Below the bottom string notation of bass in lute tab.
The standard representation historically of bass notes below the staff of 6 strings in lute tab was to put a letter or a letter preceded by a slash below the staff. All notes I see recommend using a 7th string, which is unreadable and not done historically, or faking it by using the lyric area to fudge in the proper notation, which does not convert, and does not sound. This should be a standard notation ability of the software, that when you are at the bottom string and hit a down arrow, the location jumps below the staff and lets you enter the lower note in the same way as was done historically, and indeed as it is read and done today, the letter as if it were the bottom string, but a fourth lower, and another fourth for each slash preceding the letter. (French) The complementary ability for Italian would seem to be in order, as well. I've been faking it with the lyric method, but that is unsatisfactory as well, as the font is different and it doesn't sound or convert. I've been using Musescore for years for notating old lute tabs in standard musical notation, and the conversion and clarity of the tab feature would be wonderful if this were fixed.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Fine Knacks for Ladies in progress.mscz | 19.73 KB |
Comments
" This should be a standard notation ability of the software, that when you are at the bottom string and hit a down arrow, the location jumps below the staff and lets you enter the lower note in the same way as was done historically,"
This is already possible since for the 2.1 version, and it works fine/as expected.
But you have chose in the wizard the default lute which is intended for 6 courses. And then you added another lute "Tablature" also intended for 6 courses.
So, in Staff Properties, you have to Change Instrument, for a lute 7-course (all instruments or early music)
Ditto for the last staff: change instrument -> lute 7- course to allow to enter notes on the 7th-course, and then change the staff Type (for French Tab) in instruments dialog.
See: 2Fine Knacks for Ladies in progress-1.mscz
In reply to " This should be a standard… by cadiz1
Yes, choosing 7 course lute and then getting into the "standard" box in the instrument selection and choosing 6-string tab-French, does let me finally put a letter below the staff. Great! This doesn't allow for the slashes, of course, but simply defining a preceding slash as "one fourth down" doesn't seem too extravagant. I'm not really being obstreperous, I just think trying to match prevailing practice in the implementation is worthwhile. And on that note:
While the notes above the staves are easy to read, is there any way to get the note heads removed from the display, and 1/4 the value, as was done in period? (see original, below.) If you’re doing it this way because it makes more sense, I quite understand. Just interested from historical matching on this one.
Is there any way to get the notes above the staves in tab to appear when there is no note, for a rest? This was the practice, pretty universally, and still is. Note the initial 3 beat rest in the following example, then in the transcript. Note how I added the f in the tab, the note up an octave, to act as a placeholder and keep the dotted quarter time mark in place. Without the rests getting a time mark, there’s no way to really keep track of where you are. In the originals, measure lines were sometimes optional or nonexistent, which made the problem even worse.
The implementation of standard lute notation behavior, (Dowland's pretty standard,) while easy once you know how, is anything but obvious. Having been on your end of the stick, and having dealt with the public as a computer programmer, I can sympathize. In this case, they really do have a valid point to make. I did make the effort to define an extra string and get it working, I have used the lyric function to fake it. I even downloaded the 2.1 implementation to insure I wasn't just dealing with a legacy problem.
As a final note, I will say that MuseScore has been a blessing to me and mine. Thank you for all your efforts, and for your consideration of this issue.
Courtney Powers
AKA Charric Van der Vliet
redbranch9@gmail.com
Now Cease My Wandering Eyes Original Document.pdf
Now Cease My Wandering Eyes trans.pdf
In reply to Putting in another string… by Charric Van de…
"This doesn't allow for the slashes, of course, but simply defining a preceding slash as "one fourth down" doesn't seem too extravagant."
The slashes appear with the lute 8-course (and 9 and 10 courses), then numbers (4, 5, 6, for lower courses, intended for baroque lutes)
![slash.jpg]( "slash.jpg")
See:
There is a way, indeed.
Do: right-click on the Tab staff -> Staff Properties -> Advanced style properties -> Note Values -> Select (in the little drop-down list): MuseScore Tab Italian -> Ok twice
And you get (image below):
![lute.jpg]( "lute.jpg")
And your score, with this display: 3Fine Knacks for Ladies in progress-1.mscz
But, to get rests: do the same steps (as for Point 1), and always in last step/window, "Note Values", tick "Show rests"
And you receive:
![anacr.jpg]( "anacr.jpg")
In reply to "This doesn't allow for the… by cadiz1
Thanks, that pretty much addresses all the issues I had dealing with it. These adjustments were anything but obvious. Perhaps a tutorial for tablature implementation in general is in order. I'd sure have spent time with it before bugging you guys if I'd found one. Once more, thanks for the effort with the ignorant. It really helped, and you were Johnny-on-the-spot with the right answers.
C. A. Powers
AKA Charric Van der Vliet
To give you some listening while working, access the music:
http://sgtc.20megsfree.com/Albums/Charric%20Albums.html
I'm still working on getting the sheet music online, but will provide it via email by request at:
redbranch9@gmail.com
In reply to Thanks, that pretty much… by Charric Van de…
Ok, glad to hear this.
"These adjustments were anything but obvious. Perhaps a tutorial for tablature implementation in general is in order."
There is a learning curve, as always. And that becomes obvious with practice.
The handbook in Tablature section can not cover all possible cases, especially for historical tablature, each user, in addition, may have specific wishes.
So, the forum support is there for that.
You just have to ask :)