Should I learn to read music or just learn tab?

Should I learn to read music or just learn tab?

By Bryan Karijanian

Head guitar instructor

at

The Music Factory school of Music

Orange County California

The internet is filled with easy-to-read guitar tablature for just about every song ever written. Because it's simple format of just numbers listed on strings, it tells you exactly where to put your fingers. Within moments of looking at it, you can begin to sound out the song. So being a guitar player is there a need to learn how to read music?

With piano lessons you generally start right away learning to read notes on sheet music. There isn't really tablature for piano.You have to learn the names of the notes on the keyboard. So when you start guitar and discover tab, it can be a wonder why there would be a need to have to memorize that series of dots,lines,stems,and crazy symbols.

Tablature is a great tool for guitar and learning songs quick. It's meant for guitar. It shows you where the artist placed their fingers on the neck to perform the particular lick. This can ensure a finger efficient pattern. It also points out of all the guitar techniques used in a song like the bends, hammer-ons, and even pinched harmonics. However, there are some flaws that it presents. The biggest problem is that it shows you no rhythmic notation. There is no way determine what is played fast or slow. Secondly, it can't be shared by another instrument. So if you wanted to communicate your song to other musicians, they would not be able to read it on other instruments, or of course know how the rhythm goes.

Reading a musical piece in standard notation provides you with the rhythmic value of each note, it can be played on any instrument, and with detailed key information, a band can transpose keys if needed. But learning how read standard notation on guitar can be a daunting task for most. Unlike tab, it takes a lot longer to learn to read and memorize notes. It will take a considerable amount time to be able to pull up any song and play it using just standard notation. Also, on guitar, there are more than one place to play exact same note. Therefore a lot of beginners give up on the commitment to learn it for the "instant gratification" of tab.

Having the ability to read music has some huge advantages. First off, you will develop a much better sense of rhythm. That result can be seen very early in the process. Also, when you are sight reading music, you have to make quick decisions, have to foresight of what's coming next, and the endurance to complete the song exactly as written. Hyper focusing on those elements can make you a very strong musician, and probably improve other areas in life.

For a guitar player, one of the biggest advantages of learning to read music is it will force you to learn the names of the notes on guitar, and eventually over the entire neck. You can then develop the power to improvise sweet sounding solos in any key and any situation with ease. When you watch those players that just jam effortlessly all over the guitar, they have a keen sense of every note they are hitting. It truly provides a solid and proper foundation to enter the advanced stage of playing.

In conclusion, for the guitar or bass player, it's about learning both. When you combine a strong understanding of both tab and standard notation you are truly unlimited. You can follow the tab to interpret the emotion of lick, with bends etc, and the still strum out the correct rhythmic values of any song.

With guitar or bass lessons at The Music Factory in Costa Mesa, we encourage that combination. The curriculum is designed to teach note reading and music theory, in parallel with tablature, so you can start to play a lot of popular riffs right away too.

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