Why was Tab not developed further?

Rocker

As I understand it, Tab has been used for a very long time. Back to when lutes were the Les Pauls of the day. So why not add rhythm/timing notes and bars to the tab script? Most tabs assume that you know or are familiar with the song. If not, it is a jumble of finger positions that mean nothing. It would be really useful with just a little extra...

Teetonetal

don't all tab books and magazines have rhythm transcribed too

Modulus_Amps

Rocker said:

As I understand it, Tab has been used for a very long time. Back to when lutes were the Les Pauls of the day. So why not add rhythm/timing notes and bars to the tab script? Most tabs assume that you know or are familiar with the song. If not, it is a jumble of finger positions that mean nothing. It would be really useful with just a little extra...

most proper tab books that I own have music notation with them.....

BigLicks67

There is no point, as there is a universal language already, any sheet music for say classical guitar would give you the notes and indications of fret positions and finger placement.

VimFuego

shhhh guys, don't speak too loudly or you'll wake the OP. He's been asleep for 40 years and not realised that most tab books do that. 

Phil_aka_Pip

because proper music notation tells you all you need to know about pitch and rhythm. There are also guitarists' conventions for articulation and positioning. TAB (spit) is redundant

Rocker

VimFuego said:

shhhh guys, don't speak too loudly or you'll wake the OP. He's been asleep for 40 years and not realised that most tab books do that. 

You may be right but there is not much of that kind of info on online tabs or even tabs in guitar mags (remember them?)

stratman3142

There is a form of tab that includes rhythmic notation, but it's unnecessary if it's included alongside standard notation. The pic below shows different methods of notating the same thing.

https://i.imgur.com/E1sAKdQ.png

xpia98jf

Yeah that’s a good point. There are tabs that have all that information on but they don’t seem to be widely used. I think probably because it’s assumed the player will have access to the audio for rhythm/timing etc.

VimFuego

Phil_aka_Pip said:

because proper music notation tells you all you need to know about pitch and rhythm. There are also guitarists' conventions for articulation and positioning. TAB (spit) is redundant

thing is, this requires the player to be able to read notation. When I 1st took up guitar, I was taught TAB from the outset, I would hazard a guess that most guitarists are the same, there is little requirement or incentive to learn notation. It was only when I took up fiddle that I learnt to read music.

Lestratcaster

When I write tabs for my guitar learners I ALWAYS include the rhythm as you're never sure how long that note is meant to last for, and how many bars etc. A string of numbers on a line is meaningless. Esp to a beginner.

TheBigDipper

Basic tab tells you what string to play and what fret to fret.

Music notation tells you the note, suggests which finger to use (both hands), how long the note lasts and the rests in between - plus much more. It's better than tab - even for guitarists. Also, musicians who play other instruments and not just the guitar can read the music too (although I can hear the chorus of "who cares?" rising as I typed that...).

I've seen saxophone tab and it's not pretty. (Well, no I haven't, but if it existed it would definitely be ugly)

Having said that, once I stopped taking classical guitar lessons I've spent a lot more time reading tab than staves - because that's what the people who transcribed the music are usually able to write. However, if the music book includes both tab and staves, there is much more useful info on the stave.

Legionreturns

Ok so what's the time investment to learn notation as opposed to tab? It took me about 5 minutes to understand tab when I started guitar just short of a year ago. That was like magic to me. Do I want to learn notation? Not at this stage, and if I'd had to do so before I could pick up a guitar and start playing stuff I knew, I wouldn't have bothered. 

VimFuego

I think there are advantages to learning notation, as to use it you also need to know where the notes are on the fretboard, so you're kinda learning 2 things for the price of one. However, IMO it is not an easy access system like TAB. But, having learnt that (tho I am not a sight reader on guitar by any stretch and I suck badly at trying to read chords) it means I no longer see the fretboard as a series of boxes or shapes (that I never really learnt) but instead I just see it as notes, and can decide where I want to play a note.

Phil_aka_Pip

Tab only tells you where to put your fingers. It doesn't tell you anything about the relationships between the notes. If accompanied by timing info as in the 3rd example above, the reader has already cracked what is IMO the hardest part about reading music - the rhythm. Reading the pitch is easy, so why the resistance to going the whole hog?

TheBigDipper

The OPs question was "Why has tab not evolved?".

Lots of people have said "Because there's a better alternative already available that every musician could understand (if they learnt it), not just players of fretted stringed instruments". 

So if you can read notation then you've got no reason to further develop tab - other than to communicate with people who cannot read notation (but can read basic tab). In augmenting basic tab you're just adding things that look the same as notation anyway, so why not just use notation? Those interested enough in "augmented tab" will find what they need in notation.

Musical notation tells anyone who can read it what the listener should hear if the music is to be played as the composer intended. Tab doesn't. It's a set of fingering and string instructions for players of fretted stringed instruments.

If you're a beginner and you've started playing guitar without taking lessons or learning any music theory (and lots of us started like that) then it's a fine way of learning new material if you also can listen to a recording as you learn it. The recording shows you how it sounds and the tab tells you where to put your fingers and what strings to hit. The result is you learn how to play something and that's great - isn't it?

axisus

personally I just want to know the fretted note, I get lost with all the 'extras'. I have a pair of ears, I can listen to the record.

Rocker

When I played trad Irish music on a button accordion, I developed my own version of tab to learn new tunes. There are two notes on each button, bellows in for one, out for the next. So 5I, 6o etc would give me the starting notes which triggered my memory so I could remember and learn a new tune. It worked even if very basic. Easier now to record using a phone but we did not have a phone way back then...

bingefeller

Hal Leonard have started to drop standard notation from their tab books completely, which is a shame because I think that reading standard is very important and I'm sorry I didn't learn the notes earlier.

Rocker, do you have lots of tabs in .txt format?   You should get Guitar Pro 7.  I bought my copy in April 2017 and it was worth it.  I had been using a free version for a couple of years called Guitar Pro Lite, but it wasn't that good, and also a programme called Muse Score.  Guitar Pro is very slick looking and I would recommend it. 

Emp_Fab

TheBigDipper said:

Music notation tells you the note, suggests which finger to use (both hands)

How ? I didn't know that.

For me, I struggle with the idea that notation is the pinnacle of written musical interfaces anymore than any particular spoken language is the perfect means of communication.  When I'm learning something, the primary information I need is which string, which fret.  Notation doesn't tell me that directly.  It tells me which note to play, so my brain now has to perform several functions on the fly - which note does that blob on the paper represent, then which string & fret combinations provide that note, before I can play it.  I don't need to know what the note is called - that information is superfluous to me - I just need to know where on the fretboard I can play it.  Tab gives me that information more directly - although I will concede that standard tab doesn't provide rhythm or duration data.

There must be a better way to convey musical note sequences to musicians than the ancient and unchanged method of notation.

Phil_aka_Pip

Emp_Fab said:

TheBigDipper said:

Music notation tells you the note, suggests which finger to use (both hands)

How ? I didn't know that.

For me, I struggle with the idea that notation is the pinnacle of written musical interfaces anymore than any particular spoken language is the perfect means of communication.  When I'm learning something, the primary information I need is which string, which fret.  Notation doesn't tell me that directly.  It tells me which note to play, so my brain now has to perform several functions on the fly - which note does that blob on the paper represent, then which string & fret combinations provide that note, before I can play it.  I don't need to know what the note is called - that information is superfluous to me - I just need to know where on the fretboard I can play it.  Tab gives me that information more directly - although I will concede that standard tab doesn't provide rhythm or duration data.

There must be a better way to convey musical note sequences to musicians than the ancient and unchanged method of notation.

the "ancient and unchanged method of notation" works. That's why people use it. Except that is HAS changed by evolving since the first monk wrote down chants, to be what it is now.

In proper notation, a number in a circle is a string number. A roman numeral is a fret number. A small bold digit next to a note head suggests a fretting hand finger. p i m a tell you which plucking hand digits to use.

There's no good reason apart from laziness and mental incompetence for people who call themselves musicians to not be able to read or write the standard language of music. Try holding down your day job without being able to read or write English. The reason you can read/write English is because you've done it every day since you were 6. If you read music in similar manner it would be second nature.