• TalkingTab Tablature format
  • Notes
  • Flags
  • Bar lines
  • Ornaments
  • Note effects
  • Slurs
  • Tenutos
  • Fingerings
  • Meta-events
  • Line breaks
• Text file structure
• Export from Fandango to Braille

The TalkingTab Tablature Format

This tablature format follows upon at east 2 other formats developed over the past 20 years. At this point, it is mostly the fruit of Matt Wadsworth mind, who is also its main user, but an early prototype was based on a scheme developed by Tim Crawford called Tabcode and later revised by Matt with Jacob Heringman's help and Alain Veylit.

About Matt

Hello! My name is Matt Wadsworth and I play the lute and theorbo all over the world. I started life as a classical guitarist, but also played electric guitar in my teens, before switching to lute at the Royal Academy of Music in London England.

There was no system of Braille lute tablature, so I developed my own back in the 1990's, with the help of scholar Tim Crawford.

I have been using this system for many years and have made many adjustments and alterations. I feel now, we have a very comprehensive system, which works for any kind of tab representation.

With the many advancements in screen reader technology, and the high barrier to entry with Braille, I have adapted my system to be completely intelligible when using a screen reader. You can of course send it to a Braille embosser.

There are litterally millions of tab files on the web, which until now, have been inaccessible to visually impaired musicians. All that has now changed with Talking Tab.

Huge thanks to Alain Veylit for his many hours of help on this project over the years.

Here are the technical definitions needed to understand the Braille tablature format:

• Notes:

  As in all string intruments tablature formats, notes are represented by a combination of the string and fret used to generate that note. For example, the treble A on a G lute is done by pressing the second fret of the first, treble course. Note that a 6-course lute has 13 strings, 5 double strings and the treble which is usually single.

  In TalkingTab, courses are numbered from the treble - or highest note - downwards. This is important because lute family instruments have a varying number of courses, from 5 (during the 15th century) up to 16 in the 17th century. So the first course is always the highest pitched - but also usually the closest to the ground ... -

  There is also a varying number of frets on lute family instruments, usually from 10 to 12, but occasionally up to 17. Those high frets are usually referred to as tastini, i.e. small pieces of wood glued directly on the body of the lute, as opposed to the gut frets used on the neck of the instrument. In TalkingTab, frets are represented by a letter from 'a' to 'z', 'a' being an open string. For historical reasons, the letter 'j' is omitted so 'k' is actually the 9th fret, 'l' the 10th fret, 'm' the 12th, etc. Note: the system that uses letters to represent frets is called French tablature. There were other systems, but French tablature is the most commonly used today for lute family instruments.

  Exemples: a1=open first course; b4=1st fret on 4th course; a6=open bass 6th course; k2=9th fret on second course;

• Chords:

  Chords are notated as a succession of notes without spaces. Spaces separate chords. Example : a1a2c2a6 a1c2d3a5 c1a2a3c5 a1 c1 e1

• Flags:

  The following rhythm flags are used, all upper case letters:
  • B = Breve
  • W = whole note
  • H = half note
  • Q = quarter note
  • E = 8th note
  • S = 16th note
  • T = 32nd note
  • Y = 64th note
  
  

  Flags usually appear as the first element of a chord, including chords of one note only. Example: Wa1b2b3c4d5 Qd1b3a4d6 Ed4 Sd4 . But flags are usually only shown when there is a change of value or at the beginning of a new bar. Example: Wa1 Qa1 c1 Ee1 f1 Qc1. This is how lute tablature historically indicated rhythm and it makes a lot of sense because it is easier to read.

  Dotted flags have a period after the flag letter like this: W. Q., etc. Triple meter has a "3" or a "6" after the rhythm letter: Q3 E3. Dotted ternary rhythms place the 3 before the dot: Q3. Nothing prevents you from using this same format for more complex groupings: 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 etc. For instance a quintole would be simply: Q5

  Here is a little sample to see how well you are doing: He1f2f3a6 Qc1e2f3c5 Ha1c2c3e5 Qe2f3e6

• Bar lines

  Bar lines are normally represented by the small letter 'l' with 2 spaces around it: l . Bar lines can also indicate the beginning or end of a repeated section, or different endings for a repeated section. For repeat markers, we use a colon in combination with the small letter 'l':

  • Repeat left= :l
  • Repeat right= l:
  • Repeat both left and right= :l:
  • Double bar line= ll
  • End of piece/sectionl!
  
  

  Different endings can be shown on their own or in combination with repeat markers:

  • First ending: l1 , i.e. the small letter 'l' followed by the number one
  • Second ending= l2
  • Second ending with repeat right marker= l:2

• Ornaments or Graces:

  Ornaments follow immediately the note and they are preceded by an ampersand: &. The following ornaments are supported:

  • Appogiatura ascending: plus sign '&+'
  • Appogiatura descending: comma '&,'
  • Mordent/shake ascending: upper letter '&S' (S is for shake)
  • Mordent/shake descending: upper letter '&X'
  • Trill ascending: upper letter 'T&T
  • Trill descending: upper letter 'T&T/li>
  • Gruppetto (or Turn) ascending: tilde '&~
  • Gruppetto descending: dollar sign '&$
  • Slide ascending: &>
  • Slide descending: &<
  
  Example: Qa1&+ a1, a2&M a2&X a3&T a3&T . Appogiatura and mordent inside a chord: Qa1&+c4 Ha1d2&Ma5

• Note effects

  Note effects are introduced by an exclamation mark: !

  • Accent: caret!^
  • Vibrato: at sign!@
  • Distortion: tilde!~
  • Harmonic: modulus!%
  • Spiccato/Pizzicato/ghost note: reversed apostrophe!`
  • Asterisk: star/asterisk!*

• Slurs

  .

  Slurs are indicated by an opening dash and a closing equal sign.

  Examples:
  • Qa1- a2= . This is a "hammer on" on the first, treble string from open string to the second fret.
  • Qe1- c1= . This is a "pull off" on the first treble string from the 4th fret to the second fret.
  • Qa1a2c3- d3= . This is a hammer on on the third course.
  • Qa1a2d4-a6 a1a2c4=a6. This is pull off in the middle of a G chord

• Tenuto

  Tenutos are an indication that a left-hand finger needs to remain pressed on the string for a certain interval of time before being released. Historically, there were different ways of indicating tenutos, but the most common cases were a '#' during the Italian Renaissance, or a straight line usually from a bass note that extended for a number of chords during the Baroque era. The end of the line indicated that the finger could finally be released.

  In TalkingTab tablature, we represent this by an opening curly bracket { at the beginning of a chord, and a closing curly bracket } at the end of the final chord.

  Here is an example: {Qd5 c4 b3 b1} l a1 {d3 a2 b3 d6}. You need to analyse the music a little bit because this system does not tell you exactly which finger remains pressed. Most of the time the context makes it obvious and the lowest note is usually the one to hold. In this example, you would hold the finger on the third fret of the 5th string and keep it pressed all the way to the barline. In the sequence after the bar line, you would need to hold the finger on the 3d fret of the first string ll the way until to pluck the bass d on the 6th string.

• Fingerings

  Fingerings were very important during the Renaisssance and Baroque times, and they still are today. There are of course two different categories of fingerings, one for the left and one for the right hand, or perhaps I should say one for the fretting hand and one for the plucking hand. Here is how those two types of fingerings are represented in Braille tablature:

  • Left hand fingering:

    The fingering follows immediately the note and is represented by a number preceded by a period.

    • Thumb: .t
    • Index finger: .1
    • Middle finger: .2
    • Third/ring finger: .3
    • Fourth/pinky finger: .4

    Example: Qc2.1 b3.2= index finger on second fret of 2nd string; middle finger on 3d course firt fret.

    Barré: Following Baroque lute convention, a barré is represented by a left parenthesis immediately after the ryhthm: (. Example: Q(b1b2d3d4d5b6.

    Suggestion: half barrés could be represented with an opening and closing parenthesis like this: Q(b1b2d3)d5.

  • Right hand fingering:

    Like the left hand fingerings, the right hand fingerings follow the note but are introduced by a colon. They follow the popular pima convention from the French: pouce index medius annulaire, all upper case

    • Thumb / pouce :p
    • Index / index :i
    • Middle / medius :m
    • Ring finger / annulaire :a
    • Brush :B
    • Plectrum/Bow up :U
    • Plectrum/Bow down :D

    Examples: Qc2.p a1.i d3.m a1.a Inside a chord in combination: Qa1.Ab1.1:md3.a5:p

    Important: The use of a period for left-hand fingering and colon for right hand fingerings makes it easier to distinguish between the two, as well as between ornaments and note effects.

  
  

• Meta-events:

  Meta-event are elements in the score that do not indicate sound. That could be a change of tempo, or a text comment, a time signature change, a fermata, etc. In Braille tablature, metaevents are bits of text enclosed in square brackets, with an upper case letter to indicate what type of metaevent they are:
  • Time signature change Example: l[S3/4]. Note: Time signature changes are often attached to a bar line as in this example. If they are not, then the sequence is surrounded by 2 spaces.
  • Tempo change: [T120]
  • Fermata : [fem]
  • Da Capo : [dc]
  • al segno : [al segno]
  
  

• Line breaks

  Line breaks are important for printing, so that music data does not go over the edge of the page, and also to provide cues in the middle of the piece. See the section below entitled Braille paper settings in Fandango. Lines are allowed to have a maximum of characters (default 24). When the maximum number of characters is reached, you indicate that by a new line beginning by 2 spaces and followed by an L and the line number, a B followed by the bar number, and a P followed by the page number.

  Example: L12 B34 P9.

  This must be on a line of its own but is not counted in the line count.

File structure

• Preliminaries

  The Braille music data is included in a text file, enclosed in between 2 begin and end section tags.

  • [begin section]: this indicates the beginning of a block of information concerning the piece of music. Use the following tags to label that information. Some tags may be omitted or missing if you do not have the information needed. You are free to add other tags if needed.
    • Title: The piece's title
    • Comments: Whatever comments you have, for instance the source of the piece
    • Author: The piece's composers
    • Signature: The time signature, i.e. 3/4, C, 6/8, etc.
    • Tempo: 120 bpm
    • Instrument: The instrument's name: lute, Dm lute, theorbo, guitar, etc
    • Tuning: Tuning
  • [end section]

• Music data:

  • [begin tab]: indicates the beginning of tablature music data.
  • Music data in tablature format goes in-between ...
  • [end tab]: indicates the end of music data.

Here is the beginning of John Dowland's Frog galliard as an example:

[begin section]
Title: Frog galliard
Comments: Folger MS - P23a
Author: John Dowland
Signature: 3/4 - Tempo: 109
Instrument: Lute in G
Tuning: GDAFCGD
[begin tab]
He1f2f3a6 Qc1e2f3c5 l Ha1c2c3e5 Qe2f3e6 l 
...
[end tab]
[end section]

Exporting and printing Braille tablature

It is important to keep in mind that the Braille tablature format is just an ASCII text format, that is to say the simplest most basic format. A TalkingTab tablature file is a text file, and that is what you export from Fandango to send to your printer.

• Fandango Export to Braille

  Export to Braille is done one section at a time. A Fandango document (*.jtz) can have many sections, possibly hundreds. A Fandango section is usually equivalent to a piece of music. You cannot export all sections at once from Fandango to Braille. Instead, navigate to the section or piece of music you are interested in and use the following shortcut key: Control+Shift+B. This will generate and open a text format file that you can save on your computer or print directly. The software used to open the file may differ depending on your computer settings, but chances are good that it will be Notepad. You can use Wordpad, if you prefer, because it handles line breaks better, but NOT Microsoft Word.

• Braille paper settings in Fandango

  The page layout dialog allows you to control the most important options when printing. Some short-cut buttons are also included inthe ribbon. You can access the page layout dialog either from the ribbon->Document->Page layout button or from a button on the top toolbar of the palettes. You can set two important values for printing directly in Fandango with that tool: columns per line and lines per page.

  

  Note: Since the export from Fandango is a text file, you can edit those values after the export operation itself. You need to adjust those values is you chose the landscape paper format, i.e. increase the Columns value and decrease the lines per page value.

  • Columns: this is the maximum number of characters per line. The default is 24.
  • Lines per page: this is the maximum number of lines per page. The default is 25.