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ABOUT TABLATURE
Tablature is simply a way of telling a string player on which string and where on the fretboard to place fingers to produce a note. "Standard" musical notation which describes a note on staff lines. That note may be produced at several locations on a fretboard., Tablature yields exact placement and allows a player to play music without any knowledge of traditional music notation.
History and Development
Tablature is an ancient system of music notation for stringed instruments that is still in use today. It first achieved popularity during the Renaissance. The lines of a staff represent the strings of instruments such as the lute, vihuela and the guitar. Tablature for mandolin has four lines representing its four courses. Guitar tab consists of six lines representing its six strings. Other instruments have more or less lines representing the amount of their respective strings. In place of musical notes, left hand fret positions are represented by either numbers or letters on these lines. Rhythm is dictated above the staff. It is reduced to the shortest note values. The longer, or legato, notes are left to the interpretation of the performer.
Below you will find a few excerpts representing various types of tablature.
Spain and Italy use numbers to represent the frets. Unlike modern guitar tablature, the highest line of the staff represents the lowest pitched course or string of the instrument. A "2" on the highest line would indicate the performer should fret the lowest course or string at the second fret. When playing this tablature on the guitar, one must tune the third string down a half step, from "G" to "F#". The following excerpt is from a piece written for lute , during the Renaissance, by Italian composer Francesco de Milano (1497-1543).
Modern Guitar Arrangement:
French tablature differs from the Spanish and Italian systems in that it uses letters instead of numbers to indicate which fret to play and that the highest line of tablature represents the highest pitched course of the instrument. The letter "A" represents the open string. The frets follow the alphabet from there. Bach arranged this Fugue, (BWV1000), for the lute. He originally wrote it as the third movement of his solo violin sonata in D minor. Bach transcribed it to G minor in order to accomodate the lute's range. The tuning of the standard six course lute lute from low to high is G-C-F-A-D-G. There are bass notes in this arrangement that must be played by additional bass strings or courses. They are notated by a "/" in front of a letter below the sixth string or course. "/a" would mean an open seventh string or coarse. "///a" indicates an open ninth string. Having said this, bare in mind that many arrangements use the spaces of the staff to represent the strings. In a six-line staff one is able to represent seven strings. This fugue is arranged in such a way. The piece gets on to the extra low strings rather quickly, but the opening measures of this transcription may be played by guitarists, as written, by tuning the third string (G) 1/2 step down to an F#. The key becomes E minor. To play the entire piece on the guitar, it is usually played in A minor
Modern Guitar Arrangement:
Luis Milan used numbers to represent frets of his vihuela. Like modern guitar tablature, the highest line of represents the highest tuned course on the instrument. Tune the 3rd string 1/2 step down to F#.
Modern Guitar Arrangement:
The source of the original lute tablatures is the Tab Server at Dartmouth College. Used By Permission.
Standard lute tablature,
source: http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory30.htm#tablature
following extract from Reading Lute Tablature by Conrad Leviston.
Each stave has six lines, representing the six courses of a lute. A course is a group of adjacent strings tuned ither to the same note or to an octave. The course of highest pitch appears at the top, and that of lowest appears at the bottom, hence:
| G | ____________________ | |
| D | ____________________ | |
| A | ____________________ | |
| F | ____________________ | |
| C | ____________________ | |
| G | ____________________ |
On each of these lines are placed letters to represent notes. If you are required to play an open D string, for instance, a small "a" will be placed on the appropriate line. For a note with the finger on the first fret, a "b", a note on the second fret, a "c", etc. The only exception to this is that no "j" is used, as it was considered to be more or less the same as "i". So:
| G | ___a___ | |
| D | ___a___ | |
| A | ___b___ | |
| F | ___c___ | |
| C | ___c___ | |
| G | ___a___ |
would represent a Gm chord, and in normal guitar tuning would be an E chord.
If a seventh course were used its symbol would appear below the sixth (funny that). If an eighth were used, it would appear in the same place, but with a line above it. Similarly a ninth course note would have two lines above it.
The only other thing to be said about this notation is that the symbol # does not mean sharp. It does in fact represent a trill. The exact form of the trill is not known, but it did appear to have a specific meaning. Generally, one just trills from the note in the scale above the note in question.
Timing is fairly straight forward. A semi-breve is represented by a stick, with a tail pointing to the left (/|), a minim by a simple stick (|), a crotchet by a stick with a tail pointing to the right (|\), a quaver by a stick with two tails pointing to the right, and so on. The duration of a note is determined by the time indicator above it. If there is no time indicator above a note, its duration is equal to that of the last note. For notes that last one and a half times as long as normal, a dot is added to the side of the time indicator, as in normal sheet music.
There are two major variations of this form of tablature. Firstly, letters being replaced by numbers. This leads to the system used in modern guitar tablature, and has the elegant advantage of "0" representing an open fret.
Secondly, the tablature may be written upside down. This system is more logical, in that you are essentially looking at the mirror image of your instrument. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I do not find it as natural to play.
Different areas used different notations at different times, but in general, the French and English used the above system (often refered to as French tablature), the Italians used the above system, with the second change, and the Spanish used both changes. German Tablature is completely different all together.
Lute tablature 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 system (see example at right). In this style the strings are represented by the lines on the staff (occasionally the spaces above the lines on the staff), 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 (as it was not originally a separate letter from 'i'). A six-line staff is used, just as for modern guitar tab. However, lutes were not limited to 6 strings or courses (they could have as many as 19), and stops for any courses beyond the sixth were shown below the bottom line, with short diagonal strokes (see below).
The letters soon developed somewhat stylized forms for ease of recognition. In particular, the letter 'c' often resembled 'r'. This was common in many styles of Renaissance handwriting, but also helped to differentiate 'c' from 'e'. Also, sometimes 'y' was used for 'i'.
Lute tablature provides flags above the staff to show the rhythms, often only providing a flag when the length of the beat changes, as shown in the example. (Notice that this piece begins with a half measure.)
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.
As with guitar, various different lute tunings may be used, all written using the same tablature method. A tenor viola da gamba can usually be played directly off lute tablature as it typically uses the same tuning. A guitar can often be played off lute tablature by tuning the g string down to an f# and putting a capo at the third fret to preserve the original pitch.
In standard Baroque lute tabulature, each staff has six lines, representing the FIRST six courses. The course of the highest pitch appears at the top, and that of the lowest appears at the bottom. Please note that Italian Archlute of the same period uses an opposite system.
F____________________
D____________________
A____________________
F____________________
D____________________
A____________________
Lower case letters or "glyphs"are placed on each of these lines to represent notes. If you are required to play an open D course, for instance, a small "a" will be placed on the appropriate line. For a note with the finger on the first fret a "b", a note on the second fret a "c", etc. However, as mentioned above, "j" was not used since it was not considered a separate letter from "i", and "c" often looked more like "r". Thus:
F_____c___
D_____a___
A_____b___
F_____c___
D_____a___
A_____b___
G - a
would represent a G-minor chord,
All open strings would represent a D-minor chord:
F______a________
D______a________
A______a________
F______a________
D______a________
A______a________
D- ///a
The strings below the 6th course are notated with additional short "ledger" lines: glyphs are placed below the staff. These courses are tuned in accordance with the key of each piece played:
G- a
F- /a
E- //a
D- ///a
C- 4
B- 5
A- 6
The rhythm is notated in a fairly straightforward manner: It is represented by headless note-stems with tails [stylized similarly but some regional variations (in spite of some variety the confusion is rare)], with the exception of whole and half notes (semibreves and minims), whereas it would be essential to use heads.
The ornaments would require a special discussion, as many composers used rather personalized sets thereof.
German tablature although more difficult to read, was nonetheless popular owing to its efficient use of paper. Here are set out instructions for reading this tablature. Once you have acquired the knowledge required to interpret it, however, I suggest you use it to translate it into a more palatable form, such as French, as it is not simple to read off quickly.
German tablature was designed by Conrad Paumann (1410-73) for a lute of five courses. Conrad Paumann was a German organist, blind from birth. In 1440 he became an organist in his native city, and in 1451 entered the service of the Dukes of Bavaria. As a performer on many instruments he won great renown, which became international with a visit to the Mantua court in 1470; both the Duke of Milan and the King of Aragon desired his services but he declined, fearing reprisals by competing Italian organists. His compositions include a few songs and organ pieces, and a treatise of 1452 (Fundamentum organisandi) copied into the last pages of the Locheimer Liederbuch. This elucidates the embellishment of chant in keyboard style, and contains sensitive arrangements of chants and secular melodies.
When six courses became more common on the lute the tablature was adapted to make it possible to indicate notes on the extra string. This is not an ideal system, as will be seen later.
The system starts by giving the values 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to the open strings, with lowest toned string (usually C) being 1. The strings first frets are given the values a, b, c, d and e in the same manner as before. The strings second frets are given the values f, g, h, i and k (i and j are deemed too similar in most alphabet based tablatures). Following this method (with a German alphabet), we end up with:
5 |--e--|--k--|--p--|--v--|--9--|- G | | | | | | 4 |--d--|--i--|--o--|--t--|--7--|- D | | | | | | 3 |--c--|--h--|--n--|--s--|--z--|- A | | | | | | 2 |--b--|--g--|--m--|--r--|--y--|- F | | | | | | 1 |--a--|--f--|--l--|--q--|--x--|- C
Note the presence of 7 and 9. These are the most common characters for these positions, but by no means universal. They are often referred to as "et" and "con". Beyond the fifth fret, the lettering sequence is repeated, however, to distinguish these letters from those before, a bar is added above, hence:
_ _ _ _
5 |--e--|--k--|--p--|--v--|--9--|--e--|--k--|--p--|--v--|- G
| | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ |
4 |--d--|--i--|--o--|--t--|--7--|--d--|--i--|--o--|--t--|- D
| | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ |
3 |--c--|--h--|--n--|--s--|--z--|--c--|--h--|--n--|--s--|- A
| | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ |
2 |--b--|--g--|--m--|--r--|--y--|--b--|--g--|--m--|--r--|- F
| | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ |
1 |--a--|--f--|--l--|--q--|--x--|--a--|--f--|--l--|--q--|- C
In theory, a simple C chord (assuming the tuning indicated above) would be displayed thus:
5 i n g 1
Usually, however, there are only three notes represented at a time in German tablature. This means that the score takes up much less room than would otherwise be the case. Time indicators are the same as in other tablatures.
With the advent of the sixth course German tablature had to be modified. Rather than completely overhauling the system, the standard solution was to represent each fret on the sixth course by a capital letter. The sixth course played open was usually represented by a "1" with a cross through it (represented here by "+"). The entire six courses would therefore be:
5 |--e--|--k--|--p--|--v--|--9--|--e--|--k--|--p--|--v--|- G | | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ | 4 |--d--|--i--|--o--|--t--|--7--|--d--|--i--|--o--|--t--|- D | | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ | 3 |--c--|--h--|--n--|--s--|--z--|--c--|--h--|--n--|--s--|- A | | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ | 2 |--b--|--g--|--m--|--r--|--y--|--b--|--g--|--m--|--r--|- F | | | | | | _ | _ | _ | _ | 1 |--a--|--f--|--l--|--q--|--x--|--a--|--f--|--l--|--q--|- C | | | | | | | | | | + |--A--|--B--|--C--|--D--|--E--|--F--|--G--|--H--|--I--|- G
The origins of German lute tablature can be traced back well into the 15th century. Blind organist Conrad Paumann is said to have invented it. It was used in German speaking countries until the end of 16th century. When German lute tablature was invented, the lute had only five courses, which are numbered 1-5, with 1 being the lowest sounding course and 5 the highest. Each place where a course can be stopped at a fret is assigned with a letter of the alphabet, i. e. first course first fret is letter a, second course first fret is letter b, third course first fret is c, fourth course first fret is d, fifth course first fret is e, first course second fret is f, second course second fret is g and so on. Letters j, u, w, are not used. Therefore, two substitutional signs are used, i. e. et (resembling the numeral 7) for fourth course fifth fret, and con (resembling the numeral 9) for fifth course fifth fret. From the sixth position upwards, the alphabetical order is resumed anew with added apostrophes (a', b', ...), strokes above the letters, or the letters doubled (aa, bb, ...). When a 6th course was added to the lute around 1500 CE, different authors would use different symbols for it. Chords are written in vertical order. Melodical moves are notated in the highest possible line, notwithstanding their actual register. Rhythmical signs, which are written in a line above the letters, are single shafts (semibreves), shafts with one flag (minims), shafts with two flags (crotchets), shafts with three flags (quavers), shafts with four flags (semiquavers). Shafts with two or more flags can be connected ("leiterlein", small ladders) into groups of two or four.
Examples:
French Italian German
-r- --- k
-d- --- o
-d- = -0- = n
-a- -3- 2
--- -3-
--- -2-
The 13-course Baroque Lute is an instrument of beauty and refinement, possessing some of the most beautiful soloistic literature among all the plucked stringed instruments. It is essentially an instrument of PRIVATE performance: it is NOT designed to please large audiences and halls.
It blends well with human voice and is very effective in Lieder accompaniment, but it is not well-suited for chamber ensemble musicmaking, notwithstanding some very fine chamber music with obbligato lute extant. It is at its best when played for oneself, or a few of the chosen.
Baroque Lute
source: http://polyhymnion.org/swv/theaxe.html
The most common tuning system for Baroque Lute, beginning with the highest string:
FDAFDAGFEDCBA for a 13-course instrument,
TABULATURE is the most practical (and the most typical) method for notating lute music. It is the form of all musical material found in these pages:
In standard Baroque lute tabulature, each staff has six lines, representing the FIRST six courses. The course of the highest pitch appears at the top, and that of the lowest appears at the bottom. Please note that Italian Archlute of the same period uses an opposite system. Do not mistake these instruments and their respective repertoires, even if the music is of similar style.
F____________________
D____________________
A____________________
F____________________
D____________________
A____________________
Lower case letters or "glyphs"are placed on each of these lines to represent notes. If you are required to play an open D course, for instance, a small "a" will be placed on the appropriate line. For a note with the finger on the first fret a "b", a note on the second fret a "c", etc. The 2 exceptions to this are that no "j" is used, as it was considered to be too similar to "i", and the Greek "Gamma" is usually used in place of "c" to avoid any resemblance to "e". So:
F_____c___
D_____a___
A_____b___
F_____c___
D_____a___
A_____b___G - a
would represent a G-minor chord,
All open strings would represent a D-minor chord.
F______a________
D______a________
A______a________
F______a________
D______a________
A______a________D- ///a
The strings below the 6th course are notated with additional short "ledger" lines: glyphs are placed below the staff. These courses are tuned in accordance with the key of each piece played:
G- a
F- /a
E- //a
D- ///a
C- 4
B- 5
A- 6
The rhythm is notated in a fairly straightforward manner: It is represented by headless note-stems with tails [stylized similarly but some regional variations (in spite of some variety the confusion is rare)], with the exception of whole and half notes, whereas it would be essential to use heads.
The ornaments would require a special discussion, as many composers used rather personalized sets of these.
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