tablatures

Tablature, commonly abbreviated as tab, is a form of musical notation that indicates how to play notes on fretted stringed instruments by showing the fingers where to press on the instrument's neck, rather than using standard staff notation. It is especially common for guitar, bass, ukulele, and lute, but is also used for mandolin and other fretted instruments. It exists in several historical and modern forms. Early lute tablature, developed in Europe during the Renaissance, used letter-like signs and strings to show finger positions. Modern guitar tab, in contrast, uses six horizontal lines representing the six strings of the guitar; numbers placed on the lines indicate frets to press, with 0 meaning open string. Rhythm is sometimes implied by the spacing of numbers or is provided by accompanying standard notation or separate rhythmic marks.

Tablature is widely used for learning tunes, riffs, and solos because it directly shows fretting positions, making it convenient for beginners and for sharing particular fingerings. It does not inherently capture all aspects of performance, such as exact rhythm, tempo, articulation, or tone; these are often conveyed with additional notation or by pairing tab with standard notation. In the digital era, ASCII tab became common in online forums and instructional sites, while graphical and software-based tabs (GP, PTB, GTP formats) enable playback and editing. Foreign variants of lute tabulations and guitar tab differ in their string counts and reading conventions, but the core principle remains: lines map to strings, numbers to frets.