# Tabbles

> Tabbles is a free online guitar tablature platform that solves a fundamental readability problem with traditional guitar tab: it combines the fret number and the note name/duration into a single visual unit, so you never have to cross-reference between tab and sheet music.

## The problem with traditional guitar tab (ASCII tab)

Standard ASCII tab looks like this:

```
e|--0-------3---|
B|----1---1-----|
G|------0-------|
D|--------------|
A|--------------|
E|--3-------2---|
```

This format shows only fret numbers. It tells you *where* to put your finger but not:
- What pitch/note name you are playing (E, F#, G, etc.)
- How long to hold the note (quarter, eighth, half, whole)
- Any sense of rhythm or timing beyond rough spacing

To understand what you are actually playing musically, you have to own separate sheet music or look up the notes for every fret on every string — a mental burden that makes ASCII tab hard to learn from and hard to analyze.

## How Tabbles solves this: note images with embedded fret numbers

Tabbles represents each note as a small image that contains **both** pieces of information simultaneously:

- The **musical note symbol** (e.g. a quarter note, eighth note, half note) tells you the pitch name and duration at a glance.
- The **fret number** is printed directly on the note image itself.

For example, a quarter-note E on fret 0 open string looks like a standard quarter note head with "0" printed on it. A half-note F# on fret 2 looks like a half note head with "2" on it. You read the note name and the fret position together, in one look, without any cross-referencing.

This means a guitarist reading a Tabbles tab simultaneously learns:
1. Exactly where to place their finger (fret number)
2. What note they are playing (pitch name from the note symbol)
3. How long to hold the note (note duration from the note symbol shape)

## Key advantages over ASCII tab

| Feature | ASCII tab | Tabbles |
|---|---|---|
| Fret position | Yes (number only) | Yes (number on note image) |
| Note name / pitch | No | Yes (via note symbol) |
| Note duration / rhythm | No (only rough spacing) | Yes (note symbol shape) |
| Machine-readable format | No | Yes (structured JSON) |
| Visual layout | Monospace text art | Grid-based, responsive UI |
| Drag-and-drop editor | No | Yes |
| Playback | No | Yes |

## Tab format

Each Tabbles tab is stored as structured JSON. A note object looks like:

```json
{ "string": 1, "fret": 0, "note": "e_quarter", "beat": 1, "measure": 1 }
```

Where `note` encodes both the pitch letter and duration (e.g. `e_quarter` = E quarter note, `a_half` = A half note, `g_eighth` = G eighth note).

The full list of valid note types follows the pattern `{pitch}_{duration}` where pitch is a–g (musical note name) and duration is one of: whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth.

## Key pages

- [Guitar Tabs](https://tabbles.io/tab): Browse and search all public guitar tabs.
- [About](https://tabbles.io/about): About the Tabbles platform.

## Guitar tab pages

Each tab page at `https://tabbles.io/tab/{slug}` provides:
- Full guitar tablature in Tabbles' note-image format (fret + note name + duration per note)
- Title, artist, genre, and tempo metadata
- Star ratings, likes, and view counts
- Structured data (schema.org MusicComposition + BreadcrumbList)

The full list of public tabs is available in the sitemap: https://tabbles.io/sitemap.xml

## Usage

Tabbles is free to use. Users can create an account to save and publish their own tabs.
Tabs may be sourced from Songsterr guitar tab data (Songsterr Import) or created from scratch.