Difference between revisions of "Ref: Reading Chord Charts, Scale Maps, and Strumming Notation"

Revision as of 18:07, 16 February 2015

Chord Charts

Chord charts use the following symbols to indicate which fingers to use to make the chord:

• t - thumb
• i - index
• m - middle
• r - ring
• p - pinky
• o - open

Chord charts typically use double bars to represent the nut and single bars to represent the frets, with perpendicular single bars representing the strings. If the double bar is not present, there is a number indicating the first fret for a chord further up the fretboard, which may still use open strings. If neither the nut nor the fret number are shown, there must be no open strings - the shape is not tied to a particular root note and can be played anywhere on the fretboard.

Tab Friendly Chord Charts

I prefer to use more tab-friendly chord charts. Everything is the same as in a traditional chart, but rotated 90° counter-clockwise. Frets numbers ascend from left to right. The bottom horizontal line is the thickest string and top line the thinnest. A double-bar on the left indicates the nut (open position).

o||-|-|-|    |i|-|-|
o||-|-|-|    |)|-|r|
 ||i|-|-|    |)|-|r|
 ||-|r|-|    |)|-|r|
 ||-|m|-|    |i|-|-|
o||-|-|-|   o|-|-|-|
              7

Traditional Chord Charts

Traditional chord charts use a horizontal double bar to indicate the nut, with single horizontal bars representing the frets. The lower the bar in the chart, the higher the fret number. The vertical bars are the strings, going from left to right as the thickest to the thinnest strings.

E Major chords in traditional chord chart
o   oo    o
======    ++++++
|||i||   7|i___i
++++++    ++++++
|mr|||    ||||||
++++++    ++++++
||||||    ||rrr|
++++++    ++++++

or more condensed:

o===oo      o
|||i||    7 +i---i
+mr+++      ++++++   
++++++      ++rrr+

Scale Maps

A scale map represents a set of notes for a particular position. Root notes are indicated with x 's and other notes with o 's. The first fret may have a number underneath to indicate a particular scale (E Major vs. any Major).

|o|x|-|o|
|-|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|o|
|o|-|o|x|
|o|o|-|o|
|o|x|-|o|

Occasionally, a scale map may use numbers instead of x's and o's to indicate the scale degree of the note. This is particularly helpful for arpeggios.

|7|1|-|-|
|-|5|-|-|
|-|-|3|-|
|-|-|7|1|
|3|-|-|5|
|7|1|-|-|

Strumming Notation

*so rare I don't really have a marking for it

I believe this is the best we can do with text-based tab. In professional tablature, strumming notation resides the same way, except uses markings that resemble note markings - ovals, open or filled-in, with or without stems. However, since we know the chord voicing and there's not really a pitch to the strummed "note", all strums reside at an equal horizontal orientation. There is no staff. The markings do not indicate pitch, only rhythm.

The best part of the professional notation is that it can easily mark a muted strum, by writing a strike-through line through the stem of the note.

Internet-based tab may also resort to using slashes as such:

C / / X G / / X C / / XXF//// /

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4n1n2n3 4
q q q q q q q q q q q eeeeeeq q

What the first example is supposed to represent is based on the spacing, as well as the common practice of playing a new chord on the down beat of a measure. We are also assuming 4/4 time. Then you have the note values written simply by their spacing. The /'s are strums of the last named chord. The name of each chord also indicates to strum. And the X's represent muted strums.

This may be a bit too ambiguous for my tastes, but in many cases it gets the job done, especially if it's just a simple quarter/eighth note strumming pattern. However, when placed over tab for a melody, lead, or fill guitar, then often spacing has to be altered to accommodate the variety of spaces needed to play the given notes. For instance, one measure may be a simple sustained whole note, while the next measure is an insane tapping, legato, bending lick with vibrato, that takes up quite some space to notate properly. It'd be nice if we didn't have to make that 1st plain measure giant size to indicate its temporal equivalence to the extremely busy 2nd measure.

I like to use:

C     x G     x C     xxF
q q q q q q q q q q q eeeeeeq q

It takes up 2 lines vs. 1 but it's perfectly clear what is being indicated.