Guitar tabs, entering into musescore
While I can play the guitar, learning the traditional way, reading music, I am not a guitarist, I cannot read guitar tabs, so how do I translaste the guitar tabs into musescore.
Almost all of the searches I have for this have only brought up Musescore creating tabs.
I could get my guitar and hunt and peck trying to decipher what to me is a foreign language,
But this would be time consuming, it there a quicker way.
Comments
You may want to look at a recent nightly build where it is possible to write in notation and have the TAB appear automagically on a linked staff.
HTH
Michael
In reply to You may want to look at a by ChurchOrganist
Thanks, I'll try it.
As recommended, I downloaded a Nightly, and found the guitar tab option.
This has now brought on another problem, the lines are the strings, the numbers in the tabs are the frets.
How do I determine the note value of which ever number I choose.
Google has been no help.
I'm transcribing from a downloaded music score that is a combination of normal musical notation and guitar tabs.
I was hoping to enter the guitar tabs as normal sheet music notation.
BTW, kudos to the development team, based on what I have seen in the nightly, Ver.2 is going to be great.
In reply to Another guitar tab question by murray45a
1. By 'note value', do you mean the duration (half note, quarter, etc.)?
2. If you are working with 'a score that is a combination of normal musical notation and guitar tabs', wouldn't the normal notation show the note durations, even voicings where necessary?
Regards.
In reply to Two questions... by Jm6stringer
Yes, for note value I mean duration as you stated.
A number on a string doesn't tell me anything.
Yes, yes, of course, there should be another instrument line that I can follow for the note duration, thank you for the idea.
The way the score is formatted, the instruments (32), are in separate scores rather than in one group, so I can't compare just by looking at them 'side by side'.
I'll go through the rest of the pages and try and find something comparable.
You're help is much appreciated.
In reply to Yes, for note value I mean by murray45a
That's one of the down sides of TAB, it normally doesn't give rhythmic detail, just fingering position. You have to transcribe the rhythm of the piece by ear. The only exception to this I know of is Songsterr.
In reply to TAB Note Values by JimAbbott
You cite Songsterr like the only exception that may indicate rhythmic details in tablature. Know that you can do exactly the same way (and more...!) with the next version of MuseScore 2.0 (you can try with a Nightly).
I took a sample of a score on Songsterr.
1) I have not added the lyrics, but you can do it of course! So, with MuseScore, and the stems below the staff.
![GD Muse below.jpg]( "GD Muse below.jpg")
![GD Muse above.jpg]( "GD Muse above.jpg")
2) You can also reverse the stems, above the staff. There are other possibilities that you may discover with a Nightly. ☺
In reply to You cite Songsterr like the by cadiz1
Hi Cadiz1,
Thanks for your reply. I'm VERY new to all forms of musical notation and my OP was just that the downside to TAB is that it GENERALLY doesn't provide rhythmic details. My citation re Songsterr was only because it's the only AVAILABLE 'free' TAB I've found that does. That doesn't mean to say there aren't others, just that I haven't seen them - not that I've spent time .
The next version of Musescore certainly looks to be more guitar friendly. Do you know if it includes notations for hammer-ons and pull-offs and all that stuff?
In reply to TAB Note Values by JimAbbott
You can try download a Nightly build using the Downloads link at right to test for yourself. Yes, it supports a number of guitar notations, including fret diagrams, bends, etc. As far as I know, the most common notation for hammer-on and pull-off is just a slur, and slurs have been supported "forever". But you'll kind of have to see for yourself it has what you want.
In reply to You can try download a by Marc Sabatella
Downloaded the nightly and quickly tried the tab feature. Freakin' awesome!
When it transposes the standard notation into TAB (by copying and pasting), haven't worked out how to do that automatically, it chooses the first fingering of a particular pitch rather than the optimum fingering. As an example: a melody in Em with root, octave, iii, V, vii, ix the program selects the open E string for the root which is perfect but then has the rest of the melody fingering starting on the 2nd fret of the D string and working down to the 11th fret on the G string which involves a fair amount of shifting. Optimally the octave of the root and remainder of the melody should begin on the 7th fret of the A string to enable the melody to be played using a 1st finger minor scale pattern. Have I missed something here or do I just need to play around with it a bit more?
Kudos to the developers by the way. I've never used music notation software before, hell, I can't even read music properly (and didn't know that a slide and glissando are more or less the same thing for example) but this is brilliant - even for amateurs - and it's a great learning tool as well.
In reply to V2 TAB by JimAbbott
Hello, I an not sure to all understand.
![tab.png]( "tab.png")
When it works down to the 11th fret on the G string?
I join an attachment, hoping to have understood that you want to do.
Please, do no hesitate to join a screnshoot or/and the file for seeing where you are working.
In reply to Hello, I an not sure to all by cadiz1
Hi Cadiz1,
Thanks for your help. I forgot to include an important piece of info - my melody is for an electric bass guitar (4 string, standard tuning), not a 6 string. No wonder it didn't make sense!
Here is a screenshot of what I was gibbering about. I adjusted the top measure manually. When I cut & pasted the phrase into the tab measure below this is what I got.
![Screenshot 2014-08-07 11.20.20.png]( "Screenshot 2014-08-07 11.20.20.png")
In reply to V2 TAB by JimAbbott
You don't need to copy and paste - you need "linked staves". When you add your instrument to the score, select the standard staff version in the list of available instruments at left. Then, in the list of instruments you have already added at right, click the staff (not the instrument) and press Add Linked Staff. Then change its type to one of the tab staves.
Now when you add notes to the standard staff, they automatically show up on the linked tab staff and vice versa.
In reply to You don't need to copy and by Marc Sabatella
From my experience, I know it is not easy, at first, to know how to add a linked staff.
I made a little tutorial in pdf format these last days. In your case, you must simply to modify the chosen instrument, the bass guitar so.
See the attachment.
Add a linked staff PDF1.pdf
In reply to You don't need to copy and by Marc Sabatella
Thanks Marc,
This is an excellent program. Have I mentioned that already?
I didn't see the linked staves option at the add instrument screen, dah! Obviously this needs to be set up at the start of a score - I tried doing it on my existing file (V2.0), i.e. removing the existing TAB and then trying to add it in but it crashed the program. When I created a new file, no problem. Don't know if you'd consider that a bug or not but I can imagine people wanting to add TAB to scores they created in 1.3 which might be a problem.
In reply to Thanks by JimAbbott
I know, I had the same trouble at first to find this option "Add a linked staff" (bottom of the window)
Have you read the document in PDF format (previous message)? It's clear, I think.
In reply to Have you read the document in by cadiz1
Yes mate. It is very clear, thank you. Like everything, it's easy when you know how!