WATERLOO - If record companies have their way, online guitar tabs will soon catch the stairway to heaven.

Music Publishers' Association and the National Music Publishers' Association sent letters last month to the biggest online guitar tablature sites demanding the removal of tabs of copyrighted music, arguing they constitute copyright infringement and deprive artists of royalties from sheet music sales. Mega-sites like Olga.net, GuitarZone.com, MyGuitarTabs.com and GuitarTabs.com complied, forcing guitarists to look elsewhere for tabs of their favorite songs.

Guitar tablature, or "tabs," use six lines that correspond to each string to graphically represent where each finger should be placed on the fret board. The system is especially useful for people unable to read music or learn songs by ear.

Many musicians, by their nature, possess an anti-establishment streak - especially about the music industry - so it's not surprising that local ones uniformly dismissed the move as out of tune and clueless.

However, many professional musicians and songwriters said aspiring guitarists serious about learning the craft should have no use for tabs. In that sense, some said they'd be happy to see them go. Tabs are essentially a shortcut to learning a piece by ear or learning how to read music, said Matthew Nevins, a guitar teacher and organ and bass player for Ronnie D and the Cheet-O's. He said reading real music instills a sense of accomplishment and a stronger sense of rhythm (tabs don't show rhythm - only notes), though Nevins admits to using tabs once upon a time.

"Yes, (I used them) when I was, like, 13 years old and all I wanted to play was Green Day's 'Dookie' album. My teacher was so mad," he said.

Kevin Jass, guitarist for The Mittens, said the effort reflects the inability of major music companies to adapt to new technology. Instead of focusing on removing tabs from the Internet, the companies should be finding new ways to promote music online.

One prime example is the success of British rockers the Arctic Monkeys, who got their start by posting their songs for free on MySpace.com. They signed a record deal last year. Many independent labels also are using the Internet to their advantage when promoting new bands, he said.

"They're just grasping for straws. They haven't really come up with a way to distribute music in the Internet age. They're stuck with the old way of doing things," Jass said.

Another problem with the strategy, he said, is that it simply won't work. Jass pointed out that people will always post their own tabs on blogs. Type in a quick Internet search for a particular tab, and you'll have no problem finding the song.

Online tabs also make songs not published in sheet music available to fans.

"Most tab books are of people that have been around a long time or are mainstream. You can't find Link Wray tabs anywhere," Jass said, referring to the 1950s- and early '60s-era rocker.

Tom Gorman, guitarist with Superholic and a guitar teacher, said tabs can be a great teaching tool because of their major weakness, notorious inaccuracy. He said he has occasionally used tabs to teach students the "wrong" way to build a chord progression. Because most tabs don't accurately reflect the song of an artist, he calls the music industry's efforts "much ado about nothing."

"If you want a really accurate transcription, you're going to go out and spend money on something that's professionally done," he said.

Tom Ogle, lead guitarist for Lotus, admits music companies probably lose some money from free tabs, but the free advertising tabs often compensate for any negatives.

"You have to remember that spreading the word about bands this way also helps promote them … Which in turn expands and broadens the fan base, which will increase ticket sales for live shows," he said.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.