Real fast blue Camero race car on track, with other cars in front of it.

Guitar By Ear vs Tab vs Notes Who Wins?

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Ever wonder who would win? The person who plays the guitar by ear or tab or by notes? Well, let’s sit back and see.

People have always talked about which way is better…. to play by ear or by tab or maybe sheet music. And sheet music is nothing more than notes on paper….. of course we know that guitar musicians use sheet music to play the chord key with the small little chord graph located underneath it.

And some only have the chord key but they also use the piano notes located within the chart, to assimilate what the chords are. ( I should know because I can also play the piano). I personally like to do all parts of the charts [the the key note on top of the chart and the small little guitar chord graph located underneath it, when they have it. And the piano part and of course when they have it, the tab part.]

So again, which is better?

Let The Race Begin

Black fast race car, peeling out.

Let’s see who wins this, of who is better.

Lets start with the person who plays the guitar by ear. How does he do?

The person who plays the guitar by ear, it seems like this would be the easiest way to play the guitar. All HE has to do is pop out songs on the guitar by ear.

He turns on the radio and in an instant, he’s playing along to the songs without looking at anything. Some how he does that to any and all songs. He’s da boss to ALL other guitar players supposedly. But let’s clear this up once and for all and see if this is the best style of playing.

What Does A Guitarist Who Plays By Ear Need To Do?

What does a guitar player who plays by ear need to do? In order to see who wins this race we must see what a guitar player who plays by ear must do in order to get to the point where he can play the guitar by ear.

He must: He must first learn chords. How on earth is he gonna learn how to play the guitar without first learning chords, impossible! I’ve never seen no one do that and never will. (laughing).

He must know chords and juggle with them, what I mean by that is this …. He must know that as he plays chords and moves them all over the guitar neck and even all around in the open chord area, he begins to see how every chord sounds like, he then memorizes that sound in his mind, so that he can utilize that as one of his steps, for playing the guitar by ear.

Inside of car, with statue of juggler, to the right of it, outside of car.
Juggle the chords in your mind, till you get them right

And as he’s listening to and playing the guitar to songs on the radio, he is hearing the higher and lower notes in the music and matching them appropriately. Which in turn equal to him sounding exactly like the song on the radio.

And since I was just was talking about this, when I said the open chord area, It is this area where he realizes that it also has chords that sound lower and higher than each other.

Some of the open chords sound higher. And some open chords sound lower in this area. He uses this to his advantage and as he’s listening and playing the guitar to songs on the radio, he is hearing the higher and lower notes in the music and matching them appropriately. Which in turn, equal to him sounding exactly like the song on the radio.

And even with the barre chords, as he’s playing them in all the areas of the guitar, he notices that it too has a up and down effect. What I mean by that is, that he notices that the barre chords, that some of them also sound HIGHER and some of the barre chords sound LOWER than each other. And he uses this (just like the open chords) to his advantage.

And as he’s listening to and playing the guitar to songs on the radio, he is hearing the higher and lower notes in the music and matching them appropriately. Which in turn equal to him sounding exactly like the song on the radio. [this also applies to the power chords also].

Street moving a very fast speed, by vehicle. Vehicle windshield camera, point of view, outside.
Race, race, race

And what applied to the open chord sections and the barre chord sections and the power chord sections also applies to the single notes sections. (which is all over the guitar) Which we can also call them solos also. (But of course solos can have fragments of chords in them too).

The same process of which, when he plays single notes and moves them all over the neck of the guitar, he begins to see how every single note sounds like. He then memorizes that sound in his mind so that he can utilize that as another one of his steps for playing the guitar by ear.

He Remembers to always keep the guitar simple and it’s easier for him to figure it out. And instead of being like the guitar players who make a big deal about how hard Van Halen’s solos are to play and such. He just breaks down his solos little by little and he begins to see the full picture.

And he also realizes that some notes sound HIGHER and some of the single notes sound LOWER than each other and he uses this (just like ALL the chords I was talking about) to his advantage.

And as he’s listening to and playing the guitar to songs on the radio, he is hearing the higher and lower notes in the music and matching them appropriately. Which in turn equal to him sounding exactly like the song on the radio.

And finally, the technique section. HOW ON EARTH DOES HE FIGURE THIS SECTION OUT? Quite simple! It’s quite simple. He Remembers to always keep the guitar simple and it’s easier for him to figure it out. And instead of being like the guitar players who make a big deal about how hard Van Halen’s solos are to play and such. He just breaks down his solos little by little and he begins to see the full picture.

Woman, man and child, inside moving car, with child hanging her hand, outside of it.
Even spectators are starting to watch this race

Let’s not lie and act like he ALWAYS played the guitar by ear. When they were beginners they had to learn somethings too. They just finally matured and were eventually able to play the guitar by ear.

Because it is when he slows down that he begins to see that he is doing better on the guitar. So he figures out his solos or any musicians solos that he is having a hard time with and simplifies them by breaking them into little sections, bit by bit, and starts and keeps playing them over and over, the solos, until he gets it.

And if that doesn’t work finds a good YouTube video that will show him how or a guitar teacher who can show him how it goes and he will notice that the teacher will show him little by little how it goes and he’s not going to cram it all down all at once to show him how to play the solo parts of songs.

So he slows down on the technique parts, which are, bends, tapping, hammer ons, pull offs, slides, etc. and learns how to do them.

Because sometimes a guitarist that plays by ear has to do a little learning on the side to improve his playing the guitar by ear for more ammunition, for him to get better at playing the guitar by ear.

Man inside of car listening to cellphone. Inside of car point of view.
A little listening to songs on cell phone, as he races

Let’s not lie and act like he ALWAYS played the guitar by ear. When they were beginners they had to learn somethings too. They just finally matured and were eventually able to play the guitar by ear.

So how did he score? I don’t know yet but I’d have to say that he has to put up with:

He still has to learn:

  1. Open Chords
  2. Barre Chords
  3. Power Chords
  4. Solos (Single notes)
  5. Techniques
  6. How to use his ear.

He still has to use:

  1. Learning on the side.
  2. The slow down approach to learning difficult parts of songs.
  3. A little help from teachers on YouTube and teachers in real life.
  4. His memory to remember what the chords sound like.
  5. The HIGHER and LOWER sounding notes to match them to the song he is playing.
  6. Simplicity- Keeps the guitar simple to learn.  To speed up learning it.

The Race Is Still On

Red race car going fast on the street, smoking it.

Lets still see who’s better.

Ok let’s talk about the person who plays the guitar by tab. How does he do?

The person who plays the guitar by tab or tablature, it seems like this also would be a easy way to play guitar also. ALL he has to do, to play songs on the guitar, is by going to tabs to find out how to play the song.

While some guitarists don’t even know how to read tab, he does. And he can play ANY song as long as he has the tablature, to it.

It sounds like a easy process. All he’s gotta do is let the tab pages tell him how to play the guitar. He looks at the tab, plays the guitar exactly how the tab tells him to and in an instant he’s playing along to songs because he looked at the tabs.

While some guitarists don’t even know how to read tab, he does. And he can play ANY song as long as he has the tablature, to it. Maybe HE’S da boss to all the other guitar players supposedly. But is it really that easy? Let’s take a clear look at this and see if this is the best style of playing.

What Does A Guitarist Who Plays By Tab Need To Do?

Street roadway outside, next to rocky mountains and green weed bushes, on a glorious looking, brownish, cloudy day.
Long race

What does a guitar player who plays by tab need to do?  In order to see who wins this race we must see what a guitar player who plays by tab must do in order to get to the point where he can play the guitar by tab.

He must: He must first learn chords, just like the guitarist who plays the guitar by ear, so that when he gets ready to study to learn how to read tablature, he will already have a feel for what it is instructing him to play. Such as when the tablature instructs him to to form a chord, he already knows what it looks like and how to play it.

But really, once he learns how to do all the techniques, all he has to do is look at tab to figure out when to play the techniques and he’s good to go…..

And as he learns chords he will see when the tab is instructing him to play the chords, which are open chords, barre chords and power chords.  In time he will know when the tab is instructing him to play chords by the numbers on the chart.

Then he will get a feel for single notes and solos and learn how to do them. So that when he sees the tab instructing him to play, he already knows how to be able to play them.

And finally the technique section. HOW ON EARTH DOES HE FIGURE THIS SECTION OUT? It’s simple for him all he’s gotta do is just look at the tabs. (laughing) But really, once he learns how to do all the techniques, all he has to do is look at tab to figure out when to play the techniques and he’s good to go…..That is until he has to run to the book. The tab music book, to learn how to play the next song that he doesn’t know how to play.

Man opening side hatch car door.
Man listening to car radio, to see who’s winning race

Of course the techniques he will be doing are bends, tapping, hammer ons, pull offs, slides etc. when the tab book instructs him to do them.

And when he also finds Van Halen solos that are hard to do or other musicians solos that are hard to do, he runs to YouTube videos or someone that is decent on the guitar and learns them. And he too keeps it simple and learns it. Taking his time, till he gets it.

And a guitarist that plays the guitar by tab is not scared to ask for help. He devours it and eats it up, all the help he can get. It doesn’t matter if he can’t play by ear, he’s going to do anything and everything to learn how to play the songs on guitar that he doesn’t know how to play. Unlike the musicians who play the guitar by ear, who may not want to get help because they figure they can play it by ear.

So how did he score? I don’t know yet, we still have one more to go. But the guitarist who plays the guitar by tab, still has to put up with:

He still has to learn: 

  1. Open Chords
  2. Barre Chords
  3. Power Chords
  4. Solos (Single notes)
  5. Techniques
  6. How to read tab

He still has to use:

  1. Tab to know how to play.
  2. A take his time approach to learning the guitar.
  3. A lot of help from teachers on YouTube and teachers in real life.
  4. His memory to remember how to play from the tabs he looked at.
  5. Simplicity-Keeps it simple to learn. Which will speed up learning.

Yes The Race Is Still On

Inside of car with person driving.

This Race is still on? Yes it is but it won’t take long to explain the last subject because it is similar to the tab sections anyway.

Let’s see what’s up with the note player real quick. The person who plays the guitar by looking at notes. How does he do?

What Does A Guitarist Who Plays By Notes Need To Do?

He must:

It seems like this person just likes to look at notes in the music. You will often find him by himself or with other musicians. Mostly with other kinds of instrument players like, piano players, keyboard players, bass players, etc.

They love, and I mean they LOVE to just look at the notes on TOP of the sheet music they are looking at.

He will be looking at the charts on top of the sheet music of the piano parts and tab parts depending on if the sheet music book he is looking at has it in the book or not.

They love, and I mean they LOVE to just look at the notes on TOP of the sheet music they are looking at.

Long stretch of highway, outside of town, with mountains in back view.
Trying to play catch up

Sheet music can be found in books, and on websites and on some YouTube videos that show them on the screen of the video they are looking at.

They don’t have to sweat that much like the other musicians because they only have to usually play the chord notes on top of the charts. Which adds to the simplicity of what they are playing.

Don’t get me wrong, some note players read the whole Sha-bang and play ALL the portions of the sheet music they are looking at.

Which contain the Chords on top, the part reserved for the piano (they translate it for the guitar) and also the tab part which is located on the VERY bottom. (Although some sheet music books don’t have the tab section). Which still doesn’t make it that much more difficult to play this way, if they’ve been doing it for awhile to where they are good.

They will not play fancy solos or do fancy chords and techniques, although some do. They usually only stick to playing chords and normal type strumming of chords and such. They usually have it real easy amongst other types of guitar players who play by ear, and of those who play by tab.

So how did he score? I will tell at the end of this article. But the musician who plays by sheet music has to put up with:

He still has to learn:

  1. Open Chords
  2. Barre Chords
  3. Power Chords (optional)
  4. Solos (optional)
  5. Techniques (optional)
  6. How to read tab (optional)

He still has to use:

  1. Sheet Music
  2. A basic approach to learning guitar.
  3. Basic help from teachers on YouTube and teachers in real life.
  4. His eyes to look at sheet music.
  5. Simplicity-Keeps it very simple. Which makes it very easy to play.

The Race Is Over

End of the day at the race track. It’s night time.

Alright! Alright! The race is over, who won?  Well I’ll tell you who didn’t win first. It was The Guitarists Who Plays By Notes. WHY? Because they have it EASIER than all the other musicians because they usually only play while looking at notes. Sheet music notes that is. They take a VERY basic approach to playing the guitar. And stick to just basically playing easy type of rhythms on the guitar as they play chords.

So the toss up is to???

I’d have to say that between the guitarists who play by ear and the guitarists who play by tab, the WINNER would have to be The Guitarists Who Plays By Ear…..Because they don’t need no crutch, so to speak to play music, meaning they don’t need to look at anything to play music, they don’t have to look at notes nor tab. They are able to sound exactly like the songs they are playing to, that they have heard from the radio, YouTube, etc. ANYONE!

The Guitarists Who Plays By Tab is stuck on reading notes, just as The Guitarists Who Plays By Notes is. Making them less free because they have to keep running back to looking at notes and tabs….

AND THE WINNER IS: ……. THE GUITARISTS WHO PLAYS BY EAR!!!

Race girl throwing hands in the air, to declare winner.

Related Questions

Is playing a out of tune instrument bad for your ears? Yes, it possibly can be, it can lead to muscle memory of the notes you are playing on your instrument. It will cause you to play in areas you should not because you have no clue where to play.

Can anyone play guitar by ear? Almost, As long as you don’t have any physical conditions preventing you. If you are tone deaf you may not be able to play. Playing by ear requires good hearing of notes, as well as other factors. It takes time and effort to play by ear.

Is playing by ear a gift? Yes, because they have the practice of playing and over time they develop a recognition of what the notes sound like. They are rewarded this gift from the practicing of recognizing notes and applying it on their instruments.