https://github.com/zserge/tab
🎼 A tiny CLI tool to render tabs for music instruments (🎹🎷🎺🎸🪕🪈 and many others!)
https://github.com/zserge/tab
Last synced: about 1 year ago
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🎼 A tiny CLI tool to render tabs for music instruments (🎹🎷🎺🎸🪕🪈 and many others!)
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/zserge/tab
- Owner: zserge
- License: mit
- Created: 2024-03-14T10:17:24.000Z (about 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-07-16T07:44:56.000Z (almost 2 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-18T08:21:29.157Z (about 1 year ago)
- Language: C
- Homepage:
- Size: 112 KB
- Stars: 25
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# `tab` - Put Music in Your Hands!
Tab is a tiny command-line utility to render tablatures for numerous music instruments.
## Features
* Supports almost every tablature notation!
* [Guitar tabs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablature#Guitar_tablature) for the following instruments:
* Guitar
* Ukulele
* [Cigar Box Guitar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_box_guitar)
* [Diddley Bow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diddley_bow) (1-string and 2-string in different tunings)
* [Harmonica tabs](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Harmonica/Tablature)
* Diatonic harmonica
* Chromatic harmonica
* [Klavarscribo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavarskribo)
* 48-key Piano
* 25-key Toy Piano
* [Piano tabs](https://www.wikihow.com/Read-Piano-Tabs)
* [Kalimba tabs](https://www.kalimbaclasses.com/kalimba-guides/how-to-read-number-tabs)
* [Flutes](https://www.whistletabs.com/)
* Recorder
* Irish Tin Whistle
* Native American Flute (4, 5 and 6 hole)
* [Ocarinas](https://www.tabs-ocarina.com/)
* Pendant Ocarina
* [Trumpets](https://www.amromusic.com/trumpet-fingering-chart)
* Trumpet in Bb
* [Saxophones](https://www.amromusic.com/saxophone-fingering-chart)
* Alto Sax in Eb
* [Jianpu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbered_musical_notation)
* Chinese Numeric Notation for any other instrument
* Great for self-taught musicians and amateurs, also kid-friendly.
* Allows to transpose music for the most convenient way of playing tabs.
* Uses visually appealing colored unicode output, when possible.
* Very tiny, written in C with no external dependencies, should work on every machine!
MIDI support is planned, and please contribute if your favourite instrument is not on the list!
## Usage
It's easy to build and install `tab` from sources:
```
$ git clone https://github.com/zserge/tab
$ cd tab
$ make
$ ./tab -i uke -x 5 examples/ode_to_joy.abc
A│-------------0---│---0---------------│-------------------│-------------│-
E│-2---2-----------│-----------2---0---│-----------0---2---│---2-0---0---│-
C│-----------------│-------------------│---2---2-----------│-------------│-
g│---------0-------│-------0-----------│-------------------│-------------│-
w: Freu-de, schö-ner Göt-ter-funk-en, Toch-ter aus E-ly-si-um,
...
```
## Input format
Tab work well with [ABC notation](https://abcnotation.com/) but you may use a simplified text notation, too.
Tab operate over a range of 4 octaves from C3 to B6. This seems to be sufficient for most instruments that use tablature music notation.
Notes are written as letters ("CDEFGAB" for octave 4 and "cdefgab" for octave 5). Notes in octave 3 are followed by `,` and notes in octave `6` are followed by `'`. Technically, octaves can be lowered and raised even further, but most instrument won't be able to display such tabs correctly.
Like in ABC notation, notes may be prefixed by `^` to make them sharp and `_` to make them flat. You may alternatively write `#` after the note to make it sharp.
White space is preserved, and `|` is rendered as a bar separator. The rest of the ABC notation is ignored.
Lines that do not contain a musical notation are rendered verbatim as plain text.
## Example
```
Here are C notes in 4 octaves:
C, C c c'
And here is a E minor scale:
E F# G A | B c d e
```
Rendered for a Tin Whistle you may see something like this:
```
Here are C notes in 4 octaves:
x x ○ ○
x x ● ●
x x ● ●
x x ○ ○
x x ○ ○
x x ○ ○
x x +
And here is a E minor scale:
● ● ● ● │ ● ○ ○ ●
● ● ● ● │ ○ ● ● ●
● ● ● ○ │ ○ ● ● ●
● ● ○ ○ │ ○ ○ ● ●
● ○ ○ ○ │ ○ ○ ● ●
○ ○ ○ ○ │ ○ ○ ● ○
│ +
```
In Numeric notation it would look like:
```
Here are C notes in 4 octaves:
. :
1 1 1 1
*
And here is a E minor scale:
. . .
3 ♯4 5 6 | 7 1 2 3
```
And for Cigar Box Guitar it would become:
```
Here are C notes in 4 octaves:
g│-x-------5---17-
D│-x--------------
G│-x---5----------
And here is a E minor scale:
g│---------0---2---│---4---5---7---9-
D│-2---4-----------│-----------------
G│-----------------│-----------------
```
## Contributing
Contributions to Tab are welcome! Whether you want to report a bug, request a feature, or submit a pull request, please feel free to get involved.
Tab is open-source software licensed under the [MIT License](/LICENSE).