Tab

Scratcher

As a complete novice can anyone recommend a site that has printable tabs a available.I am slowly learning but could do with a selection I could slowly learn.

robgilmo

Ive just bought a song from these guys.   https://www.sheetmusicdirect.

Blaendulais

look online for videos with tabs on screen miles more useful as you can see and listen

underdog

If you're a complete novice take a good look here, it has everything I wished was available when I was learning.  https://www.justinguitar.com/

King85

https://old.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/97htjp/gear_free_60000_or_more_guitar_pro_tabs_my/

If you download that and tux guitar you're set for life with tabs.

vonLayzonfon

I like to have tabs on paper sometimes, too. You often can't see enough at once on a screen and auto-scroll feels too much like a video game. 

My go-to site for tabs is still Ultimate Guitar. I'll look for a PowerTab version first because it gives by far the best printed result. PowerTab is free. I also have TuxGuitar (also free) for GuitarPro files. Finally, there's always the option of just printing out the text tabs. Usually copied and pasted into a text editor first - don't forget to use a fixed width font. 

SouthpawMark

Ultimate Guitar.

p90fool

All I would add is that you only use tablature occasionally, for a sort of instant gratification of making progress.

You will end up a far better musician long term if you work songs out by ear. 

With a handful of chords, a couple of scales and the patience to pause and rewind you can cover 90% of giggable songs out there. 

If you never do that you will be painting by numbers for the rest of your life. 

Modellista

p90fool said:

All I would add is that you only use tablature occasionally, for a sort of instant gratification of making progress.

You will end up a far better musician long term if you work songs out by ear. 

With a handful of chords, a couple of scales and the patience to pause and rewind you can cover 90% of giggable songs out there. 

If you never do that you will be painting by numbers for the rest of your life. 

This speaks to the difference between guitarists and most other musicians, particularly orchestral ones.

Guitarists can busk through life, approximating the songs they're playing with whatever skill level they happen to have been bothered to get themselves to.

Orchestral musicians practice pieces written by geniuses for years on end to achieve a level of skill and emotion that the vast majority of hobby guitarists cannot even properly appreciate, let alone replicate.

I doubt many concert pianists would appreciate their craft being described as "painting by numbers".

Whilst I do agree most pop songs just use a few chords in either a major or minor key, and indeed that's not a bad place to start, to properly delve into music you need to be able to understand some sort of notation, starting with chord boxes, progressing through tab, and finally, if you're feeling brave, proper notation.

No matter how good you are, there's always a level above one's own skill.  The obvious way to make that step up is to study the written music for a piece one aspires to play.  Otherwise you'll be stuck with "a handful of chords and a couple of scales" for the rest of your life.

Modellista

Scratcher said:

As a complete novice can anyone recommend a site that has printable tabs a available.I am slowly learning but could do with a selection I could slowly learn.

To answer the question, I would recommend seeking out a tab book for songs or albums you like to listen to and aspire to play.  

Other than that, places like Truefire will have accurate tabs available for download.

Try and avoid user-generated tab sites - they're often inaccurate and practising incorrect written music is a fool's errand.

stimpsonslostson

Have you tried Songsterr? 
It's an app that has chords & tab, but it'll play the arrangement too & scroll the tab at the same time. 
You can vary the speed too- useful for nailing solos. 

Scratcher

Thank you all.I will have a look at your suggestions hopefully I will find something I can learn to play.

p90fool

Modellista said:

p90fool said:

All I would add is that you only use tablature occasionally, for a sort of instant gratification of making progress.

You will end up a far better musician long term if you work songs out by ear. 

With a handful of chords, a couple of scales and the patience to pause and rewind you can cover 90% of giggable songs out there. 

If you never do that you will be painting by numbers for the rest of your life. 

This speaks to the difference between guitarists and most other musicians, particularly orchestral ones.

Guitarists can busk through life, approximating the songs they're playing with whatever skill level they happen to have been bothered to get themselves to.

Orchestral musicians practice pieces written by geniuses for years on end to achieve a level of skill and emotion that the vast majority of hobby guitarists cannot even properly appreciate, let alone replicate.

I doubt many concert pianists would appreciate their craft being described as "painting by numbers".

Whilst I do agree most pop songs just use a few chords in either a major or minor key, and indeed that's not a bad place to start, to properly delve into music you need to be able to understand some sort of notation, starting with chord boxes, progressing through tab, and finally, if you're feeling brave, proper notation.

No matter how good you are, there's always a level above one's own skill.  The obvious way to make that step up is to study the written music for a piece one aspires to play.  Otherwise you'll be stuck with "a handful of chords and a couple of scales" for the rest of your life.

Utter nonsense, YOU might be "approximating songs" by not using crappy tab uploaded by bored teenagers, some of us have spent years working on detail by actually listening properly, combined with a knowledge of how and why scales interact with chords. 

Orchestral sight-reading is a totally different skill, but pop/rock guitar players who don't understand what they're playing because they've just memorised a bunch of numbers are pretty well unemployable to me. 

Modellista

p90fool said:

Modellista said:

p90fool said:

All I would add is that you only use tablature occasionally, for a sort of instant gratification of making progress.

You will end up a far better musician long term if you work songs out by ear. 

With a handful of chords, a couple of scales and the patience to pause and rewind you can cover 90% of giggable songs out there. 

If you never do that you will be painting by numbers for the rest of your life. 

This speaks to the difference between guitarists and most other musicians, particularly orchestral ones.

Guitarists can busk through life, approximating the songs they're playing with whatever skill level they happen to have been bothered to get themselves to.

Orchestral musicians practice pieces written by geniuses for years on end to achieve a level of skill and emotion that the vast majority of hobby guitarists cannot even properly appreciate, let alone replicate.

I doubt many concert pianists would appreciate their craft being described as "painting by numbers".

Whilst I do agree most pop songs just use a few chords in either a major or minor key, and indeed that's not a bad place to start, to properly delve into music you need to be able to understand some sort of notation, starting with chord boxes, progressing through tab, and finally, if you're feeling brave, proper notation.

No matter how good you are, there's always a level above one's own skill.  The obvious way to make that step up is to study the written music for a piece one aspires to play.  Otherwise you'll be stuck with "a handful of chords and a couple of scales" for the rest of your life.

Utter nonsense, YOU might be "approximating songs" by not using crappy tab uploaded by bored teenagers, some of us have spent years working on detail by actually listening properly, combined with a knowledge of how and why scales interact with chords. 

Orchestral sight-reading is a totally different skill, but pop/rock guitar players who don't understand what they're playing because they've just memorised a bunch of numbers are pretty well unemployable to me. 

I'm not responding to the above ad-homs.  As you were.

drofluf

p90fool said:

<snip>

Utter nonsense, YOU might be "approximating songs" by not using crappy tab uploaded by bored teenagers, some of us have spent years working on detail by actually listening properly, combined with a knowledge of how and why scales interact with chords. 

Orchestral sight-reading is a totally different skill, but pop/rock guitar players who don't understand what they're playing because they've just memorised a bunch of numbers are pretty well unemployable to me. 

That’s great if you have an “ear”, natural ability and years of experience. But for some of people, like me, who are just starting and just want to play our favourite tunes those “crappy tabs” are a great resource. 

I was put off musical theory at school by some, frankly brutal, teachers and don’t have the time or inclination to start learning theory now. Using tabs has given me a degree of understanding of the structures and to improvise around the structure of a tune.

I play for my own enjoyment and have no ambition (or any realistic likelihood) to play professionally so for me “playing by numbers” is ideal. I’d love to be able to sight read from notation but that’s unrealistic for me. 

robgilmo

Try to stay away from user uploaded stuff, most of it that ive tried is inaccurate.

darthed1981

robgilmo said:

Try to stay away from user uploaded stuff, most of it that ive tried is inaccurate.

I've found it pretty helpful, as it points you in the right direction.

As long as you listen to what you are playing, and identify what is right and what isn't, not treat it as gospel.

ArchtopDave

I use Musicnotes.com. I have also used sheetmusicdirect, but I've found the print quality better when printing off from Musicnotes. Additionally, if you pay a little extra for Musicnotes Pro, you get discount off the cost of each piece of music, plus a PDF of each song at no extra cost.

Modellista

drofluf said:

That’s great if you have an “ear”, natural ability and years of experience. But for some of people, like me, who are just starting and just want to play our favourite tunes those “crappy tabs” are a great resource. 

An excellent point.  Tabs should be a part of one's musical journey regardless of skill level.  This Usborne book is for absolute beginners and introduces tab early on as an easy way of learning scales, rhythm and lead parts.  Anything by Hal Leonard will be a decent quality transcription.  There's a plethora of educational materials out there which use tab.  Levi Clay (@missmisstreater) ;;sometimes pops up on here and does a good range of high quality educational tabs - I love his country licks book for instance.

Intermediate players can benefit from tabs by learning how to play increasingly complex pieces by their favourite artists.  My electric playing was transformed by a year-long study of the Pornograffitti book.  Similar books are available for those whose musical tastes have moved on from the early '90s

Anyone who wants to take an exam will have to deal with notation and/or tabs.  The excellent Trinity syllabus relies on accurate tab books to ensure the student is playing the pieces correctly.  I'd hesitate to recommend someone take on Grade 8, featuring complex and progressive pieces by Joe Satriani, Frank Zappa, and Esperanza Spalding, without extensive study of the tab.  Similarly, learning pieces by artists such as Tommy Emmanuel is exponentially easier with the tab.  Nobody in their right mind would try and learn the Rach III by ear, and the same principle applies to whatever skill level one finds oneself on the guitar.

Lestratcaster

I do agree most online tab is inaccurate, and using your ear is the best way to learn. However if you're inexperienced it can be a starting reference, and you can train your ear to hear errors in pitch/rhythm. I used to use Ultimate Guitar when I was a teen starting out and although I learnt the song I wanted to play (or at least, thought I knew how to play it) looking back now most of the parts are incorrect but I now have a better ear to spot where those errors are.

skunkwerx

You're just starting out. 

All this by ear stuff is 100% the correct way to learn, but in my opinion not for starters, as in, if you can't play a couple songs thru yet. 

Thats a recipe for becoming bored and frustrated.

Justin guitar has a great lot of stuff for absolute beginners.

You can learn the techniques, some chords, notes etc whilst being told what to play, so you can concentrate on actually learning the physical aspect. 

At the end you've learnt some chords, got an idea about what to do and most importantly can actually play something through on your guitar to break up the routine. 

Once you've got the basics down, ie actually being able to hit a bunch of notes at tempo and know some chords, then start his ear training programme (justin guitar) and have the discipline to build it in. 

Trick is not letting tablature become habit. But for people just starting out its necessary. 

What kind of music/songs do you want to play? 
What do you want to get out of guitar? 

Make sure your practice lines up with the goals.