tablature

views updated May 29 2018

tab·la·ture / ˈtabləchər; -ˌchoŏr/ • n. chiefly hist. a form of musical notation indicating fingering rather than the pitch of notes, written on lines corresponding to, for example, the strings of a lute or the holes on a flute.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

tablature

views updated May 23 2018

tablature (mus.) notation, spec. for the lute, flute, etc. XVI. — F. — medL. tabulātūra, f. late L. tabulāre, f. L. tabula TABLE; see -URE.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

tablature

views updated May 17 2018

tablature. System of writing down mus. to be perf. other than by use of notes. Instead figures, letters, and similar signs were used. There were systems of org. and lute tablature in which the symbols represented the position of the player's fingers, not the pitch. Diagrammatic notation used today in popular mus. for guitar, ukelele, etc. is type of tablature.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE