Beginners Frustrations

Mark_H

So just before lockdown started I took a free 4 week (8 Lessons) guitar course with Shaw Academy. Ironically, people will always tell you to learn chords and it was really hectic and I struggled. Fast foward to the online course,suddenly I'm exposed to Tabs. TABS! Why don't they just lead with that? Then Lockdown starts and I can't figure out how I can learn more about tabs and the booklets I got from another member the year before didn't make any sense to me at all. About 3 days into lockdown and I find out that Fender offered free online lessons for 3 months. And all of a sudden a helluva lot starts making sense. From scales,to apprecios to stramming and everything changed.
Why is it that when people start off, do instructors shy away from tabs? I know chords are of vital importance,but learning tabs make learning so much easier and quicker to learn

V8

"You don't know, what you don't know" - which applies to everyone, but especially beginners.

That's why a flesh n blood teacher is still relevant in the internet age. Imho, A experienced teacher should be able, in the first lesson, to assess where you are, what you need to know and guide you to that info.

I had a mate start guitar over Xmas - she popped around and I sat with her for a hour. First thing, Posture, options on how to hold a guitar. Second, rhythm - for her - I figured I could skip my noob's intro to rhythm - her's was good. Third, was chords.

Then we went onto questions - Is she in it for a good time or a long time? What sound/band does she admire and want to play? That resulted in me showing her drop D, using a basic Nirvana song and letting her mess around on my amp with delays (she loved that)

I didn't mention tabs - but it's in the top 10 things, just not the top 5 things I think she needed to learn. For you it might be different - that's the secret sauce that a teacher offers.

guidothepimmp

V8 heartshaped box eh? 😁

@mark, all relevant questions. I dont know that teachers shy away from tabs necessarily... but maybe its a case of if you had tabs , would you have gone to the teacher?
These days, i find tabs to be readily available via the web or even youtube. In my view.. there are almost too many options to learn.
I think that a teacher is still very much a decent option for all the points that Veee mentioned

More importantly though. How about some gear pics? 😁😎

V8

guidothepimmp heartshaped box eh? 😁

Bwahaha, nope. I had "On a Plain" cued up, I thought that was the easiest Nirvana song. Was I wrong, "Something in the way" was requested, learnt and 'taught' within the time it took the track to play. Two chords in drop D for 4mins. Layered with the most depro lyrics imaginable. The man was genius 😃

RCVN

Hi @mark,

I know where you're coming from. The first few songs I learnt was repetitive picking tunes. Pretty straightforward.

This quickly changed once I started playing with a buddy of mine. Was forced to learn 4/5 chords and started expanding from there.

Tabs are very limiting in regards to their application. With chords you can jump into any song without practice once you've built up efficiency. That's why I would suggest learning chords.

Mark_H

The problem I have is I went to a teacher on 2 occassions,learnt a thing or 2,but when I got hom (10min later) I couldn't remember a thing. Also not blaming him as I used to work in events to thinking about everythkng else instead what needs to get done,so online has proven to help more as I could go back anytime I wanted without making the teacher feel like they are wasting their time and yes,I know some chords,but Tabs actually helped with for instance the dreaded F chord and certain other chords higher up on the fret board. And sometimes when you try learn a song,you look up a song's chords,it doesn't always show how a certain chord needs to be played,example, the Dsus4,it makes some sense as sometimes people would "block" the view

RCVN

Mark_H

However you feel comfortable that you're making process is the right way to go. So long as you're just doing it. You'll see the most progress in the early stages of learning than anywhere else.

As for chords, if you jump onto "ultimate guitar" they'll show you the multiple ways that a chord can be played, and generally, the people writing tabs/chord sheets will include instructions of where and how chords need to be played.

My goal currently is to get efficient with actually combining the use of chords and tabs. With bass, I used tabs a lot as it felt more efficient. Bass lines are also quire iconic so there might be an argument for learning it note for note. But this has greatly hampered my ability in having to play something on the spot that sounds decent. I would like to think that I have improved since.
In a way tabs are great to learn certain techniques and develop a good feel for how others play whereas the use of chords and music theory assists in learning the actual musicality of what's being played.

If you look at a solo in a tab for example. If you try and identify what the different notes are in relation to the root notes of the scale/chords being played it will greatly assist in actually understanding what the purposes of the notes are.

The best and most important thing my teacher told me was that you shouldn't be aiming for perfection, musicality is what its all about. I feel like my only advice really would be to learn both methods and lean towards what your strength is.

V8

Mark_H I got hom (10min later) I couldn't remember a thing.

It's a real issue for most peeps. But nowadays we gots smartphones - so when someone shows me something, I ask if I can take a quick video recording of it. 99.9% the answer is yes. I'm a monkey see, monkey do kinda learner - so 100x better than tab for me.

A major part of the musical journey is learning how you prefer to learn.

Mark_H

That's a valid point as I've notice there are many ways to play a certain song. I have actually noticed on a few occasions that when I play a certain chord/tab it's either missing a note or doesn't make sense which ironically,I have been able to "fix it" by ear. I must admit,that the theory side of music is most deffinitly a shit load of information to take in and to be quite honest at times completely overwelming to a point where your brain hurts and you don't even wanna touch your guitar and rather sit in your shower and cry🤣 but I do see the reasoning to knowing the what goes where,how and why.

Bluetone

Hi Mark. Good questions and points. For a start, guys who have been playing for decades are still "learning" theory and application, so don't be despondent about the mountain in front of you. I agree with the point made above that people tend to learn in different ways - some very visual, some forgetting what they've seen very quickly. While tabs come in handy, I think the limitation suggested above is that they actually don't carry any information on how to play the notes (including spacing between them) so it can take a lot of listening and looking to figure out how clusters of notes should be played. Also, in my experience a LOT of tabs on the internet are incorrect.

What I'm leading up to here is that I think ear training is absolutely vital to learning guitar (or any instrument). In general, guitarists tend to play in positions that are easy for them, and looking at a tab won't necessarily give you any of that information. If you listen and find the notes, again in my experience, you'll soon learn the habits of the guitarist you're transcribing, the hand positions they favour and why they choose to play certain phrases in certain positions. It can bring valuable fretboard knowledge, about equivalent notes and such. In my opinion, your playing and learning will only benefit from ear training. It will also mean you'll probably become someone who can walk into a situation and jam along with other players quicker because you're hearing intervals and picking up on keys and changes much more quickly.

Mark_H

This is actually true as I have played some tabs/chords and it just doesn't sound right. But there are apparently many ways to play a song. One thing I did notice last night and came to a conclusion that it's infact a combination of tabs/chord/ear training. As certain songs will be a C-chord,and when you strum it,it makes no sense,but then it's in tableture actually the 010 C-chord or a tab that's in the wrong place and that's where ear traing comes in handy.

I actually took online lessons with Fender Play last year (3x months free lessons online) and the music theory started making a helluva lot of sense as suddenly I was introduced to the 010 C-chord or the 003 G-chord and suddenly up strumming was introduced as well as palm muting,ect.

I also learned to watch Marty Music's lesson on a certain song to understand how to actually play the songs and these are things that help inprove the skills even more

RCVN

Mark_H Awesome stuff man.

It sound like you're taking the deep dive. Keep it up.

guidothepimmp

Its a journey for sure. Let us know how it goes