Using Tablature As A Learning Aid

(This article originally appeared on the m0rpheme II wiki)

Most musicians use standard notation to write music. Guitarists often use their own formalized language to write guitar music. This language, known as guitar tablature, or guitar tabs, is a convenient way for guitarists to read music without much prior music notation or theory training.

Despite being easy to read and write, tablature is not without its faults. Tablature typically won't tell you how fast or slowly to play notes, which means you will have to listen to songs to figure timing out.

Using tabulature in instrumental notation is not new. Tablatures for other instruments were used from early times on. Keyboard tablatures flourished in Germany c. 1450 - 1750 and in Spain c. 1550 - 1680. Lute tablatures were of three main varieties, French, Italian (also widely used in Spain, Bavaria and southern France), and German, detailed below. A special variety of Italian tablature called "Neapolitan" was in use in southern Italy, and a Polish variety of French tablature appears in one manuscript. French tablature gradually came to be the most widely used. Much of the music for the lute and other historical plucked instruments during the Renaissance and Baroque eras was originally written in tablature, and many modern players of those instruments still prefer this kind of notation, often using facsimiles of the original prints or manuscripts, handwritten copies, modern editions in tablature, or printouts made with computer programs.