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Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 10:06:15 -0600
From: "TD"
Subject: Re: ASCII Tab Idea

I think you are really misreading what Glenn was saying. Most musicians on
most instruments have keys that give them difficulty in reading. With our
instrument the use of tab can make that process easier. Say if you have to
sight read a piece in Eb than maybe a little time is needed to sit down and
work out the transposition and mark the sheet with tab for the Eb before you
play. This would be reasonable in most situations I think. Perhaps the
studio might be a more difficult situation but I think that most people well
grounded in music theory could transpose the music fairly quickly and
jotting some Tab on the sheet could help out. I mean we have to figure out
what position would sound best as well so just picking up a difficult chart
in a difficult key that needs a difficult position, to wring the most
emotion from the piece, is daunting by any standard, and I believe most
musicians would understand if you needed a little time to really work it.
Believe me if a trumpet player is handed a vocal chart that transposes into
a difficult key he isn't going to get it perfect the first time either. What
both the trumpet and harmonica players will get from the chart (very
quickly) are the basic tone centers and rhythm.

As a good reader who is struggling to learn the diatonic, I appreciate the
effort that Glenn went to in "Masters..." I find his Tab to be very readable
and works well with standard notation. David Barretts books are also very
useful in this way (thanks to MojoRed for turning me on to "Building
Harmonica Technique").

I applaud Mike for his effort but personally prefer the combo of a *simple*
tab with standard notation and know, from having played other instruments
for many years, the importance of sight reading standard notation. And as
far as the portability, in this day and age I think that most of us can
receive image files attached to our email (as long as the sender notes the
attachment in the body of the message and the antivirus definitions are up
to date;).
/tim
sixtiesja~ahoo.com

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "G maj"
To: "harp-l"
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 2:26 AM
Subject: Re: ASCII Tab Idea

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Glenn Weiser
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 5:48 PM
> Subject: Re: ASCII Tab Idea
>
>
> > Tab is eminently practicle and spares one from having to learn to read
> music on the harmonica in 12 different keys.
>
> Good gravy, we couldn't have everyone learning 12 different keys now could
> we??
> Do you think we should all get our key of C harmonicas valved or even
setup
> for Overblows so we don't have to play 12 different harmonicas too? I
know!
> How about using Eric Chaffers tuning? Then we would be spared from having
> to learn to play 12 harmonicas .... augmented spanish tuning must be
> eminently pract-icicle.
>
> > I bet 99% of harmonica players cannot read in all 12 keys.
>
> Mores the pitty and I sincerely hope you're wrong about this too Glenn ...
> how did you come by that statistic?
>
> If this is so don't count on getting a job as a soloist on a cruise ship
or
> being part of a studio recording of a composition will you? "Any chance
of
> getting that in tab for an Eb diatonic harmonica sir? I was saved the
effort
> of learning to read in 12 different keys you see."
>
> Great going ... well done, this will really earn us respect in the music
> community and in the eyes of the professional music industry.
>
> Yes - I know Glenn can read & transpose standard music notation - way
better
> than me in fact.
>
> Its the concept of propogating illiteracy because the majority of people
are
> in fact illiterate. Seems to me more would be gained if in fact just as
> much effort was put into TEACHING and PROMOTING music literacy INSTEAD OF
> accomadating it.
>
> Seems just as silly to me, as the idea of a blues harpist getting up with
> sheet music for a Chicago blues seems to some other people on our group.
> Sheesh.
>
> ... But then people gripe about how we don't get no respect and
everything.
> I have noticed the people who have the least respect (or expectations of)
> harmonica players the most are in fact other harmonica players.
>
> Question: What do you do with a large proportion of illiterate kids in
your
> community?
> Well in New Zealand they set about to improve the education system &
> commuity resources to ensure that more opportunities for literacy are made
> available, and actively encourage kids to learn and give parents more
> resources at home.
>
> Whats being suggested here is the equivelant of publishing more picture
> books for the growing illiteracy amongst the population. Great stuff.
Good
> marketing tactics, but does nothing productive for the future of these
> people and those that follow. The better strategy is to encourage people
to
> learn, and offer more resources and teachers.... but that might actually
> involve change to the way things are now.
>
> > Tab is good, useful, and here to stay. Get used to it.
> > Glenn Weiser
>
> What a lovely attitude... and its here to stay. Get used to it.
>
> Yes, tab has a well established place among us and is very useful as an
> education tool and for helping people learn a tune, and especially
effective
> for explaining how certain phrases & effects are described.
> Yes music notation (sheet music) is the universal written language for
> music, is invaluable and is well worth learning depending on what your
long
> term musical goals are.
>
> MyQuill was offering his version of harmonica tablature for ~critique~.
>
> I also offered my version a week earlier with similar benefits, a
different
> approach and many more options than regular harp tab, its an ASCII
> alternative for written music and also taking harmonica tab into account
> (which ABC doesn't).
> I'm quite happy to repost my version as well (including examples) . But
> mine was briefly laughed at, and MyQuill's has been deftly derailed into a
> battle of tab vs notation, not of his doing I might add ....
>
> So less of the Tab VS Music Notation and "I'm an authority" stuff and
maybe
> people could give some constructive feedback to MyQuill on his notation.
> ... or would everyone prefer to tell us its no use because it'll never get
> accepted, that we should just go away and play, that there are already
> perfectly good systems in place so why are we writing all this trash...
> seems to be the way these days.
>
> Can't have us young hoolagans actually going and thinking independantly
and
> offering new ideas now can we? What next? We might actually put
> them into practical use ... WOAH!
>
>