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Guitar Tab
Guitar tab consists of a series of horizontal lines forming a staff (or stave,) similar to standard notation. Each line represents one of the instrument's strings therefore standard guitar tab has a six-line staff and bass guitar tab has four lines. The top line of the tablature represents the highest pitched string of the guitar. By writing tablature with the lowest pitched notes on the bottom line and the highest pitched notes on the top line of the tablature tablature follows the same basic structure and layout of Western Standard Notation. The following examples are labeled with letters on the left denoting the string names, with a lower-case "e" for the high E string. Tab lines may be numbered 1-6 instead, representing standard string numbering, where "1" is the high E string, "2" is the B string etc. The numbers are written on the lines represent the fret used to obtain the desired pitch. For example, the number 3 written on the top line of the staff indicates that the player should press down at the third fret on the high E (first string). Number 0 denotes the nut - that is, an open string. For chords, a letter above or below the tab staff denotes the root note of the chord.
Examples of Guitar Tab Notation: The chords E, F, and G: e|---0---1---3--- B|---0---1---0--- G|---1---2---0--- D|---2---3---0--- A|---2---3---2--- E|---0---1---3--- E F G | Various lines, arrows and other symbols are used to denote bends, hammer-ons, trills, Pull-offs, slides, and so on.
Guitar tab is not standardised and different sheet music publishers adopt different conventions. Songbooks and guitar magazines usually include a legend setting out the convention in use. The most common form of lute tablature uses the same concept but differs in the details (e.g. it uses letters rather than numbers for frets) - see below. Guitar tab vs. standard staff notation. Tab has few advantages over staff notation. Generally speaking, guitar tab is commonly used by informally trained musicians in popular and rock music. Classical guitar music abandoned the use of tablature in the eighteenth century in order to meet demand for a higher informational content. Advantages - Direct visual representation. When compared to standard notation tab is a closer visual representation of the instrument's fretboard. It does not require any training for players to be able to read tab therefore some find it easier and quicker to interpret.
- Fingering position determination. Tab removes the requirement for the player to determine the fretboard position within which the notated music is to be executed. Notes on the guitar can be played in different left hand positions and upon several different strings; for example the note C5 could be played on the third string at the fifth fret or on the fourth string at the tenth fret. In the case of fretted instruments such complexity makes the relationship between staff notation and playing technique less direct than in the case of the piano and many other instruments. Whilst standard staff notation can remove the string/fret ambiguity by further indicating the playing position (usually with Roman numerals), tab does not contain this ambiguity at all.
- Simple typewriter-font representation. Tab can easily be represented as ASCII tab - a plain-text computer file, using numbers, letters and symbols to construct a crude representation of tab. This characteristic makes it easy to distribute tab electronically, a practice that has become immensely widespread; it is now possible to find free tablatures for virtually any popular music on the Internet, although a considerable amount of those tabs may be illegal.
Disadvantages- Instrument-specific. Tablature is instrument-specific, while staff notation is generic. Tablature does not provide any skills transferable to other instrumental study. This limitation means music written in tab can only be easily read by a guitarist whilst music written in staff notation can be played by any suitable instrument. Reading solely from tab may cause problems when communicating with other musicians such as flautists or violinists who are commonly trained in the use of standard notation. Reliance solely upon tablature can prevent the guitarist from playing pieces that are composed for other instruments and/or written in staff notation. In contrast, a guitarist who reads staff notation can understand such pieces, make necessary adjustments and play them on a guitar.
- More difficult to change positions. By rigidly specifying positional information tablature discourages the ability to interpret and apply the fingerings to other positions. For example, on a guitar with standard tuning, F4 (the F above middle C) has 5 possible fingerings on most guitars. Passages that utilize this note are often possible to play on at least 3-4 of these positions, as they contain all the other neighboring notes needed.
- No indication of pitch. Tab notation instructs only upon where to play notes, it does not provide a visual indication of pitch such as is provided by standard notation. It can be very difficult to get a feel of the music simply by studying the page without playing it through. In contrast staff notation allows musicians to sing from sight.
- Lack of rhythmic information. Another major limitation of tab is the lack of accurate information on rhythm and timing. In this respect alone tab is too limited for use by classical guitarists. Tab users rely heavily on external assistance to acquire timing. For example, audio recording, redundantly printing standard notation above the tab and softwares. Software like Guitar Pro, Power Tab Editor and TablEdit Tablature Editor allow users to record/playback timing digitally. Tab writers sometimes attempt to provide rhythmic information by adding note stems, flags and beams above the numbers, but this practice is yet to be standardised.
- No distinction of parts. Multiple parts cannot be rhythmically distinguished within tab notation. This is serious limitation for the proper execution of multiple part music on a polyphonic instrument such as the guitar.
- Simplistic. A significant disadvantage is that the study of musical theory can be hindered by solely using tablature. An understanding of notation and theory can allow an individual to gain a deeper appreciation of the instrument and to gain greater freedom from the inertia of routine and tradition.
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