Guitar tab too high
I'm making a very simple folk tune tab for a friend and I have tried to do it with either control, or option, or command + down arrow to lower guitar tabs on my Mac following suggestions in google. Nothing works. I then tried lowering the notation itself (I had earlier copy/pasted piano score in new stave for guitar tab) and that worked to lower the notation, but the guitar tab was unchanged, still an octave too high even though it was also selected.
I don't recall this problem in the past. I seldom do tabs so maybe something has changed.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Little Rabbit.mscz | 24.3 KB |
Comments
I noticed I asked about this 4 years ago. I was able to solve the problem then but it doesn't work now. As I had noted then almost all of the tab notes are on the high E string.
In reply to I noticed I asked about this… by briankwood
Tools > Transpose > By interval > Down > Perfect octave gives a good result. If you want to go even lower then just transpose down again, i.e. do it in two stages.
The Ctrl/Cmd+down shortcuts works for transposing an octave down on a standard staff. For tablature staves, that shortcuts means "attempt to move the note to the next string without changing pitch". See also the handbook page: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/tablature#summary-of-keys
In your score, the tablature isn't linked to the standard staff (they're even different instruments altogether). So one way would be to add a linked standard staff to your tablature and do the Cmd+down shortcut on that.
Another possibility is to copy/paste from the piano staff onto the tablature staff after having done the transposition in the standard staff.
A third possibility is to select the tablature staff and use Tools → Transpose and in the dialog select "By interval, down, perfect octave".
In reply to The Ctrl/Cmd+down shortcuts… by jeetee
I didn't select stave first but just went to Tools >transpose, etc. "Transpose" then selected both staves automatically. It took just seconds to do.
In reply to The Ctrl/Cmd+down shortcuts… by jeetee
I got it to transpose the tab down by not selecting anything but transposing down a full octave. That also transposed the standard (to me- I'm not sure what a standard staff is compared to what I generally do) staff an octave lower too, but no real loss for now since I only need the guitar tab. I confess to not understanding why this is hard to do, particularly why turning standard piano notation into guitar tab raises it an octave in the first place.
Thanks much for all replies
In reply to I got it to transpose the… by briankwood
You wrote:
I confess to not understanding why... turning standard piano notation into guitar tab raises it an octave in the first place.
Just recently someone else had the same question. See:
https://musescore.org/en/node/326795#comment-1108129
and look at the image shown in that link. Also open the attached file: Guitar_8vb.mscz.
In reply to You wrote: * I confess to… by Jm6stringer
I read it. Thanks for that.
In reply to I got it to transpose the… by briankwood
> "particularly why turning standard piano notation into guitar tab raises it an octave in the first place"
It doesn't!
A guitar is an octave transposing instrument (or need the transposing clef).
Here's the score with:
• staff/track 1 set to Guitar instrument (8vb treble clef)
• the notation lowered one octave
• The unlinked tab staff deleted and replaced with a linked staff (so you make need to correct some string assignments)
I also added a capo setting, via the staff text properties. And since capo settings fail to transpose chord symbols I turned them off.
Little Rabbit - converted and capoed.mscz
Is this what you're trying to accomplish?
scorster
In reply to Here's the score with: • … by scorster
Yes, thanks. I more or less accomplished it myself somehow, but I see that starting with guitar notation rather than piano is what you did. Right?
In reply to Yes, thanks. I more or less… by briankwood
Essentially. But I didn't "start" with guitar notation. I changed the instrument (assigned to your staff) to Guitar. Doing so set the clef to 8vb and accordingly the notation appeared at true pitch, thus an octave too high for guitar notation on an 8vb staff. So then I simply lowered the notation an octave.