Tablature

Tablature, a method of musical notation, principally employed in the 15th and 16th centuries for the lute, but also used occasionally for other instruments. In tablature the lines of the stave indicate the strings on the instrument, the upper line representing the first string, the second line the second string, &c. The notes are expressed either by Arabic numerals or small letters, which denote the semitones of the chromatic scale, or the frets at which the fingers ought to be placed to stop the strings—a indicating the open string, b the first fret, c the second fret, and so on. The duration of the sounds is expressed by minims, crotchets, quavers, &c. placed above the stave, over the letter or letters which they are meant to affect, and each of the musical notes is held to apply to the letters immediately following, making them of the same length as the first, until some new note occurs. The method of tuning the lute must be ascertained before any particular tablature can be deciphered, as the pitch of the notes produced by the use of the frets will depend upon that of the open strings. One of the best-known tablatures is that given in the famous Skene manuscript in the possession of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh, written at various times up to 1635.