grilles Vs tabs ... learning distraction?

JTK · May 2020

Slowly laboring over Improvisation #1 and Naguine. "Unacompanied Django"

Not yet making music with those chords but they're individual joys when they stop buzzing...I love them.

I'm drawn to grilles' when I got em'... tabs when I don't got em'... notation is out of the question.

Grilles solve tricky fingering , but maybe I should blank them out on the page, once I've learned the chord. They might be distractions, slowing my learning.

One answer is in "Gypsy Picking"...where grilles dont exist because they aren't relevant.

Another angle is in "Astuces Manouche" (Dennis Roux et al)..Grilles are used selectively, but the lessons are in some foreign language so I'm not making the most of that book.

I'm afraid I'm distracting myself with a grille habit....

Your thoughts?

Bones · May 2020

U should be able to learn the chords to a song pretty quickly and then put the chart away. That will come with time and experience. Play thru the form a few times then pick a youtube vid that you like of the song, slow it down and play along. Put away the grille and see if you can remember the chord forms and harmonic structure of the song. Use simpler chord forms if the ones you are using are too hard or buzzing a lot. Time and practice....

billyshakes · May 2020

I think most would agree with @Bones that you should stash the chart as soon as you have learned the song. Also agree with his advice to start with simple shapes you can play. That will get you playing the song quickly. If you take the effort to know the name of the chords you are playing, then you should be able to translate those shapes to other songs.

As you progress, you can refer to other sources for different voicings/inversions and add them to your repetoire. Also, a tool like ireal will just show you the names of the chords that you can draw on your knowledge to play along.

It sounds like you have access to a lot of great material. Trust your own interest level to guide you. I've purchased more than my fair share. Some days/weeks I like a certain thing because it makes sense to me. Other times I get frustrated and move along. Funny thing is, 6mons/1 year later or so, I revisit those frustrating resources and now they make sense.

Sounds like you already know the answer in your case but hope something I've said makes sense for you.

JTK · May 2020

Realized this AM that I could pick a tune faster and more accurately with TABS alone ..except the very rare situation when I couldn't figure out how to form a chord...TABS and fingers almost always have the answer. In other words, yes, grilles can get in the way.

How do you use "ireal" ?