From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
Tablature
An alternate usage of the word "tab" is common on
the Internet, where it can also refer to conventional
chord symbols (for harmony), or note names (for
melody).
Tablature
Etymology
The word tablature originates from the Latin word tab-
ulatura. Tabula is a table or slate, in Latin. To tabulate
something means to put it into a table or chart.
Spelling
There are two different common spellings, with (tabula-
u
ture) and without "u" (tablature). While "tabulature" is
closer to the original Latin word, and thus more correct
etymologically, the adapted version "tablature" seems to
be more widespread in modern English.[2]
Both of these words are frequently shortened to "tab"
in casual speech. To be less ambiguous, it is preceded by
an instrument name, when required, e.g., "guitar tab",
"bass tab", "organ tab".
Origin
The first known occurrence in Europe is around 1300, and
was first used for notating music for the organ.[3]
Example of numeric vihuela tablature from the book "Orpheni- Lute tablatures were of three main varieties, French,
ca Lyra" by Miguel de Fuenllana (1554). Red numerals (origi- Italian (also widely used in Spain, Bavaria and southern
nal) mark the vocal part. France), and German, detailed below. A special variety of
Italian tablature called "Neapolitan" was in use in south-
Tablature (or tabulature or tab for short) is a form of
tabulature, ern Italy, and a Polish variety of French tablature appears
musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather in one manuscript. French tablature gradually came to be
than musical pitches. the most widely used. Tablatures for other instruments
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments were also used from early on. Keyboard tablatures flour-
such as the lute, vihuela, or guitar, as well as many free ished in Germany and in Spain. Much of the music for
reed aerophones such as the harmonica. Tablature was the lute and other historical plucked instruments during
common during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and is the Renaissance and Baroque eras was originally writ-
commonly used in notating rock, pop, folk, ragtime, blue- ten in tablature, and many modern players of those in-
grass, and blues music. struments still prefer this kind of notation, often using
Three types of organ tablature were used in Europe: facsimiles of the original prints or manuscripts, hand-
German, Spanish and Italian. There are several types of written copies, modern editions in tablature, or printouts
ocarina tabulature.[1] Harp tablature was used in Spain made with computer programs.[4]
and Wales.
To distinguish standard musical notation from tabla-
ture, the former is usually called "staff notation" or just
Concepts
"notation". 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, tab-
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
lature is instead operationally based, indicating where preferred by modern players over German (especially
and when a finger should be placed to generate a note, facsimile editions, as the originals were published in
so pitch is denoted implicitly rather than explicitly. The black letter type which is unfamiliar to modern readers).
rhythmic symbols of tablature tell when to start a note, Modern publishers have a difficult decision to make in
but usually there is no indication of when to stop sound- choosing a form for a modern anthology.[citation needed]
ing it, so duration is at the discretion of the performer to
a greater extent than is the case in conventional musi- Differences between systems
cal notation. Tablature for plucked strings is based upon •
a diagrammatic representation of the strings and frets of When compared to standard notation,
the instrument, keyboard tablature represents the keys tablature is a closer visual representation of
of the instrument, and recorder tablature shows whether the instrument’s fretboard. It does not
each of the fingerholes is to be closed or left open. require as much training for players to be
able to read tablature; therefore it is often
Tablature vs. standard staff notation easier and quicker to interpret for beginners.
Tablature is more easily read by a novice fretted string •
musician than standard notation; all one needs to do is
Tablature removes the requirement for the
tune the instrument, place one’s fingers on the indicated
player to determine the fretboard position
string and fret, and sound the note. During the Renais-
within which the notated music is to be
sance, tablature was used by professionals and amateurs
executed. Notes on the guitar can be played
alike to set down music for lute, cittern, bandora, orphar-
in different fret hand positions and upon
ion, four- and five-course early guitar, and violas da gam-
several different strings; for example the
ba. Repertoire for lute began to change during the 18th
note C4 could be played on the third string at
century; use of the lute in orchestras to play basso con-
the fifth fret or on the fourth string at the
tinuo obliged lutenists to work from parts written in the
tenth fret. In the case of fretted instruments
staff notation suitable also for keyboard instruments and
such complexity makes the relationship
harps. Tabulature continued in use for solo lute and gui-
between staff notation and playing technique
tar works, but eventually lost popularity and nearly died
less direct than in the case of the piano and
out, remaining in informal use amongst amateurs, afi-
many other instruments. Whilst standard
cionados, and within folk idioms such as flamenco.[citation
staff notation can remove the string/fret
needed]
ambiguity by further indicating the playing
Victorian-era musicologists found themselves in a
position (usually with Roman numerals),
quandary when it came to publishing scholarly editions;
tablature does not contain this ambiguity.
players of the original instruments were uncommon,
Tablature has two additional advantages.
whereas most musicologists did play piano.[citation needed]
First, it clearly identifies the note. Tablature
Editions prior to the early music movement presented
makes explicit all instances of musica ficta, so
the music transcribed for guitar or piano (or both), leav-
that there is no guesswork about whether a
ing lute players at a loss for their own repertoire as it was
note is, for example, an F or an F♯. Second,
originally published. Popular interest in early music cre-
tablature can notate music in different
ated a need for performing editions of Renaissance reper-
tunings and scordaturas.
toire in tablature.[citation needed]
•
After World War II ended, acoustic and electric guitar
became popular, and guitar tablature was reborn.[citation Tablature can be easily (albeit crudely)
needed]
represented as ASCII tab. This is a plain-text
Tablature notation has two significant deficiencies. computer file using numbers, letters, and
First is an inability to convey the duration of notes sus- symbols to construct tablature. This
tained against a melisma. Only the beginning of each characteristic makes it easy to distribute
note can be shown; which notes of a chord should be sus- tablature electronically, a practice that has
tained, and for how long, is an artistic decision for the become very widespread; it is now possible to
player. find free tablatures for virtually any popular
The second problem is one of choice. Historical lute music on the Internet, although a
tablature has three major forms (French, German, Ital- considerable number of those tablatures may
ian); each of these has variants. Modern players usually be inaccurate and also illegal. (See Tablature
specialize in just one form, and it is difficult to become (Legal Issue) below.)
facile at reading all of them. The surviving repertoire is •
divided roughly equally, with French and Italian being
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
Tablature is instrument-specific, while staff staff notation allows musicians to sing from
notation is generic. Tablature does not sight.
provide any skills transferable to other
instrumental or general musical study.
Tablature can only be read easily by a player
Lute tablature
of one particular instrument, whilst music
written in staff notation can be played on any
suitable instrument. Reading solely from
tablature compromises communication with
other musicians such as flаutists or violinists,
who are commonly trained only in the use of
standard notation. Reliance solely upon
tablature limits the repertoire of the player
to works published in tablature or
transcribed into it. A player who can read
both forms of notation is at a decided
advantage.
•
The science of harmony and musical analysis
is codified by recourse to standard musical
notation. Standard musical scores enable
musicians to utilise advanced tools for such
analysis. These tools cannot be easily applied
to, or from, tablature. Therefore the study of
musical theory is hindered by reliance upon
tablature.
•
Tablature notation provides limited
information on rhythm and timing. Tablature
writers sometimes provide limited rhythmic French Renaissance style lute tablature, with corresponding
information by adding note stems, flags and notation for guitar: a simple Renaissance dance, printed by
beams above the fret glyphs but the system is Pierre Attaingnant.
not as well-defined as in standard notation.
• Lute tablature is similar to guitar tablature, but comes in
at least three different varieties. The most common vari-
Multiple parts cannot be rhythmically ety used today is based on the French Renaissance system
distinguished within tablature notation. This (see example at right). In this style the strings are repre-
is a serious limitation when conveying sented by the lines on the staff (occasionally the spaces
information required for the proper above the lines on the staff), and the stops are indicat-
rendition of multiple-part music on any ed by lowercase letters of the alphabet (rather than num-
polyphonic instrument. bers), 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-
Tablature notation shows how the notes are lature. However, lutes were not limited to 6 strings or
fingered; relative pitch is shown and actual courses (they could have as many as 19), and stops for
pitch can be calculated by considering the any courses beyond the sixth were shown below the bot-
tuning, but it takes experience for a player to tom line, with short diagonal strokes (see below).
sing (or internalize) the notes by sight. The letters soon developed somewhat stylized forms
Dynamic markup is usually left to the for ease of recognition. In particular, the letter ’c’ often
performers artistic sense. It can be difficult to resembled ’r’. This was common in many styles of Re-
get a general outline of the music by simply naissance handwriting, but also helped to differentiate ’c’
studying the tablature page without recourse from ’e’. Also, sometimes ’y’ was used for ’i’.
to playing it through or listening to a Lute tablature provides flags above the staff to show
recorded version beforehand. In contrast the rhythms, often only providing a flag when the length
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
of the beat changes, as shown in the example. (Notice F______a________
that this piece begins with a half measure.) D______a________
Other variants of lute tablature use numbers rather A______a________
than letters, write the stops on the lines rather than in D- ///a
the spaces, or even invert the entire staff so that the low-
est notest are on top and the highest are at the bottom. The strings below the sixth course are notated with ad-
ditional 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
As with guitar, various different lute tunings may be C- 4
used, all written using the same tablature method. A B- 5
tenor viola da gamba can usually be played directly from A- 6
lute tablature as it typically uses the same tuning. A gui-
tar can often be played from lute tablature by tuning the A number of slightly different systems were used to show
G string down to an F♯ and putting a capo at the third fret rhythm: some scribes and printers used headed notes,
to preserve the original pitch. but it was simpler for a scribe to use headless tails for
In standard Baroque lute tabulature, each staff has six the fast-moving notes these plucked instruments com-
lines, representing the first six courses. The course of the monly played (breve to semi-fusa); and early printers fol-
highest pitch appears at the top, and that of the lowest lowed the scribal practice. Individual tails were some-
appears at the bottom. (The Italian Archlute of the same times combined into ’grids’, resemblimg today’s beams.
period uses an opposite system.) The semibreve was indicated by an untailed line, the
breve by a circled line or a line flagged to the left. Regard-
F____________________ ing notation of rhythms, French manuscripts tend to use
D____________________ a more florid script for the rhythmic values while English
A____________________ and Germanic manuscripts tend to use a more conserva-
F____________________ tive script.
D____________________ The lute was a virtuoso’s instrument, and rapid orna-
A____________________ mentation in the form of graces, trills, shakes, fall-backs,
mordents, etc. were expected of players ad libitum to or-
Lowercase letters or "glyphs"are placed on each of these nament the music artfully, beyond just playing the writ-
lines to represent notes. If it is required to play an open ten notes. Some of these ornaments may be written out,
D course, for instance, a small "a" will be placed on the but more commonly a special symbol would mark places
appropriate line. For a note with the finger on the first where they might be used; these symbols are the subject
fret a "b", a note on the second fret a "c", etc. However, as for a special discussion; each scribe and composer had a
mentioned above, "j" was not used since it was not con- different style of ornamentation and there were a variety
sidered a separate letter from "i", and "c" often looked of ways to notate them. However, for a general discus-
more like "r". Thus: sion of French tablature ornaments see Furnas’ disserta-
tion discussing the Manchester Lyra viol manuscript.[cita-
F_____c___ tion needed]
D_____a___
The majority of viola da gamba tablature manuscripts
A_____b___
is written in French Baroque tablature. The difference
F_____c___
between viola da gamba tablature (also called lyra viol
D_____a___
tablature) and lute tablute is that the chords in lyra viol
A_____b___
music must include all the strings between the highest
G - a
and lowest notes in the chord. Lutinists, however, can
play broken chords (chords that do not include all the
would represent a G-minor chord,
internal strings within a chord). Additionally, a diagonal
All open strings would represent a D-minor chord:
slash often appears in lyra viol manuscript, indicating a
F______a________ slur. As these distinction are subtle, manuscripts have of-
D______a________ ten been misidentified.
A______a________
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
Two features of French tablature are critical. French into units of two or four ("leiterlein" in German, i.e.,
tablature does not use the letter i. It is replaced by the small ladders).
letter y. Second, the letter c is often written in a manner
that suggest the letter r.
A few lyra viol manuscripts notate music above the
Computer programs for writing
octave. In such rare cases, no letters are ignored. Thus, tablatures
letters follow: h, y, j, k, l, and m. Lyra viol music above
See List of guitar tablature software
the octave is extremely rare. Contemporary composers,
Various computer programs are available for writing
including Peter H. Adams have written music up to the
tablature; some also write lyrics, guitar chord diagrams,
octave and a fifth above the open string.[citation needed]
chord symbols, and/or staff notation. ASCII tab files can
be written (somewhat laboriously) with any ordinary
German lute tablature word processor or text editor.
Both Sibelius and Finale software offer some lute tab-
lature support in Italian, Spanish, and French styles, but
no German, as is offered by Fronimo. Sibelius and Finale
do not provide fonts to score lute tablature giving an his-
toric appearance, but can incorporate any fonts needed
for any style desired, with extra set-up time, which can
be easily transferred to additional scores. More special-
ized lute and other early music tablature support is pro-
vided by Fronimo by Francesco Tribioli and Django by
Alain Veylit.
Guitar tablature
Guitar tablature consists of a series of horizontal lines
Types of lute tablatures forming a staff (or stave) similar to standard notation.
Each line represents one of the instrument’s strings.
The origins of German lute tablature can be traced back Therefore standard guitar tablature has a six-line staff
well into the 15th century. Blind organist Conrad Paumann and bass guitar tablature has four lines. The top line of
is said to have invented it.[5] It was used in German- the tablature represents the highest-pitched string of the
speaking countries until the end of the 16th century. guitar. By writing tablature with the lowest pitched notes
When German lute tablature was invented, the lute had on the bottom line and highest pitched notes on the top,
only five courses, numbered 1 (the lowest sounding tablature follows the same basic structure and layout as
course) to 5 (highest). Each place where a course can be Western Standard Notation.
stopped at a fret is assigned with a letter of the alphabet, The following examples are labelled with letters on
i.e., the first frets of courses 1 through 5 are represented the left denoting the string names, with a lowercase e for
by the letters a through e, the second frets by f through k, the high E string. Tab lines may be numbered 1 through 6
and so on. The letters j, u, w, are not used. Therefore, two instead, representing standard string numbering, where
substitutional signs are used, i.e., et (resembling the nu- "1" is the high E string, "2" is the B string, etc.
meral 7) for the fourth course’s fifth fret, and con (resem- The numbers that are written on the lines represent
bling the numeral 9) for the fifth course’s fifth fret. From the fret used to obtain the desired pitch. For example, the
the sixth position upwards, the alphabetical order is re- number 3 written on the top line of the staff indicates
sumed anew with added prime marks (a’, b’, ...), strokes that the player should press down at the third fret on the
above the letters, or the letters doubled (aa, bb, ...). When high E (first string). Number 0 denotes the nut — that is,
a 6th course was added to the lute around 1500 CE, differ- an open string.
ent authors used different symbols for it. Chords are writ- For chords, a letter above or below the tablature staff
ten in vertical order. Melodic motions are notated in the denotes the root note of the chord.
highest possible line, notwithstanding their actual reg- Examples of guitar tablature notation:
ister. Rhythmical signs, which are written in a line above The chords E, F, and G:
the letters, are single stems (semibreves), shafts with one
flag (minims), stems with two flags (crotchets), stems e|---0---1---3---
with three flags (quavers), stems with four flags (semi- B|---0---1---0---
quavers). Stems with two or more flags can be grouped G|---1---2---0---
D|---2---3---0---
5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
Symbol Technique
h hammer on
p pull off
b bend string up
r release bend
/ slide up
\ slide down
v vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
t right hand tap
s legato slide
S shift slide
* natural harmonic
[n] artificial harmonic
n(n) tapped harmonic
tr trill
T tap
TP tremolo picking
PM palm muting (also written as _)
\n/ tremolo arm dip; n = amount to dip
\n tremolo arm down
n/ tremolo arm up
/n\ tremolo arm inverted dip
= hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls
volume swell (louder/softer)
x on rhythm slash represents muted slash
o on rhythm slash represents single note slash
·/. pick slide
A|---2---3---2---
E|---0---1---3---
Musette tablature
E F G Borjon de Scellery’s Traité de la musette includes pieces for
musette de cour in both standard notation and tablature,
Tablature can use various lines, arrows, and other sym- plus a partial explanation of his system. The numbers re-
bols to denote bends, hammer-ons, trills, pull-offs, slides, fer to the keys on the instrument, and are shown on a
and so on. These are the tablature symbols that represent five-line stave so that they also correspond with standard
various techniques, though these may vary: notation. Standard symbols for note lengths are written
Guitar tablature is not standardized and different sheet- above each tablature staff.
music publishers adopt different conventions. Songbooks The standard notation shown in the illustration is al-
and guitar magazines usually include a legend setting out so taken from de Scellery; no explanation is given for the
the convention in use. slur-like symbol; the comma , is explained as indicating a
The most common form of lute tablature uses the tremblement, starting on the note above. No explanation
same concept but differs in the details (e.g., it uses letters is given for the unusual beaming or the significance (if
rather than numbers for frets). See below. any) of where note-length symbols are repeated.
When circles are used to indicate fingering, sounded
notes are white, an assumed root is grey, and a sounded
root is black.[6][7]
6
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
key. For example, in the blues progression in G (G G G G7
C C G G D7 D7 G G) it is common to use a C diatonic instru-
ment, and notate the following:
• G chord (G-B-D): 34i (BD)
• G7 chord (G-B–D-F): 45i (DF).
• D7 chord (D-F♯-A-C): 4i (D) or 4e (C)
There are many harmonica tablature systems in use. The
easiest tablature system works like this.
Diatonic Harmonica tablature
2 = blow the 2 hole
-2 = draw the 2 hole
-2’ = draw the 2 hole with a half bend
-2" = draw the 2 hole with a full bend
chords are shown by grouping notes with parentheses
(2 3) = blow the 2 hole and the 3 hole at the same time
Musette tablature from Borjon de Scellery Chromatic Harmonica tablature
2 = blow the 2 hole
Harmonica tablature -2 = draw the 2 hole
The harmonica tablature was basically a one-to-one map- <2 = blow the 2 hole with the button in
ping of the notes to the corresponding hole and, thus, is <-2 = draw the 2 hole with the button in
a type of numbered musical notation. For each note, it
will indicate the number of the hole to play, direction of Harmonica tablature is usually lined up with lyrics to
breathing (in or out), and even bending (usually for dia- show the tune and the timing and usually tells one the
tonic) or "slide-in" (usually for chromatic) key of the harmonica for which the song is tabbed.
One method of indicating direction of breath is by us- Here is an example of harmonica tablature:
ing arrows; another is by using either a "+" or "-" sign, "Mack the Knife" C Diatonic
or "i" (for inhale) and "e" (for exhale). Bending is shown
with a bent arrow with the direction of breath, or by a 5 6 -6 -6 5 6 -6 -6
circle around the note, or even a simple line next to theOh the shark has pretty teeth, dear
breath indicator. Additional lines and/or circles may be -4 -5 -6 -6 -4 -5 -6
used to indicate how much to bend. And he shows them pearly white
For example, on a "C" diatonic instrument: 6 -7 -8 7 -7 -6 7 -4
Just a jack knife has MacHeath, dear
Unbent Bent lv1 Bent lv2 5
Bent lv3 -5 7 -4 7 -7 -6
3i (B) 3i| (Bb) 3i|| (A) And
3i||| (G#) he keeps it out of sight
To indicate button-press on a chromatic instrument, a
similar indication to first-level bending may be used.
Legal issues
The breath indicator may be placed right next to the There has been much controversy over the legal position
hole number, or below the number. The same is true for of tablature available on the Internet, as many Internet
bending or button-press indicators. tablature websites provide user-created tablature with-
To indicate the beat, in the arrow system the length out properly acquiring a print license from, or paying
of the arrow may be varied. However, the more popular royalties to, the original songwriter and, often, the music
method is to use a slightly simplified rhythm-symbol no- publisher that controls these licenses. Although many of
tation, such as "o" for a semibreve, // for a minim, "/" the Internet tablature websites that offer user-created
for a crotchet, "." for quavers, and place them above the tablature do not charge consumers for these transcrip-
characters, while spacing them accordingly. tions, revenue generated from advertising on these web-
For chords, the numbers to play are shown, so, for sites is typically kept by the website owners as profit, or
example: a C major (CEG) chord (on a C diatonic instru- used to cover the website’s maintenance costs, and no —
ment): 456e However, they may simplify it, especially or very limited — royalties are received by the original
when playing blues. For chords, it was common to just songwriter. Further, music publishers and artists have
play three or two holes instead (sometimes even just been wary to license content to certain user-generated
one), especially when the instrument is not of the same
7
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
tablature websites due to quality issues with the tabla- generally charge anywhere from $0.99 to $6.99 for
ture created by amateur users. the ability to purchase legal pieces of guitar
Such free Internet tablature sites often attempt to de- tablature. These websites also claim to have acquired
fend themselves by claiming to be educational providers the proper licenses to display this tablature on-line.
or non-profit organizations, even if not formally regis- Several websites in this first category specifically
tered as such.[8] This leads to considerable difficulty jus- cater to guitarists, including GuitarInstructor.com
tifying the service as legal under the fair use doctrine of and UnitedWeTab.com
copyright law (see Fair Use As A Defense). The legality 2. Websites that offer "user-created" tablature, but
of free Internet tablature served by such websites is dis- have obtained the proper legal clearances to post
puted, largely because websites have thus far only been these transcriptions on-line. There are several
threatened with legal action; the issue has yet to be taken websites that fall into this second category,
to court. including Guitar World Tabs, Mxtabs.net, and
As of December 12, 2005, distributing free tablatures Ultimate-Guitar.com which generally do not charge
of copyrighted music using the Internet was considered consumers for using these user-created tablature
illegal by the music industry in the United States. By ear- pieces, and share any advertising revenue with
ly 2006, an unprecedented legal move was taken by the music publishers and/or songwriters.
Music Publishers’ Association (MPA), initiating legal ac- 3. Websites that index other tablature resources, and
tion against tablature websites that hosted interpreta- offer unique formatting options, such as CleanTab
tions of songs and music. The Music Publishers’ Associ- and Chordie.
ation (MPA) had been pushing for websites offering free
tablatures to be shut down. MPA president Lauren Keiser Mxtabs.net
said that their goal is for owners of free tablature services Mxtabs.net had been closed down due to complaints
to face fines and even imprisonment.[9] Several websites from copyright holders. However, as of February 23,
that offer free tablature have already taken their tabla- 2006, the owners of Mxtabs put the website back on-line
ture off-line until a solution or compromise is found. One with a letter explaining their position. In short, they be-
of the proposed solutions is an alternative compensa- lieve that the purpose of Mxtabs is to "aid musicians in
tion system, which allows the widespread reproduction learning their instruments." They say that Mxtabs has
of digital copyrighted works while still paying songwrit- accounted for as much as $3000 a month in sheet music
ers and copyright owners. In addition, there are now a sales, and offers many tablatures that do not have equiv-
number of "legal" services offering guitar tablature that alent sheet music published, so Mxtabs and similar sites
have been licensed by music publishers.[10] are the only place that musicians can find a way to play
One site, MetalTabs.com, contacts the bands them- these songs (other than figuring the songs out for them-
selves for permission to post tablature. Few bands have selves). The letter concludes by pointing out that tabla-
declined the request.[11] tures have never been proven to be illegal, then request-
The tablature debate was featured on NPR’s Morning ing that sheet-music companies contact Mxtabs in order
Edition in a segment entitled "Music Industry Goes after to create a system of tablature licensing.
Guitar Tablature Websites" on August 7, 2006.[12] On February 29, 2008, MXTabs.net relaunched as the
On April 10, 2010, Ultimate Guitar, a Russia based, first legitimately licensed site designed to provide musi-
free online tablature site has entered a licensing agree- cians with access to free tablatures, while also compen-
ment with Harry Fox Agency.[13] The agreement included sating music publishers and songwriters for their intel-
rights for lyrics display, title search and tablature display lectual property. Similar to other user generated content
with download and print capabilities. HFA’s over 44,000 sites, MXTabs.net users are encouraged to create, edit,
represented publishers have the opportunity to opt-in to rate, and review their own tablature interpretations of
the licensing arrangement with UG. their favourite songs. However, unlike other user-gener-
ated content sites, only songs that have received explicit
Rise of legal guitar tablature sites permission from participating copyright owners will be
In light of the legal questions surrounding user-created made available on-line.
on-line guitar tablature, a number of companies have
been formed that claim to offer consumers legal on-line Guitar Tab Universe
tablature, which has been officially-licensed from song- On 17 July 2006, Guitar Tab Universe (GTU) posted a letter
writers and/or music publishers. These companies offer- on its home page that its ISP had been jointly threatened
ing legal content generally fall into three categories: with legal action by the National Music Publishers Asso-
1. Websites that offer "professionally-created" content: ciation (NMPA) and the MPA "on the basis that sharing
These websites typically hire professional musicians tablature constitutes copyright infringement".[14]
to transcribe songs into guitar tablature, and
8
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tablature
In response, GTU’s site owner(s) immediately created • TabWiki
a website named Music Student and Teacher Organiza-
tion (MuSATO) to attempt to reposition themselves from
an illegal-copyrighted-materials provider to an "educa-
Notes
tion provider". MuSATO’s main objective is to use fair use [1] ocarina tabulature
as their rationale to publish tablature free of charge. By [2] As of 2007, Google searches indicate that word
claiming to be an educational provider, they do not have "tablature" (~6 560 000 hits) is used 27 times more
to obtain publication rights nor pay royalties to the origi- frequently than "tabulature" (~335 000 hits)
nal composers. MuSATO claims to be educational by clas- [3] See Willi Apel’s book on music notation, The
sifying users downloading tablatures as "music students" Notation of Polyphonic Music (1942), for a fuller
and transcribers as "music teachers". history.
Furthermore, MuSATO also argues that Internet gui- [4] Grove dictionary
tar tablature does not infringe upon publishers’ copy- [5] Sebastian Virdung, Musica getutscht (Basel 1511),
rights because the tablatures it provides does not contain and Martin Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch
rhythmic information and therefore is not an entirely ac- (Wittenberg 1529), quoted in: Oswald Körte, Laute
curate representation of the song. However, it did not und Lautenmusik bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts.
note that some lyrics provided are copyrighted. It has Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen
since removed lyrics from all tablature in an attempt to Lautentabulatur (Publikationen der Internationalen
appease the NMPA.[citation needed] Tablature is not directly Musikgesellschaft. Beihefte 3. Leipzig: Breitkopf
provided to users unless it is through the forum, where und Härtel, 1901), 76 seq.
members link to other websites hosting tablature. [6] Latarski, Don (1999). Ultimate Guitar Chords: First
GuitarTabs.com has been contacted by the NMPA and Chords, p.5. ISBN 9780769285221.
MPA with similar copyright infringement allegations. [7] Don Latarski, Aaron Stang (1993). Practical Theory
The NMPA and MPA have also threatened Guitar Tab Uni- for Guitar, p.6-7. ISBN 9780898986921.
verse with similar legal action. A copy of the certified let- [8] "I, Buanzo, Support Musicians and Their Right to
ter received by the site owner, along with a brief note Enhance Themselves by Reading Tabs!"
similar to the one posted on Mxtabs, has been posted on [9] BBC report
their website.[15] [10] Fretbase, Can Guitar Tablature Go Legit?
[11] http://metaltabs.com/
OLGA.net [12] NPR report
OLGA.net is another tablature site that has been removed [13] http://www.harryfox.com/public/userfiles/file/
after receiving letter from lawyers representing the PressReleases/
NMPA and the MPA.[citation needed] HFAUltimateGuitar_20100406_Final.pdf
[14] Guitar Tab Universe letter.
[15] Guitar Tab Universe MPA allegations.
See also
• Musical notation External links
• ASCII tab
• Digital sheet music • Guitar tablature category at the Open Directory
• Drum tablature Project
• Fret • Banjo tablature category at the Open Directory
• Klavar notation Project
• Keyboard tablature • Bass guitar tablature category at the Open Directory
• Ocarina tablature Project
• Trumpet tablature
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature"
Categories: Musical notation
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