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Comment by andrewliebchen | Hacker News Reader

It's clearly stated that the solution is meant to be like guitar tabs for piano. It's a limited, instrument-centered approach and not intended as a complete or universal solution.

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Yes, but since he frames it in the title as a "redesign," it's hard to get out of the frame of thinking about it as such. If he had titled it "A Simpler Notation for Piano Music" or something, his intent would've been clearer.

But then again, probably wouldn't have gotten to the front page without the word "redesign"

Traditional sheet music is already like guitar tabs for piano, because pianos (unlike guitars) only have one physical place where you can play a given note (like middle C). The reason guitar tabs make some sense [0] for guitar music is that "middle C" on a guitar can be played on several different strings.

[0] I say "some sense," because tabs are still fairly limiting, particularly in depicting complex rhythms. Traditional sheet music is still very common (and, I contend, indispensable) for advanced guitar study.

Does it matter on which string the note is played, except to not get yourself into an unplayable position?

Yeah, it's mostly about playability. It's easy to get into a position where you're playing the notes in the current chord correctly, but there's no way to play the melody of shift elegantly to the next chord. Classical guitar sheet music contains a lot of hints for fingering. Fret bar indicators are quite common, and sometimes you'll see complete stacked fingering indicators. Some more difficult pieces will give you almost nothing, and it's up to your experience (and just brute force) to figure out the ideal fingerings.

What baddox says is true, but I have to add that there is a noticeable difference in timbre between the same note played at two different places. So if you find yourself with the choice, you have to use your own judgment to decide which fingering you think sounds better.

> for guitar music is that "middle C" on a guitar can be played on several different strings.

True, and in the Piano you have to care about which finger to play it with (which is a similar problem)

That's true, but I find it's generally a much simpler problem on piano than guitar, and thus sight reading on the piano is much more tenable than on the guitar.

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