Chord Tab
From StickiWiki
Chord Tab is a mechanism for creating chord and scale diagrams from simple text in the Wiki. It can be used for any number of strings and frets. It can be imbedded in any Wiki page on this site. It cannot be used for song tablature because it does not display numbers as text.
Contents |
Basics
Chord Tab uses the "-" (dash) and "=" (equal sign) characters to represent strings (thin and thick, respectively), and the "|" (vertical bar) character to represent frets. By convention the left side of the diagram represents the part of the instrument closest to the tuners, and the right side represents the part of the instrument closest to the pickup and bridge. This is similar to what you would see looking down at the Stick when it is in playing position.
For normal diagrams you can use "0" (capital or lower-case "o" or zero) to represent finger placement, or if you want to use the symbols that Emmett Chapman created for his book Free Hands, you can use the characters "1", "2", "3" and "4".
To tell the Wiki that the information should be interpreted as Chord Tab, rather than text, you need to sandwich it between a <chordtab> and a </chordtab> tag. Below is the Wiki text for a Grand (12-string) Stick Chord Tab diagram:
<chordtab> |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |---|---|---|---|---|-0-|---| |---|---|---|---|---|-0-|---| |---|---|---|---|---|---|-0-| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | |===|===|=2=|===|===|===|===| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |---|---|---|-4-|---|---|---| |---|---|-3-|---|---|---|---| |---|-1-|---|---|---|---|---| </chordtab>
Below is the diagram produced by this text:
In the diagram, the left hand uses Emmett Chapman's system to designate which fingers should be used, while the right hand uses traditional finger markings. Normally, the two systems would not be mixed together, and it is done here just for demonstration purposes.
The right hand is shown playing a minor chord, first inversion. Assuming that the bass side uses the high bass fourth tuning, the left hand is shown playing a dominant 7 b13 chord.
Advanced Features
Size
Normally, the chord tablature allocates a 16 pixel by 16 pixel box for each character in the input. You can change the size of this box by putting a line before the diagram that tells the application to use a different size. This line should be of the form:
:size=14
It must start with a colon in the first character, and designate a size between 5 and 100 pixels. 14 is a good size if the default is a little too large.
Text
Text, such as fret numbers can be placed on any non-string line. A non-string line is any line that does not have "-" or "=" as the second character.
Cuts
Sometimes you want to show fingerings at both ends of the fretboard, and want to indicate that some of the fretboard has been removed from the diagram. To do this, use the "/" character between frets.
Braces
Sometimes on a text line you want to mark an area with a brace. This brace will run under any text that is on the same line. Indicate the start of the brace with the "[" character and the end with the "]" character.
Thumb
Some Stick players have added an additional symbol to Emmett's original ones. This symbol is a pentagon, and it symbolizes the placement of the thumb. You can display this symbol on string lines by using either "T" or "5".
Advanced Example
All of the advanced features are used in the following example. First the Wiki text is shown, then the diagram.
<chordtab>
:size=14
|---|---|---|---|-/-|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|-0-|---|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|-0-|---|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|---|-0-|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|---|---|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|---|---|
| | | | | | | |
|===|===|=2=|===|=/=|===|===|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|-T-|---|
|---|---|---|---|-/-|---|---|
|---|---|---|-4-|-/-|---|---|
|---|---|-3-|---|-/-|---|---|
|---|-1-|---|---|-/-|---|---|
2 12
[ E7b13 ] [ Gm ]
</chordtab>
Important Information
- You must not have any leading white space on the string lines.
- The second character of the line determines the how and whether the string is drawn. It should be "-" (dash) for a normal string, or "=" (equal sign) for a thick string, or " " (space) for no string.
- All string lines should have the same number of characters.
Where did this come from?
Vance Gloster developed the Chord Tab application for the StickiWiki site, and Matt Perry got it wired into the Wiki.
