[Harp-L] Re: The advantages of BD harmonica notation

[Bernhard Lehnert <b.lehnert@xxxxxx>]

With all due respect I want to object to the above mentioned advantages
of the letters B and D above + and -. Unfortunately a huge amount of
different rules for writing harmonica tabulature has come up and it is
sad, that so few progress has been made in standardisation.

B/D are symbols much like +/- are symbols. Symbols can be chosen in
better or worse ways. The point that B and D are good symbols because
they are easy to remember _if_one_speaks_English_fluently_ may seem
perfectly natural to the English native speaker.
Unfortunately, those Chinese that were being referred to will mostly not
be native English speakers and they will have to learn the meaning of
those letters much the way they would have had to learn +/- oder arrows.
If you draw a circle of 100km around where I live, there are 4 (well,
more like 3.5) languages spoken but none of them is English. People
still use tabulature.

Furthermore, B ist the first letter in "Blow" but also in "Bending" -
which lends itself to confusion with the beginner. The
not-beginner-anymore will have learned whatever notation and probably
won't mind either way.

So the BD notation is not flawless - at least for the
non-English-speakers. 


"Without figuring out arrows" - Arrows are not hard to figure out at
all: Put the tab sheet on the table in front of you. If the arrow points
into your mouth breathe in, if it points from your mouth breathe out.
The air is always going the way the arrow shows. Is that any more
complicated than BD?
Arrows had the disadvantage of not being available in text only
environements but that is changing. With Unicode making it's way to our
computers, up-arrows and down-arrows are more and more available.
 â   â   â   â   â   â


Until then, plus and minus are universally known symbols available
everywhere and they are not confusable with b - bending. They are as
universal as the arabic number notation.
Imagine your blowing up a balloon - if you want it to be bigger (that is
a "plus") then blow, if you want it to decrease (that is a "minus") let
air flow into your mouth - that is nothing like "having to remember".


Please don't misunderstand: There is an awful lot of possible and good
ways to write tabulature. I have tried different ones to see which one
suited me best and after short time I could adapt to each of them
equally well. Only changing between them was difficult.
If I had a wish in terms of harmonica tab it would be that everyone is
using similar if not the same symbols when communicating via the
internet and when writing books. 

Respectfully,
Bernhard