FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

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Question:
I'm trying to look for sheet music that contains guitar tablatures. I know, there are many magazines out there that contain guitar tablatures, such as Guitar World and Guitar, BUT, often they feature tablatures to songs that I'm not interested in wanting to play or haven't heard of. Is it worth the money to buy sheet music over magazines with guitar tab?

Answer:
I wish there were a good market in tab/notation for individual songs, so you could count on being able to get what you're interested in and *only* what you're interested in. In fact the only alternatives we have are 1) the magazines, which seldom publish the song you want when you want it, and 2) spending $19.95 US and more to get a book of tab for fifteen or so songs, most of which you may not want. I don't mention the tab available on the net because in my experience it's pretty poor stuff--incomplete and inaccurate. My solution (not very satisfactory): 1) post a question in the tab newsgroups asking whether some magazine published a particular song in the past and if so would someone who has a copy be willing to sell it or do a deal for a photocopy; 2) Cough up the money and buy a book -- I'll do this only for groups I like, so that the book has several songs I might want to learn. Won't blow twenty bucks or more to get the one good song by a one-hit-wonder group; and 3) Try like Hell to figure the music out without tab, or produce my own tab. The computer is a BIG help in doing this--cut out a snippet and slow it down with Cool Edit to figure out the fingering for a few bars and then QUICK BEFORE I FORGET enter it (as both tab and standard notation) in Finale. Finale is a notation program and isn't very capable as a sequencer but it will play back the notation using MIDI so I can check whether I got the notes and time-values right. This is a very time-consuming method but you can indeed transcribe whole songs accurately. I'll take exception here...you can get book tape combos from musicians workshop for as low as 5.95. And you can get scads of book tape combos for ten bucks to fifteen bucks, and some cd book combos for under 15 to a hundred. Try the catalog at http://www.jumpnet.com/~musicansworkshop, it's free, usually as a pick taped to the cover, too. You might want a Beatles book or a Paul Simon book, something with tunes in it that you know well, and at least like the guitar parts to. I think once you go through the 198 pages of this catalog, you'll realize you hadn't quite looked far enough, and will find plenty of alternatives that are affordable, meet your taste, and possibly more.