Ilike to ask the what if questions. Seems a lot of learningcomes from some of them while others sound stupid it may open new doors.
Skip said:
Sure would have a wide fingerboard!
There is one [almost], it's called a dobro and I guess a lap steel would be along the same lines, probably a few more kinds around. You could also just play a guitar in your lap, might be a bit clumsy because of size. Maybe a small or child's guitar in the lap?
Then the question is, are you playing a MD or guitar.
10ashus;
Don't give up on guitar oriented music, most all of it can be used, music, lyrics, and chords. they all can be used one way or another. It's just the tab that is essentially unusable. The music can be entered in a music editing program to generate MD tab if you really want it.
Most tab is not transferable between instruments because it is designed to tell the player where a note is on that instrument. If you were given tab for a chromatic MD, 4 equidistant strings, tuned to CEGBb, like I have, you would not be able to use it unless you had a similar setup.
Sure would have a wide fingerboard! There is one [almost], it's called a dobro and I guess a lap steel would be along the same lines, probably a few more kinds around. You could also just play a guitar in your lap, might be a bit clumsy because of size. Maybe a small or child's guitar in the lap?
Then the question is, are you playing a MD or guitar.
A what if question. What if you had a chromatic with 6 equidistant strings tuned like a guitar?
Skip said:
The biggest problem is that guitar tab is for 6 strings vs 3 for a MD. I've taken tab for guitar, in TablEdit, and transposed it, didn't work very well. I haven't tried with a chromatic MD, all the notes would be there but not the string count. A melody line would be playable on a chromatic if you used the music notation [smn] but most likely not the tab unless you can transpose the guitar tab numbers of the MD plus locations in your head, eg., a 3 [guitar] = 1+[MD], or 12 = 7[MD] or you are using the guitar counting with your MD already.
You would probably be held to flatpicking/fingerpickinh also, even if the rest of the differences were worked out.
Then there is the added problem of what guitar tuning is the tab set up for, same as MD.
The biggest problem is that guitar tab is for 6 strings vs 3 for a MD. I've taken tab for guitar, in TablEdit, and transposed it, didn't work very well. I haven't tried with a chromatic MD, all the notes would be there but not the string count. A melody line would be playable on a chromatic if you used the music notation [smn] but most likely not the tab unless you can transpose the guitar tab numbers of the MD plus locations in your head, eg., a 3 [guitar] = 1+[MD], or 12 = 7[MD] or you are using the guitar counting with your MD already.
You would probably be held to flatpicking/fingerpickinh also, even if the rest of the differences were worked out.
Then there is the added problem of what guitar tuning is the tab set up for, same as MD.
So could you play guitar tab on the chromatic dulcimer?
Timothy said:
Not really. Tabledit will import ascii tab, and can convert it to different instrument tabs, but the results are not always playable.
The problem lies in converting a score for a chromatic instrument into one for a diatonic instrument. The software algorithm would have to determine what mode the scale used in the song is in, and then transpose into that mode's key for the given dulcimer tuning. Not impossible, but not likely that someone would code that for an instrument as obscure as the dulcimer.
Best chance would be to ask Keith Saturn at Tabledit if they would be willing to code this, and explain to him as clearly as possible what would be required.
I'm going to try to convert a random guitar tab into dulcimer tab with Tabledit, and see what happens. Will report back.
