Duration and Timing

Duration and Timing in ColorTab

Music symbols in the Lyric text area have no effect on playback, they are just symbols. But in Tab they control playback timing, the flow of repeats and jumps, tempo, time signature, and more. ColorTab symbols are similar to standard notation, but with some very important differences. A single note symbol can change the playback sound of all notes, so it is essential to explain this.

The number of symbols needed is reduced by using defaults, these are what happens when no other symbol is present. ColorTab has defaults of quarter notes in 4/4 time at 120bpm. Ordinary ASCII tab with no symbols will play that way, but it is easy to change defaults and individual notes or sections by adding symbols. Timing is used here to mean the length of time in beats until the next note begins. This is usually the same as the note duration. However ColorTab can set duration to be longer or shorter than timing, creating separate voices for every note if desired. Open each section below to see examples.

Symbols that are not by a fret number have a gray background in the ColorTab. These change defaults and affect all following notes.

This example changes the default note to eighths and then back to quarter notes. The gray background indicates that the note symbols are not connected to a fret number.

Symbols by a fret number will have the color of the string and only affect that note (except in chords).

The same example but with note symbols by each fret number.

A down stem note adds to the duration of all following notes, as in "let ring" This is canceled by a down stem grace note.

Adding ring is easy in ColorTab and the amount can be precisely controlled. This example adds a down stem quarter note to the eighth notes, resulting in a dotted quarter duration. Achieving this precision in standard notation requires messy tied notes or confusing multiple voices.

Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here. Here is a video demonstration..

Fret numbers with down stem notes have duration set but this does not affect timing, otherwise duration equals timing

This example uses downstem duration to play stacatto, with eighth note timing and thirty-second note duration. Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here.

Fret numbers with multiple down stem notes have duration added for each, so two half notes make a "down stem" whole note.

This example has mixed durations with the open low and high E strings as whole notes. The note symbols can be hidden. Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here.

Fret numbers followed by multiple up stem notes play as repeated notes of the same pitch.

Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here.

Each note in a chord inherits timing and duration of notes below in the chord, unless followed by adjacent note symbols.

Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here.

Preceding a note symbol with a superscript ³ will use triplet timing for the next three notes or rests.

Click the ColorTab to open this example in a new tab for playback and editing, or listen to the audio here.