zmVault/banjo-tablatures.md

title, tags

title	tags
Banjo Tablatures	topic/hobbies/music/banjo type/encyclopedia

Banjo Tablatures

Sources

Banj'r

Banj'r

Don Borchelt, owner of Banj'r

Banjoben

Banjoben's Personal Tab Collection ONLINE: 99 Essential Bluegrass Banjo Solos

Other

Banjo Hangout

Banjo Tablatures and Bluegrass Information

Engraving

Don engraves his tabs with TablEdit. The PDF output is cramped and terribly inconsistent.

I'd like to rewrite as many of Don's and any other tabs I can find in lilypond.

This has a few complications:

1. Tablature must be translated first to SPN (i.e. C#₄) then to lilypond notation (i.e. cis')

   Also keep in mind that banjo is transposed up/down? one octave, so that C₀ SPN = C₁ banjo

   The BanjoTab preprocessor can help with this, however it wouldn't be a bad idea to do it manually for the sake of familiarity.

2. LilyPond Banjo Notation is not ideal.

Common Notation for Fretted Strings

lilypond

Slides

Strum holding the first position, then slide down the fretboard to the second. Indicated with a diagonal line between notes.

\new TabStaff {
  \relative c' {
    d4 \glissando e\2
  }
}

Hammer-On and Pull-Off

Hammer-on -- Strum holding the first position, then quickly press down on the second.

Pull-off -- Strum holding both positions, then quickly release the first, letting the second ring.

\new TabStaff {
  \relative c' {
    d4( e\2)
    a( g)
  }
}

It is possible to add "H" and "Po." markers, but the syntax is ugly. They are not ubiquitous or especially helpful anyway.

String Bending

Involves pushing/pulling the string perpendicular to the fretboard to change the pitch/timbre.

mus = {
  d4\5\^ e\5\^ d2\5
  c'4\3\^ d'\3\bendHold \^ d'\3\^ c'\3
  \grace c'4\3\preBendHold \^ d'\3\bendHold \^ d'\3\^ c'2\3
  \grace c'4\3 \preBend \^ d'1\3
}

\score {
  \new StaffGroup
  <<
    \new Staff { \clef "G_8" \mus }
    \new TabVoice \mus
  >>
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Voice
      \omit StringNumber
    }
    \context {
      \TabVoice
      \consists Bend_spanner_engraver
    }
  }
}