Is the Music Industry crazy? All my favorite sites for guitar chords and tabs are shut down because of licensing issues...

I could see this as a genuine legal issue IF the artists themselves were publishing tablature for their music, but almost none do. All these tabs are the result of guitarists like myself figuring out the songs for themselves and sharing it with other musicians.

So, it's perfectly okay for me to sit with another guitarist and SHOW him how to play Hotel California, or Stairway to Heaven but I can't pound it out on my PC and print him instructions? What's the difference between physically showing someone how to get to the Hotel California, and writing down directions on a scrap of paper? Actually, a lot! You get better instruction from a live person than you do from tablature. It's always been that way.

But in this regard, no actual music is sold, or pirated. The artist's lose nothing, because they've chosen not to print tablature for their music. No one will learn their songs now, but the Labels don't offer tablature. So what are they going to do? Will the Music Industry send spies out to every club in America and demand of each guitarist proof of their license to play the songs they're performing?

What's next? Shutting down classrooms because children recite Emily Dickinson in class? What about when the third grade Recorder Class performs Guantanamera before the parents? Will the kiddies be slapped with a cease and desist order?

[The lyrics to Guantanamera, by the way, "...guajira Guantanamera, " or "the girl from Guantanamo"

LOL! I thought only terrorists lived in Guantanamo. But I guess we have them here as well.]

I intend to show my appreciation for the music industry by ceasing to buy their CDs (except for Luka Bloom, and Lindsey Buckingham; both very cool guitarists) What's the point anyway? Pretty much all of it's garbage these days anyway.

And if imitation is the greatest form of flattery, these jerks are going to be missing out on a lot of flattery.... and they obviously don't care if I buy, listen, OR play their music.

Their loss, not mine. I write much of the music I play, anyway. Ask me, and I'll pound out a tab or two to share with any guitarists out there...

For Free!