How to notate guitar fingerpicking for good playback.
The best way I have found to notate fingerpicking for guitar so that it plays back well in Musescore is to treat each of the strings as a separate instrument, thereby allowing each to sustain its note for any length, regardless of what the others are doing. The six separate staves are bulky on the page and might be difficult to sight read, but that's not as important to me as getting the playback right, so I'm leaving this note for anybody with a similar interest. (I'm working with Musescore 3. If anybody knows a better way in either 3 or 4, please chime in. Thank you.)
Comments
If you are using MS 3.7 Evolution then you could try the TAB Ring plugin as it intended for exactly the situation that you describe and allows scoring on a single stave and single voice to sound as good as 6 separate staves. (It also supports the MS standard of up to 4 voices per stave.)
For details see https://musescore.org/en/node/356907
With MS3.6.2 the maximum playback duration of any note is 2 x its face value. This is not sufficient for realistic guitar sustain and has been increased to 60 x face value in MS3.7. I have a workaround ready to publish for 3.6.2 which allows the plugin to apply this maximum.
You could try Musescore's built-in Let Ring line but it works like a piano pedal so it's a bit crude for guitar:
See https://musescore.org/en/node/319340
and https://musescore.org/en/node/286670
Another method is to use hidden tied notes but this makes score maintenance hard work.
TAB Ring Example score:
https://musescore.com/user/28842914/scores/13203472
In reply to If you are using MS 3.7… by yonah_ag
Thanks for the reply, yonah_ag. I had not heard of Musescore 3.7 and at first could not find it. Then I noticed the 3.6.2 update to your plugin submitted today (happy new year!), read the documentation, and found at the end a very helpful link to "Installing MuseScore 3.7".
So now that I am all up-to-date and informed on your plugin and 3.7, where should I put feedback on TAB Ring, if I should have some? Also, could you point me to a list of reasons why I might want to use 3.7? Thanks again.
In reply to Thanks for the reply, yonah… by dayirmiter
Any feedback goes here: https://musescore.org/en/node/356907
For me the only reason for using 3.7 is the extended duration playback over 3.6.2 but there are various bugfixes and enhancements. It also has the ability to open MS4.2 files. I have 3.6.2, 3.7 and 4.2.0 all on the same PC and they don't interfere with each other.
There is no definitive list of improvements but I might see about adding a page to my 3.7 documentation. At present you have to go through the list of updates in GitHub.
Happy New Year!
In reply to Thanks for the reply, yonah… by dayirmiter
my 3.7 is currently 628 commits ahead of 3.6.2, check https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/compare/3.6.2...Jojo-Schmitz:Mus… for the complete list
In reply to my 3.7 is currently 628… by Jojo-Schmitz
I stand corrected: there is a detailed, definitive list of changes. I'll see if I can make a page organising them into a slightly more user friendly page of enhancements, MS4 backports and bugfixes.
Is that full list exportable from GitHub?
@datyirmiter
Here's a link that addresses your guitar playback question and provides a look at the history of the TAB Ring plugin.
scorster