They charge MONEY for TABS now?

[DorostheConqueror]

WHAT THE CRAP?


I haven't played guitar in years. I switched over to piano and keyboards, oooohh, maybe ten years ago, so it's been awhile since I bothered looking up tabs. But I was on a retro kick and thinking of transcribing some Iron Maiden songs, maybe making some chiptunes remixes or something, and I went to go find some tabs.

Christ.

OLGA is down, and has been for a number of years (! !). The sites that Google wants me to visit either charge subscription fees to view the tabs online, or charge for software to view the stupid format the tabs are encoded in.

What the crappity crappity crap, guitarists? How do you survive in this brave new world?

[HatofMadness]

Get a job.


Oh no, I'm just kidding. Yes, the economy is a real shame.

[DorostheConqueror]

Don't tell me you'd ever pay for tabs.

I know guitarists tend to be lazy and all, but how could you guys let this happen?! Frak me. Thank the Lords of Kobol for Sweden.

[Avron the S'wit]

Google until you find them for free. If you can't do that, Doros, I'd be so disappointed. (There are plenty of free ukulele chords out there - lucky me!)

[HatofMadness]

Ok, I will not.


What's different from paying for tabs on the internet then going to a music store and buying the book? I personally don't play guitar, so I'm not aware on "What's usual"

[DorostheConqueror]

Google until you find them for free. If you can't do that, Doros, I'd be so disappointed. (There are plenty of free ukulele chords out there - lucky me!)

That's the problem, though. Google is no longer a search engine, and hasn't been for years. Google returns two or three hits, then 500 pages of mirrors and mirrors choked with adware. You can't use any other search engines, either, since they're all just mirrors of Google anyway.

Don't worry, I've got around it. But you shouldn't have to jump through hoops to find a post-scarcity commodity, like textfiles containing tabs. Especially not in this day and age. Especially not when it's a commodity that's supposed to be overseen by starving musicians and artsy Bohemians.

What's different from paying for tabs on the internet then going to a music store and buying the book?

Nothing! And that's the problem! The internet made books obsolete, by cutting all the overhead costs and manufacturing issues and so on. All you needed was a nerd with a modem and a passion for transcribing "Stairway to Heaven", and BAM! Anyone and everyone on the planet could learn to rock the Stairway in fifteen minutes, from the poorest African teenager to the most entitled Californian trustifarian.

Now if you've gotta pay for it... Christ, you might as well just go back to buying books. Killing free MP3s, maybe. But killing free tabs? What's next? Google Images charges you fifteen cents to perform an image search for the Mona Lisa?

[Avron the S'wit]

Doros, you hurt me. You really do.

[DorostheConqueror]

I can just see it now:

TO: UESP Webmaster, Staff, and Legal Representatives
FROM: Prima Guides

It has come to our attention that you have been freely distributing material that infringes upon intellectual property licensed for publication by Prima's Official Guides™. Information handled on your website, such as "where to find Daedric artifacts in Skyrim™" and "how to kill Adoring Fan", are all material properly handled by Prima's Official ™ book guides. As of the receipt of this notice, you must either:

A- shut down your website, or
B- begin charging users for access to your content, and send Prima, Bethesda, and all other parties stipulated by our lawyers, whatever income is not needed for your operating costs.

You have three days to comply.

I mean, if you think about it, this "tabs vs books" crap is EXACTLY what's being done here on UESP. You guys are printing information that, prior to the internet, people could only get from books, books they had to go to a store and pay for. But now, you're taking all this content and putting it online "for free" (with ads to defray operating costs, ooooo, profiting off the IP of others!) Why should big companies like Prima stand for it anymore than the RIAA goons stood for it with tablature? More importantly, why should UESP be any more immune to "intellectual property management" than places like OLGA? You're doing the exact same thing; giving us "cheapskates" information about our favorite hobbies for free, in stark disregard for the economic well-being of old-media companies whose livelihoods are threatened by your business model.

[Jeff]

What the crappity crappity crap, guitarists? How do you survive in this brave new world?

Why would anyone need tabs to play todays music? ...or any music for that matter?

[Spiney]

Yarr harr fiddle dii dee, being a pirate is alright for me?

[DorostheConqueror]

What the crappity crappity crap, guitarists? How do you survive in this brave new world?

Why would anyone need tabs to play todays music? ...or any music for that matter?

Kids are lazier than ever, and so am I.

Yarr harr fiddle dii dee, being a pirate is alright for me?

It's low tide, thanks to piggybacking off a guy two houses down, and the shipment won't be in for 19h32m.

[Fiar]

Orrr, you could go to this site.

Ultimate Guitar tabs

User made tabs, but I've learned a bit of songs from there.

Or subscribe to a magazine like Guitar world, it's cheap, and getting about 3-5 songs every month is well worth it.

[DorostheConqueror]

If Ultimate Guitar is really free, why are they constantly trying to sign me up for "3 day trials" and a "monthly fee" for every other file? There's a handful of legit, no-BS textfile tabs in there (complete with intrusive banner ads and in-site "upgrade now" nagging), if you're willing to dig around, but the decent ones are almost all locked behind a wall of proprietary tab software. Best they can claim is it's "partly free", which is kinda like saying you've only "partly got cancer". Compare and contrast this to, say, OLGA, which featured virtually every song ever made, all for free, and with nary an ad to be seen.

And why would I want to subscribe to a guitar magazine? Even when I played regularly, I hated those things. Besides, "3-5 songs every month" is a beggar's choice compared to thousands of songs instantly, especially when you stop to consider that when you're looking for tabs, you're not looking for any old tab, but a specific song. What are the odds that Guitar World will just so happen to feature Steve Vai's "Tender Surrender" this month?

Anyway, this is all strictly academic at the moment, since I already have all the tabs and the appropriate software. But making us jump through hoops like savages just to get at stuff which we, the internet generation, have been freely entitled to for years on end is simply unacceptable. You guys wonder why vanguard socialism is a sham, and why communism will never come to be? Yo.

World's first, and potentially only ever, post-scarcity economy, and it's already dead and buried.

[Veck]

I have a great solution. It's called figuring out the songs for yourself.

[Lindai]

Tabs today. Lyrics tomorrow. Interpretations Monday.
Can you give an example of a tab that requests a fee? I know that the "pro" tabs on Ultimate Guitar require paid software, but [&@%!] that obviously. Are you talking about tabs other than the guitar pro/power tabs requiring fees? I've never seen anything like that, though I have been blocked access to some songs because of my non-American IP address.

[Fiar]

He's talking bout Guitar Pro, ignore it and just continue to look up songs like I do.

As for subscribing, 30 bucks for 2 years is pretty cheap. And tabs that are always spot on? Can hardly go wrong there.

[Jeff]

Typically something coming from Doros, is not what his complaint is directlly about. It is not about what is happening today, but what type of a trend it fortells, and what it holds for the future. Tabs today, lyrics tomorow, ect...

Finding alternate methods, and ignoring the problem, only makes it worse. It is sort of like treating the symptoms, and ignoring the disease/illness.

I had subsriptions to all of the mags back in the day. I bought them mainly for the articles, keeping up on current trends, favorite bands, finding new ones, and the lessons/techniquies, but not the tabs. Tabs are not really that good, and they miss a large part of what the song, and music is really about. They give you the notes, but that is about it. Without the knowledge of music, and the techniques, you do not get what is really there in the song. If you understand music, technique, and feel what is being played, then you do not need tabs, because the tabs are actually wrong most of the time.

[Fiar]

Typically something coming from Doros, is not what his complaint is directlly about. It is not about what is happening today, but what type of a trend it fortells, and what it holds for the future. Tabs today, lyrics tomorow, ect...

Finding alternate methods, and ignoring the problem, only makes it worse. It is sort of like treating the symptoms, and ignoring the disease/illness.

I had subsriptions to all of the mags back in the day. I bought them mainly for the articles, keeping up on current trends, favorite bands, finding new ones, and the lessons/techniquies, but not the tabs. Tabs are not really that good, and they miss a large part of what the song, and music is really about. They give you the notes, but that is about it. Without the knowledge of music, and the techniques, you do not get what is really there in the song. If you understand music, technique, and feel what is being played, then you do not need tabs, because the tabs are actually wrong most of the time.

Tabs are simply a means to an end, not a problem nor the solution. As you said, if you can feel the song and know what to do, you're fine off, of course knowing where to start is nice. And, anyone that plays knows, there are many ways to emulate one sound if you know keys and basic music theory.

As for mags, they are fine for both, but I do think they are better for techniques. I used to buy a magazine if it had a song I liked...Since I bought a subscription, I've taken to practicing blues techniques, along with dabbling with the others.

I apply these techniques now when I improvise and have found some nice tunes and licks.

[Jeff]

REF: Problem and Solutions - meaning tabs were free, now they are pay, next is lyrics... the problem is that so much of what people were used to being free is no longer free. I did not mean that tabs were the problem, at least not in the exact content... but that is another story.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I will go back to my old standard "Right tool for the Job", (haven't used that one in a while). ...so use what you need to get where you want to be. ...but when you quit trying, it is better to quit altogeather.

When I wanted to play a song, that I was going to perform, I did not listen to and practice that song. I learned every song by that guitarist. I learned how he/she plays and uses those techniques... what he/she is thinking, and what he/she is feeling. This way I knew what he was thinking, feeling, and why he/she was doing that, and what they will do next, and why. I did not just play the notes, I played the music, from the heart and soul. Music is much more than just notes. It is much more than just playing an instrument.

The guy who writes the score/tabs, does not do that, his job is to score/write the tabs. They actually expect that you do not know that they are wrong (or more appropriately, not quite right). I mean, you are buying tab to learn how to play a song, that you shouldn't really need to learn the song in the first place.

I quit buying them for a few reasons, same articles, same songs, it was just getting old... If I needed that to learn how to play better, then I was better off not playing at all. I mean seriously... Tab for Nirvana?

I did learn quite a bit at the beginning (and I am sure I could pick up a few things now), but the music sceen/sound was changing, and I didn't feel there was a need for tab to play those song... in fact, I had no intention to play those song.

*DISCLAIMER: The word YOU, is not directed at anyone, just a use of a general term. I have not heard how anyone here play, so cannot comment on others proficiencies.

Sorry, it is sunday, and I just felt like being preachy.

[Fiar]

REF: Problem and Solutions - meaning tabs were free, now they are pay, next is lyrics... the problem is that so much of what people were used to being free is no longer free. I did not mean that tabs were the problem, at least not in the exact content... but that is another story.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I will go back to my old standard "Right tool for the Job", (haven't used that one in a while). ...so use what you need to get where you want to be. ...but when you quit trying, it is better to quit altogeather.

When I wanted to play a song, that I was going to perform, I did not listen to and practice that song. I learned every song by that guitarist. I learned how he/she plays and uses those techniques... what he/she is thinking, and what he/she is feeling. This way I knew what he was thinking, feeling, and why he/she was doing that, and what they will do next, and why. I did not just play the notes, I played the music, from the heart and soul. Music is much more than just notes. It is much more than just playing an instrument.

The guy who writes the score/tabs, does not do that, his job is to score/write the tabs. They actually expect that you do not know that they are wrong (or more appropriately, not quite right). I mean, you are buying tab to learn how to play a song, that you shouldn't really need to learn the song in the first place.

I quit buying them for a few reasons, same articles, same songs, it was just getting old... If I needed that to learn how to play better, then I was better off not playing at all. I mean seriously... Tab for Nirvana?

I did learn quite a bit at the beginning (and I am sure I could pick up a few things now), but the music sceen/sound was changing, and I didn't feel there was a need for tab to play those song... in fact, I had no intention to play those song.

*DISCLAIMER: The word YOU, is not directed at anyone, just a use of a general term. I have not heard how anyone here play, so cannot comment on others proficiencies.

Sorry, it is sunday, and I just felt like being preachy.

Makes more sense, I read your other post a couple times and couldn't quite grasp your point; so I poked in the dark.

It really dose sound like your ears are much more developed than mine too, lol.

Anyway, I have noticed the same thing with tabs from older mags, I learned tabs for, "Wish You Were Here" from Pink Floyd. A couple parts didn't match, the notes demonstrated were never played in the song, so I just went with what felt right at that point, and it worked. For the time being though, I can still learn a bit from the lessons and techniques, so it does it's job.