Without being deprecatory, it could be said that tab is to guitar what paint-by-numbers is to art. Traditional musical notation takes time and usually tuition to master, and remains a mystery to most people who pick up a guitar for fun.
Tab, or more properly tablature, is a wonderful invention or concept that allows the beginner with no understanding of traditional musical notation, to play even complicated melodies accurately, to write down and pass on their own versions and compositions to others, and hence to learn melody lines of songs that otherwise may have been denied them.
The Main Difference between Traditional Musical Notation and Tab
The traditional musical staff has 5 lines which represent particular notes (EGBDF) in the scale. The spaces in between the lines also represent other notes (FACE). There is a superficial and perhaps confusing similarity with tab, in that tab also uses lines across the page.
However, tab is designed specifically for the guitar and there are always 6 lines, which actually represent the 6 strings of the guitar. The bottom line of tab is the deepest string of the guitar, E, which is, in act, the string closest to the player’s face. The reverse is true. The top line of tab is the skinny high E string of the guitar closest to the guitarist’s knees.
The Notes on the Lines in Tab
In traditional musical notation, the black dots on the staff indicates both the pitch of the note (by where it is placed) and the length of the note by the particular notation used – minim, crochet quaver, etc. Thus, to interpret the music, the musician needs to know what time value is given to particular symbols as well as the note the line or space represents … and, of course, then needs to know where to find that note on the instrument.
Tab doesn’t use a musical symbol on the line. Instead, it uses a number. The number refers to the fret on the particular string (identified by the line the number sits on). The 0 on a line means "play the open string".
Thus, the tab music relates specifically to where the note is found on the guitar. What the tab number doesn’t do, however, is give any idea of the length of time the note is held for. It might indicate speed by cramming a lot of fast notes together and spacing out long notes.
Reading Tab
Tab can use bar lines to divide up the music just as traditional notation does. From this, the musician has an idea of the number of beats (or notes) between the bar lines, by counting 1,2,3,4 or 1,2,3 if the music is in waltz time.
The guitarists finds the first note on his or her guitar, then each note in sequence. Tab does not give any indication of which fingers to use. The guitarist must choose the most ‘sensible’ fingering to suit the sequence of notes.
Playing Chords
When two numbers are directly in line, one above the other, they are played together as one. This can be true for up to 6 notes piled one on top of the other. This represents a chord, and may well be one the guitarist is quite familiar with.
Basically, any piece of music, no matter how difficult, can be rendered in tab and becomes accessible to any guitarist who doesn’t “read music”. Will ordinary sheet music become obsolete and the traditional system fall into disuse?
Hardly! Tab has one great limitation. It is designed specifically for guitar, because it represents the guitar fingerboard. It would only be with the greatest difficulty that a pianist or trombonist could use it to play a piece. Traditional music works for every instrument.
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