Trumpet Tablature is a rather rare form of music notation that applies to all brass instruments, but is most commonly found written for trumpet. It consists of lines with partials, and numbers representing valve or slide positions.
The base setup is shown here, with P for pedal and names of open notes. As well as counting on the top. Low range is shown by lowercase letters, middle range by capital letters, and high, double high etc. ranges by subscript. This method is impractical in the altissimo range however, because of fingering differences between horns.
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a E2___________________ C2___________________ G____________________ E____________________ C____________________ g____________________ c____________________ P____________________
Numbers are used to represent fingerings. For trumpet you may see true fingerings (chromatically down from 0, 2, 1, 1/2, 2/3, 1/3, 1/2/3) but more commonly with positions. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) 1 is open and 7 is 1/2/3. Trombone tablature will always have slide positions. Here is an example of a two octave C major scale:
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a E2_______________________________________________________________ C2________________________________________________4___2___1______ G_________________________________________3___1__________________ E_________________________________3___1__________________________ C_____________________4___2___1__________________________________ g_____6___4___3___1______________________________________________ c_1______________________________________________________________ P________________________________________________________________
Four valve instruments are more complicates, as well as tenor trombones with F attachments and bass trombones. Four valve instruments use:
Tab number|fingering|played on trombone w/F attachment|note if played on C partial (treble clef Bb)|
1 0 1 C
2 2 2 B
3 1 3 Bb
4 12 4 A
5 23 5 Ab
6 4 F1 G
7 24 F2 Gb
8 14 F3 F
9 124 F4 E
(10) 234 F5 Eb
(11) 134 F6 D
(12) 1234 F7 Db
Positions 10 11 and 12 are in parentheses so they do not appear as two separate notes.
Some other symbols include:
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a E2_1!__________________accent C2_1*__________________stacatto G_%1___________________scoop E_1%___________________doit C_1-------____________ hold g_1(tildes ~. Wikipedia doesn't like repeated tildes.)trill c_1^^^^^^^2_1^^^_______slur P_______________^^^1___slur <<<<<< >>>>>>>> F P mp etc. crescendo diminuendo dynamics
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a E2_1\________________fall C2________1\2________fall to another note. G___/1_______________smear E__/____1z___________long fall/glissando C_/_______z__________ g__________z_________ c____________________ P____________________
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