Re: Guitar Tablature

[David Raleigh Arnold]

There is no way of writing a good program to convert tablature to
notation
because tablature only contains half of the necessary information to do
a satisfactory job. There are many programs out there that do a lousy
job with lute and guitar tablature.

To make tablature from notation would require a way of including enough
fingering information (including string placement) in the notation to
eliminate ambiguity. I'm becoming convinced that it would be quicker to
make tab entries by hand rather than try to put that much fingering in
the notes entries.

If the tab were aligned with notes, midi could check for accuracy. It
would sound very choppy, since it would only render a single part, but
it would be fully adequate to check accuracy. A configuration for any
fretted instrument would consist in, for each string, something like: 
/frettedinstrument="1st Balalaika" */Of course you only need the name of
the instrument if there is a 1st Balalaika part in notation./*

string1 = C,,
string2 = C,,
string3 = G,

/tab
1,0 (2,2 1,0) |    */of course bars would be optional. No checking./*

etc.. Midi could use the starts of notes for alignment and calculate the
pitch from the number (1/2 steps above the pitch of that line (string))
and no logic would be wasted on making it playable by humans. Or trying
to figure out whether a G is 5,0 or 1,5 on a banjo, for example.

Thus, each note or (chord) would be entered by string 1,13 and fret, and
they would be aligned with the noteheads (no rests, no stems, no tied
notes) in order as they occur in the notation of *all* the parts on the
particular notation staff.

Would it be too much trouble to allow arbitrary optional numbering of
the barchecks? Like |24 or |coda5 or |trio40?