Tablature form of instruments at list level
In 'Instruments', the following instruments are still offered at list level in tablature form:
Acoustic Guitar (nylon)
Lute
Ukelele
Electric Bass
I think they should be removed - users could refer to the other entry and select the 'Staff type'. Is there a reason why they aren't?
Using MuseScore 2.0 Nightly Build (81308f5) - Mac 10.7.5.
Comments
This has been discussed just yesterday on the IRC. And I was just holding your position!
lasconic replied favoring ease of use over 'rationality': having the (some?) choices at list level takes away one steps (at least for commonest cases) and makes things easier for the user (of course, once the label issue is sorted out).
He also pointed out that both Sibelius and Finale have these choices at list level. Finale even has a special list group for tablatures ("Winds", "Strings", ... "Tablatures"). This approch initially horrified my Cartesian mind (an Italian more Cartesian than a Frenchman? Where we will end up?), as it mixes genera and species. But the more I think to it, the more I find it appropriate.
I believe that the user looking for a way to create a tablature thinks about "tablature" before than about "guitar" (or "lute"). So, a specific group would probably make sense; this would also helps in removing the duplicates from the other groups.
Comments?
M.
Werner/Nicolas?
It was recently updated, but my position remains the same.
It's just a shortcut entry, when all the options easily reside in Staff types. It just seems a bit tacky.
The user will probably have to adjust the staff type anyway if they don't want the default.
Using MuseScore 2.0 Nightly Build (ea2401f) - Mac 10.7.5.
If there is only very little chance that a user might not need to customzie the staff type, then I would agree it is not worth including an entry in the instrument list. But my perception is that the defaults are likely to be quite useful for the majority of people. To me, it's at least worth including separate entries for different common staff types as it is for, say, different tranpositions (C trumpet versus Bb), for electric versus acoustic piano, etc. why make someone choose a generic version then customize it if we can predict with a high degree of accuracy what specific customizations they are likely to want?
I think C and B♭ trumpets are different instruments(?), so it would be fine to have separate entries.
However, this is about the same instrument with different types of staff.
I'd rather not have entries based on popularity.
But why do you think of that as a relevant distinction? MuseScore is a notation program first and foremost. The primary purpose of this dialog is to add staves to your score - that just happen to also have playback semantics that could possibly involve different instruments. But the visual appearance of the staff is the most important thing. So different visual appearances deserve different entries.
EDIT: this is also the basis for my comments about different types of electric pianos. As far as a notation provram is concerned, the primary distinction should be about things relevant to notation. So if an "instrument" (an abstract and not completely relevant term for notation) has a different transposition, different clef, or different staff type than some other instrument, that's the most important thing to a notation program and makes the inclusion of a separate entry a no-brainer to me. The fact that we also include separate entries for instruments based on playback (eg, a trumpet is different from a clarinet) is just a happenstance in comparison.