Tablature in MusicXML

Fret and String
String Tuning
Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

Tablature notation provides a direct guideline to the strings and frets used to play music on a guitar or other fretted instrument, often at the expense of precise rhythmic information. In MusicXML, this rhythmic information needs to be specified, although the display is likely to be hidden on a tab part. The main things that need to be added are the fret and string information, the details of the how the strings are tuned, and techniques specific to guitars and other related instruments.

Fret and String

Here is a simple one-measure guitar part example that we will use to illustrate the basic MusicXML tablature features, using the standard 6-string guitar tuning:

The fret and string information needed to generate tablature for guitar and other stringed instruments is handled the same way as technical indications for other instruments, such as piano fingerings and violin bowings. The technical element contains these types of notations, and two of its component elements represent the note's fret and string. Frets are numbered starting at 0 for the open string. Strings are numbered starting at 1 for the highest string on the instrument.

The fret and string for first note in this example are represented using:

          <technical>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>5</fret>
          </technical>

String Tuning

An attributes element may include a staff-details element to specify the details of a tab staff. The staff-lines element specifies the number of lines on a tablature staff, usually one for each string. Staff tunings are described with the staff-tuning and capo elements. TAB is one of the values available for clef elements.

The tab part in our example begins with the following attributes:

      <attributes>
        <divisions>2</divisions>
        <clef>
          <sign>TAB</sign>
          <line>5</line>
        </clef>
        <staff-details>
          <staff-lines>6</staff-lines>
          <staff-tuning line="1">
            <tuning-step>E</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>2</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
          <staff-tuning line="2">
            <tuning-step>A</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>2</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
          <staff-tuning line="3">
            <tuning-step>D</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
          <staff-tuning line="4">
            <tuning-step>G</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
          <staff-tuning line="5">
            <tuning-step>B</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
          <staff-tuning line="6">
            <tuning-step>E</tuning-step>
            <tuning-octave>4</tuning-octave>
          </staff-tuning>
        </staff-details>
      </attributes>

Hammer-ons and Pull-offs

Contemporary guitar notation contains many elements idiomatic to the guitar (and specifically the electric guitar). While elements like harmonics and bends remain in the untested part of MusicXML, the hammer-on and pull-off are both supported in current software.

These elements are represented as technical indications that often go together with a notated slur. In the first half of the bar, a single hammer-on goes together with a single slur:

      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>C</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>2</duration>
        <voice>1</voice>
        <type>quarter</type>
        <notations>
          <technical>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>5</fret>
            <hammer-on type="start" number="1">H</hammer-on>
          </technical>
          <slur type="start" number="1"/>
        </notations>
      </note>
      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>D</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>2</duration>
        <voice>1</voice>
        <type>quarter</type>
        <notations>
          <technical>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>7</fret>
            <hammer-on type="stop" number="1"/>
          </technical>
          <slur type="stop" number="1"/>
        </notations>
      </note>

But in the second half of the bar, a single slur goes together with two pull-offs:

      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>E</step>
          <alter>-1</alter>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>1</duration>
        <voice>1</voice>
        <type>eighth</type>
        <accidental>flat</accidental>
        <notations>
          <technical>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>8</fret>
            <pull-off type="start" number="1">P</pull-off>
          </technical>
          <slur type="start" number="1"/>
        </notations>
      </note>
      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>D</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>1</duration>
        <voice>1</voice>
        <type>eighth</type>
        <notations>
          <technical>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>7</fret>
            <pull-off type="stop" number="1"/>
            <pull-off type="start" number="2">P</pull-off>
          </technical>
        </notations>
      </note>
      <note>
        <pitch>
          <step>C</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
        </pitch>
        <duration>2</duration>
        <voice>1</voice>
        <type>quarter</type>
        <notations>
          <technical>
            <pull-off type="stop" number="2"/>
            <string>3</string>
            <fret>5</fret>
          </technical>
          <slur type="stop" number="1"/>
        </notations>
      </note>

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Last updated January 2, 2008.