Fiddle Tab Makes Learning Fiddle Fast and Easy

Learning fiddle tab is so intuitive and so easy that a student picks it up in five minutes. This is true even for five-year-olds.

Before starting this examination of fiddle tab, let's recall what standard musical notation looks like. The familiar dot-shaped notes on or between the five lines of the musical staff represent exact pitches of musical notes.

The dots show the pitch. Sharp signs or flat signs influence that pitch. The clef sign also has an effect.

Rhythm symbols that show the relative duration of the notes. Other musical terminology, often Italian, indicates the speed of the rhythm. Allegro con brio, for example, means "lively, with enthusiasm."

Musical notation tells nothing about how to play the music on any given musical instrument. It is designed to be used with all musical instruments.

Fiddle tab, on the other hand, tells exactly what string to play and what finger to use. It's intuitive and easy to learn.

But it shows the information in a form that only fiddle players can use. It is not universal. Because it is so focused, it is simpler.

On the fiddle tab staff each space represents a string. The top space represents the E-string, the next one, the A-string--and so on.

If you placed a violin with its side, with the neck extending to the left of the body, you would see the strings in exactly the same relationship. If you then reached both hands to pick up the violin, with your left hand under the neck, you would be in position to finger the strings the normal way.

Numbers indicate what finger to use. The number 1 is the first finger--the pointing finger, 2 is the middle finger, 3 the ring finger and 4 the pinkie. An 0 means use no finger. Leave the string open.

The only question remaining is placement of the fingers. We begin with the placement that would produce a major scale. This is the most common tradition in Western music. It