Am I wasting my time looking for U2 sheet music

[thrillme]

Spent some time googling for U2 sheet music, but I'm wondering if I'm wasting my time. I can read music, but I have to sit and think a little bit about where the notes are on the instrument I'm playing.

Are tabs good enough, reliable?

I've been learning bass but I can also sorta pluck around on the piano/keyboard. Just don't have the room for a piano. The bass, much easier to move around. I refuse to get a keytar.

 

[Muad'zin]

I tried to read notes but I'm just constantly translating them in my head first. At least tabs I can read instantly as it is more logically to me. The only advantage sheetmusic has is that you can play while never having heard the music before. With tabs you must hear the music as well since it only gives notes, positions and techniques, but no timing.

But these days that is not an issue as you are bound to have the music on CD/DVD/MP3 anyway. There are still plenty of tab sites out there that offer free tabs. Google helps you find them. But the Music Publishing Association is borrowing a page from the RIAA and MPAA and using lawyers to close down these sites claiming it infringes copyright and costs them business.

Which is bullshit of course since not every internet tab has a published equal. Nor are published tabs that much better. They mostly deal with studio albums. And with U2 what Edge plays live often differs from the album, making them useless to many guitarists. And somehow it seems wrong to fork out €20 for a book that contains as many faults as a free internet tab.

But books have one great advantage though for those starting with reading tabs. Internet tabs generally assume you know how to read them, not every technique used by the tabber is explained. In the books they do.