I'm a guitar addict. I'm literally obsessed with this instrument. I cannot go a day without at least running my fingers through my guitar's fret board or checking Youtube for new guitar videos with the latest techniques and practice patterns. Learning the guitar or in fact any instrument is so easy these days because of the wealth of information just lying there in cyberspace. If you have the passion and determination, there's nothing stopping you from becoming a virtuoso in whatever instrument you desire... Nothing of course, except the MPA.
Let me explain. Way back during my undergrad years, I decided to pick up the guitar and learn the damn thing. Why? Well honestly, it was for the chicks! C'mon guys you know this is true! This is what's known among guitar players as the "dark side of the Force" As a user of "the Force" a guitarist must balance his desire to better himself as a musician against playing songs or using riffs just to impress the babes (or the dudes if you swing that way). But hey, I digress... So anyway when I was first starting I had a difficult time learning the songs I wanted to play (to impress the girls) mainly because I was tone deaf. I couldn't distinguish an A flat minor seventh from a C augmented add 9 \ B chord. And so I turned to buying those local guitar mags with lyrics and chord charts at the back (Do they still print those?) Well, suffice to say, my skill at playing grew to a point that I no longer needed the mags and could play the songs just by hearing them. Fast forward a few years later and then you have sites like Powertab.com or GuitarPro Archive. These sites are the Online equivalent of the guitar mags of back then except that these sites usually have software that you can download which can then play a musical score for you note for note and show you how it's done on a virtual fretboard on screen. There's even an option of slowing down the piece without changing the pitch (pretty useful for shred enthusiasts). Files for this software are usually uploaded on the site by fellow guitarists who use the software to tab out their renditions of songs and share them with others. Tabbing out a song is usually done by ear (a skill which can be developed by any one with enough time and practice). This is a great help to those who haven't developed the auditory skill but would like to learn a song and thereby develop their other skills such as left hand dexterity or picking speed. For a while, all was well and good in the land of online tabs.
Let me explain. Way back during my undergrad years, I decided to pick up the guitar and learn the damn thing. Why? Well honestly, it was for the chicks! C'mon guys you know this is true! This is what's known among guitar players as the "dark side of the Force" As a user of "the Force" a guitarist must balance his desire to better himself as a musician against playing songs or using riffs just to impress the babes (or the dudes if you swing that way). But hey, I digress... So anyway when I was first starting I had a difficult time learning the songs I wanted to play (to impress the girls) mainly because I was tone deaf. I couldn't distinguish an A flat minor seventh from a C augmented add 9 \ B chord. And so I turned to buying those local guitar mags with lyrics and chord charts at the back (Do they still print those?) Well, suffice to say, my skill at playing grew to a point that I no longer needed the mags and could play the songs just by hearing them. Fast forward a few years later and then you have sites like Powertab.com or GuitarPro Archive. These sites are the Online equivalent of the guitar mags of back then except that these sites usually have software that you can download which can then play a musical score for you note for note and show you how it's done on a virtual fretboard on screen. There's even an option of slowing down the piece without changing the pitch (pretty useful for shred enthusiasts). Files for this software are usually uploaded on the site by fellow guitarists who use the software to tab out their renditions of songs and share them with others. Tabbing out a song is usually done by ear (a skill which can be developed by any one with enough time and practice). This is a great help to those who haven't developed the auditory skill but would like to learn a song and thereby develop their other skills such as left hand dexterity or picking speed. For a while, all was well and good in the land of online tabs.
But then came the MPA who took down the powertab and guitarpro sites because it claimed that they were in violation of copyright law. The MPA, you see, represents the owners of companies who publish sheet music of songs. See here how greedy the music industry is? One song can net you all kinds of profit. Here's a short list: profit from the sale of the song itself, profit from those who wish to perform the song or use it as part of another work, profit from sale of accurate lyrics of the song, profit from sale of (in)accurate notations of the song... etc.
Don't get me wrong. Being an active musician myself, I respect the rights of musicians to earn an honest buck and I know how hard it is for a musician to eke out a living with just his music (hence, law school). But at some point, the greed just has to stop. Music is meant to be shared and enjoyed with others. To do otherwise would be no different from masturbation.
What I don't get is how the powertab and guitarpro sites are violating copyright law. These sites do not make a profit from these tabs and only serve to foster the advance of musicianship among guitarists. Most of the transcriptions are done by fellow users by ear and represent the users own interpretation of the song, they are not copied from published sheet music. To make this a violation of copyright law would make learning any song by ear and teaching the song to a friend using a real guitar a crime. How silly is that?
My take on the matter is that you can only milk The Cow so much before you kill it.
Note: I realize that I might have been using some terms which non guitarists/musicians may fail to understand so here's a quick crash course:
Chords- 1.) a group of harmonized notes
Tabs- 1.) an informal way of notation of music where instead of using notes, the author uses numbers on lines which represent the 6 strings of the guitar. the numbers represent the fret which is to be depressed. 2.) A term of endearment to call friends who are morbidly obese.
Guitar- 1.) a portable instrument which, when used correctly, can attract members of the opposite sex
Shred- 1.) a dark side power of the Force which allows the user to play a rapid burst of notes in succession. The world record for the use of such power is pegged at 28 notes per second. 2.) the best way to prepare cheese.
MPA- 1.) Music Publishers Association 2.) Evil
The Cow- 1.) Music
Don't get me wrong. Being an active musician myself, I respect the rights of musicians to earn an honest buck and I know how hard it is for a musician to eke out a living with just his music (hence, law school). But at some point, the greed just has to stop. Music is meant to be shared and enjoyed with others. To do otherwise would be no different from masturbation.
What I don't get is how the powertab and guitarpro sites are violating copyright law. These sites do not make a profit from these tabs and only serve to foster the advance of musicianship among guitarists. Most of the transcriptions are done by fellow users by ear and represent the users own interpretation of the song, they are not copied from published sheet music. To make this a violation of copyright law would make learning any song by ear and teaching the song to a friend using a real guitar a crime. How silly is that?
My take on the matter is that you can only milk The Cow so much before you kill it.
Note: I realize that I might have been using some terms which non guitarists/musicians may fail to understand so here's a quick crash course:
Chords- 1.) a group of harmonized notes
Tabs- 1.) an informal way of notation of music where instead of using notes, the author uses numbers on lines which represent the 6 strings of the guitar. the numbers represent the fret which is to be depressed. 2.) A term of endearment to call friends who are morbidly obese.
Guitar- 1.) a portable instrument which, when used correctly, can attract members of the opposite sex
Shred- 1.) a dark side power of the Force which allows the user to play a rapid burst of notes in succession. The world record for the use of such power is pegged at 28 notes per second. 2.) the best way to prepare cheese.
MPA- 1.) Music Publishers Association 2.) Evil
The Cow- 1.) Music
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