The name is misleading. The glyphs are showing individual chord shapes. I can't write out a song using this. At best I can use this at the top of a tab to remind myself how the chords are meant to be shaped. But that doesn't appear to work much beyond the basic cowboy chords. For example, I tried 577655 which is an A major barre chord, and it didn't render. I realize a font can only do so much, but I wouldn't pay for this.
djtriptych 6 hours ago [-]
Hmm yeah I guess what I really want is a maekdown style mini-language that compiles to tab format.
rrherr 3 hours ago [-]
"VexTab is a language that allows you to easily create, edit, and share standard notation and guitar tablature. Unlike ASCII tab, which is designed for readability, VexTab is designed for writeability."
There's no such thing as "Tab format". Tabs are just ascii text.
Affric 1 hours ago [-]
I had people who had been writing Tabs on paper for a very long time. I would wager that ascii is just a representation
djtriptych 4 hours ago [-]
lol markdown and html are also both ascii/unicode and by themselves disprove your point.
TylerE 3 hours ago [-]
Um, how exactly does that even tangentially relate to my point?
djtriptych 3 hours ago [-]
all textual representations of data are "formats" and one being easier to edit is a totally valid use case. like 'x57675' instead of a full tab. or # title instead of <h1>title</h1>
Finnucane 5 hours ago [-]
Isn't that what LilyPond does, more or less?
TylerE 5 hours ago [-]
Not really. The lilypond format is extremely...complicated and obscure (and that's my polite take on it). Even simple stuff is quite complex. Very very far from Markdown's virtually WYSIWYG.
altmanaltman 5 hours ago [-]
yeah this is not what guitar tabs are and I don't think a font should be used to do it or is the best method to do it. It can get really messy with time signature changes and managing all the strings and marks etc just by text and a font
dimitrios1 4 hours ago [-]
I was excited for a second, because this is one piece of the puzzle (chords), then numerals solve melodies (you can just type something like 0-1 for open string first string, etc), then just need something for ornamentation. Seems like it only matches against a known set of chords, though.
sshanky 5 hours ago [-]
Does anyone find the little "finger" shapes confusing? I would rather see circles, so my brain doesn't have to adapt to a new way of reading tabs. Also, the inverted "D" shape is hard to parse because it's not a symmetric shape. Cool idea, other than that! It reminds me of this new QR code font I read about just yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48703200
TylerE 5 hours ago [-]
Yeah, as a guitarist this is hideously non-standard. Definition of change for the sake of change.
jakefleming 3 days ago [-]
This is one of those things that should obviously exist and I'm mad I didn't think of it!
tadfisher 4 hours ago [-]
I love tablature because it allowed me to learn the songs that I love and bring joy when I play. I hate tablature because it's like reading English as it's written out in IPA.
I want finger positions and staff notation so I can learn the theory while actually playing the dang song correctly. I credit tablature and my lazy programmer mind for putting off the theory. Also (channeling Tantacrul here) staff notation is the worst notation, except for all the others.
beezlebroxxxxxx 4 hours ago [-]
Berklee Press has some excellent books with what you're looking for, one in 3 volumes by Will Leavitt. There's another that's more barebones but covers the basics well by Hal Leonard. The former, especially, essentially starts at notation first and then only later introduces tabs when it feels like it. Very challenging if you've been tabs-only, but very rewarding.
It's an exaggeration, but working through them will make you learn the guitar as an instrument for personal expression rather than just a means for playing other peoples' songs.
tadfisher 4 hours ago [-]
Is this the one from Leavitt? A Modern Method for Guitar [1]
If so I will order it. Thank you for the suggestion.
https://vexflow.com/vextab/tutorial.html
I want finger positions and staff notation so I can learn the theory while actually playing the dang song correctly. I credit tablature and my lazy programmer mind for putting off the theory. Also (channeling Tantacrul here) staff notation is the worst notation, except for all the others.
It's an exaggeration, but working through them will make you learn the guitar as an instrument for personal expression rather than just a means for playing other peoples' songs.
If so I will order it. Thank you for the suggestion.
1: https://berkleepress.com/guitar/a-modern-method-for-guitar-b...
[0] https://github.com/0xfe/vextab