A Guide to Tablature
Notation
Written by Howard Wright
Reading Tab
Writing Tab
TAB or tablature
is a method of writing down music played on guitar or
bass. Instead of using symbols like in standard musical
notation, it uses ordinary ASCII characters and numbers,
making it ideal for places like the internet where anybody
with any computer can link up, copy a TAB file, and read
it.
TAB
will tell you what notes to play - it will tell you which
string to hit and which fret to fret it at.
TAB will tell
you where hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides, harmonics
and vibrato are used.
TAB will tell
you what tuning the piece is in. If this isn't given
explicitly, assume normal tuning. TAB should also give
you information on use of capos etc.
TAB will give
you an indication of the ryhthm of the piece - i.e it
will tell you which are the long notes and which are
the short notes.
However it
will not tell you exactly how long or how short they
are.
This leads
me on to ...
TAB will (usually)
not tell you the note lengths of the notes - so in most
cases you will have to listen to the song yourself,
with the TAB in front of you to work out the ryhthm of
the notes.
TAB will not
tell you which fingers you use to fret which note.
TAB will (usually)
not tell you anything about picking and strumming -
you will have to decide for yourself where to use upstrokes/downstrokes
and so on.
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TAB is simple to
read, and should be simple to write if you want to submit
a song you have worked out yourself. The idea is this
:
You start
out with 6 lines (or four for bass). These correspond
to the strings of the instrument. The top line is the
highest pitch string, and the bottom line is the lowest
pitch string. Below is a blank bit of TAB with the string
names at the left.
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
Numbers
are written on the lines to show you where to fret the
string with the left hand. If a zero appears , this
means play the open string. Like standard musical notation,
you read from left to right to find out what order to
play the notes. The following piece of TAB would mean
play the sequence of notes (E F F# G G# A) on the bottom
E string by moving up a fret at a time, starting with
the open string.
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E---0--1--2--3--4--5---------------------------------------------
OK so far ?
Here we have notes being played one at a time. If two
or more notes are to be played together, they are written
on top of one another, again just like standard notation.
In the next example we have a G bar chord.
E----3-----------------------------------------------------------
B----3-----------------------------------------------------------
G----4-----------------------------------------------------------
D----5-----------------------------------------------------------
A----5-----------------------------------------------------------
E----3-----------------------------------------------------------
So this means play all these notes together as a chord.
You might see
the same chord written like this :
E--------3-------------------------------------------------------
B-------3--------------------------------------------------------
G------4---------------------------------------------------------
D-----5----------------------------------------------------------
A----5-----------------------------------------------------------
E---3------------------------------------------------------------
Which
would mean strum the same shape starting at the bottom
string, so that each string is hit slightly later than
the last string, but all notes will ring together. Below
is am example of the same shape again, but now the gaps
between the notes are bigger - so you would probably
pick the strings separately instead of slowly strumming
the shape.
E------------------3---------------------------------------------
B---------------3-----3------------------------------------------
G------------4-----------4---------------------------------------
D---------5-----------------5------------------------------------
A------5-----------------------5---------------------------------
E---3-----------------------------3------------------------------
You might ask
- How do I know how fast or slow to play this ? Are
all the notes supposed to be the same length ? This
is where TAB differs from standard notation. Most often
TAB will not give you any information on the
note lengths. It is usually left up to you to listen
to the song to pick up the rhythm. However - don't despair.
TAB should give you some indications of timing. In the
example above all the notes are evenly spaced so you
can reasonably assume that the notes are the same length
(maybe all eighth notes or quavers) but this may not
always be true - it depends on who wrote the TAB.
As a general
rule, the spacing of the notes on the TAB should tell
you which notes are the long ones, and which are the
short and fast ones, but obviously it won't tell you
if a note is a triplet or anything like that. Again,
this will depend strongly on the person who wrote the
TAB.
As an
example, here are the first few notes of the American
National Anthem in TAB. You should see fairly clearly
that the different spacing corresponds to the different
note lengths.
E-----------------------0--------4--2-0--------------------------
B---0--------------0---------------------------------0-----------
G------1------1----------------------------1----3----------------
D--------2-------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously it
will be a lot easier to play the TAB for a song you
know well than for a song you've never heard of because
you will already be familiar with the ryhthms of the
familiar song.
So far I've looked
at what notes to play : which string to hit, and where
to fret it. I've mentioned how to get an idea of note
lengths by looking at the spaces between notes on the
TAB, but this can only be a rough guide. You will always
have to check with the original track to work out details
of the rhythm.
A lot of other
imprtant information can be included in a piece of TAB.
This includes hammer-ons, pull offs, slides, bends,
vibrato and so on.
The standard
practice is to write extra letters or symbols between
notes to indicate how to play them. Here are the letters/symbols
most often used :
- 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
- x - play 'note'
with heavy damping
For slides,
s is sometimes used to indicate either an up or down
slide. Symbols for harmonics are explained below in
Section 3.2 That last one, the x, is used to get a choppy,
percussive sound. You usually use your fretting hand
to lightly damp the strings so that when you pick the
note it sounds dead.
Note that the
use of 'x' is totally different from the use
of an 'x' when giving chord shapes.
For example
if you wrote the chord of D, you would see :
EADGBE
xx0232
where
the 'x's mean do not play this string. In tab it is
implicitly assumed that a string is not played if it
is not marked. So the same chord in TAB would be :
E-----2----------------------------------------------------------
B-----3----------------------------------------------------------
G-----2----------------------------------------------------------
D-----0----------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
with no 'x'.
The x is is only used in TAB to represent a heavily
muted string which is picked/strummed to give a percussive
sound.
There are a
number of other symbols for things like whammy bar bends,
pick scrapes and so on. There seems to be no particular
standard way of writing these - details should be given
in the TAB to explain what the symbols mean.
Bass TAB will
probably need a few extra symbols to cope with the different
techniques used in bass playing - for example slapping
and 'popping' the string with thumb or middle finger.
You could use 's' for slap and 'p' for pop as long as
you wrote them underneath the lines of tab to
distinguish them from slide and pull off which would
be written on the lines of tab.
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With hammer-ons
and pull-offs you might find things like these :
ddd
which
would mean play the open E twice, then hit the A string
at the 5th fret and hammer on to the 7th fret.
Pull offs look very similar :
E----3p0---------------------------------------------------------
B---------3p0----------------------------------------------------
G--------------2p0-----------------------------------------------
D-------------------2--------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
Here
we have a descending blues scale using pull-offs to
the open strings. For each pull off you only pick the
first note of the pair with the right hand - so in this
example you would pick all the notes on the 3rd and
2nd frets, and the open strings would be sounded by
pulling off.
Because you give the string an extra bit of energy when
you hammer on and pull off, you only need to hit the
first note with the picking hand. You could even have
a long string of hammer-ons and pull-offs like this
:
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G---2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2h4p2----------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
In this case
you only pick the first note.
Note
- you might see other symbols used to mean hammer on
or pull off, for example ^ can be use to mean hammer-on
and pull-off, e.g:
G---2^4^2----
which would
mean "hit the note at the 2nd fret, hammer-on to the
4th and pull-off to the 2nd fret". It would make things
easier if everyone used the same symbols, so unless
you have a strong objection to 'h' and 'p' please use
those. In any case, for any tab you send you should
always explain what your symbols mean so if you use
anything 'unconventional' make sure you explain what
it means.
When
bends are involved you need to know how much to bend the
note up. This is indicated by writing a number after the
'b'. For example, if you see this :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b9-------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
it means strike the B string at the 7th fret, then bend
the note up two semitones (one whole step) so that it
sounds the same pitch as a note fretted at the 9th fret
would do. (Sometimes the bend is written with the second
part in brackets, like this ---7b(9)--- )
Something like this :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b9--9r7--------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
means play the note at the 7th fret, bend up two semitones,
strike the note again whilst it is still bent, then
release the bend so that the note has it's normal pitch.
Sometimes a pre-bend is used - this is where the string
is bent up *before* the note is struck. After striking
the note, the bend is released. Pre-bends are usually
written like this:
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------(7)b9r7--------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
This means: fret the note at the 7th fret and bend the
string up two semitones (without actually playing the
note). Now strike the string and release the bend.
You sometimes get a note which is bent up only a quarter
of a tone or so. In this case it would look a bit strange
to write :
B--------7b7.5--------
if you have to bend it up half a fret's worth. Instead
it's written as :
bend up 1/4 tone
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7b--------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
with instructions on how much to bend written above
the note.
The most common symbols used for slides are / for a slide
up and \ for a slide down.
You might also see 's' used to mean slide.
You don't always need separate symbols for 'up' and 'down'
slides since a line of TAB reading :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7/9-------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
is clearly a slide up from 7th to 9th fret. However
you might also see things like these :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------/7-9-7\---------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
where the exact start or finish of a slide is not given.
Here you have to know whether you're sliding up or down.
In these cases use your judgement to choose the starting
or finishing fret. The effect usually desired is to
have a note 'swooping in' from a lower pitch or dropping
suddenly in pitch as the note fades.
You could have a whole series of slides running together,
like this
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B------7/9/11\9\7\6\7--------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
which would mean you only strike the first note with
the pick using the sustain to produce the other notes.
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Occasionally you will find TAB which includes information
on all of the note lengths. There seems to be no particular
'standard' way of doing this, but it usually involves
a line of letters or symbols above the TAB.
See below (Section 3.2 part 6) for more details.
If the explanation of the timing symbols is not given
in the TAB then you've got a problem ! In this case
a quick email to the author to ask for enlightenment
is the only way forward.
[Back
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Perhaps one of the most important things to do before
you start typing up a piece of TAB is to decide exactly
how much information to include in it. The trick is to
convey the right amount of information in a clear, easily
readable form.
Questions you can ask yourself are :
By planning ahead a little you should be able to produce
a clearly structured TAB which will not only be easier
for others to read, but also easier for you to type
in.
There are also choices to be made when deciding what
package to use when typing the TAB in. All you really
need is a simple text editor, however a mouse-driven
editor will probably make things easier.
When you start typing in it saves time if you draw out
one blank stave and then make 8 or 10 copies of these
before you start typing in the fret numbers etc.
If you use a more complicated package like Microsoft
Word then make sure that the characters you use are
all the same length. If an 'm' character is wider than
an 'i' character then your TAB is going to look very
strange on another text editor. Choose a font where
all charcters get the same width - Courier usually does
the job.
There are also a number of programs available by ftp
which were written specifically to make TAB writing
easier. Details of these programs including ftp addresses
are in the 'TABBING MADE EASY' FAQ by John Kean, along
with other useful hints for writing TAB. You can obtain
this FAQ from OLGA (www.olga.net\software.html).
If a song can be described well with just chords, then
it will be a lot easier to read and write if you just
use the chord shapes, rather than tab out the chords.
BUT - if you do just send in the chords it makes things
much clearer if you give the chord shapes as
well. For example, if you wanted to send in Led Zeps
'Gallows Pole' you could write:
Intro
: A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A
A7 Am7 Dadd4/A
Verse : A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A
A7 G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A
A7
G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A G D
A7
G/A A7 Am7 Dadd4/A A7 G/A A7
Am7 Dadd4/A
(You should really have the words underneath as well,
but I can't remember them at the moment !)
Now this is OK, but how many people actually know how
to play Dadd4/A off the top of their heads ?
What you need to do is include some chord shapes like
this :
EADGBE
EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
EADGBE EADGBE
x02020 x02010 x04035
320033 xx0232 x00000
A7 Am7
Dadd4/A G
D G/A
To TAB out these chords will take a lot longer to type
in, and will probably take people a lot longer to read
and understand. Where a song is based around chords
like this, it makes things much easier if you just give
chord shapes and names, then show where the chords go
in relation to the words.
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One of the most important considerations when typing in
TAB is to make it clear and easily readable.
There are a few simple things you can do to make things
work
- Use
spaces !
It's amazing the difference it can make if you insert
a few blank lines in the right place. If you are
used to writing the words above or below the lines
of TAB make sure you leave a few lines free so that
it's clear whether the words belong to the line
of TAB above or below. Space out the individual
lines of TAB and the whole thing will be a lot easier
for others to understand.
- Define
the symbols you use.
It would make everybody's life a lot easier if everyone
used the same symbols for hammer ons, bends etc.
BUT - if you are convinced that your particular
way of writing bends and slides makes much more
sense than anyone else's, that's OK as long as you
tell everybody what system you use. It makes very
good sense to start your TAB file with a list of
symbols used.
The list of most commonly used symbols is below
:
when you get on to harmonics , you
might see a variety of symbols used. Even in standard
music notation, an accepted way of writing natural
and artificial harmonics has neverbeen agreed !
However, using brackets is the standard way of writing
harmonics, so a natural harmonic at the 12th fret
would be :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E------<12>-------------------------------------------------------
Normal brackets () are sometimes used for grace
notes or optional notes so 'pointy' brackets <>
is the usual choice for harmonics. Because there
are no standards (in written music or tablature)
to distinguish between natural and artificial harmonics,
some confusion sometimes arises. If you are writing
out some tab with harmonics, it's best to add a
note to say whether they are natural harmonics (most
commonly at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets) or artificial
(pinched) harmonics. With artificial harmonics,
you have to fret a note with the left hand (say
at the 2nd fret) and pinch the harmonic an octave
above (at the 14th fret) so you should make it clear
whether the number you write in the tab is the fretted
or pinched note. It is more common to tab out the
pinched notes, so if you see tab like this :
E----------------------------------------------------------------
B----------------------------------------------------------------
G----------------------------------------------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E------<14>--<16>--<17>--<16>--<14>------------------------------
It will usually mean fret notes at the 2nd, 4th
and 5th frets, and play the artificial harmonics
at the frets shown in the tab.
[Back
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- Label
bits of the TAB
It makes things a lot easier if you can see where
the 'verse' and 'chorus' parts of a song are, so
put a few labels in certain places to guide people
through it.
Many songs will have clear 'verse' and 'chorus'
structures - so you can tab out the riffs/chords
or whatever for these just once, and then indicate
where these are repeated. Or there maybe a couple
of important riffs which are used - so TAB these
out and label them 'Riff One' and 'Riff Two' - then
when they come up later in the song you can just
say 'repeat Riff One four times' instead of tabbing
the whole thing again.
As long as it's clear which bits of TAB go with
which label, you will save yourself time this way
as well as making it easier to read for others.
- Include
Artist/album
It's useful for others to know where to find the
original song, so at the beginning of each TAB include
some information on the artists who recorded the
original, and the album on which the song can be
found.
- General
comments
It's also useful to include a few lines at the beginning
of the TAB to explain the style of the song, or
to point out important features such as alternative
tunings, use of capos etc.
A few words along the lines of "use a staccato,
funky kind of strumming style for the chords, then
change to a sustained feel for the lead line" will
help people to get an idea of how to approach the
playing style.
Information on the type of guitar (electric/acoustic,
6 string/12 string) and effects used would be useful.
One point on the use of capos and alternative tunings
:
For TAB using a capo, it's standard practice to
write the numbers of the frets relative to
the position of the capo. So if you had a D major
shape with a capo at the 2nd fret the TAB would
be :
E----2-----------------------------------------------------------
B----3-----------------------------------------------------------
G----2-----------------------------------------------------------
D----0-----------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
The notes fretted on the top three strings are 2
or 3 frets above the capo position, so they are
written with the numbers 2 or 3, even though you
actually fret the notes at the 4th and 5th frets.
When writing out the names of chords played using
a capo, it's usually best to use chord names that
take into account the actual pitch of the notes.
For example, in the tab example above, guitarists
recognise the chord shape as a "D shape", but because
the capo is at the 2nd fret the actual chord is
an E (2 semitones up from a D), so you should write
the chord name as E. This makes it easier for other
musicians (or other guitarists who aren't using
a capo) to play along in the right key.
It's similar with TAB for guitars tuned a semitone
or tone lower than usual. If a song should be played
with the guitar tuned to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb, and
it has this chord :
Eb-----0---------------------------------------------------------
Bb-----0---------------------------------------------------------
Gb-----1---------------------------------------------------------
Db-----2---------------------------------------------------------
Ab-----2---------------------------------------------------------
Eb-----0---------------------------------------------------------
although it "looks like an E chord" it is actually
an Eb, because of the tuning, so in the long run,
it avoids confusion to call it an Eb.
[Back
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- Timing
information
You may want to get really serious and include details
giving the precise rhythm of the piece. This will
involve a lot more typing, but it means all the
information necessary to play the piece is given
explicitly.
One way to approach this is to write a line of dashes
interspersed with numbers which count the beats.
So in 4-4 time, you would have : 1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4---
etc Under this you can write a line of d's and u's
to represent down and upstrokes. Here is a simple
example where the rhythm is 2 crotchets (quarter
notes) followed by 4 quavers (8th notes)
1---2---3---4---1---2---3---4--- etc
d---d---d-u-d-u-d---d---d-u-d-u-
You could expand on this to use upper and lower
case letters to indicate accents and so on. If you
use this method make sure that you clearly separate
the 2 lines of rhythm information from the 6 lines
of TAB !!!
One other way of including timing information is
to use one letter/symbol for each note type.
For example use e for 8th note (quaver), s for 16th
note (semi- quaver) and so on. The letters you use
may well differ depending on whether you're used
to the american system of quarter notes, 8th notes
etc or the english system of crotchets and quavers
, but the method is the same.
If you're not sure of the 'translations' here they
are :
Simply write the letters above the corresponding
note in the TAB. (Make sure you define which letters/symbols
you use)
Here's an example of what this looks like :
This is the opening riff from the Beatles' Ticket
To Ride
q
e e t t t
q e e t t t
E--------0-----------0--------0-----------0----------------------
B-----------2-----0--------------2-----0-------------------------
G---2----------2----------2---------2----------------------------
D----------------------------------------------------------------
A----------------------------------------------------------------
E----------------------------------------------------------------
Here I've used q for quarter note, e for 8th note
and t for triplet quarter note.
If you want to send in a TAB with rhythm information
like this then it's essential to explain
the system you use. I've seen a lot of different
systems of letters and numbers of varying degrees
of simplicity and readability. Whichever you choose
to use, you'll have to explain all your symbols
to make sure others can work out what the hell you're
on about.
If you want to give a few clues as to the rhythm
of the TAB, but don't want to get too involved,
use of bar lines is an effective way of conveying
timing information.
Simply insert a vertical line of |'s to indicate
the end of a bar. So using the national anthem example
I had before, with bar lines it looks like this
:
E--------|---------------|0--------4--2-|0--------------|--------
B---0----|----------0----|--------------|---------------|0-------
G------1-|-----1---------|--------------|-----1----3----|--------
D--------|2--------------|--------------|---------------|--------
A--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|--------
E--------|---------------|--------------|---------------|--------
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- Lyrics
It's a lot easier to follow a piece of TAB when
you've got at least some of the lyrics to follow,
and you can match up the notes/riffs in the TAB
to the lyrics.
Try to include lyrics for at least the first verse
and chorus. If you're not sure of the words you
can www.lyrics.ch - there is a large collection
of song lyrics held there.
Failing that a request to the newsgroups along the
lines of
" Please mail me the lyrics to such and such so
that I can make a proper job of the TAB I'm working
on"
will usually get a sympathetic response.
As a final note on writing TAB I should say that
whenever you post to the newsgroups ALWAYS cross
post to both guitar groups, and also mail a copy
to guitar@nevada.edu so that it can be included
in OLGA.
For more information on posting to the guitar newsgroups
and OLGA see the other FAQs regularly posted to
the guitar newsgroups.
[Back
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- Tab
Wraparound
One of the most common problems in writing TAB is
text wraparound. This makes the TAB almost impossible
to read but is very easily avoided.
The problem occurs when you write a line of TAB
which is maybe 80 or 90 characters long. For a lot
of people this is too wide for their screen, so
what should be a single line of tab ends up being
split onto two lines.
(This probelm only occurs with text files, not with
HTML. I've simulated the effect below)
Here is what it looks like :
E---------------------------------------------0-------------------
----------------------------
B---------------------------------------2--4-----4--2-------------
----------------------------
G------------------------------1--2--4-----------------4--2--1----
----------------------------
D---------------------1--2--4-----------------------------------4-
-2--1-----------------------
A------------0--2--4----------------------------------------------
-------4--2--0--------------
E---0--2--4-------------------------------------------------------
----------------4--2--0-----
This looks pretty weird when you see it. When I wrote
it, using Windows 'Notepad', it looked fine because
I could fit the whole thing on one screen. For most
newsreaders though, it is too long and you run into
problems.
All you have to do is be careful when you type in
TAB so that you the maximum width of line is say
60 characters.
I've tried to do that in this FAQ so that the maximum
width is about
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
this much. If you limit your TABs in the same way,
you should be OK.
Of course, if TAB does get wrapped around
the author might not realise because it looked fine
on his/her screen when they wrote it. It might be
worth letting them know of the problem, so they
can be careful in the future.
(This includes me ! If parts of this FAQ are too
wide for your screen, please let me know !)
- Very
squashed TAB
It's amazing how easy it is to ruin an otherwise
good piece of TAB by not spacing it out so that
the end result is a mass of cramped TAB, explanations,
labels etc.
When you finish typing up, go back through the TAB
and see if you can insert a few blank lines here
and there to separate verse from chorus or whatever.
It really does make it a lot easier for others to
read.
It might also be worth considering if you've included
too much detail in the TAB. Usually this will not
be the case, but I have seen a few TABs which go
into great details, but are extremely off-putting
to try to read because of the sheer quantity of
information.
- Unnecessary
repetition
If a line of TAB or a particular riff is repeated
a number of times then save yourself the effort,
TAB it once.
It's also easier to read like this.
That's all I think you need to know about
reading and writing TAB. If there's anything important
you think I've left out or if there are bits of
the FAQ which you can't understand then let me know.
