Viola da Gamba Tutorial No. 12: An introduction to tablature

Welcome to gamba tutorial no. 12. This video presents an introduction to playing from tablature. I use Tobias Hume's piece 'I Am Falling', taken from 'The First Part of Ayres', 1605.

You can download the piece in its original print here:

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Thanks!

[willwilkin]

Sam Stadlen, THANK YOU for this series of viola da gamba lessons! And thank you for opening this one with such a beautiful rendering of Tobias Hume's "I am falling!" Your lesson here inspired me to print (from IMSLP) a modern notation (but also including the tabulature) and play it! I'm still new to the instrument (almost 2 years) and never yet sound musical, but already this piece sounds very sweet to me as I work through each measure.

You mentioned this tabulature (tutorial #12) lesson was commissioned (or at least by request), so perhaps I can suggest a future tutorial? After 23.5 months of playing I still feel I'm not positioning my feet and the instrument properly. Especially the lower corner but also the edge of the lower bout dig into my left leg. Also it is still a challenge to hold the instrument (high enough?) and line up the bow so the bow tip does not hit my knee when playing the high D string.

Your first several tutorials are very fine lessons in holding and deploying the bow, but how do we actually hold the instrument itself?

[wolfgangh.]

Thank yu very much for this lesson. I had got me a facsimile book from Tobias Hume, and I was experimenting to get into practice to play the tabulature. I never had someone to explain me how to play, so I am very happy about htis tutorial. Thank you again.
Wolfgang

[ecologicaladam]

I realise, with hindsight, that when I was learning the 'cello, fifty + years ago, I was subconsciously converting the staff into a form of tablature: in stead of consciously playing the notes d e f g, I was converting them to O 1 2 3 (or whatever...). I wish funds would allow me to get my hands on a basic viol to start over, now that I'm almost a pensioner!

[RockStarOscarStern]

My idea was to combine both the 5 Line Staff Notation & the Tablature together so that we'd have a new notation that shows the notes on the staff & the fingerings in the tablature for each note.

[aronasmundurjonasson]

Thanks for this very instructive video! However, I still have a question, I've seen tablature notation, notably by Williams Corkine, where there are sometimes vertical lines written instead of letter for notes. I assumed that these were barré or just used to indicate that it's the same note as above, but I'm not sure. Could you please explain to me what these mean? Thanks in advance!