The Steel Guitar Forum

I have always memorized my music when performing in public. One time I got lost in the middle of the song and found it difficult to get back on track, and I wished I had something to help me apart from memory. I am working on a new song that is loaded with slants and I am thinking of using TAB when performing it, but I find it hard to read the TAB and look at my fingerboard at the same time. For some reason, reading TAB on steel guitar seems to be different than reading music with other instruments. I think it is because I am so use to looking at the fingerboard that I can't do both at the same time. How do any of you do this? Do you use TAB when performing? Any advice or comments on this?

I have SO many songs that I find it necessary to play with tab.
I'm always afraid I'll forget what I'm doing.
You need to get over having to look down at your fretboard. Just an occasional glance will do, the same with the tab.
I use one of those tab racks that clips onto the two front legs of my guitar. My guitar player gets his chords off of it also.
Erv

Have to say but many will disagree...

Learn music. Take a basic chord chart/melody with some chords written out and improvise over it.

Nashville number system is an excellent short hand version as well.

At least once you know the basics you can improv within the key or chord progression.

reading from the tab stifles creativity. IMHO

What Stefan says is worth considering. Jerry Byrd said first you have know to the chord progression down cold. I have great difficulty with anything over four chords. Use tab to store away great ideas and analyse what's going on, but try to avoid an exact recital of a single arrangement.

That being said, you will often hear that tabbed arrangements are not creative. The problem is that not everyone is all that creative anyway. The sheet music industry was invented for them. People would own pounds of the stuff. And to my ear, improv often ends up sounding like a lot of half-baked ideas, unless the player is gifted.

It's better to play with tab than not at all.

I think it will only make you a better musician plus then you can articulate the ideas to others.

Can't tell you how frustrating its been looking at pedal steel videos and hearing people say string this lever that lick...then spending hours only to figure out damn it was a ionian scale then a mixolydian scale then a Phrygian scale from the Root to the 5th of each scale.

Man oh man if people could articulate it better then we could study faster and apply ideas and absorb concepts enabling us more options when applying it.

if this sounds confusing it really isn't at all and I promise you music is a language and learning tab though it gives a quick way to regurgitate it it doesn't teach you what you are playing. So why not learn the music and why it works.

then you don't have to memorise songs just the basic cues and changes within the key.

Erv Niehaus wrote:It's better to play with tab than not at all.

Absolutely. I use them all them time, but I tend to transcribe my own from the recordings I like. This helps commit ideas to memory.

A perfect example is the Chord melody to All the things you are.

Top note for most chords is a 3rd or b3

the bridge has an 11th, and 3rd and a #5 for the Augmented chord at root position.

So the entire song is predominantly 3rd on top voicings.

Tab doesn't teach that.

So now because you know that mess with the chords a little to your liking.

example do a 7b9 with the 3rd as a melody note and a b9 as the low note.

or for the 11th chords throw in a b13 in the bass or a b5.

All that matters is that top melody note. So have fun with it.

music takes time and practice but it starts to pay off slowly.

Well, this thread has gone west quickly. Poor old OP. Ask a simple question.

Like Erv, I write a lot of tab but I generally don’t use it on the gig. The problem is size and lighting conditions that are not always optimal. Also, to make it big enough to read confidently you would probably end up with many pages which is not that practical. That said, you could optimize the conditions for tab with enlarged sheets on a lighted music stand set up close to you.

I find that professional sized charts of regular notation, Real Books and such, don’t provide the same problem. I think that is because to interpret tab you have to differentiate between numbers that can be confused if you don’t get in real close. Dots on a stave are much clearer from a distance.

Not wanting to fuel the thread drift too much but I must say that if you lack the skill to improvise on changes that you don’t know well, that’s a bunch of gigs you won’t get.
End of story.

I am on the side not using Tabs for sight reading or on stage anything.

They are an excellent learning aid and have proven very useful in all aspects of memory practice.

It is a lot of wok and a lot of fun too , committing to memory, well worth the effort required to be able to play live or to tracks or what ever means of entertainment.

In the 80's at the Jeffran Steel Guitar College , we learn the tabs and used Number Charts when we learned to record professionally.

I do not recall any of the players at any of the major steel conventions playing with Tabs, some with sheet music, but never with Crutches aka Tabs.

George Piburn wrote: I do not recall any of the players at any of the major steel conventions playing with Tabs, some with sheet music, but never with Crutches aka Tabs.

Interesting....I have read off of sheet music live, but never off TAB.

I really prefer to memorize the material on lap steel - I have to look at the fret markings, not the staff notation!

Stefan Robertson wrote:....
So the entire song is predominantly 3rd on top voicings.

Tab doesn't teach that.
.

No, it does not show the chords clearly as staff notation does.

Good point.

On my tab, I show the chords along with the notation and the lyrics, in addition to the tab.

Erv Niehaus wrote:On my tab, I show the chords along with the notation and the lyrics, in addition to the tab.

That's very cool - and a lot to sight read at once, too.

You have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time also.

Playing music is meant to be fun...if you like to learn from tabs or from sheet music or by ear, they are all valid forms...everyone has their own learning style..no one method is best IMHO. I would not suggest using tabs or sheet music in a performance setting...if you get lost in a performance, chalk it up as a learning experience, work harder at memorizing the tune, and try it again. You have to get out of your comfort zone in order to settle into another comfort zone...hopefully at a higher level...concentrate on intonation and feeling for the music...I dont believe you can do that and still read anything at the same time. We can all think of several blind musicians who are outstanding ! What does that tell you ?
Hope this helps, its just my 2 cents worth after 45 years of teaching guitar.

I agree its meant to be fun

However to avoid wasting years of noodling I think its important to set goals and achieve them.

For me the journey of learning is just as fun as the destination. = Giant Steps

I hope to one day play at full speed not by memoprising it note for note but actually understanding what to play and the why it works. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to reapply it to any musical situation.

John D. Carter wrote:I have always memorized my music when performing in public. One time I got lost in the middle of the song and found it difficult to get back on track, and I wished I had something to help me apart from memory. I am working on a new song that is loaded with slants and I am thinking of using TAB when performing it, but I find it hard to read the TAB and look at my fingerboard at the same time. For some reason, reading TAB on steel guitar seems to be different than reading music with other instruments. I think it is because I am so use to looking at the fingerboard that I can't do both at the same time. How do any of you do this? Do you use TAB when performing? Any advice or comments on this?

Getting back to the original question, I dont think having the tab or music in front of you is a good idea in a live setting...I suggest practicing in a way that as closely as possible simulates playing live in front of an audience...ideally with rhythm tracks...this will tell you whether you are ready to perform the song in public...when you stumble on certain places...work the hardest on the weakest parts until they feel comfortable...there is no substitute for just doing it...and the more you play in public, the easier it will become...sometimes the part that you think you know the best turns out to be the place you stumble...believe me, I have had that happen to me a lot ! Hope this helps to answer the original question. Keep practicing and have fun doing so !! I agree with what Stefan said, you have to set a goal for each practice session..otherwise you are just playing and that is not practicing.