- Bass Tabs
- Forum
- Questions about tab submissions (and other things)
Questions about tab submissions (and other things)
Thank you, 2nick3. Formatting and readability is important to me
Quote:
In my mind, a theme song essentially acts as an identifier for a movie or show and typically plays over the opening and/or end credits, and sometimes doubles as the score. Like the Brooklyn Nine-Nine theme by Dan Morocco, or the Halloween theme by John Carpenter, or The Office theme by The Scrantones, or I Know You Know by The Friendly Indians (Psych). Some theme songs have lyrics; some don't.
A soundtrack, on the other hand, is – again, in my mind – a song or collection of songs contributed to or created for a movie or TV show. Like the movie Singles (1992) has on its soundtrack stuff like Crown of Thorns by Mother Lovebone, Dyslexic Heart by Paul Westerberg and Seasons by Chris Cornell. The Scream soundtrack includes Red Right Hand by Nick Cave, Youth of America by Birdbrain and a cover of Don't Fear the Reaper, etc.
Yes, that makes sense. I was just a little bit confused because some of the songs in the theme songs section are definitely not theme songs.
I spent a lot of time reviewing and categorizing tabs at Ultimate Guitar a couple of years ago and so I'm used to being able to just go in and edit other users' tabs to correct spelling mistakes or to move the tabs to the appropriate section(s). It's a little bit annoying to see that so many tabs on here have misspelled song titles and/or artist names and not be able to do anything about it. Do you think the community would adopt and follow contribution title guidelines if they were added or would an attempt to standardize the format be a waste of time and effort?
That's something we've discussed at length in the past, cleaning up the database. As I recall, we pretty much gave up on the idea because it would require too much work. Too many tabs having to be filtered through, determining which to keep and which to throw away. You'd think that part would be easy, just keep the ones that are the highest rated – if not for the fact that we clearly have people rating whose ears must not work, because we have countless 5-star tabs that are wrong by a mile, and a number of lower-rated tabs that are spot-on.
Just look at the new tabs page on any given day. Go through them all and the quality ranges from top-notch to piss poor, but every damn one gets rated 5 stars. Completely defeats the purpose of the site. And there are only two reasons it could possibly be – the rater is clueless, or the rater is lazy (rating a tab less than 5 stars requires the rater to include a comment explaining why they feel the tab is wrong, and I guess that's just too much work.)
All that said, as far as band names/song titles go, it's a cinch to do a quick google search before submitting to ensure you've got the band name/song title spelled correctly. Like, it only takes a second to check and see that it's Guns N' Roses, not Guns ‘n Roses. It’s The Police, The Cult, The Cure, not just Police, or Cult, or Cure. That one Bloodhound Gang song's actual title is “The Bad Touch,” not “The Discovery Channel.” And don't get me started on people who include comments with the band or song title like “100% correct” or “perfect.”
Do you have a link to that discussion? Approximately how many tabs have been posted here? My tabs' IDs suggest that it is just over 54k, is that reasonable?
Or it could be rating manipulation. I'm sure most people want to have a high average rating. Two users working together could go “you rate my tabs 5 stars and I'll rate yours in return”.
Why not add a short note about that on the tab submission page? Something like “Only use official names. Do not add any extra information in the song title including version, section, or recording location. If there is a featured artist on the song, that information can be written in the tab itself instead of in the artist’s name or song title.”
Quote:
And don't get me started on people who include comments with the band or song title like “100% correct” or “perfect.”
…which seems to be an indicator it's not close, in my experience.
I've also discovered that some people will tab versions of songs in alternate keys than what you may recognize from the song's actual recording.
It's not unusual to find a tab a half-step down, or (in some occasions) a half-up, or even a whole step and a half because goddamn guitar players and their stupid capos.
So when someone says, “perfect”… I listen and try to play and wonder… perfect to which recording or live version??
Why I like what Lon does with his tabs, and includes links to the video/audio of the version he tabbed to.
Quote:
I've also discovered that some people will tab versions of songs in alternate keys than what you may recognize from the song's actual recording.It's not unusual to find a tab a half-step down, or (in some occasions) a half-up, or even a whole step and a half because goddamn guitar players and their stupid capos.So when someone says, “perfect”… I listen and try to play and wonder… perfect to which recording or live version??Why I like what Lon does with his tabs, and includes links to the video/audio of the version he tabbed to.
What he said. I play guitar and i don't use a capo unless it's absolutely necessary for getting the same key as the original recording. If the song sounds good, why bump it up or down a step?
I can see tuning down for a live performance, as it's easier on the vocalist, especially if you're a band who tends toward long sets. But I've never seen the point in raising the pitch higher for a live performance. Album versions are one thing – lots of great songs were recorded with capos (Bryan Adams, Run to You, capo on the 2nd fret; Mumford and Sons, Little Lion Man, capo on the 5th fret, etc). But using a capo to further raise the pitch for a live show – that makes no sense to me.
This actually reminds me of a cover I found a while back, a female vocalist covering Chris Cornell's “You Know My Name.” She sounded absolutely amazing, totally rocked the hell out of that song, but the music itself was adjusted two steps higher. Listening to her voice, it's not like she's singing at a Tiny Tim-like pitch, and could easly have sang to the song in its standard pitch. So why did they raise it? Check it out:
Reply to this thread
