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Thread: tablature

  1. #1
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default tablature

    My frustration with tablature is that the timing isn't included, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, as it encourages a learner to use hearing. Still, I found this interesting: tablature for the lute with rhythms written in, i.e., the "hockey sticks above the tabs. (Francesco Petrucci, circa 1511.)

    http://www.gerbode.net/facsimiles/bo..._1511/aa3v.png

    p.s., I'm not looking for a debate about tablature v.s. notation -- they both work.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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  3. #2

    Default Re: tablature

    Just out of curiosity, which lute tuning would that be for? Maybe I'll give it a go on classical guitar.

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    Mangler of Tunes OneChordTrick's Avatar
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    Default Re: tablature

    The output from Tabledit makes an attempt to indicate the length for quavers, semi-quavers and dotted notes but doesn’t distinguish crotchets and longer notes

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  6. #4
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: tablature

    Quote Originally Posted by Seter View Post
    Just out of curiosity, which lute tuning would that be for? Maybe I'll give it a go on classical guitar.
    I don't know. I'm no expert on the subject. I just came across this in a book I'm reading, Capturing Music by Thomas Forrest Kelly, about the history of writing music. It's a good good well-written book by the way, with a CD of medieval music.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  7. #5

    Default Re: tablature

    Hmm interesting, I'll have to add it to my reading list. I'll tinker around with the tuning and see if EADF#BE or similar works.

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  9. #6
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: tablature

    Often both are offered just for that reason.
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    is like dancing,
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  11. #7

    Default Re: tablature

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    My frustration with tablature is that the timing isn't included, ...
    Agreed.

    I write tab in MuseScore 2 (free open-source software), which has three different options as to how (or if) the rhythm will be displayed in tab.

    I don't know if *other*, more 'professional'/expensive score-writing apps such as Finale etc, have similar options, they might, or not, I have no clue. I've only used MuseScore which seems adequate for my limited purposes.

    So - as far as modern tab - I think a lot of it has to do with author choice and/or what software the author is using when they're writing the tab in the first place.

    No time right now to get screenshots of MuseScore settings/prefs panels, but below is a completed example of a tune which shows *two* of the aforementioned tab-rhythm-display options, this is a video I just put online yesterday - the mandolin and bass tabs have rhythm marks, whereas the guitar tab doesn't (the guitar part is the exact same rhythm all throughout the tune and I was trying to save vertical space to fit all that stuff onto one screen). The tune is my interpretation of a fiddle tune called "Squirrel In The Tree" (aka "Squirrel Up A Tree") with my usual oddball chords and a try at some simple accompaniment - the sound is just MIDI playback of the notes I wrote:


    (or direct link)

    (Incidentally, tab written in MuseScore 2 also has the option to display (or not display) the rests. For my little videos, lately I usually set it to display the tab rests but I sometimes make the rests lighter colored because, with the non-default tab *size* settings I use, the rests tend to look like little numbers which could be confusing.)

    Addenda: The default settings in the MuseScore app certainly do *not* cram all the staffs (staves?) together like in my video. I adjusted the spacing and size to be as close together as possible, to fit them all onto the screen (with silly added color-coding in my video editor to hopefully make it easier to read a particular instrument part). Whereas, the default MuseScore settings look much more 'acceptable'/normal from a traditional music-writing point of view.

    Anyway, back to the topic, I agree that rhythm marks in tab are helpful.
    Last edited by Jess L.; Feb-21-2019 at 1:31am.

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  13. #8

    Default Re: tablature

    Frankly I am used to tablature inside measures, where the timing is visible. The above melody is clever, but I prefer the classical notation where they put finger numbers above/below each note for ambiguous passages. While less specific than TAB since it doesn't show which string, it seems to work just fine.
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  15. #9

    Default Re: tablature

    Quote Originally Posted by kurth83 View Post
    ... I prefer the classical notation where they put finger numbers above/below each note for ambiguous passages. While less specific than TAB since it doesn't show which string, it seems to work just fine.
    The stuff I grew up playing is almost exclusively in first position, that's just the tradition. There's very seldom any question of which string a note is on. It's just a matter of whether or not the player can read standard notation.

    When I'm deciding how to write music/tab, I always think of my dad, who was a good musician who had grown up learning most everything by ear. When I got to my teenage years, and I (briefly) thought I knew more than he did, I taught him how to read tab, which he could manage very slowly. He never was able to read standard notation, but the tab reading opened up some new avenues of musical stuff for him to explore.

    Because people have different abilities as to what kinds of visual info they can process, I think it's good to have both options (tab and standard notation). I don't see any harm in it, other than the fact that it takes up twice as much space on the page (clearly an issue with multiple parts or longer tunes). But anyway I guess I'm digressing into inappropriate territory with that type of discussion of the merits of different types of notation.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    ... p.s., I'm not looking for a debate about tablature v.s. notation -- they both work.
    Got it.

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  17. #10
    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: tablature

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    My frustration with tablature is that the timing isn't included, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, as it encourages a learner to use hearing.
    I suppose that depends on what tablature you're reading. I share a similar frustration, but would have to express it this way, "I find it frustrating to encounter tablature that does not include any info on note values." Most of the tablature I use does include some information on note values, and all tablature I create for myself does. This discussion underscores for me the fact that tablature, being a simple method of notation, is much more fluid and flexible than standard notation in regards to the variants you find in the way different authors present it. Some use the lines to indicate strings, some use the spaces to indicate strings, and some use devices to indicate the note values while others don't. The devices used in tablature are not "standardized" in the way that standard notation is largely "standardized".

    Finding 14th century tablature that is simple to read but contains note values is not surprising to me at all.

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  19. #11

    Default Re: tablature

    As a complete newby, I was learning tabs and chords, but was not completely happy (though having fun). I wanted to learn to read the notes and know the timing. A friend bought me the book The Complete Mandolinist by Mair and now I am learning to read actual musical notation. It is pretty simple and the funny thing is, the fretboard makes more sense, now.
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    “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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