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Tablature Explanation
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Carlos Cordero
cachome@telcel.net.ve
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1.¿What is a tablature?
Tablature is an old notation system created to write the music composed for the vihuela.
This system has been popular until eighteenth century, many pieces are available only in
that notation system, it is still used today. In this system, each line of the staff
represents a string of the instrument In Spanish and Italian tablatures, the top string
is represented by the bottom line, while in French and English tablatures, the reverse
would be the case.
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2.¿How to read tablature?
Read Tabs is really easy. first you start with 6 lines wich represent the strings of
the guitar.
1st string - e-|-----------------------|
2nd string - B-|-----------------------|
3rd string - G-|-----------------------|
4th string - D-|-----------------------|
5th string - A-|-----------------------|
6th string - E-|-----------------------|
On the lines will appear numbers, these numbers will show you where to fret the string
with the left hand. If a zero appears, play the open string. Here we have notes being
played one at a time:
E-|-----------------|
B-|-----------------|
G-|-----------------|
D-|-----------------|
A-|-----------------|
E-|--0--1--2--3--4--| sequence (E-F-F#-G-G#)
If two or more notes are to be played together, they are written on top of one another
again just like standard notation.
E-|--------0--------|
B-|--------0--------|
G-|--------0--------|
D-|--------2--------|
A-|--------2--------|
E-|--------0--------| so this means play all these notes together.
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Legend
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h - hammer on
p - pull off
s - slur or slide
/ - slide up
\ - slide down
v - vibrato (sometimes written as ~)
tr - trill
<5>- Harmonic
c2--------------\ barre on the 2nd fret
|| ||
|| ||
||* Beginning End of *||
||* of repeated repeated *||
|| section section ||
|| ||
fingering - 1 1st (fore) finger
2 2nd (index) finger
3 3rd (ring) finger
4 4th (little) finger (pinkie)
whole note - semibreve
half note - minim
quarter note - crotchet
8th note - quaver
16th note - semiquaver
32nd note - demisemiquaver
64th note - hemidemisemiquaver
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3.Explanation of Effects
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1. Hammer ons
E-|---------------------------|
B-|---------------------------|
G-|---------------------------|
D-|---------------------------|
A-|--------5h7-----------5h7--|
E-|--0--0----------0--0-------|
which would means to play the open E twice, then hit the A string at the 5th fret and
hammer on to the 7th fret.
2. Pull offs
E-|----3p0--------------------|
B-|----------3p0--------------|
G-|----------------2p0--------|
D-|----------------------2----|
A-|---------------------------|
E-|---------------------------|
Here we have a descending notes 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.
3. Slides
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.
E-|-------------|
B-|-----7/9-----|
G-|-------------|
D-|-------------|
A-|-------------|
E-|-------------|
is clearly a slide *up* from 7th to 9th fret.
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4.¿What tablature will not tell you?
Tablature 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 tablature in front
of you to work out the ryhthm of the notes.
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so ¡That´s it!.
Carlos Cordero
cachomr@telcel.net.ve
http://www.geocities.com/vienna/waltz/2067 (
geocities.com/vienna/waltz) (
geocities.com/vienna)