Genre is one thing, sure, but practicing those all important basic patterns until you own them, and then attempting to play any melodies and etc. that you already can sing, whistle or otherwise hear, using those same patterns in an effort to build a situation where you can stay in the fingering patterns and pick and play the notes that make those melodies, in all keys, and in a relatively short time you will have more facility available to play things other than the rote memorization of TABS can likely impart.

The TABS have a place, say for instance you hear something that you just HAVE to get under your belt, or maybe for an upcoming performance, that sort of thing, they can be real timesavers, but again the caveat about timesavers, shortcuts often leave the aspiring musician with less than we could have gained in the way of efficiency towards the goal of being able to quickly grasp and play that "new" to us thing.


--Mac