What happens when someone features guitar tabs on a Web site so musicians can learn to play their favorite songs? The posting is probably copyright infringement since publishers have licensed very few guitar tab sites. But publishers are facing even more pressing questions than whether they should sue the unauthorized sites: What is the best business model to compete with the free, unauthorized sites, and do current publishing contracts even cover the necessary rights to post tabs to the authorized sites?
The sale of print versions of guitar tabs is a multimillion-dollar business. Although publishers’ revenue is confidential, a source with a print publisher crunched some numbers for me based on information from a NAMM report, the company’s own revenue and the source’s estimate of competitors’ revenue.
According to a NAMM report, the North American print music market generated $539 million in retail sales in 2006. My source estimates that about 48% of that amount ($258.7 million) was related to songs in about 2.7 million songbooks. About 16% of the song part of the revenue was likely attributable to guitar tabs, thereby generating roughly $41.4 million in retail revenue from about 40 million individual guitar tabs. With wholesale prices typically 45%-50% of the retail price, print publishers likely received $18.6 million-$20.7 million in 2006 from print guitar tabs, which they then shared with songwriters and their publishers.
Currently, only three commercial guitar tab sites appear to be authorized by a large number of publishers. Each sells tabs as digital sheet music: FreeHand Music (FreeHand Systems), Musicnotes and SheetMusicDirect (Hal Leonard and Music Sales U.K.). Meanwhile, sites that may contain unlicensed tabs keep growing. From July 2006 to July 2007, unique monthly visitors grew for ultimate-guitar.com from 1.4 million to 2.4 million, and for 911tabs.com from 473,000 to 1.1 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.
In an attempt to compete with the free sites, Musicnotes bought a previously unlicensed site, MXTabs.net, with plans to license the site’s database of tabs and add others, offer them for free and share ad revenue with publishers. Among the publishers that licensed rights for the site were BMG Music Publishing, Well-known Music, Bug Music and peermusic.
But when Musicnotes made a deal with the Harry Fox Agency in May so that publishers could opt in to the licensing deal for MXTabs, Hal Leonard reacted negatively. It e-mailed some publishers to urge them to reckon carefully before licensing the “free” business model, which may include amateur (i.e., not necessarily accurate) guitar transcriptions of songs. Musicnotes posted the letter and its answer on the MXTabs site, which has not yet launched its service.
It’s unclear whether the reaction to the dispute is holding up the site. But the debate is unlikely to be resolved soon. It boils down to two questions: In light of all the illegal sites, should tabs be offered for free on ad-supported sites even though “free” may feed into a consumer demand for more free music, thus devaluing music? Or should legal action shutting down unauthorized sites and educational efforts be the strategy for publishers while building per-download or per-use sites for tabs?

Many beginning guitar approach me and question for advice how to play guitar ‘quick’. I inevitably question them whether they already play guitar, and just want to be quicker on the fretboard, or whether they’re “newbies” who want a fasttrack to basic proficiency.

This got me wondering whether there might be a connection between the two. It seemed far-fetched; but, the more I thought about it, the more parallels I saw between these two seemingly different levels of training.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that:

1. You can learn guitar quicker by studying the techniques involved making your overall playing ability ‘quicker’, and..

2. You can become a ‘quicker’ guitar player by re-focusing your practice sessions on the basic concepts and techniques taught to every beginner.

The reasons for this overlap and can be summed up in a handy acronym: M.O.S.T. — or, “Memorization, Observation and Strength Training.” Let’s cover each one to clarify the point.

Memorization

One of the things that slows down both beginning and intermediate guitar players, no matter how excellent of an ‘ear’ for music they have, is a failure to memorize:

1. All of the notes on the fretboard

2. Chords and scales for the Major and Minor Keys

It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting out, or have a few year’s playing experience already. The reality is that ‘hunting and pecking’ for the needed chord or note will slow you down.

You don’t have time in the middle of a song to stop so you can figure out if a Dbminor chord will work in the key of B, and then figure out where that chord is relative to your current position on the fretboard.

If you’re a beginner, then memorizing your fretboard is the place to start. This will make it simpler for you to memorize chords and scale patterns, as well as know the relationship between them in music theory.

If you’re already playing the guitar, then you should focus on increasing your knowledge in both of these areas. You probably have a excellent part of your fretboard memorized already, but can you jump to any note or chord automatically?

Observation

Your senses of touch, sight and sound are all involved in playing guitar. As you play, you will no doubt feel the development of ‘muscle memory’ as your fingers play across familiar chords and scales. You will see patterns and relationships on the fretboard. You will hear what you’re playing and come to connect it with all of the above.

Memorization is the foundation for observation, and observation is the key to training your mind and hands to work in concert automatically.

If you want the ability to play anything you hear ‘in your head’ the moment your fingers reach the fretboard, then you must wed memorization with observation when you practice.

Strength Training

No, I’m not suggesting you lift weights at the gym! Strength training, which really includes ‘dexterity’ training, is part and parcel of everything we’ve covered so far.

Beginning guitarists often struggle to hold down chords, and to play scales with all four fingers. This is simply a matter of building strength, muscle memory and dexterity through consistent and right practice.

Intermediate players who want to get quicker on the fretboard must realize that the most likely culprit(s) behind issues with ‘speed’ will be a deficiency in strength, dexterity, right techqnie or all three.

Newbies should focus on strength building exercises and on performing those exercises consistently and perfectly. If you’re given an exercise that requires you to hit a note with your pinky, but you choose to ‘cheat’ by using your ring finger, know that your playing will hit a wall down the line.

Likewise, players who can’t seem to exceed their current speed on the guitar should examine their own technique. Have you stopped working on your strength training because the exercises are dull? Is your technique ‘sloppy’?

There are some things you simply can’t get away with at 160 bmp (beats per minute) the way you can at 120 bmp.

In conclusion, the key to learning guitar quicker – as well as playing it quicker – rests in following the M.O.S.T. formula. It really is all about getting the basics right from the start!