Tablatures

Both Klavar and Synthesia are examples of tablature wherein the player is not necessarily conscious of scale degree names and octave numbers, but instead is simply mapping noteheads and “bombs” directly to fingers on the keyboard.  The Klavar community certainly sees their commonality since there is a Klavar Facebook group named “Synthesia on paper!”. 

There are also tablatures for other instruments and the one for guitar players appears to be widely used.  Tablatures provide students an easy and intuitive way to learn to play a piece of music.  Certainly there are those who would argue that tablatures are “too” easy and that they remove the element of scale degree cognition and music theory in general.  But for the “casual” player, tablatures enable one to learn a new piece quickly and just have fun with it.  But to be clear and fair, Klavar is not only a tablature but is also functionally equivalent to Traditional Notation and may be used by players of all skill levels.

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