Jump to content

Dont you think TAB is upside down?


Recommended Posts

  • Members

I think th tab should mirror the guitar as you face the page with the low E (thick string) at the top. seems more intuitive. But its written with the thick E on the bottom of the tab, which seems upside down

 

I guess it comes from classically written music where the low notes are low on the page?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

No, I think it is just fine. Low notes should be on the bottom. It's only non-intuitive to you because you likely don't read notation.

The further away it gets from standard notation the sillier it seems. I do know and understand what you are saying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I think th tab should mirror the guitar as you face the page with the low E (thick string) at the top. seems more intuitive. But its written with the thick E on the bottom of the tab, which seems upside down


I guess it comes from classically written music where the low notes are low on the page?

 

 

I know what you're saying, but I agree with Jeremy. One tip I can offer is this: When reading tab, pretend you're looking at your own fretboard while playing it. To do that, you'd have to crane your head over the neck from behind. From your viewpoint, the fretboard will look upside-down; just as it will appear as tab. get the idea?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Nope, it's not wrong. Look at it two ways...

 

The physical - It's like if you laid the guitar on your lap...which is essentially the same perspective when you hold it normal.

 

Music notation - Most 'real' tab also has the pitch and rhythm notation included with it, and lined up with it so you can read them together. The way tab is written the notes on the fretboard line up better pitch wise with the notation on the staff. Doing it the way you're thinking, any low notes on the notation would be written high on the tab and vice verse. The position of the frets would be inverse to the pitch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I think th tab should mirror the guitar as you face the page with the low E (thick string) at the top. seems more intuitive. But its written with the thick E on the bottom of the tab, which seems upside down


I guess it comes from classically written music where the low notes are low on the page?

 

 

Uh, no.

 

I think as soon as you spend enuf time playin', looking at the neck, this makes sense.

 

When you look down at the neck, you are looking up!

 

Obviously.

 

Visualize. A GREAT tool!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This used to confuse me a lot, and would sometimes mess me up while playing along with tab. It didn't take me long to get used to it though, and everyone else is right about the fretboard would be if you laid it in your lap.

 

The sixth string being at the top of the guitar, though, is definitely wrong. :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

so if the low notes should be at the bottom, then the guitar is upside down ;) right

 

I dunno, I dont reeally care and have never noticed it before and i can understand it in terms of making it similar to notation.

 

BUT

 

I did my first few lessons of teaching guitar to beginners and for people who are learning guitar with no intention of reading notation ever - it would be more intuitive to have the bass string at the top of the tab mirroring the guitar. The stuff you guys are saying about laying the guitar on your lap and visualize etc is less intuitive for a complete beginner than - the top string is at the top..

 

But I guess whoever invented tab made it similar to notation and thats the way it is, so yeah. Just an observation. Its easy enough to learn it upside down :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

so if the low notes should be at the bottom, then the guitar is upside down
;)
right


I dunno, I dont reeally care and have never noticed it before and i can understand it in terms of making it similar to notation.


BUT


I did my first few lessons of teaching guitar to beginners and for people who are learning guitar with no intention of reading notation ever - it would be more intuitive to have the bass string at the top of the tab mirroring the guitar. The stuff you guys are saying about laying the guitar on your lap and visualize etc is less intuitive for a complete beginner than - the top string is at the top..


But I guess whoever invented tab made it similar to notation and thats the way it is, so yeah. Just an observation.
Its easy enough to learn it upside down
:lol:

 

Not for me!

 

Honestly, I don't get why this is so confusing. When you look at the board in playing position.....well...TAB is what you see.

 

And not to mention the relationship to standard musical notation where the low staff lines are the lower notes.

 

Also, while we are at it...

 

Why is the term "bottom strings" so hard to assimilate?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

^^^^^

 

Dunno!

 

"Fattest" or "thickest" would put it all beyond doubt.

 

Better than "the string nearest your nose".

 

I think the problem with using the adjective "bottom" is that the bottom string of a held guitar, in relation to the rest of the planet, is the one nearest the floor.

 

Better to accept the norm, and move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Tab has been around in one form or another since the days of the lute....it was invented to show players how to finger what is in standard notation. It was made to go WITH standard notation, not to be a stand alone way to learn how to play some music. But rock/pop musicians use it in conjunction with the ear to learn stuff. Or in Guitar World's case, they put rhythmic notation on the tab.

 

But if you don't know standard notation, and you have never heard the song, tab offers only partial info. So it can't be upside down, cuz it is made to go WITH standard notation, which of course has the low notes at the bottom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

it would be more intuitive to have the bass string at the top of the tab mirroring the guitar.

 

 

Who plays guitar in the mirror?

 

Tab is fine, in fact, your post is the first time I've ever seen or heard anybody bring this up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Sorry bro, tough love! Not everything in life is, or should be simplified with a beginner in mind. Learning to play is difficult. If it wasn't everyone would do it and it wouldn't be special. Most things we need to be taught are non-intuitive. But like everything else, as a beginner, you don't yet understand how it fits into the bigger picture because you haven't been playing long enough to understand the nuances. It isn't wrong, so trust that, get used to it and move forward. There will be lots ahead that requires work and effort to grasp, so learn to enjoy that feeling. It's like building a puzzle - people do it as much for the building as for the finished result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

yea its all good. I learn songs by ear with some tab. Like I said, I dont REALLY care.

 

I was just making an observation that the beginners I started teaching intuitively kept thinking the big string was at the top of the page. If it was a standalone method it would be better(to me) if it was big string is at the top of the page. But whatever..

 

So relax, the system is safe. I wont overthrow it today :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Not for me!


Honestly, I don't get why this is so confusing. When you look at the board in playing position.....well...TAB is what you see.


And not to mention the relationship to standard musical notation where the low staff lines are the lower notes.


Also, while we are at it...


Why is the term "bottom strings" so hard to assimilate?

 

I didn't say it was hard to assimilate. I just said it was "wrong". :) I figured it out just fine once someone explained it to me, but prior to that it seemed logical that the "first string" would be the "first string" you strike while strumming across the guitar. There's probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it isn't, but I don't care enough to find out. Until everyone else comes to their senses, I'll just have to deal with it. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Like I typed...

 

Just slide the guitar down so it's laying flat on your lap...that's exactly how tab is laid out. Now try to play it lying on your lap...as you're playing it slide it back up into normal playing position. It's exactly what tab portrays. It's not upside down, it's right side up from a flat perspective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Don't feel bad due, I agree with you, to me it also seems the flat or low or Fat E would read from the top like when your holding the guitar, but I'm sure its because I have just started playing. I found your post funny because I just had to look up a diagram of the fretboard myself to figure it out when I tried to read a tab, I have only been playing 3 weeks and I have just been reading cords and frets, but I see from reading here it's because I have no understanding of reading any type of music yet, in time it'll all come together....I hope

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members

Each mind interprets information differently, one of the many things that makes us all unique and special. My first guitar teacher Shawn (whose band used to open for SRV in the early 80's) in lesson 1, day 1...... laid a tablature book down on the floor, then laid his right handed strat down on top of it.....and said..."look, the strings on the guitar, and the lines on these pages are a duplicate image of each other, it couldn't be any simpler...if I hear any whining about tablature being too hard to understand, then you will have to find a new teacher...CA-PEESH?" ..... This guy was a hawt {censored} axe slinger who was just about as SRV as SRV..... I never whined about tab being hard to read....and glad I didn't......stayed with him for 2 years....and was by a country mile the best teacher I ever had.....(and other teachers that came later were MIT and other fancy music school grads)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...
  • Members

Ok, chiming in on the topic in 2017. I read through all the posts. Unless I missed something, it seems as if everyone is talking about looking at their guitar, on their lap, or whatever. We are 'looking' at the TAB. As we should be.

 

Looking at the TAB, (or Standard Notation) helps us to get a 'feel' for the fretboard. Looking back and forth sucks, as it' is so easy to loose your place within the written music.

 

TAB is really just a 'picture' of the guitar. (if there are 6 strings, there are 6 lines, 7 string guitars have 7 lines...etc)

Standard musical notation is a 'graph' of high and low notes (frequencies).

 

My thought on the subject is that TAB is upside down. It should have the low E on the top. That is the way the guitar is. When you watch a guitarist play, where is their low E? On top, of course. When you look at TAB, it is as if you are 'watching someone play'. That is how it should be. TAB is a "picture' of the guitar. (moving through time)

 

I am a guitar teacher, and EVERY beginner that looks at TAB the first time, assumes the Low E is the top line. That alone, says volumes.

 

Either way, we adapt!

Thanks,

Bob

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • 3 months later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...