ASCII tab is a text file format used for writing guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

 tabs

Tablature

Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....

 using plain ASCII

ASCII

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...

 numbers, letters and symbols. It is the only widespread file format for representing tab, and is extensively used for disseminating tab via the Internet.

ASCII tab is intended to be a human-readable

Human-readable

A human-readable medium or human-readable format is a representation of data or information that can be naturally read by humans.In computing, human-readable data is often encoded as ASCII or Unicode text, rather than presented in a binary representation...

 format rather than machine-readable, and hence is not strictly defined. Though some standards are used by all ASCII tab files, such as hyphens to represent string lines and digits to represent frets, other things such as barlines, rhythms, bends, chord symbols etc. may be present, absent or represented in a variety of ways. Additionally, ASCII tab files frequently contain lyrics and freeform text in unpredictable places.

There are various computer programs for creating guitar tab which can save ASCII tab files, but due to the unpredictability of the format, only a few (e.g. G7

G7 (guitar software)

G7 is a computer program for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh for writing guitar music and songs, developed by UK software company Sibelius Software and based on the Sibelius notation program.The Sibelius site reads now:...

) can read arbitrary ASCII tab files created by humans.

ASCII tab files usually have the file extension .tab, .btab (for bass guitar) or .txt.

The tab for a C major chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 on six-string guitar with standard tuning typically looks something like this:

C
e |-----0------|
B |-----1------|
G |-----0------|
D |-----2------|
A |-----3------|
E |------------|

The string tunings at the left-hand side are often omitted. When tabbing entire songs, usually a note near the beginning of the tab tells the reader what tuning the instrument should be in. The number on each line refers to the fret as in guitar tab. Sometimes an 'x' means that the string should be played, but muted with either the left-hand fingers or the right-hand palm. The chord symbol C is written above - again this may or may not be included.

Other techniques, such as hammer-on

Hammer-on

Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off...

s, string pulls (or pull-off

Pull-off

A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note.-Performance and effect:...

s), slide

Slide (guitar technique)

A slide is a legato guitar technique where the player sounds one note, and then moves their finger up or down the fretboard to another fret. If done properly, the other note should also sound....

s, and bends may also be shown. Hammer-ons are usually shown with an "h" in between the fret to strike and the fret to hammer on. String pulls are shown with a "p". "Tribute

Tribute (song)

"Tribute" is a tribute to "The Greatest Song in the World" and is the first single of Tenacious D's self-titled debut album. It was released July 16, 2002....

" by Tenacious D

Tenacious D

Tenacious D is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1994. Composed of lead vocalist and guitarist Jack Black and lead guitarist and vocalist Kyle Gass, the band has released two albums – Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny...

 is one example of a song that uses both of these:

Am (A minor)
e |-------------0-0-0-0-0-0-----0-------0-0-0-0-0---|
B |-------------1-1-1-1-1-1-1h3p1p0h1-----1-1-1-1-1-|
G |-----0h2-----2-2-2-2-2-2-----2-------2-2-2-2-2---|
D |-0h2-------2-2-2-2-2-2-2-----2-----2-2-2-2-2-2---|
A |---------0---0-0-0-0-0-----------0---0-0-0-0-0---|
E |-------------------------------------------------|

A trill

Trill

Trill may refer to:* Trill , a type of musical ornament* Trill consonant, a type of sound used in some languages*Trill, a type of bird food-Fiction:* Trill , two symbiotic races of aliens in the fictional Star Trek universe...

 is a combination of hammer-ons and pull-offs being performed in succession.

Slides are shown in the same format, but with a slash (/) or the letter S in between the fret to slide from and the fret to slide to. "ATWA" by System of a Down

System of a Down

System of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is a rock band from Southern California. The band was formed in 1994. It consists of Serj Tankian , Daron Malakian , Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan...

 is a song that uses these (in Drop D tuning

Drop D tuning

Drop D tuning, also known as DADGBE, is an alternate, or scordatura, form of guitar tuning — specifically, a dropped tuning — in which the lowest string is tuned down from the usual E of standard tuning by one whole step to D.- Uses of drop D tuning :In drop D the three bass strings...

):

e |----------------------------------------------------|
B |----------------------------------------------------|
G |----3-----2-----5-----7------8------7-----5-----3---|
D |----------------------------------------------------|
A |----------------------------------------------------|
D |--5---5/3---3/7---7/8---8/10---10/8---8/7---7/5---5-|

Bending is often shown by a letter b, but my also be indicated by an ^. A bend can show how far the string is to be bent, when the string is to be released (denoted by an r), or that it is a bend to an unspecific note. Examples:

e |---------------------------------------|
B |---------------------------------------|
G |--5b7--------5b7r5--------5b--------5br|
D |---------------------------------------|
A |---------------------------------------|
E |---------------------------------------|

In the first example, a note played at the fifth fret on the G string (the note C) is bent up one full step so that it sounds like a note played at the seventh fret on the G string (the note D); secondly, the same note is played, but the bend is released so that the string again sounds a C note; thirdly, the string is bent to an undetermined note; fourthly, the string is bent to an undetermined note, and released back to the C note.

ASCII tab can also indicate rhythms above the staff; however this is rarely done. Barlines can be indicated using '|' characters (pipes). Lyrics may be added above or below the staff, either aligned with the music or as a continuous text block. Freeform text (describing the song, composer, transcriber, notational conventions used, etc.) is also often included at the start or end of the file, or used for relevant comments about a certain part of the song.

Tablature can also use various lines, arrows, and other symbols to denote bends

Finger vibrato

Finger vibrato is vibrato produced on a string instrument by cyclic hand movements. Despite the name, normally the entire hand moves, and sometimes the entire upper arm. It can also refer to vibrato on some woodwind instruments, achieved by lowering one or more fingers over one of the uncovered...

, hammer-on

Hammer-on

Hammer-on is a stringed instrument playing technique performed by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. This technique is the opposite of the pull-off...

s, trills

Trill (music)

The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....

, pull-off

Pull-off

A pull-off is a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note.-Performance and effect:...

s, slides

Slide (guitar technique)

A slide is a legato guitar technique where the player sounds one note, and then moves their finger up or down the fretboard to another fret. If done properly, the other note should also sound....

, and so on. These are the tablature symbols that represent various techniques, though these may vary:

Symbol	Technique
h	hammer on
p	pull off
b	bend string up
r	release bend
/	slide up
\	slide down
v	vibrato Vibrato Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...  (sometimes written as ~)
t	right hand tap Tapping Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...
s	legato slide
S	shift slide
*	natural harmonic Harmonic A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
[n]	artificial harmonic
n(n)	tapped harmonic
tr	trill
T	tap
TP	tremolo picking Tremolo picking Tremolo picking, also known as alternate picking or double picking, describes the musical technique of picking on a guitar or other string instrument in which a single note is played repeatedly in quick succession. It can be achieved either with the fingers or with a pick...
PM	palm muting (also written as _)
\n/	tremolo arm Tremolo arm A whammy bar, tremolo arm/bar, or vibrato arm/bar is a component of a guitar, used to add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge or tailpiece...  dip; n = amount to dip
\n	tremolo arm down
n/	tremolo arm up
/n\	tremolo arm inverted dip
=	hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls
<>	volume swell Volume swell A volume swell is a musical crescendo commonly associated with the electric guitar.Roughly speaking, the sound of a guitar note is characterized by an initial 'attack' where the pick or nail produces higher pitched overtones over the top of the fundamental note, followed by a diminution of these...  (louder/softer)
x	on rhythm slash represents muted slash
o	on rhythm slash represents single note slash
·/.	pick slide Pick slide A pick slide or pick scrape is a guitar technique most often performed in the rock, punk or metal music genres. The technique is executed by holding the edge of the pick against any of the three or four wound strings and moving it along the string...

External links

• VexTab - another text-based tablature language