Time Unit Box System (TUBS) is a simple system for notating events that happen over a period. This system is mostly used for notating
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...
s in
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
. The notation consists of one or more rows of boxes; each box represents a fixed unit of time. Blank boxes indicate that nothing happens during that interval, while a mark in a box indicates that an event occurs at the start of that time interval.
TUBS is most useful for showing relationships between complex rhythms, such as
polyrhythm
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
s, that would be difficult to see in traditional
musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...
. TUBS also has the advantage that non-musicians can interpret it much more easily than musical notation, because of its simplicity.
The term "TUBS" and the notation was originally used by
musicologists
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
Philip Harland and James Koetting to notate polyrhythms in
African music
Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The ...
in the early 1960s.
[Koetting, James "Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music." Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 1(3) - 1970: 116-46] However,
Joseon
Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...
composer Bak Yeon(박연)'s invention of similar but unrelated notation ''jeongganbo''(정간보
image to notate
Korean court music
Korean court music comprises three main musical genres: ''aak'', an imported form of Chinese ritual music; a pure Korean form called '' hyangak''; and a combination of Chinese and Korean styles called '' dangak''.
Korean court music and its hist ...
dates back to middle of the 15th century.
TUBS notation has been adapted by several people; the most common adaptations use different symbols in the boxes to represent different sounds, for example different ways of hitting a drum or even different musical pitches. In fact,
tracker notation is essentially TUBS rotated by 90 degrees.
Examples
Below is an example in TUBS, followed by a similar representation in traditional music notation.
TUBS
Traditional
\relative c'
Below is an example of an adapted TUBS score depicting a percussion pattern for multiple instruments. One benefit with the TUBS system is that it clearly relates which drum is to be struck (as the symbol will be solid, hollow, etc. uniquely for each drum) as opposed to different drums being notated via a different line of the musical staff, which can be more difficult to see. More importantly, the symbol used inside of each Time Unit Box relates how the drum is to be struck (open tone, slap, bass, rim-shot, etc.) which is not as easily conveyed with the musical staff notation.
References
Musical notation
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