Tabs - You're doing it wrongMusic 

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Jedi2016

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I'm finally getting off my ass and picking up the bass again, so I've been digging around the 'net at various resources, tab sites and such.

And it's amazing how many of them are dead wrong.

Granted, my searching has been limited.. I'm not looking at everything, mainly just the stuff that got me into bass in the first place. Sting, with or without The Police. It seems about every third bass tab I come across is pretty far off from the reality... both what the sheet music tells me and what my own ears tell me. Two cases in particular struck me:

Tea in the Sahara: Every bass tab I've come across starts off the opening riff as 0-2-2-0-2 on the E string. The main verse riff ends up 2-2 on the E string.. despite the fact that, when listening to the song, it's noticeably lower than the opening riff. In fact, the opening riff should be closer to 2-4-4-2-4 on the A string (I haven't mapped it accurately yet), then dropping to 2-2 on the E string for the main verse.

Message in a Bottle: This one cracked me up over the last couple of days. All of the tabs lay out the opening riff the same way:
----------------------
-------------------4-4
-4-4---0-0---2-2------
----------------------
This struck me again as odd, because the last note again (like Tea in the Sahara) sounded lower than the rest of the riff rather than higher, like so:
----------------------
----------------------
-4-4---0-0---2-2-----
-------------------2-2
This is the way I've always played it, and the way it sounds when listening to it. The bass is matching the guitar's lower notes, just one octave lower.

I was vindicated today while going through some old Sting videos of mine. In most concert videos, they never focus on him actually playing, except one.. his appearance on MTV:Unplugged around the time of his Soul Cages tour. Because he was using a stand-up bass, his left hand was fairly close to his face, so you could often see what he was doing while the camera was focused on his singing. And guess what? He played it like I've always heard it, hitting the F# on the E string. I laughed my ass off at the huge number of people on Youtube who have been playing it wrong all this time.

Now, further research has revealed that both are correct... the original album recording did indeed use the higher F# on the D string, but the majority of live performances since then (including around the time of the studio recording) use the lower F#. The sheet music I have also reflects the use of the lower note.

I've talked it over with some of my guitar-playing co-workers, and we all agree that the majority of tabs on the internet are garbage... made by people plucking out a song on their guitars and then putting it up on the 'net as if it were fact.

I'm just pointing out that it's probably better to listen to your ears rather than what some guy on the internet says. And to stick to sheet music rather than tabs... Even though I'm largely a beginner, I have a certain stigma with tabs in general that, while useful, they're a bit of a cheat compared to written notes. Now that I'm getting back into music, it's my intention to re-learn reading sheet music rather than pulling tabs off the 'net.
 
Some people must have their strings completely out of tune, because a lot of tabs aren't even close. Most of the time, it is easier to figure it out yourself than to find a good tab.
 
The biggest advantage for me being able to read sheet music is that it allows me to play a song I've never played before, right off the bat, without having to dig around for a "cheat sheet". I can just look at the notes and play it. Sheet music, plus a recording of the song, should be all you'll ever need to play any song, any time.
 
Well... if the tabs are free, that tells you something.

The only time internet tabs are spot on is if they're ripped off of some commercial tablature publication... otherwise, they're just people guessing... and often, their guess is merely as good as yours... or worse.

It does make sense, though, to spend on commercially printed tablature for a particularly tricky song... you'll learn some riffs or positions you weren't familiar with, as well as the odd fingering. I'm not the best "ear" player in the world, but I can get something to sound 100% correct (I used to play a little folk-rock acoustic) and then look at the tab and be blown away that there's an entirely different fingering to the riff that hits the exact same notes and sounds exactly the same.
 
I've found most tabs to be incorrect at some point. I can't read music, I just picked up a guitar and started trying to play.

I like tabs cuz they get me in the general area. Most of the time they are close, but may be off alittle bit. That's where I just start experimenting to I think I've "fixed" the tab.
 
powertabs.net might be what you're looking for (especially if you don't have the time or skillllzz to figure it out on your own.) You can play it back and hear any inaccuracies for yourself
 
niky
It does make sense, though, to spend on commercially printed tablature for a particularly tricky song... you'll learn some riffs or positions you weren't familiar with, as well as the odd fingering. I'm not the best "ear" player in the world, but I can get something to sound 100% correct (I used to play a little folk-rock acoustic) and then look at the tab and be blown away that there's an entirely different fingering to the riff that hits the exact same notes and sounds exactly the same.
Click to expand...

That's simply because the artist, especially folkies, likely played it in some tuning other than E-A-D-G-b-e.
A lot of folks play in "Dropped D" or "Double Dropped D" and those would significantly alter fingerings for riffs that make extensive use the first and sixth string.

A lot of commercially available TAB retunes to standard tuning and changes the song tab accordingly. Cause most folks, myself included, can't be bothered to learn to play in altered tunings.
Not because it doesn't sound good, but because it's much easier to keep the guitar in standard tune.
 

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