As I mentioned to @Greg in another thread, I'm going to eventually look at writing a plugin for MuseScore to implement StaffTab.

In the meantime, I finally figured out how to do a score in MuseScore that includes both standard notation & tablature for both melody and bass strings. The attachments include a detailed step-by-step on how to create this template. The second is a MuseScore file ready to store as a template, or to use to start your own score assuming you're good with 10-string MR tuning. However, if you use the template rather than making your own, be sure to read the step-by-step, particularly the very end where I discuss a couple of what appear to be small bugs in MuseScore that you'll have to deal with. Not a show-stopper by any means, but something you must be aware of.

Suggestions or improvements to either the method or the documentation are appreciated.



Okay...the system isn't letting me upload the .mscz file. Stay tuned...

Thanks for doing this work! I've thought for a while that MuseScore's guitar features would work great for the stick, and I'm glad you went ahead and created something that's easy to use and well documented!

Here is the template file, now that I'm not giving Manny bad info on the file extension!!

It took a while. I found a working template for a 12-string stick on the MuseScore forum, but couldn't figure out how it worked. Turns out there is an "Advanced Style Properties" that I hadn't dug down into. There is an "upside down" check mark there for tablature that he was using. Turns out that's not necessary, but explains why I was so confused as to how his was working!

Let me know if there is anything in the documentation that isn't clear.

Ok - hold the phone, folks. Just got some input from The Guy on MuseScore. There is a reason to use the Upside Down setting. If you've read the documentation, you'll see that there was a tendency for MuseScore's tablature algorithm to put all the notes onto the lowest string. Using the Upside Down setting makes it behave!!

I'm going to update the documentation. Probably won't have that done today, but in the meantime, here is an updated 10-string MR template. Entering the "open" (X-fret) pitches on the conventional notation staff now yields each tablature entry on a separate string at fret 0, which is the expected, and correct, behavior. Still has that annoying behavior of dropping the 8va bass clef when building a new score from this file as a template. I'm going to post the steps-to-reproduce this to MuseScore as a bug report.

Okay - here is the updated documentation, plus a fresh template (no different than the one yesterday other than not having the extraneous 8va bass clef on the tablature). As I mention at the end, while going through this step-by-step to revise the instructions, I ended up with a template that wasn't working properly - it was seeing perfectly legitimate notes as outside the range of the instrument, yet AFAICT everything was set properly. Started over - with the exact same steps - and it worked just fine. Go figure...

Anyway, this seems to be good to go. Even if you don't want to start from scratch (it really only takes about 5 minutes - 10 at the most), if you want to take the template attached here and modify it, the step-by-step should explain everything you need to modify the template for that 12-string Deep Baritone Melody tuning you've been using.

Quick follow-up.

The issue with the octave bass clef showing up on both the standard notation and tablature staves does appear to be a bug. Haven't got a tracking # for it yet. Not a bit deal. Select the "extra" clef and hit <Delete>. Poof.

However, that clef getting "stripped" from the score when loaded as a template apparently is not a bug but expected behavior. Only certain score elements can be established in a template. There is a logic to this. If you load the file I attached above as a template, note that the title is not included which makes sense - otherwise, the title you added in the New Score wizard would get over-ridden.

It's good to see some love for Free Software!

A few years back I wrote a StaffTab engraver for GNU Lilypond. You can find some example scores here:

https://git.elephly.net/?p=software/lil ... a2fda98a3d

The quality of a lot of FOSS products is amazing! Libre Office, Paint.net, Inkscape, MuseScore and dozens of others are absolutely first-rate. But I encourage anyone using open-source products to make regular donations to support the developers.

I noodled with LilyPond a bit at one point. Really interesting software with a unique approach to creating scores. The neat thing is that you can use Eclipse as the IDE which I loved as I was used to using Eclipse back when I was still doing Python development for data analysis.

I came late to this topic but this is genuinely terrific.

Thank you for putting in the work so we didn't have to!