Editing Time unit box system (section)

{{For|the former boarding school with the acronym TUBS|Tokai University Boarding School in Denmark}}
'''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]]s in [[music]]. 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]]s, that would be difficult to see in traditional [[musical notation]]. 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 [[Musicology|musicologists]] Philip Harland and James Koetting to notate polyrhythms in [[African music]] in the early 1960s.<ref>Koetting, James "Analysis and Notation of West African Drum Ensemble Music." Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology 1(3) - 1970: 116-46</ref>  However, [[Joseon dynasty|Joseon]] composer Bak Yeon(박연)'s invention of similar but unrelated notation ''jeongganbo''(정간보, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060314223120/http://www.koreandb.net/KMusic/Pic/Klp011.jpg image]) to notate [[Korean court music]] 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 (music software)|tracker]] notation is essentially TUBS rotated by 90 degrees.