# Organ Tablature - what? how?



## JamieHoldham

I have been trying to search the internet for any explanation or information on Organ Tablature, how it works, how to use it or any information like that but I can't find anything.

Does anyone know where I can learnt it at all? I know it pretty much is never used but I am just really curious.


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## EdwardBast

Books on music notation like Willi Apel's _The Notation of Polyphonic Music_ and Richard Rastell's _The Notation of Western Music_ have chapters on keyboard and lute tablatures. Keyboard tablatures use letters or numbers to represent pitches. There were different systems used in different countries. Bach apparently read keyboard tablature and would sometimes use it to notate music in the margins of pages when all of the staves were filled.

One could also look up tablature in the New Grove Encyclopedia of Music.


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## JamieHoldham

EdwardBast said:


> Books on music notation like Willi Apel's _The Notation of Polyphonic Music_ and Richard Rastell's _The Notation of Western Music_ have chapters on keyboard and lute tablatures. Keyboard tablatures use letters or numbers to represent pitches. There were different systems used in different countries. Bach apparently read keyboard tablature and would sometimes use it to notate music in the margins of pages when all of the staves were filled.
> 
> One could also look up tablature in the New Grove Encyclopedia of Music.


Thanks for the help, will definitely look it up some time.


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