The problem with standard notation is its lack of specificity. You can standard notate a Cmaj triad and play it many different places on the neck. Now voice leading would give you some clues, but not always, especially if you have many strings like the lute -- the bass could be an open string or fretted -- a very different sound! Tab takes away all of the mystery and preserves the sonority of the composer's original intent, even if you're sight reading. Sight reading tab is a ton easier than standard notation. Once you get good at reading tab, you'll know what I mean. The benefit of standard notation is its specificity, but I'd much rather have the ease of reading tab on something like the lute or guitar, especially if sight reading a solo piece. Standard notation is great for noting ties and dynamics etc, but you can write this into your tab part. Just my two cents.
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Dear Howard and Vance, > > I was very interested to read your comments regarding the relative virtues of > > staff notation and tablature. Being a beginner, I find tablature means I have > > little or no idea which notes I am playing, whether I am supposed to play a > fifth, an octave or indeed what interval is intended. Even the key is often a > > mystery (I do not have absolute pitch) What looks like a 'third' in staff > notation can turn out to be anything between a second and a seventh. The > letter 'd' > in the first chord or two of Greensleeves, I discovered, represents about > three entirely different notes. Of course my musical origins are in staff > notation, and I am so used to hearing what I read before I even try to play > it, that > I find it very difficult to adapt to the new notation. I have managed, am > beginning to recognise what is an octave, a scale, and the like, but find > sight-reading very difficult. In staff notation one knows from the context > what comes > (or could come) next. To find a b-flat in a-major (to take the first example > that occurs to me) would be highly significant, and not at all what one would > > expect. In tablature none of this seems possible, i.e. I have to read letter > for letter (I imagine like some poor beginner in music, struggling to read > any > form of notation), rather than in what I would consider a 'total way'. Why, > then, would it be so wrong to use normal staff notation? One would then be in > the > same position as the guitarist (and lute and guitar are not exactly light > years apart), able to read and above all hear what was going on at a glance. > To > this beginner at least, that seems a definite advantage. Cheers > > Tom Beck > >
