Failing to write tablature from notes in a 8-string guitar picking piece
Hi, not sure if it's a bug or a feature but the documentation for writting tabs shows that what I'm failing to do something that should be possible.
Disclaimer: I'm still a beginner in music, music writing and musescore.
I have the attached in-progress 4-fingers picking piece, it's totally not finished as the separated parts shows. My intention is to have both the notes and the tabs, for an 8 string guitar with EBEADGBE tuning.
Everything seems to be set correctly (maybe not) but I totally fail to write notes inside the tabs.
Compared to the examples in the tablature documentation I remark that in my piece:
1. the notes are splitted between 2 staffs, like for the piano, because it's a bit easier to read than if all the notes possible on the 8 string were on one staff;
2. when I copy both the notes staffs and paste on the tabs, I get the notes of only the upper staff;
3. when I try to edit the tab manually, I don't seem to be able to write notes which are overlapping;
I just want to be able to write these notes on the tabs staff.
I have no idea if I'm doing it wrong or if my file is wrong or if there is a bug.
So... halp? :)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Extended_Strings_4-fingers_Arpeggio.mscz | 18.25 KB |
Comments
There are a few problems with your approach to this, but all can be overcome.
1. When you added the staff with the tablature you added it as a staff and changed the clef to "TAB" This make them independent of one another so you can put a fingering on one staff and a different not on the other. Below Add Staff is Add Linked Staff. You can at this point click on standard and change it to the 6 string version of the TAB staff you want. This will change the clef to staff for you. You will then need to right click the tab staff and to the right of style group Tablature click Advanced Style Properties so you can make this the 8 strings by changing the lines setting. You can change any other settings you like here.
2. An instrument can only link a tablature to one staff, the first one. You will need to add a second guitar with its own linked staff for the bass clef the same way you did the other one. When you listen it will sound like one guitar, you just limit yourself to the appropriate strings for each staff. Since you can only use a limited number of fingers, you will have to decide which notes to put on which staff. Consider that a strum on 6 strings will have to go on one staff so you can put the appropriate arpeggio symbol on all the notes at once.
Once you get all the notes down, you can change everything in the bass clef to voice 2 (provided you didn't use voice 2 in the treble 8vb clef) and copy it to the other clef, or just make a different file with the lone guitar line and TAB if applicable and paste both to the same guitar line.
Attached is how my quick test looks.
In reply to There are a few problems with by mike320
I guess you want keep the same displaying as on your file ?
So, you have to do:
1) Select all the second staff (bass clef) -> Edit -> Voices -> Exchange Voice1-2
2) Copy-paste the content of this second staff (in Voice 2 now) in the Tab staff
3) Then, Copy-paste the content of the first staff (Voice 1 always) in the Tab staff.
(if wished, you can make "invisible" the rests Voice I of the second staff)
And you get: 1 Extended_Strings_4-fingers_Arpeggio-1.mscz
In reply to I guess you want keep the by cadiz1
Thanks for your time.
Indeed this is the result I wanted. For now I do not understand all the manipulations you did, but I think your answer and mike320's answer should have everything I need to understand how I got it wrong.
In reply to I guess you want keep the by cadiz1
Here is my current understanding: what you suggest is to, when the note writing is finished, copy notes from one of the staff to the other staff, then copy the pasted staff into the tabs, then remove the notes from the first staff from the pasted staff.
Am I correct?
In any way, why musescore is not able to, in general, allow copy/pasting from several staffs?
In reply to Here is my current by Klaim
You are almost correct. But it is not necessary to delete anything.
From your file, the process is:
- Enter notes (voice I - see the link of the handbook mentioned above about the Voices) in top staff
- Enter notes (voice 2) in second staff
- And in this order: Copy paste the content of the second staff in the Tab staff, then, copy paste the content of the top staff in the Tab staff. That's all.
In reply to You are almost correct. But by cadiz1
Oh I see now, thanks I will try this.
In reply to There are a few problems with by mike320
Thank you for your time.
Unfortunately, this is not good enough at all. I do not want to have several tablature just because there is 8 strings.
I would also suggest, if you are a beginner in music, that you not try writing music for guitar using two staves. This is *not* how music for guitar is normally written, and by writing it that way, you're actually making it harder for anyone else to read the music. If it's only for your own personal use, I guess that could be a reasonable choice, but generally other musicians will prefer things written the standard way. Or if you are already an expert in music and have the experience to know what special unusual thing about your music and the people who will be playing it makes it a candidate for experimental notation.
In reply to I would also suggest, if you by Marc Sabatella
This is not the majority of cases, of course, but there are some scores in the rather contemporary repertoire (Walton, Koshkin and others) with this kind of writing, except the Tab in this repertoire (so, only two staves)
And even more in early music (for lute, and especially the repertoire of renaissance music, and so, three staves: two in standard notation and the third as a Tab), where well-known transcribers used this way of doing in the goal to better visualize the architecture of the polyphony (eg, all John Dowland's works by Diana Poulton, or that of Francesco Da Milano by Arthur J. Ness)
Knowing, moreover, that is not really a big deal for entering notes Voice 1 in first staff, notes Voice 2 in second staff, and then copy-paste (Voice 2 then Voice1) in the Tab staff. Well, for a total beginner, maybe! :)
For multi-string instruments (8, 10, 11 strings, etc.), the usual/more common practice is to display a single standard staff, and to indicate the bass notes to the octave (with a small number 8 under the note)
Eg: a C2 would be showed as a C3 (but with a 8 under it)
Of course, in this case, it is possible that the user works with TablEdit (occasionally or not), which offers this kind of display with three staves. And that he tries to reproduce with MuseScore? It's just an intuition, perhaps inaccurate (but I have already encountered this use case on the French forum)
In reply to This is not the majority of by cadiz1
"For multi-string instruments (8, 10, 11 strings, etc.), the usual/more common practice is to display a single standard staff, and to indicate the bass notes to the octave (with a small number 8 under the note)
Eg: a C2 would be showed as a C3 (but with a 8 under it)"
Thanks for this info, I didn't know this notation (though I have books about notation, I only started them recently).
I will try that in another composition exercise. I suspect it to be too much noise if the piece use a lot of bass notes, but it's good to know that notation for other parts I guess.
In reply to "For multi-string instruments by Klaim
"Much Noise"
I do not really think so. Rather a question of habit. And these extra bass strings are not played systematically, many others are fretted (and if there is an ostinato, we can, why not, add a single number 8 then add a line of dotted lines according to the principle of ottavas)
Look at this example - here for 10-string guitar. You observe on this example that the bass strings are showed with the real pitch (this tuning is not common - but well, sort of specifity of these instruments, so, no real standard, you do as needed)
Another one, more common for this notation:
And for this: "For now I do not understand all the manipulations you did":
Basically, you need two main features that you have to learn ie:
- https://musescore.org/en/handbook/copy-and-paste
- https://musescore.org/en/handbook/voices
In reply to "Much Noise" I do not really by cadiz1
Thanks for taking the time to show me this, it's very interesting. I don't understand much of the first part, mainly because I don't know what is the number next to the notes (is it a guitar string number?).
Anyway it's good food for thoughts, I will discuss this with my teacher, see if it's the right time for me to try these ways of doing.
In reply to Thanks for taking the time to by Klaim
"is it a guitar string number?"
Indeed. I wanted to show that there is no really standard for the notation of these multi-strings.
But the second way (with the 8 under the note) is preferable for you, easier and more common.
In reply to I would also suggest, if you by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your suggestion Marc.
I am following my teacher's suggestion. I initially tried with adding lines to a normal G clef staff, but it was really hard to read, far harder than with a 8 line tablature.
Then my teacher told me to use the 2 same staffs than for piano as in this document. This is both because I will need to be used to read it anyway, because of music composition training, getting used to reading piano parts; and because it's far simpler to read than than if I have only one staff for the range of notes I have available on a 8 string with EBEADGBE tuning.
BTW I'm saying I'm beginner but I have 2 years now of trainning, but not full time, just 1 or 2 hours a day in addition to weekly lessons with my music teacher. I'm focusnig on composition, playing guitar (8 string if I can) etc. in order to be able to make music for other projects I have in progress.
So I can read very slowly and my experience with writting is still poor, which is why I said I'm a beginner, but I don't know if I should change qualitificaiton now.