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I get asked for tabs often when I post videos across my social media platforms - and for years I said "no I don't do tabs" and that was that. But someone suggested making Patreon be the repository for tabs and sheet music for the videos and that made sense. They can be useful tools in the process of learning, for sure, and my aversion to them shouldn't dissuade anyone.

That said...

Comments

Tony Cunningham

I have the same problem Joshua and have been told several times by experienced folk musicians (several with classical training) that I have to learn by ear. In most cases they will have been exposed to music from an early age and learned technique from their parents and later at music school. In my case there was no interest in music at home and I started very late in life. My progress has exceeded my expectations, but I started with tabs and listening to pick up the rhythm and then taught myself to read music. Since then thesession.org has been an invaluable resource, providing numerous versions of each tune and interesting historical information. It does stray away from Irish music sometimes as well. So I use sheet music from thesession.org to print out the version I like and then listen to various professionals playing to reinforce the sheet music. Having learned the tune I no longer need the sheet music and can play it even after a year without practicing. I can't see what is wrong with this approach. I guess I should add I have no interest in playing in Sessions.

Joshua Mannix

I've basically been learning off of sheet music with the actual letter notes written underneath the symbols.

Tony Cunningham

Yes, that works. I did the same for about a year, then switched. It took me 2 years to read music reasonably fluently.