[Fksxneng]

This is interesting.

Melody is usually the determining factor in copywriting music (not recordings of course). The chords and arrangment are usually considered uncopywriteable.

The THING about this is, the lead guitar parts and other clever inventions the guitar player (or other musicians) came up with... THATS what is being protected in this case, that AND, of course, the lyrical content (which is quite copywritable).

Teaching guitar has forced me to check out these strange arrangments from time to time, mostly to see where the kids get these bad tips on playing.

Often the "transcriber" has reproduced only the most simpile main riff or lead part of a popular, playable song (pretty hard to find perfect brian may, or satriani solos and so-on). One is often hard pressed to find chords beyond the iffy ones supplied with the ASCI lyrics.

The worst part for the "artists" is really that the most sincere form of flattery is immitation, these kids are trying to share what their hero's hard working lawyers dread the most... ANY KIND of free access to the music. The funny thing is, at least TAB promote a basic kind of musicianship... one that requires the user to work for the results (unlike recorded music theft).

Still, the squirly ASCI files do represent a profit center for the publishers and THAT profit has clearly been obliterated by these sites. At the music store where I work, the books simply rot on the shelves... music books have always been a dodgy "value proposition" as the inacuracies do cause frustration, but instead of fixing the real problem (the publisher's sloppy workmanship) they set out to crush the public version.

I dunno... I say it serves kids right for not developing their ears as much as they could.

I only need books for truly difficult music... the current crop of home brewed tunings and painfully obvious, repeatitious circle-of-fifths writing requires little effort to decode.

Perhaps my students will find me more useful now!!

(hehehe)