History of Guitar TAB
Music tablature has been around for centuries. Before guitar TAB, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of books of lute tablature. In the Renaissance, 16th century, the lute was considered to be the most popular instrument. They even had them hanging in barber shops along with bandoras, citterns and other ancient stringed instruments.
Even then, tablature for instruments of six or more double sets of strings had six lines. Early guitars had only five sets of strings, five courses with 10 strings in total. Like a 12-string guitar today, players held down two strings for each note.
Like praise and worship tablature today, each line represented one set of strings, or course. In English or French tablature the top line represents the first string. Letters indicated which fret to play. A was open, B was the first fret, C the second and so forth. The books were often hand-written and the letters very cursive and pretty to see.
Spanish and Italian tablature is just the opposite. I've often heard them referred to as upside down TAB. The line on the bottom represented the first string, instead of the 6th string. Instead of letters the frets are written using numbers.
Modern praise and worship tab is a mix of both styles. The top line represents the first string, like English and French tablature, and numbers are used, like the Italian and Spanish TAB.
During the Baroque period the lute grew to 14 courses. The first course is a single string, but the rest are double. This means it had 27 strings! They didn't have nylon in those days. The strings were made from gut. Yes, animal gut.
There were some revealing phrases that came out of that era. One was, "If a lutenist lived to be 80, he spent 60 years tuning." In one of the books of music tablature written then, it says to tune up the first string as high as you can before it breaks.
While lutes were becoming more cumbersome, guitars began to become more popular. Guitars only had 10 strings, five courses, and were much easier to play. Although they are beautiful instruments, you don't see too many lutes around today! (They have a round pear-shaped body with lots of string.)
In ancient tablature there was a whole system of notations above the tablature that told you the rhythm. You knew when to pluck the next note. Sadly, this isn't used today.
Today, if you don't already know a song, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what it sounds like from the tablature. Yes, you can put your fingers on the corrects frets, but you can't tell how long to hold it and when it's time to play the next note.
All in all, it's an easy to learn way of notation and still as popular today as hundreds of years ago.
History of Guitar TAB
Music tablature has been around for centuries. Before guitar TAB, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of books of lute tablature. In the Renaissance, 16th century, the lute was considered to be the most popular instrument. They even had them hanging in barber shops along with bandoras, citterns and other ancient stringed instruments.
Even then, tablature for instruments of six or more double sets of strings had six lines. Early guitars had only five sets of strings, five courses with 10 strings in total. Like a 12-string guitar today, players held down two strings for each note.
Like praise and worship tablature today, each line represented one set of strings, or course. In English or French tablature the top line represents the first string. Letters indicated which fret to play. A was open, B was the first fret, C the second and so forth. The books were often hand-written and the letters very cursive and pretty to see.
Spanish and Italian tablature is just the opposite. I've often heard them referred to as upside down TAB. The line on the bottom represented the first string, instead of the 6th string. Instead of letters the frets are written using numbers.
Modern praise and worship tab is a mix of both styles. The top line represents the first string, like English and French tablature, and numbers are used, like the Italian and Spanish TAB.
During the Baroque period the lute grew to 14 courses. The first course is a single string, but the rest are double. This means it had 27 strings! They didn't have nylon in those days. The strings were made from gut. Yes, animal gut.
There were some revealing phrases that came out of that era. One was, "If a lutenist lived to be 80, he spent 60 years tuning." In one of the books of music tablature written then, it says to tune up the first string as high as you can before it breaks.
While lutes were becoming more cumbersome, guitars began to become more popular. Guitars only had 10 strings, five courses, and were much easier to play. Although they are beautiful instruments, you don't see too many lutes around today! (They have a round pear-shaped body with lots of string.)
In ancient tablature there was a whole system of notations above the tablature that told you the rhythm. You knew when to pluck the next note. Sadly, this isn't used today.
Today, if you don't already know a song, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what it sounds like from the tablature. Yes, you can put your fingers on the corrects frets, but you can't tell how long to hold it and when it's time to play the next note.
All in all, it's an easy to learn way of notation and still as popular today as hundreds of years ago.
