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Tablature is mostly (but not exclusively) seen for fretted stringed instruments, in which context it is usually called tab for short (except for lute tablature). It is frequently used for the Guitar , Bass , Lute and Vihuela , but in principle it can be used for any fretted instrument, including Ukulele , Mandolin , Banjo , and Viola Da Gamba , as well as many Free Reed Aerophone s such as the Harmonica . It is commonly used in notating Pop Music , and is often seen in Folk Music and the Recorder during the Renaissance and Baroque period. Keyboard Tablature has also been proposed more recently. In the context of guitar tab, standard (5-line) musical notation is usually called 'staff notation' - even though tab is also written on a staff - or just 'notation'. ORIGIN & ETYMOLOGY Etymology Tablature is originated from the latin word tablatura (table or blackboard). To tabulate (tabulating) means putting something into a table or chart. Origin First known existence is from around c. 1300. Lute tablatures were of three main varieties, French, Italian (also widely used in Spain, Bavaria and southern France), and German, detailed below. A special variety of Italian tablature called "Neapolitan" was in use in southern Italy, and a Polish variety of French tablature appears in one manuscript. French tablature gradually came to be the most widely used. Tablatures for other instruments were also used from early times on. Keyboard tablatures flourished in Germany c. 1450 - 1750 and in Spain c. 1550 - 1680. Much of the music for the Lute and other historical plucked instruments during the Renaissance and Baroque eras was originally written in tablature, and many modern players of those instruments still prefer this kind of notation, often using facsimiles of the original prints or manuscripts, handwritten copies, modern editions in tablature, or printouts made with specialized computer programs. CONCEPTS While standard musical notation represents the rhythm and duration of each note and its pitch relative to the scale based on a Twelve Tone Division Of The Octave , tablature is instead operationally based, indicating where and when a finger should be depressed to generate a note, so pitch is denoted implicitly rather than explicitly. The rhythmic symbols of tablature tell when to start a note, but often there is no indication of when to stop sounding it, so duration is at the discretion of the performer to a greater extent than is the case in conventional musical notation. Tablature for plucked strings is based upon a diagrammatic representation of the strings and Fret s of the instrument, keyboard tablature represents the keys of the instrument, and recorder tablature shows whether each of the fingerholes is to be closed or left open. HARMONICA TAB The Harmonica tab was basically a 1-to-1 mapping of the notes to the corresponding hole, and thus, is a type of Numbered Musical Notation . For each note, it will indicate the number of the hole to play, direction of breathing (in or out), and even either bending (usually for diatonic) or "slide-in" (usually for chromatic) One methology for indicating direction of breath is by showing the direction of arrow; another is by using either a "+" or "-" sign, or "i" (for inhale) and "e" (for exhale). Bending was shown with a bent arrow with the direction of breath, or by a circle that circle the note, or even a simple line next to the breath indicator. Additional lines and/or circle may be used to indicate how much to bend. For Example, on a key "C" diatonic: Unbent Bent lv1 Bent lv2 Bent lv3 |
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