Uke with Smitty
Well-known member
Hey everyone, I’m curious if people are fine with handwritten tabs or it seems unprofessional/sloppy. I’ve had free instructionals and tabs on YouTube for a while now but am really mulling over doing a Patreon again. Back when I did it for a bit a couple years ago the thing that drove me nuts and ultimately made me stop was trying to make tabs on the computer. I tried several different programs, but just writing them out on a printed sheet of paper is so much easier for me and saves a lot of time that I can put into making videos, figuring out new songs, etc. I find inputting them into musescore or whatever other program to be so tedious and unenjoyable and I have no delusions of making a bunch of money; the biggest reason I have a YT channel and teach things is I find it fun.
So here’s the question: would it turn you off from learning from an instructor if their “arrangements” were simple handwritten tabs like what I’ve shown here and the majority of instruction went into teaching how to play the song (and ways to improvise over it by ear)? I’ve never been a classically trained, huge sheet music reader. I can but the vast majority of what I do is by ear. If I’m trying to teach that to others, are nice looking digital pdf arrangements still necessary?
Edit: I forgot to mention that a big focus of what I end up teaching is usually old time, folk, bluegrass, Americana style music and much of that is taught through the aural tradition. It’s how I learned growing u around my mom playing music as a kid, so it’s what I automatically do- emphasize listening, playing along, and using a tab as a starting point but internalizing the song to make it your own as soon as possible.
So here’s the question: would it turn you off from learning from an instructor if their “arrangements” were simple handwritten tabs like what I’ve shown here and the majority of instruction went into teaching how to play the song (and ways to improvise over it by ear)? I’ve never been a classically trained, huge sheet music reader. I can but the vast majority of what I do is by ear. If I’m trying to teach that to others, are nice looking digital pdf arrangements still necessary?
Edit: I forgot to mention that a big focus of what I end up teaching is usually old time, folk, bluegrass, Americana style music and much of that is taught through the aural tradition. It’s how I learned growing u around my mom playing music as a kid, so it’s what I automatically do- emphasize listening, playing along, and using a tab as a starting point but internalizing the song to make it your own as soon as possible.