Shared noteheads In Tablature

• Dec 30, 2023 - 22:55

I added a tablature to a beginner's piece of music that contains the same note value in two voices. I cannot figure out for the life of me how that can be reflected correctly in the tablature. In the attached score, measure 7 is representative: in beats 1, 2 and 3 the notes are assigned to different strings, but beat 4 is coded correctly although highlighted in red (...and I don't know what the red flag means, either).

Many thanks,

Ernesto

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Andantino in G.mscz 39.73 KB

Comments

• Dec 30, 2023 - 23:30

You can select the unwanted notes in the tab staff and press v to hide them (v toggles visibility of most objects in MuseScore.) This causes the invisible to dim onscreen, as shown in the attached score, and MuseScore omits them entirely from hardcopy and PDF.

Andantino in G _ with Hidden duplicate TAB notes.mscz

Hiding tablature notes is an inelegant solution for "shared noteheads"—i.e. noteheads with an additional stem set to in opposition to the direction of the existing stem.

Logical as it is, when the goal is purely the addition of an opposing stem, the addition of unison notes in a second voice is cumbersome and has unwanted repercussions:

• the added unison notes that must be muted to avoid phasing and changes of perceived amplitude.
• as stated in the opening post, the unisons are commuted to the tablature staff, resulting in a confusing state. Hiding tablature unisons is an extra effort. If notes had an "Additional stem" property both of these problems disappear entirely.

Later I will make further suggestions later for the development team. Wth MuseScore 's focus on improved guitar notation perhaps this is a good time to look at this issue.

scorster

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• Dec 30, 2023 - 23:40

Forgot to mention, the red "flags" are MuseScore's way of telling you it can't find a fret for the one of the unison notes. In each instance MuseScore assigned one low G is noted on fret 3 of the low E string, but it has no place to put the unison. You'd need a seven string guitar to accommodate the unisons, which you don't want to see anyway.

MuseScore 3 had View>Show Unprintable When unchecked MuseScore would hide the red flags, with the small imposition of a broken staff line, caused by the bounding box of the hidden flag. That system would work without breaking staff lines if the flags were drawn behind the staff lines. Or if View>Show Unprintable dealt with the bounding box. But the former solution is simpler and foolproof.

But alas, MuseScore 4 does not View>Show Unprintable. So yet another MS4 regression. Methinks you'll have to live with the red flags and the broken staff line in hardcopy.

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• Dec 31, 2023 - 02:01

"But alas, MuseScore 4 does not View>Show Unprintable. So yet another MS4 regression. Methinks you'll have to live with the red flags and the broken staff line in hardcopy."

There are number of unfortunate regressions in V4, but not here! :) However the fact is, for some reason, there's been a change in the name of the feature. With V3, you had 5 items in the menu View -> "Show" list:
- Invisible
- Unprintable
- Frames
- Page Margins
- Mark Irregular measures

With V4, you still have 5 items, except that the name of the second has changed to Show Formatting.

So you still need to use this second item and uncheck Show Formatting to hide the red squares in the TAB staff. See: Andantino in G _ without red square.mscz

formatting.jpg

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• Dec 31, 2023 - 02:47

@cadiz1

So in MuseScore 4 Show>Formatting governs visibility of the red flag tab warnings, eh? Thanks for the tip!!

Unchecking v3's Unprintable made more sense. In v4 with the menu option renamed "Formatting" it's less sensible that the warning flags now have toggled visibility under "Layout."

scorster

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