(no subject)
After reading this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm
I became rather angry and wrote Lauren Keiser an email.
Dear Mr. Keiser,
I have just recently read several internet news articles explaining your attack on websites that offer sheet music and guitar tabulature for free. I understand that you need to protect your industry from theives. I can see how scanned copies of published sheet music is outright stealing. What I fail to see is how fan written guitar tabs are illegal. Before I start making making claims supporting my views, let me tell you where I'm coming from.
I'm a 21 year old engineering student at Lehigh University. Besides being an engineer, I'm also a musician. I've played various low brass instruments for 11 years, and guitar for 7 years. I've always had professional instructors for the euphonium. When I first bought a guitar, I was looking for something to play on my own. I've never had the time or money for guitar lessons, and I don't intend on ever having any. My purpose for playing guitar is to have fun. The guitar is a much more social instrument. It's a catalyst for deepening bonds with old friends, or meeting new ones. It's much easier to share music in a casual setting with a guitar than with a concert instrument, such as the euphonium. It is because of this difference that I choose not to take guitar lessons. Without a band or lessons, there's no method books, no repetitive exercises, and most of all there's no pressure to improve at a certain rate or learn a song for a performance.
I remember the first song I learned on the guitar: "Otherside" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was a hit single at the time. A good friend of mine is an avid guitar player, and he tried to show me how to play it. After twenty minutes of me trying to follow his fingers from every angle imaginable, he suggested "tabbing it out" for me. He quickly penciled down a bunch of numbers on some notebook paper and showed me how to read it. Ten minutes later, I was playing the song correctly. Since then, I've learned hundreds of songs through tabulature.
I've purchased quite a few books of sheet music for bands like The Foo Fighters and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I love using these books, and they're great. The problem is that there is not a sheet music book for every single album ever made. Only albums that have a high enough popularity get published sheet music. Much of the music that I listen to is not that high on the popularity scale, so I look to my friends and other tab writers to help me out.
Part of the beauty of music is that there's more than one way to play a song. No performance is ever exactly the same. Sometimes, I have a hard time playing one of the songs in my books. The music is complicated and hard to interpret. When this happens, I use internet guitar tabs to find a different, more simplified way to play the same song. You see, fan written tabs are not exact copies of the official, published tabulature. The writers are musicians that found a way to play a melody, and are sharing that method with you. Every writer has their own interpretation. Sometimes the writer is outright wrong, and I have to edit the tab myself. Other times, I may not like the way the writer has interpreted the song, so I just try a different tab.
Using fan written tabs is no different than having another player sitting right next to me, teaching me a song. Tabulature is a useful and effective medium that allows a novice in New Jersey to learn how to play "that one riff from that Metallica song" from a Metallica expert in California. Ever since the invention of music, this is has been happening. A man writes a song. He plays it for another man, who likes it, and learns to play it from him.
Without fan written tabs, an amateur musician like myself would have only three options for expanding his or her musical knowledge. One: Buy published sheet music that may or may not exist. This is not always a good option if you're low on money. This may also require you to buy an entire book just for one song. Two: Learn the song from a friend, unless none of your friends know that song. Three: Figure it out yourself. This option is not always easy, especially for amateurs. I myself find this extremely difficult. Not every song is comprised of a handful of power chords.
When I read that you want to shut down guitar tab sites, I was pretty mad. Then I read that you want to fine and/or jail the site owners, and I was outraged. How can you punish someone who promotes music and everything it means? Music is the sharing of emotion. It nurtures your soul. Life without music would be spiritually desolate. All we want to do is play some music on our guitars. If I wanted to steal sheet music, I would search for illegal scans, but I don't. I just want to learn a song, and these tab writers have volunteered their time and skills to teach me this song, and they expect no payment in return.
I sincerely hope that you reconsider your proposed legal actions. Making fan written tabs illegal would directly affect the quality of my life, the lives of my friends, and the lives of amateur guitarists around the world. Even if it was a crime, time in prison is far too terrible a punishment for this matter. I pray that you may realize the selfishness and greed in a decision such as this. At the very least, I hope you read this and get a better idea of the repercussions your decision would have.
Sincerely,
Doug Howie
If you'd like to write to him too, his email is laurenk@carlfischer.com .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4508158.stm
I became rather angry and wrote Lauren Keiser an email.
Dear Mr. Keiser,
I have just recently read several internet news articles explaining your attack on websites that offer sheet music and guitar tabulature for free. I understand that you need to protect your industry from theives. I can see how scanned copies of published sheet music is outright stealing. What I fail to see is how fan written guitar tabs are illegal. Before I start making making claims supporting my views, let me tell you where I'm coming from.
I'm a 21 year old engineering student at Lehigh University. Besides being an engineer, I'm also a musician. I've played various low brass instruments for 11 years, and guitar for 7 years. I've always had professional instructors for the euphonium. When I first bought a guitar, I was looking for something to play on my own. I've never had the time or money for guitar lessons, and I don't intend on ever having any. My purpose for playing guitar is to have fun. The guitar is a much more social instrument. It's a catalyst for deepening bonds with old friends, or meeting new ones. It's much easier to share music in a casual setting with a guitar than with a concert instrument, such as the euphonium. It is because of this difference that I choose not to take guitar lessons. Without a band or lessons, there's no method books, no repetitive exercises, and most of all there's no pressure to improve at a certain rate or learn a song for a performance.
I remember the first song I learned on the guitar: "Otherside" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was a hit single at the time. A good friend of mine is an avid guitar player, and he tried to show me how to play it. After twenty minutes of me trying to follow his fingers from every angle imaginable, he suggested "tabbing it out" for me. He quickly penciled down a bunch of numbers on some notebook paper and showed me how to read it. Ten minutes later, I was playing the song correctly. Since then, I've learned hundreds of songs through tabulature.
I've purchased quite a few books of sheet music for bands like The Foo Fighters and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I love using these books, and they're great. The problem is that there is not a sheet music book for every single album ever made. Only albums that have a high enough popularity get published sheet music. Much of the music that I listen to is not that high on the popularity scale, so I look to my friends and other tab writers to help me out.
Part of the beauty of music is that there's more than one way to play a song. No performance is ever exactly the same. Sometimes, I have a hard time playing one of the songs in my books. The music is complicated and hard to interpret. When this happens, I use internet guitar tabs to find a different, more simplified way to play the same song. You see, fan written tabs are not exact copies of the official, published tabulature. The writers are musicians that found a way to play a melody, and are sharing that method with you. Every writer has their own interpretation. Sometimes the writer is outright wrong, and I have to edit the tab myself. Other times, I may not like the way the writer has interpreted the song, so I just try a different tab.
Using fan written tabs is no different than having another player sitting right next to me, teaching me a song. Tabulature is a useful and effective medium that allows a novice in New Jersey to learn how to play "that one riff from that Metallica song" from a Metallica expert in California. Ever since the invention of music, this is has been happening. A man writes a song. He plays it for another man, who likes it, and learns to play it from him.
Without fan written tabs, an amateur musician like myself would have only three options for expanding his or her musical knowledge. One: Buy published sheet music that may or may not exist. This is not always a good option if you're low on money. This may also require you to buy an entire book just for one song. Two: Learn the song from a friend, unless none of your friends know that song. Three: Figure it out yourself. This option is not always easy, especially for amateurs. I myself find this extremely difficult. Not every song is comprised of a handful of power chords.
When I read that you want to shut down guitar tab sites, I was pretty mad. Then I read that you want to fine and/or jail the site owners, and I was outraged. How can you punish someone who promotes music and everything it means? Music is the sharing of emotion. It nurtures your soul. Life without music would be spiritually desolate. All we want to do is play some music on our guitars. If I wanted to steal sheet music, I would search for illegal scans, but I don't. I just want to learn a song, and these tab writers have volunteered their time and skills to teach me this song, and they expect no payment in return.
I sincerely hope that you reconsider your proposed legal actions. Making fan written tabs illegal would directly affect the quality of my life, the lives of my friends, and the lives of amateur guitarists around the world. Even if it was a crime, time in prison is far too terrible a punishment for this matter. I pray that you may realize the selfishness and greed in a decision such as this. At the very least, I hope you read this and get a better idea of the repercussions your decision would have.
Sincerely,
Doug Howie
If you'd like to write to him too, his email is laurenk@carlfischer.com .