Re: Violin tab for fiddle tunes

[David Kastrup]

"R.D. Latimer" <address@hidden> writes:

> I'd like help getting started with transcribing fiddle tunes with music and
> tab.
>
> Here's my initial try (first two measures)
> The fingering for the violin is not correct in the tab. Fingering should be:
> 2 0 0  2 0 0 | 3 1 1  3 0 1 |

That's a misunderstanding what a tab shows.  The tab does not show
fingerings but rather positions.  And it counts those positions in
"frets", namely semitones.  As far as I can see, the results are quite
correct.

Now I haven't ever used tablature for violin, and I definitely agree
that the numbers seem to increase ridiculously fast as a violinist would
likely think more in wholetone positions rather than semitone positions:

Playing "in third position" to a violinist means playing a major or
minor third above playing "in first position" when using the same
fingering.  It may be different for players of violoncello or double
bass.  Or fretted instruments like a viol.

So at any rate, the TAB delivers the _full_ information you need for
playing the melody.  I'm not sure how it could do so when only using a
wholetone numbering system.

Most relevantly, the TAB looks like expected by the _programmers_.  Do
you have any printed examples that would help the programmers to
understand how it should look like in order to meet _your_ expectations?

-- 
David Kastrup