Tablature goes Web 2.0
January 3, 2008 4:46 AM Subscribe
Guitar World Tabs ain't OLGA, but it's something.
Some other great guitar tab resources include Harmony Central, Rock Magic, Fretplay, and the Open Directory index to the topic.
Some other great guitar tab resources include Harmony Central, Rock Magic, Fretplay, and the Open Directory index to the topic.
"OLGA is currently offline while we attempt to resolve legal issues with the archive. "
posted by desjardins at 5:11 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by desjardins at 5:11 AM on January 3, 2008
How could you leave out Chordie? Sure, their "helpful" formatting sometimes ruins tabs, but if you want a quick tab to paste into a fake book, it'll do. (Also, I clicked one of the Guitar World tabs, and it popped up a fullscreen window. This monitor runs at 1650x1080. That is a huge window.)
posted by uncleozzy at 5:34 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by uncleozzy at 5:34 AM on January 3, 2008
Does anyone know what's going on behind the placeholder page at OLGA? I do miss that site. I wonder if they're still at work on the legal issues, or have given up. It's been a long time.
posted by Miko at 6:09 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by Miko at 6:09 AM on January 3, 2008
My mind is boggling at the fact that: (a) 3 of the top 15 tabs are Judas Priest; and (b) anyone needed tabs to figure out a Priest song.
posted by googly at 6:13 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by googly at 6:13 AM on January 3, 2008
Tablature goes Web 2.0
I know this is some sort of throwaway jokey title, but I don't think Web 2.0 refers to crappy flash-only, non-printable interfaces.
posted by signal at 6:23 AM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
I know this is some sort of throwaway jokey title, but I don't think Web 2.0 refers to crappy flash-only, non-printable interfaces.
posted by signal at 6:23 AM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
Does anyone know what's going on behind the placeholder page at OLGA? I do miss that site. I wonder if they're still at work on the legal issues, or have given up. It's been a long time.
posted by Miko at 9:09 AM on January 3
The most recent take down letter they've posted is from June 2006, so I think their legal problems are ongoing. At this point they may as well zip the entire site into a giant archive and put it up on pirate bay. The tabs are just text files, so how big could it be?
posted by Pastabagel at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2008 [3 favorites]
posted by Miko at 9:09 AM on January 3
The most recent take down letter they've posted is from June 2006, so I think their legal problems are ongoing. At this point they may as well zip the entire site into a giant archive and put it up on pirate bay. The tabs are just text files, so how big could it be?
posted by Pastabagel at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2008 [3 favorites]
Yeah, this web 2.0 stuff is serious business. We can't be having everyone just going around calling everything web 2.0 just because they think it sounds cool. There are standards that must be adhered to. Think of the webkinz.
posted by BeerFilter at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by BeerFilter at 6:45 AM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
I miss OLGA, and I miss lyrics.ch. Those sites rocked. Remember when you could look up song lyrics without 12 popups, 3 virus warnings, and 18 cookies? Those were neat times...
posted by inigo2 at 6:56 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by inigo2 at 6:56 AM on January 3, 2008
I've always been a bit befuddled about the takedown notices for tab sites. Seems like a lot of bother for a fairly innocuous pastime. Are companies worried about sheet music sales or what?
posted by edgeways at 7:14 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by edgeways at 7:14 AM on January 3, 2008
I learned more about guitar playing, hell, even music theory from OLGA, circa 1995, than from just about any other source I can think of.
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posted by dan g. at 7:19 AM on January 3, 2008
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posted by dan g. at 7:19 AM on January 3, 2008
This article from a 1998 edition of Wired mentions that Olga were under threat of being shut down by the Harry Fox Agency - a sort of RIAA for sheet music publishers. It looks like they managed to resist that for quite a while.
posted by rongorongo at 7:37 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by rongorongo at 7:37 AM on January 3, 2008
Are companies worried about sheet music sales or what?
No, they're worried about control.
posted by signal at 7:38 AM on January 3, 2008
No, they're worried about control.
posted by signal at 7:38 AM on January 3, 2008
Chordie wins for me, if only for the ability to easily transpose keys to correct for songs meant to be played with capo, or just to suit my limited vocal range.
posted by rocket88 at 8:12 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by rocket88 at 8:12 AM on January 3, 2008
I loved OLGA too when it was the only game in town (beyond the clunky tabcrawler), but there are scores of these sites now, aren't there? Seems like any time I need to "borrow" a riff some somewhere, I can just google the tune name, and it'll return results from a dozen sites that show umpteen mirrors of the same tab.
posted by psmealey at 8:34 AM on January 3, 2008
posted by psmealey at 8:34 AM on January 3, 2008
Man I still have a whole book of printouts from the OLGA days, what an awesome site it was. And in case any publishers are reading, I would like to state that my first sentence is a lie, composed to give me cool indie cred amongst my peers. And to my peers I would like to state that the second sentence is a lie, composed to evade legal action.
posted by poppo at 8:43 AM on January 3, 2008 [3 favorites]
posted by poppo at 8:43 AM on January 3, 2008 [3 favorites]
I first picked up a guitar in 1996 and plucked my way through hand-written copies of songs from Nirvana: Unplugged in New York. After I had them down, my teacher told me how to read TAB, and pointed me towards OLGA.
Flash forward 12 years. I received an undergraduate degree in Music with a concentration in jazz theory, and I wind down from work everyday by picking up my guitar and playing whatever comes to mind, be it an original tune, something I heard on the radio on the commute home, or one of the very first songs I learned how to play. I owe an enormous part of both my musical growth and my understanding of the power of the internet (which in turn got me my current job) to OLGA. My life would be much, much different if it weren't for OLGA, and I challenge anybody at Harry Fox to tell me it would be better.
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:12 AM on January 3, 2008
Flash forward 12 years. I received an undergraduate degree in Music with a concentration in jazz theory, and I wind down from work everyday by picking up my guitar and playing whatever comes to mind, be it an original tune, something I heard on the radio on the commute home, or one of the very first songs I learned how to play. I owe an enormous part of both my musical growth and my understanding of the power of the internet (which in turn got me my current job) to OLGA. My life would be much, much different if it weren't for OLGA, and I challenge anybody at Harry Fox to tell me it would be better.
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:12 AM on January 3, 2008
This site is essentially useless. There are 36 tabs by bands whose names start with the letter "s," and yet every single one of them is either by Sevendust or Shinedown. 64 tabs for letter C bands, the only two of which are CCR and Coheed and Cambria.
Does this site somehow limit the bands for which you can submit tabs (licensing issues perhaps?), or is the readership of Guitar World just incredibly unimaginative?
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 11:48 AM on January 3, 2008
Does this site somehow limit the bands for which you can submit tabs (licensing issues perhaps?), or is the readership of Guitar World just incredibly unimaginative?
posted by cobra_high_tigers at 11:48 AM on January 3, 2008
is the readership of Guitar World just incredibly unimaginative?
Is that a rhetorical question?
posted by psmealey at 12:08 PM on January 3, 2008
Is that a rhetorical question?
posted by psmealey at 12:08 PM on January 3, 2008
I wish I knew where to find music online as sheet music instead of tabs (so I can learn these on accordion).
posted by rottytooth at 12:09 PM on January 3, 2008
posted by rottytooth at 12:09 PM on January 3, 2008
rottytooth: If you're using a Mac, you can download a MIDI file and drop it into GarageBand, which should be able to display score. Of course, the score is only as accurate as the source, but it's better than nothing. If you're running Windows ... well, maybe someone else can help.
posted by uncleozzy at 1:15 PM on January 3, 2008
posted by uncleozzy at 1:15 PM on January 3, 2008
If you have a Windows machine, Powertab and the Powertabs website (google each separately) beats everything. An enormous library of quality, peer-reviewed tabs that display or print as tablature + standard notation + MIDI so you can hear what it sounds like.
posted by straight at 1:47 PM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 1:47 PM on January 3, 2008 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I'm on Windows. Cool, I'll check out Powertab.
posted by rottytooth at 2:12 PM on January 3, 2008
posted by rottytooth at 2:12 PM on January 3, 2008
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Otherwise, it is good to have a list of tab sites.
posted by edgeways at 5:09 AM on January 3, 2008