# Tablature (タブラチュア)

> Notation from the player's point of view: not what pitch, but where the fingers go. From lute letter-tablature to guitar TAB, the lineage of practical writing that encodes bodily action directly.

- IndexStyle No.422 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/tablature
- Kind: Style · Family: Notation Systems · Era: 15th century–
- Mood: Intimacy, Technology, Play
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- The string-and-fret grid
- Letters and numbers for finger positions
- Instrument-specific formats
- Action encoded directly

## Best used for

- Comparing primary sources and canonical works
- Extracting principles that transfer to other media

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process

## What to avoid

Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] The string-and-fret grid
- [ ] Letters and numbers for finger positions
- [ ] Instrument-specific formats
- [ ] Action encoded directly
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Staff Notation (五線譜)** — From Guido's lines to the five-line staff: pitch fixed to coordinates. Time running left to right, height mapped up and down — the longest-lived format in information design, in continuous use for a millennium. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/staff-notation
- **Mola (モラ)** — The reverse appliqué of Guna women in Panama: layered colored cloth cut back and stitched so contours ripple in multiple lines — printmaking in fabric, worn daily as blouse panels. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/mola

## Further study

- Renaissance lute tablature
- organ tablature
- the modern revival of guitar TAB

## Reference works

- ダウランド『First Booke of Songes』1597 リュート譜 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John%20Dowland%20-%20First%20Book%20of%20Airs.djvu

## Source of record

- The Lute Society — https://www.lutesociety.org/

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/tablature
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/tablature/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

音の高さでなく「指をどこに置くか」を書く演奏者目線の記譜。リュートの文字譜からギターのTAB譜まで、身体動作を直接コード化する実用記法の系譜。

特徴: 弦とフレットの格子／文字・数字による指位置／楽器固有のフォーマット／動作の直接コード化
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。