Charles Whitmer Autoharp Tablature (parts 3-4)

PART 3
As I stated yesterday, I feel that the format of Becky Blackley’s autoharp tablature is one that should continue to be used (for the reasons I previously mentioned) as a standard, but not necessarily the only standard.

Even within other instrumental traditions there are variations such as other string instruments that have books written in standard music notation whereas some are written in tablature alone and some even written using both. Just as those worlds have room for a FEW differing formats (not endless differing formats), I believe that our autoharp world has room for some variations as well.

What follows herein are my subjective opinions on the matter Pete d’Aigle brought up in his post concerning the problem of there being so many different formats being used and submitted, with everyone seemingly
creating a different format of their own. There is absolutely nothing wrong with anyone using a different format for their own teaching and/or their own use and distribution; but for an international magazine, that is
impractical. Will Smith’s post regarding there needing to be some standardizations of some sort is spot on in my opinion.

CHORD SYMBOLS
In Will’s post he states,
“The point is there needs to be a standardized form (like pretty much every other instrument has) of depicting what the accompaniment chord is and then what chord can be used to pick out the melody on the autoharp.”
I agree with him 100%. Here are my thoughts on this:

1. The accompaniment chords MUST stand out from the melody playing chords and be easily readable.
2. The melody playing chords must also be easily readable yet fully integrated with the accompaniment chords in some fashion.
   My biggest criticism is the use of two different lines of chords – one for the accompaniment chords and another for the melody playing chords. It does not work well in my opinion for this reason: It’s extremely cluttered. It is not as easy to read because there are seemingly chord symbols all over the place on the page. I can’t think of any other mainstream instrument that has a format like that. If a song happens to have lyrics, it gets even worse as having chord symbols all over the place in addition to lyrics on the page makes the page look like an alphabet soup. It’s simply more difficult to read and is not as clean and readable as it should be.
   My idea of the solution? The format that Becky Blackley created is the best in my opinion: have all chord symbols appear in a single line, both accompaniment chords and melody playing chords. She had all of the accompaniment chords circled or boxed and all of the melody playing chords uncircled or unboxed. That was a very elegant idea she came up with because it allows the accompaniment chords to stand out and you have to use the accompaniment chords AS melody playing chords anyhow when playing melody. So why not put them
   all in a single line? A single line is much easier to read and reduces the extra clutter on a page.
   Side note to those who use a notation program to write out chords: How to create a single line like this containing both circled/boxed accompaniment chords and uncircled/unboxed melody playing chords is not built into any notation programs of which I’m aware. You won’t find how to do this in any instruction manuals. I worked on this quandary for 3 years and I created a very easy way to do this that I am glad to share that I will put in a separate post either today or tomorrow. It’s fairly simple and short. My solution should work on most notation programs.
   SYMBOLS: Pinches, Plucks, Strums, etc.
   The bare bones basic function of tablature on most instruments is to show the player what to do with your hands when playing the instrument. It gives indications as to how to play the instrument.

In tablature this is where most of the differences in playing styles and techniques appear. In Becky Blackley’s “How To Read The Tablature,” about the tablature symbols she states, “They are used to give a general idea of
how a given tune MIGHT be played, the tab is just to get you started”. As I mentioned yesterday, tablature is not an end in itself and it should not be interpreted as showing how a tune must be played. It’s only a
suggestion. Standard music notation more accurately depicts a tune whereas tablature is just one possible way to play it. This gets back to my point that I view tablature only as a teaching tool.
Getting back to the issue of tablature in the songs presented in The Autoharp Quarterly, should then every song in every issue need to have such instructions? I personally don’t think it’s necessary. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have it there, but I don’t think it’s a necessity. What I believe is a necessity is to go back to Pete’s and Will’s original points in that the wide array of different formats should be corralled into something more uniform.

They’re all good in among themselves, but they just don’t belong in an international publication that reaches autoharp players of probably hundreds of different styles and techniques. A more universal format is needed.

I think the best place to start in this process is to start with a broad general format that is already in widespread
use in the music world. Since so many of us came to autoharp from other instruments and musical traditions, why would we want to start with anything that is not a standard? It’s simply better to start with something that is already “out there” that is a format that many musicians in general are already familiar. From there something that can be tailored for the autoharp can be constructed.

In my opinion I think that a line of standard notation with accompaniment chords is the best place to start. It’s one of the most common formats found in many music books. We as autoharp players will play melodies in the
styles that we know. We don’t need all of the fillers and fingerings. For those that do need them, that’s what the workshops at the festivals are for: instruction in how to do that. Instruction books, videos, private lessons, et al
can also do that job. I simply maintain that it’s generally not needed in a publication like AQ.

The only thing I feel that should be added to this format of melody on a staff and accompaniment chords is the simple insertion of the melody chords. A few accompaniment chords may need to be moved over in a few places where the chord change occurs in a place where the melody note is not a note in the accompaniment chord at that change, but Becky’s use of asterisks accurately takes care of that problem.

That’s it. It can be that simple. You may be wondering, “What about the by-ear only players?.” No matter what is on a page, a by-ear player is going to have to hear the tune in order to learn it whether it’s written out in
standard notation, tablature or lyrics and chords. There’s no getting around that. But I maintain that they could still learn a tune by ear from the simplified format I just described as if a song has lyrics, they can follow the
lyrics and use the chords written out above. Reading standard notation is not required to do that. Even on an instrumental tune with no lyrics, a by-ear player should still be able to learn a tune by listening to it at the same
time using the chords written out on the page.
Here is the format of 2 tunes I just wrote out that shows what I’m describing: one with lyrics and one a fiddle tune without lyrics:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11n12B224yWfcIqNXrNGmHL16Q9B5rPBO/view?usp=sharing

Here are the advantages of this format:

1. It is MUCH less cluttered. It has a very neat, clean and concise appearance to it.
2. It does not specify any particular style or techniques to use. The musician is free to play it in any style they wish and use any techniques they are comfortable to use.

Accompaniment chords and melody playing chords are in a single unified line throughout.

This format is much easier and faster to write out in a notation program. Even writing it out by hand
would be much easier and quicker. Writing out even the Blackley tablature system is very time
consuming and cannot be done on most notation software programs.

Most notation software programs should be able to write out songs in this format. There are no special symbols that are required. The only unorthodox element to this is the writing out of the accompaniment
and melody playing chords in a single line with some being circled or boxed and some not being circled or boxed. Doing this is actually quite easy, which I will spell out and describe how to do in my next post.

The last side point I wish to make is that I don’t find it helpful to have songs that have just lyrics and chords in a publication. I do enjoy that format quite a bit when I’m teaching from it or using the various “fake books” I
have as I do use that format quite a lot. But when I encounter a song written out like that without a recording or someone to play it for me to hear, it’s just wasted space to me unless the melody is such a widely known one that most people might know, something like “Yankee Doodle” or “This Land Is Your Land.”

I look forward to hearing more ideas and feedback on this issue as Pete has a very valid point and many others
here have voice some great points.
Charles Whitmer
Conroe TX

PART 4 (Last Part)
How To Create A Single Line of Accompaniment & Melody Chords
The ability to do this in your notation software program or app depends on how much control your software will allow you to have with your text fonts and chord fonts. Try creating the accompaniment chords first, but try to
access the text styles or preferences where you can take control of your chord fonts. If possible, change the settings to either circle or box the chord symbols AND to have the chord symbols erase the background.

Next, try creating the uncircled/unboxed melody playing chords. Here’s where it gets tricky. Instead of using the chord symbols for these, use the “lyrics verse 2” function. The lyrics creation function works best because it
will allow you to assign a chord symbol to every single note, even notes on upbeats and in between the upbeats such as in 16th notes. The function for creating actual chord symbols normally won’t allow you to do that. This
is why a lyrics function needs to be used instead for these because the lyrics functions will allow you to do this.

This next part is optional. Before you begin, see if your software will allow you to access the text styles or preferences (controls). If it does, see if you can change the font used for lyrics to use the same font it uses for chord symbols. (If using Sibelius, change the Lyrics verse 2 default Times New Roman font to Opus Chord font). If you cannot do this part, it’s no problem as it can be skipped if you’re OK with using your program’s default lyrics font for these chord symbols.

Using the Lyrics verse 2 function, create the first uncircled/unboxed chord symbol under the note where it should appear. After creating that first unboxed chord symbol, grab it and move it up to the same level where the accompaniment chords are located and line it up so that it is in the same line with them. Double click the far right side of that first uncircled chord symbol to resume creation of the unboxed chords. VERY IMPORTANT: You must enter either a chord symbol under every single note, even if one is not supposed to go there because if you try to simply skip a note your program will draw a line to extend what it thinks is a syllable which you don’t want in the line of chords. Go ahead and enter any letter or character in those places and simply go back and delete them when you’re finished entering in all of the uncircled/unboxed chord symbols. If you were able to set the accompaniment chords to erase the backgrounds, they will cover up and hide those extra symbols you enter when you enter a symbol in those places.

If anyone needs any help with this, feel free to contact me off list and I’ll be glad to help if I can. Some programs may let you do all of this easily and some may not let you do parts of this. You’ll just have to give it a try if you want to create this type of single line of chord symbols. I know Sibelius and Finale will allow you to do all of this and I’d bet that a lot of other programs may allow you to as well. If not, there are other ways to accomplish these details I’ve found and I’ll be glad to help anyone find a way in their notation program to get this done with a little trouble shooting.

Charles Whitmer