A question for those who use whistle tablature

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:03 pm

This is particularly for those who use tablature in preference to traditional musical notation:

How do you indicate the time values of the individual notes when writing tablature? Also, how do you indicate that two notes are tied/slurred?

This is just a curiousity...after looking at the whistle tab sheets at the free staff paper site, I found myself wondering how you would actually write out a song using this kind of tablature.

Always learning...

Redwolf

Wandering_Whistler · Post by **Wandering_Whistler** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:13 pm

A guy I knew who used ocarina tab used the tab just to get the note progressions, and used his ear for the rest...which, really, isn't much different than the way many people use standard notation when playing irish music on the whistle.

Of course, this makes it next to impossible to learn a tune using only the tab..then again, the same has been said for standard notation

Corran · Post by **Corran** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:40 pm

I don't use tab, but rather a kind of "home-brew" method. I can read music, but not sight-read to play, and tab just takes too long. So I just write the letters of the notes with bars between to indicate the proper measures, thus:

D G G G | B A G B |

I then use standard notation to show slurs and ties and triplets and the like. Oh, and an underlined letter would mean second octave.

Sometimes I wil put more space between two letters to indicate that the first is to be held longer but, as noted by a previous poster, you pretty much have to know how the song sounds to get the timing right. Standard western notation just doesn't work all that well for most folk music.

I've used this notation for a couple of years now and, for me, it's quick, easy and, at this point, second nature.

-Corran

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:46 pm

There's no way to indicate note length in tab, which is why I am making a CD for my student with sound clips of all the tunes we have worked on.

For slurs, in her tab sheets I draw an arrow between one notation and the next to indicate to her that the sound shouldn't stop during the transition.

sweetone · Post by **sweetone** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:49 pm

On 2002-10-07 17:46, avanutria wrote:
There's no way to indicate note length in tab, which is why I am making a CD for my student with sound clips of all the tunes we have worked on.

Hi Beth, do you use the soundclips I recorded for you, did you get more?
Cheers

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:51 pm

Hi Corran! Are they still holding the Lone Star State Dulcimer Society festivals down there in Tyler? It was a very cool spot for a music fest!

I guess I've been a music reader for too long. I have my fingerings more tied to the dots than I do to letters, which makes it a bit easier to transpose things. Trying to see the fingering on tabulature, then translate it to what I'm supposed to hear just doesn't seem efficient. I can't look at ABC notation and make it work, or see the shape of a tune the way I can with the nice little dots, and though I learn what a tune sounds like from hearing it, I learn to play the actual tune from those dots.

lollycross · Post by **lollycross** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 4:18 pm

Me too, Tyghress, the Tab stuff makes it twice as hard. Why bother learning something
that doesn't REALLY show you how to play the song. Its easier to do the DGGG thing than
a tab sheet, I would certainly think!
lolly

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 4:28 pm

On 2002-10-07 17:49, sweetone wrote:
Hi Beth, do you use the soundclips I recorded for you, did you get more?
Cheers

Nope, those are for me.

She is on stuff like Foggy Dew, Star of the County Down, and Down By the Sally Gardens.

BillG · Post by **BillG** » Tue Oct 08, 2002 6:13 am

I see a number of assorted methods of using tabs instead of regular music notation. There is a standard which is very easy to use and to send back and forth to others - ABC

http://hans.members.beeb.net/ABC-Music.htm

Many play it right from ABC and don't use various programs to transfer it to music notation. Check it out.

BillG

Caoimhin · Post by **Caoimhin** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 2:38 am

I write letters of the notes below the standard notation (yknow that black and white stuff!), and learn from there with 90% assist from a recording. No recording = don't know how the tune goes.

I have no regard at all for that notes length or timing stuff.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 3:51 am

On 2002-10-09 04:38, Caoimhin wrote:
I write letters of the notes below the standard notation (yknow that black and white stuff!), and learn from there with 90% assist from a recording. No recording = don't know how the tune goes.

I have no regard at all for that notes length or timing stuff.

This strikes me to be a better method than the no-indication-of-note-length approaches and, if I needed to, this is what I'd use. It's quite close to guitar Tab which I do find useful. Of course it helps to hear the tune as the length of notes isn't quite captured by readable formal notation. (I mean that very slight pauses might be representable in standard notation in a very complex way but it is better to notate more simply and let a knowledge of the style prompt the adjustment. this is standard practice in jazz.)

Hey, didn't we have this conversation last week and didn't we all say much the same things?

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 4:54 am

Speaking of whistle tabs and dulcimers. Here's my dulcimer tab whistle method.

http://www.boomspeed.com/walden/whistle.txt

Grannymouse · Post by **Grannymouse** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:31 am

I learned a numerical tablature from Glenn Schultz ie. 1 thru 7 = lower register and 1 thru 7 underscored would be upper register. Slashes between would indicate timing and a 7 with a / thru it indicates Cn.........or a / thru any number indicates (to me anyway) of a halfholed note. Also a + between numbers would mean tied or slurred. Works for me.

GM Deep in the heart of Texas again.

PS. This method has been particularly helpful when I have to switch keys and whistles. I will write the number below the actual note until I am comfortable playing the tune by ear._________________
Make a joyful noise!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: grannymouse on 2002-10-09 07:35 ]</font>

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 8:33 am

I've read music almost as long as I can remember too...as Tyghress said, the fingers and the little dots just go together.

I was mainly curious about the tablature because several folks here seem to use it.

It's funny, but I've encountered incredible resistance to learning music reading among my chorus students...the general attitude is "I don't read music and I don't want to learn...I just want to sing!" Very frustrating. I have one little girl who keeps setting her music down, then whines "I don't know how long to hold the note." I keep wanting to shake her (no, I won't!), but what I keep plugging at is "Look, that's a half note. Two counts. Think 'one-two.' Watch my hands. I'm giving you the beat. Hold it for two beats." But all she says is "I can't read music." Argh!

Redwolf

psychih · Post by **psychih** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 2:04 pm

I'm tablature has it good points...but I have yet to find any

Okay, so maybe in the Irish Music World, it sings a little different. I take it that the notation is only there to give me a rough guide on how it's supposed to sound like and listen to other people play to get the real thing

With that said, I think guitar tabs have got to be the only tab that actually allows you to note the beats, hammers, slides, hand mutes, et cetera.

my $0.02 cents,
Chih