How Guitarists Read Music: Tablature vs. Standard Notation

Do guitarists have to read music? Is it wrong for beginners to learn tablature? These can be lively debates in guitar education. Some guitar teachers are adamant that students learn to read music. Some even feel that tablature is "cheating." I disagree, and I'm a very enthusiastic notation reader.

To me, the "tablature vs. notation" debate is like "automatic vs. manual transmissions" (aka: stickshift) in cars. We should learn to drive both kinds of vehicles, but it's certainly easier to get started with an automatic. And, honestly you can live your whole life without ever driving a stickshift. (Hopefully you'll never be in an emergency situation where you have to).

Tablature is easier to understand for most beginners; and even professionals can have great careers without learning standard notation. It's simply false to say reading music is a necessity, when there are plenty of amazing musicians who don't.

Even for myself, who's been reading notation longer than I've played guitar, I default to tablature first when there's a choice.

It's a tablature world out there. Unless you're strictly in the Classical genre, most guitar music is presented as tabs. When Guitar World magazine stopped printing notation I wrote and complained, but they've never gone back. Most of their customers probably don't read music, (and I'm sure it saved them a lot in printing costs). When I encourage students to look for their favorite songs online, I want them to understand what they find.

I like to help students play their favorite songs ASAP, and that usually means tablature. Furthermore, for students who aren't especially motivated, notation becomes irrelevant. When I get adults who just want to learn their favorite classic-Rock songs, or apathetic teenagers with no attention span, it's futile to force notation on them.

But I still try. Notation should be taught because tablature isn't a perfect system. It shows where notes are played on the neck, but isn't effective for rhythms or fingerings (in my opinion). And sometimes, even the positions shown are not ideal. I like to teach both methods together. As educators, we're responsible for building well-rounded students; exposing them to all fundamentals of the instrument. For guitar that means tablature, notation, chord diagrams, chord charts, and leadsheets. But, I'll start simple to build momentum.

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