4 ms·
This is technically true, but is approaching notation from a perspective that everything needs to be specified (I’d call this a “classical” perspective, but eve
by microtherion 14y ago
This is technically true, but is approaching notation from a perspective that everything needs to be specified (I’d call this a “classical” perspective, but even in classical music, this was not traditionally true).
In e.g. Jazz jam sessions, good sight readers can definitely figure out what to play from lead sheets consisting of chord symbols + melody, and in terms of information, those are equivalent to guitar tabs + melody.
Admittedly, there are also books only giving tabs/chord symbols + lyrics (or sometimes not even those), and for this form, I agree that your assessment is valid.
- jff 14y agoThere's also a certain difference between jamming with a few other players, and getting a whole concert band of 40+ players to sound good together.
- microtherion 14y agoMy understanding is that in the big band era, you got fairly large bands (though not as large as 40 members) to play tightly together without undue precision in notation (and often without all members being good readers of sheet music).