What are the advantages and disadvantages of tabulature?
toc The major advantage of tab as a notation system is that it clearly indicates how the music is to be fingered on which strings using which techniques. The major disadvantage is that time marking in tab is still rather primitive and will probably never be as flexible as standard notation due to the limitations of the ASCII character set. This is a distinct dissadvantage for the bass player. In printed sheet music, this problem is commonly addressed by writing tab and conventional music notation simultaneouly. This is inconvenient for ASCII representations, but some people are attempting to develop useful systems for it. None have become widely followed at this time, however. Other cited disadvantages include that not widely known among non-string players, and is believed by some to discourage improvisation and ear training.
