tablature

In music, an old system of writing down music using symbols representing the fingerboard and strings to show a player's finger positions. It was formerly used for the lute, and nowadays for the guitar and ukulele.

Prior to 1700, tablature protected the status of court lutenists, as the notation could not be interpreted by other instruments, but with the introduction of a universal standard notation, for example in the Parthenia in 1611, a collection of pieces for virginal by William Byrd, Doctor Bull, and Orlando Gibbons, the way was open for amateur keyboard instrumentalists to perform music at a level of virtuosity of the professional lutenist.