what do you need to be great?

[Ando]

I look at tab a lot (if you don't look at tab, I would wonder why are at dmbtabs.com lol ).

I make and dispute tabs, thank you very much, tab is great for people who just want to play for fun, but if you're really serious about it and want to be "great," you need an ear, not tab...

Yes.. You definately need an ear. If you've got a good ear you don't need to worry about learning to read music to figure out the rhythm

[fatjack]

I look at tab a lot (if you don't look at tab, I would wonder why are at dmbtabs.com lol ).

I make and dispute tabs, thank you very much, tab is great for people who just want to play for fun, but if you're really serious about it and want to be "great," you need an ear, not tab...

Yes.. You definately need an ear. If you've got a good ear you don't need to worry about learning to read music to figure out the rhythm

unless its a classical tune that you wont be able to find a recording of very easily...

music notation definitely helps out when the album version of songs are hard to hear, i usually dont use the notation for an entire song, but it helps figuring small discrepancies in the rhythm

[Ando]

True, True...

[gcom007]

if you can read sheet and you're good, you're set, studio musician, whatever, guitarists who actually read are hard to come by

[Brock]

if you can read sheet and you're good, you're set, studio musician, whatever, guitarists who actually read are hard to come by

I can read sheet for piano great but haven't made the conversion to reading sheet for guitar - how difficult is it?

[Ranting Thespian]

I can read notation, not very quickly, but I get it done (also with notation, they do not restrict to certain fingerings and such, so that's when tabs are handy, to know exactly where that chord is played on the guitar.) I just prefer tabs, since all the music I play, I have recordings of them. But, yeah, that's the thing notation lacks, is chord formation on the gutar. It can tell you the nots, the rythm, and so on, but doesn't tell you where to play it on the guitar, and tabs do tell you that.

[Dancing Ants]

I write my own stuff without the assistance of theory or anything like that...I just work up a melody that sounds good, it's probably wrong, but it sounds damn good to me and a few other people.

[fatjack]

if you can read sheet and you're good, you're set, studio musician, whatever, guitarists who actually read are hard to come by

I can read sheet for piano great but haven't made the conversion to reading sheet for guitar - how difficult is it?

not at all, in fact its easier. its the same thing, just no bass clef

[skilly]

see the problem i have with this is that i know sme unbelievably talented people who probly didn't even know the names of the strings that based thier whole playing on tabs, and really there is no need to know how to read sheet music when you play guitar because they are essentally the same thing. I even know how to read music for several instruments, and for guitar i still always go back to tabs.

And for writing, i have a few great originals, and i rarely work at it, but to me it comes easy because i know so many different types of guitar, that putting cool riffs together, and the lead over that, is just a prosses of trial and error, and it is WAY easier if you have good lyrics to work with.

[gcom007]

see the problem i have with this is that i know sme unbelievably talented people who probly didn't even know the names of the strings that based thier whole playing on tabs, and really there is no need to know how to read sheet music when you play guitar because they are essentally the same thing. I even know how to read music for several instruments, and for guitar i still always go back to tabs.

And for writing, i have a few great originals, and i rarely work at it, but to me it comes easy because i know so many different types of guitar, that putting cool riffs together, and the lead over that, is just a prosses of trial and error, and it is WAY easier if you have good lyrics to work with.

well aren't you "great..."

every single person I've talked to that's actually made it in music has given me two pieces of advice universally...

1) stay away from drugs and booze

2) learn to read sheet

so yeah, it's your gig...

[fatjack]

see the problem i have with this is that i know sme unbelievably talented people who probly didn't even know the names of the strings that based thier whole playing on tabs, and really there is no need to know how to read sheet music when you play guitar because they are essentally the same thing. I even know how to read music for several instruments, and for guitar i still always go back to tabs.

And for writing, i have a few great originals, and i rarely work at it, but to me it comes easy because i know so many different types of guitar, that putting cool riffs together, and the lead over that, is just a prosses of trial and error, and it is WAY easier if you have good lyrics to work with.

the only reason people go back to tabs is because its just more convenient. if there were no such thing as tabs, everyone who played would pretty much be fucked and there would be a lot less guitar players in the world

[gcom007]

see the problem i have with this is that i know sme unbelievably talented people who probly didn't even know the names of the strings that based thier whole playing on tabs, and really there is no need to know how to read sheet music when you play guitar because they are essentally the same thing. I even know how to read music for several instruments, and for guitar i still always go back to tabs.

And for writing, i have a few great originals, and i rarely work at it, but to me it comes easy because i know so many different types of guitar, that putting cool riffs together, and the lead over that, is just a prosses of trial and error, and it is WAY easier if you have good lyrics to work with.

the only reason people go back to tabs is because its just more convenient. if there were no such thing as tabs, everyone who played would pretty much be fucked and there would be a lot less guitar players in the world

YES!!!

[skilly]

geeze, you know i was just tryig to make a point, i dont believe that you have to know sheet to be a good musician. sure it helps, but you dont need it. almost all of the people i know who are very good at guitar, and very good at writing dont know sheet. and i didnt mean that i was "great" but that people liked them and gave me tons of positive feedback.

[Ranting Thespian]

You don't need to know any theory or notations. You can use them to write, but you don't need them. I don't know much about theory at all, and I write all the time. You need what I said you needed in the first place.

[fatjack]

geeze, you know i was just tryig to make a point, i dont believe that you have to know sheet to be a good musician. sure it helps, but you dont need it. almost all of the people i know who are very good at guitar, and very good at writing dont know sheet. and i didnt mean that i was "great" but that people liked them and gave me tons of positive feedback.

i never said you need to know all that to be a good musician. there are TONS of good musicians who dont know theory. its not necessary, just a very good supplement...