Tabs vs. reading music

[Julie M]

I'm just starting out in the mandolin world and am trying to decide if I should concentrate on learning tabs or reading music. I read music already, so my inclination is to focus on learning how the music notes translate to the mandolin instead of learning a new system. Any thoughts or reasons I should do one or the other?

Thanks!
Julie

[tkdboyd]

My advice would be Don't go to the Tab side until you are comfortable with Notation and fingering/positions on a mandolin. Once you are fully acclimated to notation and still want to delve into tab for fingering suggestions alternate tonal approaches, sure have at it.

I was never a great notation reader, but was better earlier on different instruments, but kept getting lazy and used tablature instead. And I pay for it every time I pick up my mandolin and want to play a new piece of music!

Welcome to the Cafe and to the wonderful world of mandolin music!

[belbein]

Overall, I agree with tkdboyd, though it's a tough call. To begin with, start with what you know: learn via standard notation. It removes one stumbling block from your path, which is always a good thing, since there will be others.

That said, you are at some point (down the road, down the road) going to have to learn tab. That's because so much of the folk music world consists of people who ... let me say this gently ... don't choose to read music. So a lot of the music you'll see written out is written out in tab. Personally, I hate it but have learned to live with it (grudgingly and as long as it's written in the generally accepted format). You will to. But later.

Jumping to a question you didn't ask ... Since you already read music, you must play some other instrument, or have played in the past. And that might mean that you've learned to suffer or appreciate or to love scales. If you see a use for them (some people don't) then get yourself JazzMando's FFcP book (I think it's "Getting into Jazz Mando"). It's a fabulous approach that combines scales with learning the mandolin fretboard and some undercover theory and adds in world peace and even a balanced federal budget. I figure about 1/5 of my practice time needs to be technique, and this is a pretty good all purpose way to do a lot of things.

[JEStanek]

Start with Notation. Start with Notation. Start with Notation. There may be more of a learning curve at first but you'll never post a a "does anyone have mando tab for obscure song not originally written for mandolin?" You'll have the whole world of written music available to you. I wish I had.

Once you learn tab, you may try and learn standard notation but, I still haven't done it even though I keep meaning to.

Jamie

I attached a file that has the staff and the neck on it. The 1o, 2o, 3o, and 4o indicate where on the staff the open string notes are located on the mandolin from G, D, A, and E.

[Cecily_Mandoliner]

If you can find music that is in both forms, musical notation, and tab, it will help you with both. My teacher give me assignments that way, because he's usually emphasizing a specific fingering approach.
I prefer to read from music notation, but the tab supplements it.
Where I get frustrated with tablature is how the author shows the length of the notes. In some, the author has H, Q, and E under the number, to indicate half note, quarter note and eighth note. Others use flags on a staff of the tab. The latter is clearer to me.
Have fun!

[ombudsman]

I always discourage tab because it's not "portable" knowledge. In your case since you already know standard notation it would be silly to reference your notes to fret numbers rather than note names. After all, your goal is to learn the notes themselves on the mandolin, not relative numeric representations of them which only add a translation layer to the information you are concerned with.

[Ky Slim]

Any thoughts or reasons I should do one or the other?

No. Learn both!!! Reading music from standard notation has many advantages over tabs but they are both very useful. There is another system that I believe is called "abc." I haven't used it but I'd say it is handy as well.

[fatt-dad]

Irrespective of the answer, work on ear training. I mean we learn to talk (apish talk, perhaps), well in advance of reading, theory, parsing, etc. Reading music, in the end, is a form of singing, IMHO. While it's easier for me from tab, I can easily look at standard notation while listening to an audio and vocalize the music. After that it's just the physical exercise of attacking it through the fretboard.

Maybe it's hard to type what I'm talking about. . . ?

f-d

[bohemianbiker]

I'm with f-d. As someone who spent decades reading music, but only recently began ear training, I wish I'd learned to play by ear when I was a kid. Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side of the music stand ... but I do wish I had learned to play by ear first. bb

[JeffD]

Notation. Lots of music in notation that is not in tab. Oceans of music. Very little (I assume there has to be some) in tab that isn't in notation.

Eventually learning tab has advantages, but let eventually take care of itself.

[JeffD]

Irrespective of the answer, work on ear training.

Absolutely. Ear training is important. Reading is important. Have to do both. Combine them if you can.

[Mike Bunting]

Absolutely. Ear training is important. Reading is important. Have to do both. Combine them if you can.

I'm glad this was brought up. I refrained from commenting earlier when no one mentioned using your ears. How else can you know what you are reading is supposed to sound like? How else can you learn the subleties of the tune? In some ways, the actual notes of the tune are the least important thing to learn.

[Marc Ferry]

When I started mandolin I already knew how to read music, and I quickly learned tab, but nowadays I find myself almost always learning by ear. While it is slower, I feel that you learn not only the notes but also the mood and tone, which are just as important, if not more.

Of course, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't learn to read music anyway. It is still a useful skill to have.

[darrylicshon]

Reading music , and ear training , i have some violin music i like to play on the mandolin and also you can play songs written for the guitar , sometimes when my lady is playing her guitar she has lots of books , i will sit with her and read it while i play along can be lots of fun , and sometimes i just solo to the songs ear training can help a lot when playing with other instruments

[Nick Royal]

I have been working on sight reading for a number of years, and that is often useful.
Where tab fits in for me is if I am working on a piece, and the notes are up the neck (which could be played
on another string in first position). Then tab is very helpful.

[Randi Gormley]

I'll add my voice to notation -- but part of the answer is determined by what type of music you play since each genre has its preferred method of teaching. I don't even know if anybody who plays classical, f'rinstance, would suggest anything other than notation. Irish/Celtic Traditional is pretty firmly in the ear training camp. I doubt jazz uses much tab but I don't know since it's a genre I've not delved into; bluegrass seems to be a lot of mixed preferences (tab, ear, notation) but again, it's not my preference. I will say that you'll probably be more versatile if you start with notation since you're not limited to either what you hear or what's been put into tab. ABC is possible as well, but I've always found it tough to use. It's generally what used to be used to send tunes and songs through a written medium like the computer.

[UsuallyPickin]

Sight reading is a skill worth learning. To be able to sit down with a piece of written notation you have never seen or heard for that matter and make music from it is worthwhile. Notation is also more exact in musical transcription than TAB. Insofar as learning TAB it is of course a much simpler process ie. no symbols and just numbers and lines to indicate finger position. But that information is rather limited as there is no duration value. Learning by ear was also mentioned above. As an ideal a player needs to be able use all three types of learning to further their playing. My recommendation is to work on your notation reading skills and your ear training. TAB can be used without any real practice if that is the form a piece of music is available in. Luck R/

[Bruce Cech]

I learned how to play the guitar in my early teens using standard notation. Played for many years and then stopped. Two years ago I picked up a guitar (69 years old then) and I could still remember a lot of music. I had no problem relating the notes to the fret board. However my hands were not as agile and I found the guitar to large to finger comfortably. I purchased a mandolin and started learning it--much more happily. Unfortunately my impatience sent my attention to tab. I wanted to play tunes tight away and tab was the way. I can also pick out several tunes just by listening to them. I still cannot relate natation to the mandolin. If I had it all to do over I would stick with learning that method. Tab is nice but you limit your music. I have a lot of guitar music I could use if I knew the notes on the mando. I'm trying to learn the notes now (71 years old now) but it seems difficult once you play tab. It really should be the other way around--learn notation and then tab. You will never regret being able to look at any piece of music and picking it on the mandolin.

That being said, have fun with the mandolin--the sound is fantastic. Don't let the method or lack of method be a limiting factor. Pick out the music in your head and enjoy it.

[Perry]

If you can find music that is in both forms, musical notation, and tab, it will help you with both. My teacher give me assignments that way, because he's usually emphasizing a specific fingering approach.
I prefer to read from music notation, but the tab supplements it.

I respectfully disagree as I believe it's too easy to "cop out" and rely on the TAB when it's right there. Steve Kaufman's Four Hour Bluegrass Workout used to be presented in standard only and that's how I learned.

It is not very difficult especially when learning fiddle tunes in keys like G, D and A and of course C.

You could start with a book of simple nursery rhymes...tunes where you know the melody in your head and then use the standard notation and your ear to find the notes on the mandolin.

I played guitar for over twenty years before I learned how to read standard...it can be done! I've gotten pretty good at sight reading fiddle tunes. Good Luck.

[JeffD]

Of course, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't learn to read music anyway. It is still a useful skill to have.

Useful! Its essential. If you can't read music you are limited to what people are playing now, or youtubes, or recordings. If you can read notation, everything that has been written for any instrument in the last few centuries is available somewhere for you to try out. A firehose of music.

The mandolin can play just about directly anything written for the violin, and with a little bit of thought any woodwind or brass, and with some more thought even anything written for piano.

If you read only tab, you can only get those tunes that have been tabbed out for mandolin.


I don't like to prioritize between the two, they are both essential, ear training and reading, and which ever one you don't work on will limit your musicianship.

[Amanda Gregg]

I'm surprised to see tab talked about as though it's something to learn. It's soooooo easy. You can learn to read tab comfortably in an afternoon. Notation takes work. Ultimately, you need to be comfortable with both, but notation takes more work to reach a level of comfort, so make sure it's part of your practice routine.

[jmp]

I recommend standard notation. You'll be able to take advantage of much more written music and you'll be a more complete musician.

[farmerjones]

I'd say if you already know how to read notation, go with it so it stays familiar. Not mentioned, but what I would consider "essential" before actual site reading, is basic chord theory. Yes there are mountains of sheet music, but if you are delving into the folk styles for mandolin, developing a good ear and basic knowledge of chords will take you quite a long ways as well. So you've got the melody on the clef. The harmony in the chord chart. The rhythm in the time signature. Bob's yer Uncle, you're making Music.

[Ky Slim]

That being said, have fun with the mandolin--the sound is fantastic. Don't let the method or lack of method be a limiting factor. Pick out the music in your head and enjoy it.

Yes!!!

[bayAreaDude]

I recommend picking up Debra Chen's book Standard Notation for the Tab Addicted Mandolinist. I already read music, but still found parts of it very useful regarding note, finger, position stuff for the Mandolin specifically. It's geared for a total novice, so much of it can be skipped over if you already read. I try to avoid tab unless it's all that's available, it's better than nothing but that's about it.

I agree with the others pointing out the importance of ear training - any musician is better with the skill to recognize all intervals ascending, descending, and simultaneously AND exactly where to find all of those intervals on the mandolin fretboard. Though you very well might already have these skills expect the mandolin fretboard part if you already play another instrument or sing and read music.

Some other things unique to the mandolin I think are super useful are learning 3 finger moveable chord shapes and FFcP moveable scale patterns.