tablatur

Tablatur, or tablature, is a form of musical notation used primarily for fretted string instruments. It conveys how to play a piece by indicating fingering positions on the instrument’s fretboard rather than the exact pitches on a staff. Tablature typically shows strings as horizontal lines and places numbers on those lines to denote which fret to press. Rhythm may be indicated by spacing, rhythmic symbols in some forms, or by supplementary standard notation.

Historically, tablature developed in medieval Europe for the lute and later spread to other plucked instruments. Lute tablature often used a grid of lines with letters or symbols indicating fret positions on particular strings. Over the Renaissance and Baroque periods, several national traditions evolved, including French, Italian, and English varieties. The modern guitar tablature emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries and became widespread with the rise of printed music and, later, digital formats.

In contemporary use, guitar tablature is commonly presented as six horizontal lines (one for each string), with numbers showing frets. The top line usually represents the highest-pitched string, and 0 denotes an open string. While tablature excels at teaching fingering quickly, it provides limited melodic or rhythmic context unless paired with standard notation or explicit rhythmic markings.

Tablature remains a dominant method for teaching and sharing music for many stringed instruments, including guitar, lute, mandolin, and bass, especially in educational materials and popular music communities. See also: lute tablature, guitar tablature, bass tablature, mandolin tablature.