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Does anybody know if there is a book or website with the melody lines of jazz standards in TAB?
It would be handy as a quick reference.
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02-06-2015 07:32 AM
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The Real Tab Book - Volume 1 - Guitar Tab/Guitar Instrumental Album - Sheet Music & Songbooks - Musicroom.com
Here's something. I am not sure what the hell it is - the only picture available is of a tune called Don't Fear The Reaper, which is a Blue Oyster Cult tune.
My other recommendation is to ditch the Real Book altogether and take out the tune by ear and write your own charts. It's what I do. To that end, here is a nice free program that writes in TAB .:: TuxGuitar ::. Open Source Tablature Editor :: TuxGuitar
I personally just note down the chords on Notepad and try to memorise the melody.Last edited by pushkar000; 02-06-2015 at 02:30 PM.
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"Now even guitarists" can play from a real book... :-)
Yeah. That one isn't a jazz book. You get a song sampling better on the Amazon description. http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Tab-B..._1423229688030
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I had a look at the 'Real Tab Book'. It is indeed all pop/rock works.
If nothing is available (which seems odd to me) I have to transcribe them myself. But that's not really a quick reference anymore :-)
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There are very good reasons why jazz musicians don't use tab and advocate reading. The amount of hours required to study jazz properly makes the ROI of learning to read a no-brainer. You'll do yourself a big favor to learn to read music. (previous thread here)
However, I'm not really interested in judging people on this. Hal Leonard's Easy Guitar books have chords and tab. Not really aimed at jazz players. I've used other books in the series a good bit with kids for chord strumming. The "jazz standards" books in this series are probably somewhat open position and probably don't take "common keys" into consideration.
edit: Ok, something like Hal Leonard's Jazz Play Along series is probably more like it. Never used, but there are a bunch in this series.
Learn to read some music as well... :-)Last edited by matt.guitarteacher; 02-06-2015 at 01:17 PM.
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Don't Fear The Reaper is not an Iron Maiden tune!! It's Blue Oyster Cult or something...
Originally Posted by pushkar000
I agree, when I couldn't read music I used my ears. Actually, I still prefer to use my ears to pick up melodies of the tunes I'm learning and bypass Real Books altogether. For the chord charts I might still need them, though.
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Yeah, you're right! Sorry, my mistake. I corrected the original post. Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
I don't like the Real Book. It was helpful when I was a beginner but after that I think it's more of an impediment to one's progress. Or at least, not providing maximum benefit.
Also, I'm still very much a beginner!Last edited by pushkar000; 02-06-2015 at 05:15 PM.
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Although I am a firm advocate of learning to read notation rather than use tab exclusively, I can understand the attraction for those who are notation illiterate. So I have a question.
Would there be a big demand for a Real Book style tab version of standards? Are such books hard to find? In the Real book the only true notation is the melody line, while the chords are written out as "Gmaj7" or "Em7b5". So are people looking for just the melody as tab or melody plus basic bar chords? I realize in creating a compendium one would have to respect royalty issues involved.
Jay
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I totally understand the desire for tab rather than notation. As a mostly self-taught guitarist, I spent YEARS learning music by ear and by tab before I bit the bullet and put in the time to learn to read. Originally Posted by Tivoli
But honestly, if you're really interested in learning jazz and improvisation...it is sooooo worth it to learn the fretboard (where all the notes lay) which is over half the battle of learning to read. It's hard to truly grasp jazz improvisation if you don't understand the relationship between the note you're playing and the chord. Without that understanding, it seems to me like it would be unbelievably challenging to ever free yourself from playing visual patterns and pre-memorized riffs and really get into the give and take of jazz improvisation.
That said...I once owned a "Charlie Parker for guitar" book that had notation and tab. Don't remember the exact title. I'd imagine if there's one for Bird tunes, there are probably others. But if you put in even a just a little time to memorizing the fretboard...or at least parts of it...and then start with simple tunes that have a more basic melodic structure (not bebop)...it would be a good way to not only circumvent the problem, but also to dig deeper into the instrument and to set yourself up for a much better trajectory as your continue moving forward on your musical path.
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Long story short......Just learn to read man
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Okay, I may have been a bit blunt in my post above.
I was tiring of the posts trying to smooth the waters but dragging the basic issue out.
So, if it makes the message any more palatable coming from a world renowned player
well now hear this:
"Although this book includes TAB, I've never used this system and have never known any guitarists
that did. TAB would never be used in any professional situation; using it to learn music is a crutch.
Standard musical notation is the only method of communicating music other than using your own ear.
I think that reading music is essential, not only for understanding music but for playing guitar professionally as well."
- John Scofield - "A few words about TAB" .....in his preface to his book/CD set Jazz-Funk Guitar [1993]
I studied with John in a small group for a week - daily lessons-and I can tell you all his handouts were in notation.
If you couldn't read you were in shit street.....ha ha
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Sure, if you're a world-class cat playing with other world-class cats 4 times a week in 5 continents, learning to read is going to be necessary. But how many people are at Sco's level? Originally Posted by Moonray
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You don't have to play at sco's level to need to be able to read music. You need to be able to read of you want to play jazz with other people though. Unless you have really good ears and have a good understanding of harmony. Originally Posted by pushkar000
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I consider an ear much more important than reading (unless as mentioned you're Sco and co.). If you aren't at a level where reading is necessary with no exceptions, I think its much more important to work on your ear. So I think TAB is totally fine. Whatever you learn a tune faster with, so you can actually get to playing the tune. Ideally I would ditch TAB and notation altogether. Originally Posted by nick1994
Now I can read a bunch of stuff. I rarely use it. Firstly nobody calls me for gigs. Second, if I'm playing a tune I don't know, I say, "No man let's do something else.". I could read through it sure, but it would sound pretty bad!
Only my personal opinion.Last edited by pushkar000; 02-07-2015 at 04:32 AM.
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Thanks for all the reactions. I surely will have a look at all the suggestions.
I only started climbing the jazz guitar mountain a few month ago. And it’s still a long way up. The moment I wrote the word TAB in the titel I knew fellow climbers higher up the mountain would warn me that I should learn to read music because it will make climbing the mountain easier.
Until now I have been practicing all sorts of things and it’s a steep climb. So I want to introduce a pause and enjoy that jazz guitar landscape, play a tune now and then, have a bit of fun, start a jazz standard youtube backing track and have a straight and easy TAB melody line and then try to introduce the things I learned so far.
I play some piano, read music and I can find the notes on the neck but not very quick yet. It takes some time to read the notes, find the notes on the fretboard, sort out how and where to play those notes. For now I would just like some easy and fast TAB and have a bit of fun. Relax a bit and charge up and then I will continue the climb up.
Famous names on top of the jazz mountain got there without or with a very limited knowledge of music reading. I wonder what Wes Montgomery or Joe Pass thought about TAB…
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Wes and Joe didn't think about TAB, at all, according to them. Wes didn't read much, but had a genius connection from ear to brain to hands. Joe was a very good reader, having spent time in the studios.
One will NEVER go on a pro gig and get parts in TAB.
NEVER.
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I played a gig once about 10 or 12 years ago. I was still an undergrad then. A comedian was doing a huge benefit and rented out a gorgeous, huge, beautiful theater. He was a comedian but also had a great voice and wanted to sing a handful of numbers so he put together a one night band. He found the bass player and drummer somewhere, but needed guitar, piano, and a few horns. He reached out to my university and they linked him up with myself and a few other players. We chatted for a bit about the evening, then he hired us. The only directions were to wear a suit, and show up about 2 hours early so we could rehearse the music.
Showed up. The stage was set. They had me next to the bass player. I'd never met him, but we said hello and he seemed nice. There was music on my stand. No tab, obviously.
But what it did have was the melody and the chords written above it. It wasn't a photocopy of a real book page...but it had the same basics. The bass player was messing up all over the place. An older cat. He sounded good when we were tuning up and goofing off before the rehearsal started, but once we started reading...it was BUMPY. At one point he leans over to say something to me and sees that I have the chords written onto my chart. He asks if we can switch charts. I look at his and he only has the bass clef with notes written out. No melody and no chords. He obviously couldn't read his chart and was doing his best to keep up with his ear. I told him I was sorry but that I couldn't look at the bass line and magically know what the melody was I was supposed to be playing. He ended standing really close to me during the rest of the gig and looking over my shoulder. I can only imagine how awkward it must have looked from the audiences perspective.
It's always good to know how to read. But as importantly...don't lie about it. If someone offers you a gig that requires reading and you can't read...tell them! And maybe have a list of guys you know who can read so that you can act as a go between. Not only will you be helping out your friends to get gigs...but everyone will respect you more for being honest and upright (no pun intended) about the whole thing.
And yeah. Wes' reading was not really there. I actually heard he was so embarrassed about it that when they were doing those recordings with the string sections, he didn't want to be in the studio with them because he was so shy about his lack of ability compared to theirs. Not sure if that's true or not...but it's what I've heard. Though I've also heard that he could hear a horn player run through a bebop head one or two times at tempo and basically have it in his fingers.
Then again...he was Wes. He could swing harder than just about anyone. And it was a different time. Back then there were really only a small handful of great guitar players. Now you can't throw your guitar pick without hitting 8 other players.
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There's something to be said for a book that focuses on giving new players better fingerings for the standard tunes. I can take out a Real Book and read through most of the tunes in 12 positions, but there's really going to be one or two good options to choose from. How are beginners supposed to know the best way to finger the melody without tab or some kind of additional notation?
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the way we all learned it, by trying it everywhere and finding what works best for US. What may be the best place for you may not be the best place for me... Originally Posted by ecj
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There's a time and a place for working things out on your own to be sure, but there's also place for seeing how other players do things. I would think especially at the beginning. That's how players have always learned to some degree.
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That's a good point. Barney Kessell has some good pages in The Guitar comparing and analyzing various fingering options for a passage. It's something aspiring players might want to take a look at as they begin tackling a Real Book. Originally Posted by ecj
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Truth is that there is no one right way to finger a musical phrase. Recording a version of But Beautiful on Sunday I was sticking to a lead track where I focused on articulating the melody line closely. The composer, Jimmy Van Heusen (Chester Babcock) wrote melody lines that are often a bit challenging. He certainly was not thinking strictly of guitar players as opposed to pianists. One can articulate the same melody in various positions. Where you choose to play that melody is a reflection of your own style.
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