Is tab mode broken or is it just me?
Hi all! I'm very new to MuseScore. I usually do MIDIs using Tuxguitar on mac, but I would like to start using MuseScore because of how you can actually hear notes as you adjust them, and not just upon entering one, or playback. And a whole bunch of other things you can do that you can't in Tuxguitar.
But I want to create guitar tabs, not notation. Notation mode seems to work but there are a few things I can't get my head around that I'll ask about later, but for now the biggest thing is when I pull up the guitar tab template, I find two major things have happened frequently.
1. When I go to enter notes as numbers on the strings, it randomly changes the beat value to a different type. It's not even the type assigned to the normal hotkey, it's just random.
2. When I try to enter in a chord, once there's about 3 notes already on the same chord, the "cursor" seems to reset to another location right before the other notes, one that didn't exist previously and only exists now as a 32nd note rest before the chord or something, so I can't finish the chord.
Also when I try to delete notes, it just will delete the one that's highlighted, and then backspace won't do anything else. It's like the cursor just disappeared.
Thanks, I have a feeling Musescore is not a reliable tab program, but figured I'd check with you guys.
One more thing, I found this video, but my MuseScore (2.0.1, I believe) doesn't look or behave like this. For example, at the end of the video, the guy pulls a chord diagram out of "symbols" and then after modifying one he was able to save it back in that library for later use.
Chord diagrams for me are not in "symbols", they're in "fretboard diagrams". And I can't seem to save them in the palette.
Comments
The video is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhROvBNcODI
In reply to The video is this by Sy256
Welcome on board Sy256.
To the last question check:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/custom-palettes
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/workspace
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/fretboard-diagram
You can add a new palette, if you believe useful, for example "Chords" and save in it those most used.
You can try to download a version Nightly:
https://musescore.org/en/download#Nightly-versions
a conversation on the topic
https://musescore.org/en/node/49426
There actually is a video that deals with MuseScore tablature as it is implemented in the released version: https://youtu.be/wnXLaZW9uA8?list=PLTYuWi2LmaPGb4SKXHm9JULQ-0CH8KpUk
(By the way, you mentioned "Notation mode seems to work but there are a few things I can't get my head around that I'll ask about later"—the other videos in that playlist may help you to understand it.)
I think you'll find there is nothing "random" about how tab mode works - just probably things you aren't understanding currently. If you post the specific score you are having problems and precise step by step instructions to reproduce what you are doing, I'm sure we can explain. Tab input is actually very robust, reliable, and full featured.
When deleting notes, if there are multiple voices involved, there are indeed a couple of rare corner case situations in which the cursor has nowhere to go, but in general, you would not need multiple voices when entering tablature only. Perhaps you inadvertently swtiched voices at some point, though, and this is causing some of other issues.
For #1, I can guess that maybe you are not in note input mode, in which case indeed the duration would change as you cursor around - the duration would reflect the current note. If you are in note input mode, however, the duration stays locked until you change it with the toolbar or keyboard shortcut.
BTW, the palette containing the fretboard diagram was renamed within the last few months, that's why some slightly older documentation might show it appearing differently. Should still work basically the same.