How to Write Bouzouki Tab, and Read It Back
Tablature is a map of the bouzouki's neck. Each line stands for a course, the pair of strings you press and pick together, and each number tells you which fret to press. Staff notation tells you which pitch sounds; tab tells you where your fingers go. The community tabs on RebetiChord are written in it, and it is the quickest way to write down a tune you learned by ear.
If you only need to read tab, our ten-minute reading guide covers it. Writing tab is the other half: putting a tune on paper clearly enough that someone else, or you in six months, can play it back.
Say which bouzouki the tab is for #
A trichordo has three courses tuned D, A and D. Its tab has three lines: the top line is the high D course, the middle line the A course and the bottom line the low D course. A tetrachordo, the four-course bouzouki, is tuned C, F, A and D and needs four lines. The same number means a different note on each: a 5 on the bottom line is G on a trichordo and F on a tetrachordo. Write the instrument at the top of every tab you make.
A baglamas is tuned like the trichordo, an octave higher, and plays from the same three-line tab with the same fingering.
The parts of a tab #
Here are two bars on the high D course: D, E, F♯ and D, then G, F♯, E and D, one beat each.
D
Count: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
d |-0---2---4---0---|-5---4---2---0---|
A |-----------------|-----------------|
D |-----------------|-----------------|A number on a line is a fret on that course; 0 is the open course.
Numbers stacked in one column sound together.
The bar line
|divides the music into bars.The count row above shows where each beat falls.
A chord name above the lines (the D here) is what the accompaniment plays from that point.
What plain tab leaves out #
A line of numbers shows the order of the notes and where to play them. It shows nothing about how long each note lasts. Tab writers handle rhythm in three ways: a count row, like the one above; even spacing, where each dash stands for the same slice of time; or a recording to listen to alongside. For music in 9/8, such as the zeibekiko, a count row that marks the groups (1 2, 3 4, 5 6, 7 8 9) saves a lot of guessing.
Writing a tune down, step by step #
Learn the tune by ear first. Sing it before you look for it on the neck.
Find the first note. In a song in D, try the open high D course.
Choose a position for each note. Most notes can be played in more than one place: the E at the second fret of the high D course is the same note as the seventh fret of the A course. Pick the place that keeps your hand still through the phrase.
Write one bar at a time, with its count, and check each bar against the recording before you move on.
Put the chord names above the bars where the chords change.
Add the ornaments last, once the notes and rhythm are right.
Play it from the page without the recording. Wherever you hesitate, the tab is missing something.
Ornaments #
Rebetiko phrasing lives in its ornaments, and a tab needs a sign for each one. On RebetiChord's tabs, a hammer-on and a pull-off are arcs marked h and p, a slide is a line between two frets, vibrato is a wave above the note, tremolo is three slashes (two for the slow tremolo), a bend is an arrow, a muted note is an x and a grace note is a small fret number in brackets. In a tab you write by hand, use h and p, a slash for a slide, ~ for vibrato and slashes for tremolo, and explain every sign once at the top.
How RebetiChord helps you write tab #
The Songwriter is a tab editor with a band attached.
Each song has parts, and each part is an instrument: trichordo, tetrachordo, baglamas, guitar or toubeleki. A fretted part gets a tab with the right number of lines for its instrument; a toubeleki part gets a grid of dum, tek and ka strokes.
To write a note, click a cell and type the fret, or tap the fret on the fret row. Backspace removes a note and the arrow keys move between cells.
"Next bar" copies the bar you are on into the next one, and "Copy to…" copies a part's notes into another section, so a second verse can start as a copy of the first.
The Technique menu adds hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, tremolo and the other ornaments to notes you have written, and the tab draws them.
Songs are built from sections (intro or taximi, verse, chorus, instrumental, outro) with their chords and words, in the dromos and rhythm you pick.
Press play and the band plays your tab back, so you hear at once whether a bar is right. "How it reads" shows the part as one clean tab.
How it helps you read and learn from tab #
Play along with a song: pick your part, and the tab moves with the band. Slow the tempo down, loop one section and add a count-in.
Hear your part at full volume, as a quiet guide or muted, so you play it yourself over the band.
Play and score listens through your microphone and shows, note by note, whether your note and your timing were right. The sound is analysed in your browser and never recorded.
The lessons teach tab from the start: lesson 9 is about reading a trichordo tab.
The tuner has trichordo, tetrachordo, baglamas and guitar tunings, so the tab and your strings agree.
Start writing #
A free account keeps three songs with up to two parts each, which is enough to write your first tabs and hear them played back. Pro gives you unlimited songs and parts, printing and export, and Play and score on the site's free songs and every song included with Pro (on your own songs it is free). You choose what you pay: €2, €5 or €8 a month, or a year at a time. If paying is hard right now, the Parea Fund on the same page gives months of Pro, bought by other members, to players who ask.
Subscribe to Pro and write your first tab tonight, or open the Songwriter and try it free.
