Where Did The Guitar Tabs Go?

You mean like this?

When I was in college CD-ROM drives first became available for personal computers. A roommate of mine bought one along with a CD containing hundreds of freeware computer games. He placed a small ad in the back of a PC magazine offering to sell diskettes of computer games for a small cost. He received a large number of orders and started shipping them out.

Turns out there was an established company doing essentially the same thing. They immediately sent him a letter threatening to sue. He had no choice but to pull his ad. It's unfortunate but these bullying intimidation tactics work. Theres no way a college student can fight a company with a team of attorneys.

For an amusing story about how one business owner stood up to one of the masters of sleazy business tactics, Monster Cable, see this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1019385
his letter in response to their threatened lawsuits is very entertaining.

Well, I keep on putting out covers of Green Day on Soundclick.com and Youtube.

I received this PM long time back from a fellow GN member:
"Listened to Some Tunes on Soundclick

Sent: Wed Jun 11, 2008 9:00 am
From: Fever and Hum
To: Rahul
Hey, Rahul, I checked out some of your songs on soundclick, and I really liked what I heard. I liked Holiday by Green Day. I don't know much about Green Day, but your cover has inspired me to go out and buy a Green Day CD.
Keep up the good work.
Fever and Hum 8)"

So my cover inspired this person to buy a Green Day CD. So maybe I should charge them sales comission or something ?

And I would never have made covers if I hadn't got chords (or atleast lyrics) from the internet. And they want to take off chords/tabs and lyrics off the net. Go figure.

For an amusing story about how one business owner stood up to one of the masters of sleazy business tactics, Monster Cable, see this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1019385
his letter in response to their threatened lawsuits is very entertaining.

- Just finished reading this Kurt fella´s response to MCs claim. Man, that guy is sharp as a pencil! A very intelligent response, based on facts and the law to back him up. I´m sure that claim never went any further.

This type of scare tactic is similar to what I think GN is exposed to in the case of the internet tabs. But, since GN doesn´t have access to "Kurt", and don´t want to spend a small fortune on some other lawyer - they can´t stand up to it. And that´s really sad...

That our society has come to some "big company-lawyer-jerks" sending out scare-e-mails to threaten other businesses to seize whatever they´re doing, just because it doesn´t bring any direct income to the aforementioned "big company" just sucks! I´m so sick of this sh*t! And the worst part is that this type of thing will just grow and grow. You don´t stand a chance if you can´t put up thousands of dollars for legal fees. And from what I understand, there´s no place worse than America when it comes to this. I feel really sorry for you guys! At least in Sweden, where I live, the situation is not that bad - yet. But - with internet you´re still affected as you try to share information with Americans, Germans, British people and everybody else around the world.

Man, it´s a sick world :evil:

bAwwwww nuts! What a bunch of wingnuts. I've never pirated anything in my life, but now I'm reconsidering!

Just record someone speaking 10th fret, 3rd string and have the listener write it down. I remember buying cassette tapes as a kid that tortured me with that. I believe it was called "Learn To Burn." :D

I do hope this works out someday- I miss the tabs! The lessons are still good, but the song based ones were my faves.

It seems that there's a pretty organised legal campaign going on about guitar tab online in general. For our first band practice, I wanted to download some stuff, and there was WAY less stuff available online that there was a year ago.

Funny thing- a lot of internet tab is pretty bad, but it's a place to start!

Best,
Ande

I understand the music publishers wanting to protect their interest, however, I certainly don't think that the tab fragments that are usually posted in the Guitar Noise lessons are a threat to their interest.

Unfortunately, like most of today's organizations, it's all or nothing.

It seems to me that a link on each tab fragment giving credit and allowing people to go directly to a site where they can purchase the complete tab would be to everybody's benefit. But I doubt such a simple agreement could ever be reached with the army of Lawyers that they surely have working for them.

Such a sad state our world is in.

Jim

Maybe the silver lining in all of this is that it forces people to use their ear more....I dunno, my ear sucks, so it's harder to figure things out without tab/chord charts/sheet music, but before the internet, what did people have? Only their ears from what I can tell.

but before the internet, what did people have? Only their ears from what I can tell.

Before the internet...there was no guitarnoise.com. Also, no youtube.com and no mxtabs.net.

Did anybody save the fantastic GN lessons before the TABs were removed ? If so, I would love to have a copy

I always wonder about music for the purposes of 'academic use' ie. schools have to instill a creative, free spirit in pupils in order to teach them anything.
According to the lawyers who stifled learning with threats to GN, if they took their notion further, they would have to shut down all the schools. The entire education system would come to an end.

Further on the note of David/Goliath fights against corporate greed injustice:

Perhaps aiming this letter at the lawyers à propos à music might help to alleviate some of their greed:))

Letter To The Bank Manager

Below is an actual letter sent to a UK Bank. The Bank Manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the Guardian (National British Newspaper).

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations some three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire salary, an arrangement which, I admit, has only been in place for eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £50 by way of penalty for the inconvenience I caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.

You have set me on the path of fiscal righteousness. No more will our relationship be blighted by these unpleasant incidents, for I am restructuring my affairs in 2003, taking as my model the procedures, attitudes and conduct of your very bank. I can think of no greater compliment and I know you will be excited and proud to hear it. To this end, please be advised about the following changes:

I have noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, ever-changing, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will, therefore and hereafter, no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your branch whom you must nominate. You will be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further by introducing you to my new telephone system, which you will notice, is very much like yours. My authorized contact at your bank, the only person with whom I will have any dealings, may call me at any time and will be answered by an automated voice service:

Press buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.

2. To query a missing payment.

3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated at a later date to the authorized contact.

8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 9.

9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put you on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may on occasion involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. This month I've chosen a refrain from "The Best of Woodie Guthrie: Oh, the banks are made of marble, With a guard at every door, And the vaults are filled with silver, That the miners sweated for."

On a more serious note, we come to the matter of cost. As your bank has often pointed out, the ongoing drive for greater efficiency comes at a cost which you have always been quick to pass on to me. Let me repay your kindness by passing some costs back. First, there is a matter of advertising material you send me. This I will read for a fee of £20 per page. Inquiries from the authorized contact will be billed at £5 per minute of my time spent in response. Any debits to my account, as, for example, in the matter of the penalty for the dishonoured cheque, will be passed back to you. My new phone service runs at 75p a minute. You will be well advised to keep your inquiries brief and to the point. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May wish you a happy, if ever-so-slightly less prosperous, New Year!

Your Humble Client,

(Name Withheld)

This really stinks. I haven't been to this site in quite some time. I remembered there being an excellent tutorial of "Harvest Moon" and got a request to learn that song so I knew right where to go for the tutorial. When I saw the tabs gone and read the reason why I was shocked. This was one of the first sites I visited when I started playing guitar 5yrs ago. So much useful information it's a shame that Corporate greed ruin it for those who are trying to learn an art.

What´s the latest development in this whole issue? I saw that a couple of song-lessons on the easy-songs section was archived at another site, supposedly with "complete tab and lyrics"... Is this something that could be done for all the song-lessons (fingers crossed :wink: )?

I really miss all the song-lessons with tab - they were the bomb!

Good luck, GN!

I'm working really hard to bring the tabs back. In fact, it's something I'm working on every day.

It's still too early to announce anything, but it's possible you may see some of them again this year.

For those really keen on seeing the tabs I suggest you follow us on Facebook or Twitter. You'll get the fastest updates that way - thanks to push notifications and all that.

http://www.facebook.com/guitarnoise
http://twitter.com/gn_updates

I saved a whole bunch of the GN lessons in Word format (to print off for my own personal use) before they were all taken off. Happy to email these to fellow GN members (although I wouldn't want to get GN into trouble...)