Actually, it even looks like the Arabs may have invented tablature: look at http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M345/Arab_Music1.html - apparently quite an excellent site: Here is the bit about tablature: "An early contributor was Ibn al Munajjim (died 912) who left us a description of an established system of eight melodic modes. Each mode had its own diatonic scale, namely an octave span of Pythagorean half and whole steps. Used during the eighth and ninth centuries, these modes were frequently alluded to in conjunction with the song texts included in the monumental /Kitab al - Aghani/, or /Book of Songs/, by Abu al­Faraj al­Isfahani (died 967). *In this system, each mode was indicated by the names of the fingers and the frets employed when playing the /'ud/." *There are also interesting comments about musicians guilds, that may have been copied in Europe - I have a theory that tablature, before the invention of print, was a sort of trade secret, which might explain why so many different forms became in use. Alain* *
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