Music publisher's - why do they transcribe rock for Piano ?

[kahunabean]

Has anyone worked for a music publishers ? They print songbooks of pop and rock albums *transcribed for piano/vocal/guitar'. Why ? I can't see anyone buying them. The kids want the guitar transcriptions. Does anyone at the companies ever notice that the latest nu-metal albums transcribed for piano/vocal/chords don't sell well ? It seems really odd to me.

[Cpt Black]

I used to work for a music publishing company that supplied music to public libriaries. They do sell reasonably well although noticed that there would be piano reductions and Chords for most of the more straight pop stuff, for AC/DC or Iron Maiden, not attempt was made to provide a piano score, just a vocal melody line,and guitar chords. Most of the vocals always appeared to be on the same note however!!!!!...I did also see an attempt once to write out Iron Maiden guitar solos/riffs using a strange tablature rather than normal chord diagrams but this struck me as being a bit optimistic that anyone could follow them with sufficient skill to make at sound anything like the original. It litterally told you which string to use and where to place your finger on the the fretboard, which for a heavy hammer on type solo must be futile?

[sft42]

Sorry captain as a gigging guitarist i can tell you you're wrong about guitar tab. It contains a weath of info to guitarists using it's own symbols (ho - hammer on po pull off etc) and is very useful for guitarists who can't read music and is better for rock purposes as it can tell you whether a note should be slide up to the string should be bended to achive or if a whammy bar should be used. you don't get that info from minims and quavers. and to answer the original question it's just because that's been a long standing convention. when music was first published it was only played on piano so that became the standard and it has just stuck maybe in time we'll see a shift away from this.

[Cpt Black]

Thats very interesting, I guess like anything it takes some getting used to though?, I would assume that the trick would be to work though it until it is mastered at the relavant tempo, and with all the various effects?, what I am suggesting is that it can not be easy to sight read from such a notation, or am I wrong again?

[sft42]

Arrgghh captain yee be right. The best way to use tab is slowly and surely then build up to speed, though just like sight reading music you do get faster with time but because of the extra info i've yet to meet anyone who can sight play tab at full speed at least where rock music is concerned