Tabs & draws

[pitpony]

Discovered this site a few days ago & am optimistic that i can pick up tips to help along my efforts.

I have been blowing for 12 months now & have picked up a good number of tunes using tabs as well as attempting to improvise a few blues/rock riffs.

How literal do you consider i should take tab notation in that i usually add my own bits, not to make it easier but to make the sound more pleasing to my ear.
Be honest, would you consider tabs a lazy way of picking up the harp or should i be working things out for myself? Are most music tabs an individual harp players interpretation or are most translations of the more formal music notation?
I do find that repetition,repetition,repetition works for me. Draw notes can be painful at first &whilst practice does not make perfect it does improve matters.
Any practice exercises for drawing would be very welcome.
Thanks for reading

[Admin]

Tabs are a good place to 'start'. Note, getting a start is all they are good for. Good music requires personality, which, as you say can't be shown in tabs.

John (dadfad) does a great job with guitar tabs. He not only gives the tablature, but also gives a sound file which give you some of "his" personality.

[mindthegap]

I used to write out the music for songs using Adam Gussow's grid format which I think is good as it gives you a sense of the song structure e.g. 12 bar, 8 bar or whatever. Now I tend to jot down riffs and snippets using harp tabs underneath standard-notation rhythm. I think this is good if you read music, as you can remember the rhythm then. I often quickly record it too to remember the feel...