There's been so many wonderful comments on this subject, and the comment below by Doctor Oakroot is very well stated. If I may I further offer the opinion that, while tablature is an efficient language choice for the experienced lutenist, the learning of standard notation greatly facilitates the learning of theory for the student with no previous experience with music. Tablature is a tool that is ripe for abuse. If it's used as a method to avoid the academic study of counterpoint, the practitioner is ill-served in the long run. This may be recognized historically (if I can trust the translation) by the quote from the 17th century Milleran manuscript:
Lecteur, si tu ne sais que c’est que Tablature, Mourant tu seras sot par Becare, & nature, Ainsi ne m’ouvre pas si tu n’y connois rien, De lire sans savoir, c’est un fol entretien. Translation: Reader, if you only know what tablature is, Dying you will be ignorant of major keys and things natural, So don’t open me if you don’t know anything about it, Reading without understanding is a foolish enterprise. Regards to all, Fred Bone -----Original Message----- From: Doctor Oakroot [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 8:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Staff Notation/Tablature Well, tab is easy to sight read mechanically, since it tells you exactly what to do (except for how long to hold each note), but as Tom says, it's far inferior to staff notation as a musical description of the intended sound. Christopher Schaub wrote: > The problem with standard notation is its lack of specificity. You can > standard > notate a Cmaj triad and play it many different places on the neck. Now > voice > leading would give you some clues, but not always, especially if you have > many > strings like the lute -- the bass could be an open string or fretted -- a > very > different sound! Tab takes away all of the mystery and preserves the > sonority > of the composer's original intent, even if you're sight reading. Sight > reading > tab is a ton easier than standard notation. Once you get good at reading > tab, > you'll know what I mean. The benefit of standard notation is its > specificity, > but I'd much rather have the ease of reading tab on something like the > lute or > guitar, especially if sight reading a solo piece. Standard notation is > great > for noting ties and dynamics etc, but you can write this into your tab > part. > Just my two cents. > > --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> Dear Howard and Vance, >> >> I was very interested to read your comments regarding the relative >> virtues of >> >> staff notation and tablature. Being a beginner, I find tablature means I >> have >> >> little or no idea which notes I am playing, whether I am supposed to >> play a >> fifth, an octave or indeed what interval is intended. Even the key is >> often a >> >> mystery (I do not have absolute pitch) What looks like a 'third' in >> staff >> notation can turn out to be anything between a second and a seventh. The >> letter 'd' >> in the first chord or two of Greensleeves, I discovered, represents >> about >> three entirely different notes. Of course my musical origins are in >> staff >> notation, and I am so used to hearing what I read before I even try to >> play >> it, that >> I find it very difficult to adapt to the new notation. I have managed, >> am >> beginning to recognise what is an octave, a scale, and the like, but >> find >> sight-reading very difficult. In staff notation one knows from the >> context >> what comes >> (or could come) next. To find a b-flat in a-major (to take the first >> example >> that occurs to me) would be highly significant, and not at all what one >> would >> >> expect. In tablature none of this seems possible, i.e. I have to read >> letter >> for letter (I imagine like some poor beginner in music, struggling to >> read >> any >> form of notation), rather than in what I would consider a 'total way'. >> Why, >> then, would it be so wrong to use normal staff notation? One would then >> be in >> the >> same position as the guitarist (and lute and guitar are not exactly >> light >> years apart), able to read and above all hear what was going on at a >> glance. >> To >> this beginner at least, that seems a definite advantage. Cheers >> >> Tom Beck >> >> > > > -- Rough-edged songs from a dark place in the soul: http://DoctorOakroot.com
