Standard Notation vs. Tab

  1. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    I had an amazing 1-1/2 hr lesson yesterday. Due to work and travel conflicts, I hadn't had a lesson in about 3 weeks. I told my teacher I thought we really needed to regroup and she agreed. I've been trying to do it all, it seemed to me, and had decided that was not a good thing. What's important to me is improving my playing and enjoying the senior center jam sessions. What I'm giving up for now are chop chords and learning to read tab. I'll continue with/start Brad Laird's beginner/master class materials; however, I'll be converting his tab to standard notation. My teacher feels that exercise will be good for me and I can spend my time more effectively (playing the standard notation I already know). I also have an interest in playing some classical stuff - just for me.

    With this background, do you have an opinion about dropping tab altogether? I like that with standard notation, I can (try to) play virtually any piece of music that comes my way.
  2. Sleet
    Sleet
    Sherry, I can't see that you'll miss anything by skipping tab. For me tab was a bridge to get started, but if you can get where you want to go with standard notation, I don't see the need to tackle tab. I sometimes use it now to confirm fingering for keys that I'm not familiar with, but that's about all. Notation is very effective in communicating music and, as you say, gives you access to a world of music.
  3. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I'll probably get hammered for saying this, but here goes - I kinda look at tabs as a tool for those who can't read standard music notation. And because I am very rusty on reading notation, I know it is a tool (ie, crutch) that I use a lot.

    I have nothing but admiration for anyone who learns to play mandolin from music notation. Go for it. Don't even look back. If you download a tab file, load it into Tabledit and change the view to standard notation and just smile.
  4. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    My teacher recommended Finale PrintMusic for creating sheet music from tab. Can anyone recommend an alternative for less than Finale's $100+ cost?
  5. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    I just reread Hank's post. I think I looked into Tabledit recently. Can't remember the cost but on the surface, at least, it appears it would be easier and faster than PrintMusic.
  6. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Tabledit full version is $60.

    PrintMusic appears to be much more powerful in its abilities as a tool for composition and for flexibility in final printed layout. But it does not appear to be capable of reading, or exporting to, the somewhat ubiquitous Tabledit (.tef) files. Tabledit also handles ABC format which is very common and even (sometimes) those crazy ASCII files you can find in the MandolinCafe library.

    Of the two, I would go for Tabledit. Another one to check out is MuseScore which is free but might be very limited in its handling of .tef files (if it does at all - last I looked I don't think it did).

    The problem with both Tabledit and MuseScore is a steep learning curve combined with help files that are not really all that helpful. But there are plenty of us here at MC who have used Tabledit for a while, so any questions that come up usually get answered pretty quick. Not so with MuseScore although it is mentioned from time to time.
  7. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I should also mention - if all you want to do is load a .tef file and convert the view to standard notation, I think you can just use the FREE version - TEFView. It can do just about everything that Tabledit can do except editting, creating, or saving files.
  8. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    I looked at TablEdit recently (wanting to put music in alto clef) and it's $60.

    Tab vs. notation: just go with notation. (I don't come from a fretted background, and have not learned to read tab with any fluency, so there are my biases, right up front.)

    Three reasons that I can think of:

    1) From what I can see, anything in tab is also available in standard notation, but the reverse is not true. Give yourself as many options as possible by increasing fluency with notation.

    2) Tab gives so much less information. It does not convey rhythm, so if you're not familiar with the piece, big problem. It doesn't give you key signatures—important for improvisation, harmony, etc.

    3) There's more than one way to play a note. You can play A with an open A string, with your fourth finger on the D string, or, if you are learning positions, with any other finger on the D string. Figuring out fingerings that fit your hand and enhance the line of the music is a big deal, and I think tab might narrow your options.

    If you have to choose, I would vote for standard notation.
  9. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    "With this background, do you have an opinion about dropping tab altogether? I like that with standard notation, I can (try to) play virtually any piece of music that comes my way."

    Yes, (as usual, I always have an opinion; I think we probably all do, LOL) and my opinion is the same as Hank and Louise's. You can get along fine with standard notation and without TAB; in fact, much better than you could with TAB and not standard notation. Both can be useful. Neither is necessary to play music. Of the two, standard notation is king (or queen).
  10. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Thank goodness I can put the whole tabs thing to rest! So now I'm ready to convert some tab to standard notation. It appears I'd have to do it from scratch with PrintMusic. But if I scan a page of tab to a PDF file, I can use any of these other methods?
  11. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I am not aware of any software that can take a scanned or pdf-ed mandolin tab sheet and convert it to std notation.
  12. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Joy of joys, I started reading notation. It was something I didn't want to take the time to practice, but often felt I should. So I have been transferring notated music to Tabledit in standard notation in order to convert it to tablature (and hear the midi playback) from time to time, which is time-consuming.

    As background, I learned the staff as a child, playing cornet in elementary school band for one year, but then I switched to drums in the marching band and began to play guitar by ear. I've never forgotten the notes of the staff, but I couldn't sight read, I'd have to puzzle each note out.

    What happened recently is that I began to make a mandolin chord book, and included standard notation for each chord. That has helped me to begin to recognize the notes on the staff more quickly, and associate them with various fingerings on the mandolin. So I decided to subject myself to a 'self-hypnosis for musicians' regimen on "Reading," and now that I've been looking for certain scores, instead of tediously copying them to TAB, I'm sight reading them.

    This is exciting stuff for me.
  13. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Lots of excitement to be had in the mandolin world.
  14. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    Mark, my first response was going to be something along the lines of "cheap thrills." Then it occurred to me how much I've spent on instruments, books, lessons, strings, and I'm only a little more than a year in. You are further down that road than I am, and we've all figured out it's not cheap.

    Congratulations on the new accomplishment.
  15. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thanks L!
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