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Topic: tab |
Tom Higgins
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 14 Aug 2007 8:53 am |
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| Does anyone else get frustrated by the way steel tab is presented.If you don`t already know the song in your head,the tab of today is useless.Without a melody line,all you can do is guess at the duration of the notes.And with all the different copedents that are in use,there`s a constant correction process necessary.It`s too bad that the tab system that Winnie Winston used in his great book didn`t become the standard,it addressed the two shortcomings noted above in a logical way.And if you do already know the melody,Winnie`s tab is a good way to teach yourself to sight read. Tom |
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Don Sulesky
From:
Citrus County, FL, Orig. from MA & NH
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 15 Aug 2007 3:18 am
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IF you think about, a beginning Piano or Guitar student has the same problem. Sure they have written MUSIC but have no clue what it is supposed to sound like.
Notes on paper is still just notes on paper.
I certainly agree that TAB by itself is not an efficient format, but given that many if not ALL of the tunes that are tabbed for the STEEL are available on record or CD , the student will not be unfamiliar with the music.
Now, on the other hand , a complete TAB program which includes TAB, performance tracks and backup tracks is much more efficient. |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 15 Aug 2007 4:47 am
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I have over 180 tabs including complete songs, scales, riffs for both E9th and C6th tunings, ALL with audio files on my web site. Many of the songs have backing tracks as well. Unless you've actually wrote some of this, you have no idea of how much time is involved to generate, verify and post all this stuff! Whether the person offering it is charging for it or not, it's a bargain compared to the effort needed to create it.
Think about how long it would take someone to write just the tab and then post it as a jpg picture for forum display, convert it to pdf for printing. Then think about recording the tab part, mixing it down to a stereo track, porting it over to the PC, converting it to a smaller postable file like a .wma file, then uploading it to the net and posting it on a web site or the forum. Add to that the effort needed for a complete recording with all real instruments (maybe a drum machine), mixing to a stereo track, etc (same process as above). Add another mixdown process if you want to have a separate backing track.
In many cases just having the tab is sufficient if the material is well known. In many cases it's just too much work to create all the add ons. I sure appreciate all the tab other's have posted that I have learned with!
Greg |
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Tom Higgins
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 15 Aug 2007 8:52 am tab
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Greg,
Good point,I never thought of all that,and I wasn`t being critical of any tab posters,especially you,who have made an enormous contribution to the steel community.Coming to the steel from a six string background,I got used to having the notation at the top,always found it to be a big help.Tom |
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Greg Cutshaw
From:
Corry, PA, USA
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Posted 15 Aug 2007 10:49 am
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Tom,
I am toying with the idea of video, which would be the ultimate show and tell. However I would not want to compromise the audio portion and end up with huge file sizes mating the hi-fi audio with the video. I wonder if many steel players would value the standard notes being displayed? I could easily add them but I think the audio files add a lot more, especially given all the nuances of steel playing like bar vibrato, slides, shimmer, rate of pedal depressions and my habit of not picking groups of notes all at once but offsetting them to create a more complex sound.
There's a lot of things that could be done to improve tab and I value your opinions!
Greg |
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Tom Higgins
From:
New Jersey, USA
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Posted 15 Aug 2007 11:50 am tab
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Greg,
I should have confessed at the outset that part of my problem is a 10 yr old patchwork computer that won`t play audio half the time,forget about video.I know I need to update,then I need to learn all that technical &#@& that you have down.I`m sure most here on the forum have enough computer gear to take advantage of your presentations,I`m gonna try to get with the program.Tom |
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