Tablature
By: Stephen Ouellette
Music History I
Dr. Cordell
Tablature is a 700 year old notation style that uses “letters, numbers or other signs as an
alternative to conventional staff notation.” (Dart) This is a practice that started in Western
Europe music around the time of the 14th century. It was originally designed for keyboard
instruments and the earliest known example of it was for organ or the clavichord, it‟s unclear
which one it was developed for first. This practice was later adopted for instruments such as the
lute and the guitar. It is used primarily for part instruments whereas staff notation is used for
single-lined instruments.
The use of tablature is extremely important in the history of music notation. In fact most
of the surviving German organ music is written in the, appropriately named, old German organ
tablature. This term is used even though the earliest source of all, the 14th-century
Robertsbridge Codex, is of unknown origin and has features of 14th-century Italian mensural
notation, as well as some French content and the manuscript its self comes from the English
Abbey. (Bent) (Dart) The music in the Robertsbridge Codex is most likely written for organ, but
some scholars suggest that it is for the clavichord. (Dart) The music we have from different
countries during this period all reflect their own nationality but they all consist of a top line that
is notated in full mensural notation and other voices are notated in alphabetical notation.
Alphabetical notation is a type of tablature where the letter of the pitches is written out instead of
being notated on a staff. The original keyboard tablature did not contain rhythmic values, these
would not be found until later and they were notated above the staffs. The mensural notation
system for the melodic voice was written on a five line staff. The lower parts were then written
below the melodic notes; their position in respect to the melodic notes determined when they
were to be played.
Between the years 1473 and 1570 how keyboard tablature was written underwent
changes and improvements. The first big change during the period was that the melodic line was
written on 6, 7, or 8 lined staffs. Another change was in the marking of accidentals, a downward
stem indicated a sharp or flat as appropriate. A stem that had a loop added to it indicated an
ornament, either a shake or a mordent.
Beginning in about the year 1570 the old German organ tablature was superseded by a
new style of keyboard tablature where, like in the old style, the lower voices were notated in
alphabetical notation, but in the new style the upper voice was also notated with letters. This
new style of tablature also included a uniform system of rhythm signs borrowed from the Italian
lute notation. In lute tablature the rhythmic values are doubled. It is believed that this change in
tablature notation was due in large part to the cost and difficulty of printing the upper line in
mensural notation. (Bent)
Though the use of tablature was mostly a German tradition there are some examples from
French keyboard music. The only other major tradition to use tablature was Spain. The tablature
from Spain is a little bit different from that of other kinds found from this period. There are three
main types of keyboard tablature and they were usually a system where the keys of the keyboard
were numbered. The white notes of one octave were usually numbered 1-7 and accidentals
beyond that octave were marked with diacritical marks. (Bent) The rhythm was then marked
above the music, only the fastest moving parts of the music were notated however. Another
method was that all keys of the organ were marked 1-42 and the player simply read those
numbers. The other method was to label just the white notes of the keyboard 1-23 and all the
black notes were considered accidentals and were labeled with a diacritical mark, either a sharp
or a flat respectively.
It is believed that these numerical systems were set up so that musicians who were
unskilled at typesetting could print their music at home. The process for printing mensural
notation at that time was still in its infancy, so music still required the use of founts. (Dart) The
founts for printing music were expensive and were very difficult to set up for organ music. The
method of printing this numerical tablature was simpler and less expensive.
Probably one of the greatest uses of tablature is in the writing for string instruments such
as the lute, vihuela, and later the guitar. The real pioneer of these tablatures were those being
written for the lute as this was the predominate plucked stringed instrument of the time. The
different styles of lute tablature can be divided into the countries where they originated from.
These countries are Germany, Italy, Spain, and France.
During the 16th century the lute had 6 strings and 7 frets, usually turned G–c–f–a–d′-
g′ or A–d–g–b–e′–a′; in general, France and England used the G tuning, Italy, Spain and
Germany the A tuning. (Dart) As the lute would continue to develop there would be the addition
of strings called diapasons, these were the strings off of the fingerboard to add bass notes where
needed. Also the lute began to have a 7th string on the fingerboard and anywhere up to 12 frets.
As you can see there is the possibility of almost 100 different choices of notes on the lute so
there was a need for a very clear and easy to understand notation method. The lute also had to be
capable of playing polyphonic parts so the notation had to be able to group many notes together
Probably the oldest of these tablature methods was again that of German origins, though
it does appear that all of the methods developed at the same time. (Dart) This style of writing
was very cumbersome and was most likely written for a 5 course, or string, lute with 5 frets. The
open courses are numbered 1 to 5, with 1 corresponding to the bottom course, and each
intersection of fret and course is denoted by a letter of the alphabet running across the
fingerboard from bottom course to top. The lute of course would have 25 possible notes so the
In order to provide the symbols required, the common abbreviations for „et‟ and „con‟ were
added to the letters of the erman alphabet for higher frets the alphabet was repeated either
in doubled letters or in letters with a dash above them aa or , bb or b etc.). (Dart) When a sixth
string was added the system faltered as it was nearly impossible to include symbols for the new
range. A new system was developed which used different symbols than the original. The
rhythms in this system were written above the staff. The music was also almost always barred
regularly.
The next system was much more logical than that of the Germans, it was the system
composed by the Italians. The reason this system was easier to understand was because it had a
visual representation of the fingerboard. Each course was represented by a horizontal line; the
top line corresponded with the bottom string of lute. Numbers were then written on the lines, a 0
represented an open string and a 1 represented the first fret and so on. The double digit numbers
of 10, 11, and 12 were represented with the symbols of x, ẋ and ẍ, since the two separate digits
maybe become confusing. Like in the German style of tablature rhythm was shown above the
music. Originally the rhythmic values were repeated for each individual beat, or division there-
of. Later a more popular style would emerge where the previous rhythmic value would be
implied until replaced by one of greater or lesser value. The diapasons were shown above the
staff in between the top line and the rhythm.
The country of Spain did not usually play the lute they had an instrument called the
vihuela, it was tuned and played like the lute but was shaped and strung differently. (Dart)
Spanish tablature closely reflected that of the Italian style. The difference was that the staff was
inverted so that the top line represented the highest string instead of the lowest.
The most famous and most widely used lute tablature came from the French. Like in the
Spanish style the top line of the staff represented the highest course of the lute. The frets were
however lettered instead of numbered, the open strings being labeled “a” or “A” the first fret
then being “b” and so on. Letters were placed above the lines in which they referred to or on the
line such as in the Spanish style. Rhythms were written above the staff like in the other styles of
tablature. The diapasons were represented by letters or figures underneath the lines of music.
The guitars of this time were using tablature as well but it was not of very great
importance to the development of tablature as it was always just a borrowed style of the
aforementioned plucked string tablatures. The beauty of tablature was that once a way of tuning
the instrument was established the tablature still meant the same thing. This proved extremely
useful in allowing unskilled musicians in being able to play instruments without a great
background in theory.
The use of tablature is still in widely accepted especially among popular guitar music
today. French tablature can still be found in guitar music that is a translation from the lute music
of the 15th and 16th century. Though the use of tablature for keyboard instruments is rarely found
anymore due to its complexity.
Bibliography
Bent, Ian D. Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.navigator-
edinboro.passhe.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/20114pg8 (accessed Decemeber 9, 2009).
Dart, Thruston. Grove Music Online Oxford Music Online.
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.navigator-
edinboro.passhe.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/27338 (accessed December 9, 2009).
Lloyd, Norman. "THe Golden Encyclopedia of Music." 582. New York, New York: Golden
Press , 1968.