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Tablature

Tablature is a form of musical notation designed for musical instruments which gives the player instructions on where to put their fingers rather than which notes to play. Tablatures are most important for fretted stringed instruments, but there were also tablature systems for keyboard instruments during the renaissance and baroque period. Tablature is sometimes referred to as tab for short.

Tablature is commonly written for the guitar, bass and lute, but in principle it can be used for any fretted stringed instrument, including, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and viola da gamba. It is commonly used in notating pop music, and is often seen in folk music. Much of the music for the lute and other historical plucked instruments during the Renaissance and Baroque eras was originally written in tablature, and modern players of those instruments still prefer this kind of notation, often using a facsimile of the original manuscripts, handwritten copies, modern editions in tablature, or printouts made with specialized programs for typesetting lute tablature.

Contents

Concepts

While standard musical notation represents the pitch and rhythm of each note, tablature is instead a diagrammatic representation of the strings and frets of the instrument, showing where the player should put their fingers to produce the required notes. Tablature therefore represents the performance of the music, rather than the music itself.

Like standard notation, guitar tablature consists of a series of horizontal lines forming a staff (or stave). Each line represents one of the instrument's strings (so standard guitar tab has a six-line staff). Numbers are written on the lines, with each number representing a fret on the instrument. For instance, a number 3 written on the top line of the staff indicates that the player should press down on the high E (top/thin) string (instead of the low E, which is a thicker string) at the third fret.

The most common form of lute tablature uses the same concept but differs in the details, and is described further below.

Guitar Tablature vs. Standard Notation

Tablature has several advantages over standard notation. Since it is a direct visual representation of the instrument's fretboard, it can often be easier and quicker for the player to interpret. Musicians learning to play the guitar or lute often find tablature easier to read, even if they have a strong musical background and are adept at reading standard notation for piano or voice. This is because the guitar and lute, like the piano, are 'harmonic' instruments, meaning that multiple notes are played at once; yet there is more complexity to producing a particular pitch than is the case with the piano: to produce, say, middle C, a pianist simply presses the C key, while a guitarist must select the fifth string, press down the third fret with their left hand, and simultaneously pluck or pick the string with their right hand. These complexities make the relation between standard notation and playing technique the less direct in the case of fretted instruments than in the case of a piano.

Additionally, because standard guitar notation is written on one staff (compared to two staves for keyboard music), interpreting complex chords from standard notation can take a while for even the most experienced guitarist. Tablature does not suffer from this disadvantage.

Another strong advantage of tablature over standard notation is that tablature can easily be represented in a plain-text document, using numbers, letters and symbols to construct a rudimentary representation of an instrument's fretboard. This characteristic makes it easy to distribute tablature electronically, a practice that has become immensely widespread; it is now possible to find tablature for virtually any popular music on the Net. There are thus two types of tablature: 'standard' printed tablature, such as that found in published sheet music (usually along with standard notation), and 'text-tab' or ASCII tab, such as that found on the internet.

Printed guitar tablature looks like this (the tab notation is on the bottom staff, with the equivalent standard notation on top): Printed tab example

ASCII guitar tab is discussed in detail below, and an example of a piece in lute tablature is given at the end of this article.

Tablature does have several disadvantages, however. It is instrument-specific, while standard notation is generic. This limitation means, for instance, that only a guitarist can read guitar tablature, while a melody written in standard notation can be played by any suitable instrument, including guitar.

Another limitation of the simplest form of tablature is that it does not represent the rhythm of the notes, only their pitch. In practice, this is not much of a limitation; some players read tablature and standard notation in tandem, while others listen to a recording to get the 'feel' of the music before consulting the tablature for instructions on how to play. Most published tablature is accompanied by standard notation so the two can be compared. Moreover, several more sophisticated variants of tablature have been developed which do include information about rhythm, and these variants are becoming increasingly common in printed tablature, though the limitations of plain-text format mean that ASCII tab rarely includes such information.

ASCII Guitar Tablature

Tab for a six-string guitar with standard guitar tuning begins with a staff of six lines. In ASCII tab, the tablature for the shape of a C major chord looks like this:

         C
 e |-----0------|
 B |-----1------|
 G |-----0------|
 D |-----2------|
 A |-----3------|
 E |-----x------|

The number on each line corresponds to the fret on the neck of the guitar to be played. Fret "0" means that string is played open, or without any fingering. Fret one is the first fret from the headstock . Guitar tablature is done from high-to-low and left-to-right, like a musical staff. The bottom line on tablature corresponds to the "thick" E string, the one producing the lowest note. The low E string is not played (denoted by x) during a C major chord.

For arpeggiated chords, the notes will be in a progression. For instance, the song "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M. uses arpeggiated D major and G major chords through the chorus of the song. Here are a D major chord and a G major chord written in tablature form:

       D       G
 e |---2-------3---|
 B |---3-------3---|
 G |---2-------0---|
 D |---0-------0---|
 A |---x-------2---|
 E |---x-------3---|

The progression of the intro to "Everybody Hurts" looks like this:

        D                         G
 e |----------2-----------2-------------3-----------3----|
 B |--------3---3-------3---3---------3---3-------3---3--|
 G |------2-------2---2-------2-----0-------0---0--------|
 D |----0-----------0------------------------------------|
 A |-----------------------------------------------------|
 E |------------------------------3-----------3----------|

Tablatures often signify the chord being played, above the staff. Fingering the entire shape of a chord rather than the individual notes is a fundamental part of basic guitar knowledge.

Other techniques, such as hammer-ons, string pulls (or pull-offs), slides, and bends are also shown in tablature. Hammer-ons are usually shown with an "h" in between the fret to strike and the fret to hammer on. String pulls are shown with a "p". "Tribute to the Greatest Song in the World" by Tenacious D is one example of a song that uses both of these:

     Am (A minor)
 e |-------------0-0-0-0-0-0-----0-------0-0-0-0-0-|
 B |-------------1-1-1-1-1-1h3p1p0h1-----1-1-1-1-1-|
 G |-----0h2-----2-2-2-2-2-2-----2-------2-2-2-2-2-|
 D |-0h2-------2-2-2-2-2-2-2-----2-----2-2-2-2-2-2-|
 A |---------0---0-0-0-0-0-----------0---0-0-0-0-0-|
 E |-----------------------------------------------|

Slides are shown in the same format, but with a slash (/) in between the fret to slide from and the fret to slide to. Slides are used primarily in blues music and country music. "ATWA" by System of a Down is a song that uses these:

("ATWA" is played in Drop D tuning)

 e |----------------------------------------------------|
 B |----------------------------------------------------|
 G |----3-----2-----5-----7------8------7-----5-----3---|
 D |----------------------------------------------------|
 A |----------------------------------------------------|
 D |--5---5/3---3/7---7/8---8/10---10/8---8/7---7/5---5-|


Bending is shown by a letter b (not to be confused with a capital B for the B string). In tablature, a bend can show how far the string is to be bent, when the string is to be released (denoted by an r), or that it is a bend to an unspecific note. Examples:

 e |---------------------------------------|
 B |---------------------------------------|
 G |--5b7--------5b7r5--------5b--------5br|
 D |---------------------------------------|
 A |---------------------------------------|
 E |---------------------------------------|

In the first example, a note played at the fifth fret on the G string (the note C) is bent up one full step so that it sounds like a note played at the seventh fret on the G string (the note D); secondly, the same note is played, but the bend is released so that the string again sounds a C note; thirdly, the string is bent to an undetermined note; fourthly, the string is bent to an undetermined note, and released back to the C note.

Lute Tablature

Lute tabulature is conceptually similar to guitar tablature, but comes in at least three different varieties. The most common variety used today is based on the French Renaissance style (see example below). In this style the strings are represented by the spaces on the staff (rather than the lines on the staff, as for guitar tablature), and the stops are indicated by lowercase letters of the alphabet (rather than numbers), with the letter 'a' indicating an open string and the 'j' skipped to avoid confusion with the 'i'. A six-line staff is used, just as for modern guitar tablature. However, stops for the first course are shown immediately above the top line, and stops for any courses beyond the sixth are shown below the bottom line, with short horizontal strokes to extend the staff similar to the way very low notes are shown in regular musical notation.

The first five letters are often written in the Greek alphabet rather than the Roman: α, β, γ, δ, ε, and the gamma is often stylized to the point of looking like an 'r', so a stop for the second fret variously shows up as 'c', 'γ', or 'r'. (It appears as 'r' in the example below.) Roman letters are used for stops further up the neck, even when Greek letters are used for the lower stops.

Lute tablature provides flags above the staff to show the rhythms, often only providing a flag at the start of the measure and when the length of the beat changes, as shown in the example below. (Notice that the piece begins with a half measure.)

Lute tablature in the Renaissance French style.


Lute tablature with matching guitar notation for a simple Renaissance dance.

Other variants of lute tablature use numbers rather than letters, write the stops on the lines rather than in the spaces, or even invert the entire staff so that the lowest notest are on top and the highest are at the bottom.

Due to the similarities in tuning, a tenor viola da gamba can be played directly off lute tablature. A guitar can be played off lute tabulature by tuning the g string down to an f# and putting a capo at the third fret to preserve the original pitch.

German lute tablature

German lute tablature is unrelated, and relies on giving a different letter or number to each fret on each string. It takes far longer to pick up for a beginner, but is more compact.


External links

  • Howard Wright's Guide to Tablature Notation http://www.jmdl.com/howard/music/tabfaq.html
  • Wayne Cripps' introduction to Renaissance lute tablature http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/tab-intro.html
    • His lute page http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/lute.html has additional links to lute-tab typesetting programs and settings of pieces that you can download.
  • Jazz Guitar Tablature http://www.jazzguitar.be
  • Tab Hall http://www.tabhall.co.uk


Last updated: 02-22-2005 02:20:36