Re: Tab ?

[Silvan]

On Thursday 18 September 2003 10:58 am, Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:

> > would be a simple facility for specifying the number of strings and the
> > pitches to which they should be tuned.
>
> We have had those possibilities for over a year now (IIRC) - The point

Oh.  Well, at least I'm not breaking with my tradition of looking like an 
imbecile every time I post here.  :(

> is: not only do we want flexible facilities, we also want sensible
> defaults. Right now, the only default is the chromatic 6 string
> guitar. What other defaults should we provide?

Four string bass guitar, definitely.  The usual tuning is the same as for 
guitar, without the top two strings.

Beyond that, I'd say the instruments most worthy of consideration are the 
mandolin, banjo, lute and ukelele.  This sense seems to be confirmed by a 
quick google search of "tablature" that excluded the word "guitar."  The 
mountain dulcimer came up too, but IMHO its tuning is so variable that it 
doesn't lend itself well to a default.

I don't own any of the above, other than the mountain dulcimer, and I'm not 
really sure what their players would require out of tablature.  I can 
research it for you if you wish, but having proven myself to be an imbecile 
already, I should probably just go back to lurking.

-- 
Michael McIntyre  ----   Silvan <address@hidden>
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