Using Music Notation Software and Sharing Their Files

[Robert Woods]

Hi,

I just joined the forum and saw this Tablature Topic for folks to share TAB with.

I am new to Lap Steel Guitar, and I am in the process of creating appropriate tabs for my lap steel guitars using notation software. For those that may not be familiar with music notation software, take a look at GuitarPro, Tabledit, Dorico, and Sibelius, and MuseScore, as examples.

I found MuseScore to be a great music notation software that is really user friendly and that lets me create tablature from the actual music staff for any string instrument. And the best part about it: MuseScore is free. I have been using MuseScore for about 2 years.

One major problem I have in using TAB alone is that the note duration and articulations of the original staff notes are not conveyed to the user, so it is difficult to get the timing down (especially on a piece of music you have not really heard before but might want to play) without seeing the note duration aspects on the staff itself or, more importantly, the tab itself. MuseScore allows you to utilize what they refer to as a FULL tab, which will include all the note and rest durations as well as the articulation information in the TAB directly.

My question is, would there be any interest in having a Forum Topic that allows for uploading music files from MuseScore and/or any of the other software packages listed so folks can share the music electronically? There are probably other software packages to consider that I have not heard about.

The nice thing about this type of software is that you can play along with the song in the software as the background music, avoiding printing and handling paper-based music. I found it to be a delight to use MuseScore for this purpose. And it helps to keep the playing area less cluttered with paper and music stands. I would suggest using the most updated version of MuseScore 3 instead of the newly released version 4 because it allows scrolling of the music as you play along.

[Glenn Dodd]

Robert,

I think that it is a great idea. I use GuitarPro, Tabledit, and Musescore. One of the great feature about Musescore is it's ability to convert Music PDFs into Musescore files. It's not perfect but you can then Export the resulting Musescore file into MIDI, MusicXML or other formats.

Glenn

[Jim Fiegen]

I find MuseScore very appealing as a professional quality program but have been unable to work it out to do tab for my 10 string pedal steel instructional work. I'm searching for someone who can help me get inside the program and adjust it to my needs.

[Robert Woods]

Hi Jim,

Thanks so much for your post. I would be happy to do a Zoom meeting on the computer to show you how to create a Pedal Steel Guitar specific instrument by adding it to the instruments.xml file that defines instruments. I can also show you how to adjust the number of tab lines above 6 string instruments. Also, I can show you how to set up the scrolling smoothpan parameters in Version 3 for play along that I find very helpful. Any other topics would be okay as well.

Shoot me a private email and let me know if you would like to do a Zoom meeting as outlined above. I have used other screen share software so let me know if you prefer another app, such as Microsoft Team.

[Patrick McHenry]

yeah man totally, I use TablEdit, very basic. I would hope everyone wouldn't have a problem sharing tab files but then again there's A) dudes on here trying to pay their bills with tabs and B) dudes on here who really need their ego stroked for some weird reason. So good luck! I'll support you and produce whatever tabs I've made for the forum.