Robert Johnson booklet did not enjoy his job, nor understand the music form of the late great RJ.
Doesn’t like a c chord James Taylor apparently. So true though about how effortless and seamless his playing is
Hi Andrew, thanks as always.
I took music lessons starting at age 10 to learn to be a trumpet player. I played it for 20 years and became quite competent and of course could read music. I have been trying to play string instruments for many years now and simply cannot read tablature. It appears upside down and backwards to me an is very frustrating. I know chords and play all lead parts by ear.
Hi, I'm glad that you have found a way to play in yuor own style. Thanks for watching.
Wow, at last somebody has explained why I have been struggling for so long, I am now in my seventies, but this short chat shone such a brilliant light on why I do what I do. And possibly why it does not seem to work.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for shining a light.
Glad it was helpful! I wonder if you would like to meet via zoom -perhaps I could help? Let me know if interested.
Thanks for addressing this issue, Andy. Tab has helped me to some degree, but it has also become a crutch because I've become dependent on it for a lot of songs. I guess it really does stiffly one's creativity. The songs that are the easiest to learn are the ones you compose yourself.
Well said Steve! but as I do mostly covers now that I er-arrange into my style. Maybe we need to talk? (zoom meeting?)
Notation, tabs are important but interpretation and rhythm are key to great playing. This is what gives the song its soul by each person who plays it.
Absolutely Stephen ! Thanks for watching.
Another great video. Everyone learns at a different speed and not everyone is a teacher. Great ending question. I think after you have been playing for a while you develop a style, and your fills become 2nd nature. But playing guitar is an ongoing education.
What you say is all true, at least for me. Thanks for watching.
When I took piano lessons as a child, I was very much taught to be an operator, as you said. My teacher taught some music theory but never connected it to what I was playing on a very deep level. Years later when my son first started learning piano, he was taught and encouraged to improvise, which was eye opening to me. I felt that was at least part of what I had been missing.
Hi Alison, most interesting! Thanks for this, I hope that you are now able to improvise, or develop you own style ?
@@SillyMoustache Sort of. I took a long hiatus from music and just started learning guitar earlier this year, so I’m still in the beginner stage, filling my toolbox with the skills that I need. The most improvisation that I can do at this point is to play with chord progressions and strumming patterns. I’m just starting to learn finger picking, which is the main direction I want to follow, and I can see that becoming a good way to “make it my own.”
I too cannot read notation, but I do understand what the note shapes means and how to play that note. I usually look for tablature and notation printed for the song. If it only has TAB then I search You Tube for the song and listen to it. This helps means to use TAB correctly. George in Montana
Well George, I am aware that my thoughts might be contentious in some cases, and we don't all process information in the same way. Thanks as always.
@@SillyMoustache Andy,
Everybody has to find out what works form. Please keep your videos coming, I always find them to be most helpful. George