I think it is totally brilliant ! When I started playing guitar there was so much "Mystery" surrounding everything. The only source of info was either your mates who often didn’t know either or the guy in the local guitar shop (who often didn’t know either). Occasionally you could find a book on the subject but that was often longwinded, boring and went round the houses. If I want to know something I can look it up on line and 9 times out of 10 Ill find it !

Example... Well Earlier this month I wanted to hook up my Tascam 424 Mk III analogue 4 track to my Digital Korg D1600. This would be easy except the Tascam doesn’t support much in the way of Midi features (like no midi ports).

So I got on line and with in 5 min had found a users forum dedicated the Kork D1600. I searched for 424 MkII and sure as little apples, their was the answer ! I phoned up the local music store and asked them if they had the midi synch box I needed....and they had never heard of it, let a lone knew anything about the synchronization process. Anyway I got online again and ordered said box from zzsounds and with in 7 days it was in my hot little paws.

I hooked the thing up and ....nothing happened ! I went back to the Korg forum and re-red the post (remembering this is the first time I have ever used Midi) found the answer to my problem and now the whole thing works like a dream !

My point ! Well the internet made this possible as I got detailed instructions as well kit from people who knew what they were doing and had used both bits of kit before. If I had relied of customer support from Korg or Tascam, well Id still be waiting. The music store was useless so hats of to the internet.

It is also a great way of getting kit that is a bit unusual (like a patch-bay). Living in Iowa, this can be a problem!

As far as the tab thing goes, I used to spend hours working out songs and that was time consuming. It did provide a lot of practice time however I just play different things these days so it is not that I practice less !

The net is also great for finding out about songs. File sharing doesn’t stop me from buying an album (which I do if I like it) however it dose let me hear an album before I buy and decide weather it sucks or not. Also if I want to listen to just one track off an album I haven’t heard for years (or I have maybe left the CD in the UK), I can pull it of the net and bingo, I no longer have to buy the album a second time...cool !