Notation or tab

[Steve with the black dog]

Hi Maart

When your band colleague Kevin Dempsey guested in this section of the board he revealed that he doesn't read music.  This surprised me as Kevin is a great guitarist and plays stuff I can't imagine learning without the music.

I guess I already know the answer to the same question is that you read notation, but how important do you feel it is for a serious guitarist to be able to read music?

By the way, thanks to you telling my wife (at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal) how much fun it is at Cropredy, we have been every year since.  Thanks - remind me to buy you a pint at the bar in August

Cheers

Steve

[Maart]

Hi Steve

It's true that ar Kev does not read music, but he is one hell of a guitarist. Same goes for Django Reinhardt, Jimi Hendrix, some other great names too. I bet none of them could sight-read tab either. There are many great guitarists who do sight-read music notation, but I've never heard of anyone who can sight-read tab. There are many great guitarists, for example Richard Thompson, who can read both music and tab, but not at sight-reading speed. The point is that both types of notation are only a guide as to what to play. The main difference is that music notation applies to every instrument, tab only relates to one. Music notation is the international language, which is why a fiddle player can sight-read a clarinet part, or a mandolinist can play a flute line. A guitar tab reader can play only guitar tab. A mandolin tab player can play only mando tab. Tab teaches you nothing at all about the bigger picture of music. It's true that tab can clarify music notation on a certain instrument, and tell you which fingering to use, but it's no substitute.

Even music notation is only an approximation. This was made obvious on an old Parkinson programme where Stéphane Grappelli was duetting with Yehudi Menuhin to promote that duet album they made. They played the tune together, then Yehudi played the first solo, from sheet music. Very stiff. Then Stéphane took off like a sports car, because he had the freedom of improvisation. Having met Stéphane, I know that he could sight-read as well as Yehudi, but was not tied to the music alone. He understood the bigger picture, but had the freedom too. I'm sure that if you gave one of Richard Thompson's written-out guitar solos to a great sight-reader to play it would definitely not sound like Richard Thompson, in the same way that if you gave (lent) Richard's guitar with all the right pedals etc to someone who knew all the notes on the board, it would still not sound like Richard.

If you want to play music to the full, I believe you have to give yourself every chance, and if that means learning to read music, then you have to do that too. There are some jobs that come up where you have to be able to read music AND improvise, and if you can't do that, someone else will get the job. It depends how serious you are. We can't all be Jimi or Django...

Maart

[Neil67]

Hi Maart,
On the subject of tab, do you think that there might be a chance in the future of a full Fairport tab book for mandolin being produced? I know that there were a few mandolin tabs in your excellent V2.0 songbook but there have been so many great mandolin tunes and songs on Fairport albums over the years and it'd be great to have them all in one place in tab for us musical thickies.
Cheers,
Neil

[Maart]

Hi Neil

I doubt there would be enough interest for a mandolin tab book. Sorry.

Maart

[Dr Clive]

I'd buy it!

DC (mandolin learner).

[MikeB (Mike)]

Me too.

[Metro96 (Keith)]

I'd buy it!

DC (mandolin learner).

Oh yes indeed!

Keith (another mandolin learner (& bouzouki)).  

[fat Billy(Bill)]

I'd buy it too
i play mando but am always learning

[SteveK]

I'd buy it as well, and know a couple of others who would.

That's five or more copies sold in just a few hours already!  

[Maart]

Sadly, to keep the price realistic, we'd need more than half a dozen...

[Neil67]

I'd buy at least two! How many of us do you need Maart?!

[Jim]

I'd buy at least two! How many of us do you need Maart?!

Look, you are the umpteenth person he's told today, there's no demand for it

[Paul]

I'd buy it if it had tadpoles on telegraph wires as well. I really don't get on with tab.

Paul

[Maart]

Okay. Let's look at the real picture. Say we had 100 people who wanted this book. Short print runs are notoriously expensive. With all the undeniably fantastic mandolin music that FC has put out over the years (I was enthused to learn mando because of Swarb and Peggy, but it was Lindisfarne that was the original inspiration, and not just with the mando...), we'd be talking about around 100 pages. Double that with TAB. Then there's the licencing. You have to pay the publisher to be allowed to print original material for resale.

Then it doesn't just happen miraculously. It's a time consuming business and I charge at least the agreed norm. I do have a life too. Then you need some artwork to make it worthwhile as something nice to keep. The retail cost would be totally prohibitive. And at the end you'd only be copying what someone else did up to forty odd years ago. Much better to learn your instrument and work it out from the record. After all, that's only what I've been doing these last 40 years...

It's just not realistically going to happen, is it?

Maart