Guitar Noise
For the past few months, I've been spending a lot of time teaching myself the acoustic guitar. There are a lot of great forums for that on the web, but one place that was really helpful to me was Guitar Noise. Paul and David have spent an amazing amount of time coming up with their own translations of songs, lessons with tab for beginners and more advanced students, and just sponsoring a generally fun and creative environment. Unfortunately, it seems that they've been slammed along with all the "free tab" website by the MPA and NMPA. All of the tab in the lessons they created by hand have been stripped from the website, with the threat of shutting them down via their ISP if they post any more.
I understand that someone could look at all the free tab sites and think "they're stealing money from people that would go buy these tab books at the music store." But as a fledgling guitarist, it just feels like someone kicking you when you're down. I don't have the money to take voice AND guitar lessons at the same time, and I'm perfectly happy learning this instrument on my own with the wonderful variety of tutorials available online. But I would never be able to walk into a music store, grab a book of tab, and just go to town. I don't know enough about strumming, chord changes, or even the chords themselves to even begin to chip away at a mountain like that. I could see myself amassing a nice library of tab books once I had gained enough proficiency via sites like Guitar Noise, and then I would be able to pull down a songbook from some of my favorite artists and learn new songs at will. However, they've just burnt down my bridge from here to there (and done themselves no financial favors in the meantime). David's great lessons at GN were pretty spare with tab, only using them to illustrate the skeleton of an example song so that he could take you more deeply in to the lesson at hand (a strumming pattern, or chord theory, or whatever he was using the song to illustrate). But without the tab, what you used to translate all his teachings suddenly vanishes.
I know that organizations like the MPA don't exist to facilitate the creation of new guitarists or to foster the greater spread of music in the world. I know they're not looking out for anyone else. And I understand the legality of it all-- even if GN could prove that it was fair use for education, the MPA, like many companies in this area, could bury any smaller organization in legal paperwork to the point where fighting a ruling like this is pointless. But somewhere inside my heart I had hoped that the education of the next generation of musicians was a mission that would be worthwhile to everyone. Do the artists really win if places like Guitar Noise are forbidden from turning new students on to a particular song of theirs? If I learn Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from GN, I start to appreciate the beauty of the chord structures they put together, and I'm more likely to go out and buy more of their albums, buy more of their tab books, and immerse myself in what I can learn from there. Without this stepping stone, the jump from a beginner guitarist to someone who feels competent enough to invest in these books turns much more sheer. I lose, Guitar Noise loses, everyone who was part of a community doing this for fun and not profit loses. The collaborative mission of teaching a wider audience online loses. No revenue is directed back to the artists that the MPA is ostensibly protecting. Where is the good side?
I understand that someone could look at all the free tab sites and think "they're stealing money from people that would go buy these tab books at the music store." But as a fledgling guitarist, it just feels like someone kicking you when you're down. I don't have the money to take voice AND guitar lessons at the same time, and I'm perfectly happy learning this instrument on my own with the wonderful variety of tutorials available online. But I would never be able to walk into a music store, grab a book of tab, and just go to town. I don't know enough about strumming, chord changes, or even the chords themselves to even begin to chip away at a mountain like that. I could see myself amassing a nice library of tab books once I had gained enough proficiency via sites like Guitar Noise, and then I would be able to pull down a songbook from some of my favorite artists and learn new songs at will. However, they've just burnt down my bridge from here to there (and done themselves no financial favors in the meantime). David's great lessons at GN were pretty spare with tab, only using them to illustrate the skeleton of an example song so that he could take you more deeply in to the lesson at hand (a strumming pattern, or chord theory, or whatever he was using the song to illustrate). But without the tab, what you used to translate all his teachings suddenly vanishes.
I know that organizations like the MPA don't exist to facilitate the creation of new guitarists or to foster the greater spread of music in the world. I know they're not looking out for anyone else. And I understand the legality of it all-- even if GN could prove that it was fair use for education, the MPA, like many companies in this area, could bury any smaller organization in legal paperwork to the point where fighting a ruling like this is pointless. But somewhere inside my heart I had hoped that the education of the next generation of musicians was a mission that would be worthwhile to everyone. Do the artists really win if places like Guitar Noise are forbidden from turning new students on to a particular song of theirs? If I learn Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from GN, I start to appreciate the beauty of the chord structures they put together, and I'm more likely to go out and buy more of their albums, buy more of their tab books, and immerse myself in what I can learn from there. Without this stepping stone, the jump from a beginner guitarist to someone who feels competent enough to invest in these books turns much more sheer. I lose, Guitar Noise loses, everyone who was part of a community doing this for fun and not profit loses. The collaborative mission of teaching a wider audience online loses. No revenue is directed back to the artists that the MPA is ostensibly protecting. Where is the good side?