Tablature

NotePad offers the ability to create guitar tablature.  

Creating Guitar Tablature

To create a tablature staff, use the Setup Wizard.

• Click the File menu, choose New, then select Document with Setup Wizard. You will now see page one of the Setup Wizard.
• Click Next. We’ll set up our document staves manually. In the future you can select pre-set guitar documents and document styles here.
• In the left column, click the Fretted Instruments category. A list of stringed instruments appears in the second column.
• In the second column, click Guitar and then click the Add button. “Guitar” appears in the third column.
• In the second column, click Guitar [Tab] and then click the Add button. Now, both “Guitar” and “Guitar [Tab]” appear in the third column.
• Click Next. In the Score Information page the wizard asks you to enter some basic information.
• Type “Guitar with Tab.”
• Click in the Composer box and type your name.
• Click Next. The Score Settings page of the appears. Here, the Wizard asks for the time signature and the key signature. We’ll leave these settings alone for now. The Wizard asks you to specify a tempo, pickup measure, and default music font. Again, we can leave these settings alone.
• Click Finish. The document opens with a standard notation staff above a tablature staff. You are now ready to begin entering your music.

The document you just created is already set up to take into account the standard guitar transposition which sounds an octave lower than written. Now, let’s learn the best way to enter music into a guitar score.

Copying Music to and from a Tab Staff

To add the tablature notation, copy the music directly from a standard staff into tablature. To demonstrate this we’ll continue with our guitar score that includes one standard staff above one tablature staff.   

• Enter some notes in the first measure of the standard staff.
• Click the Selection tool  .  
• Click the first measure so it is highlighted.
• Drag the highlighted region down to the tab staff, and release the mouse button. You should now see the Lowest Fret dialog box.
• Click OK. The first measures of music translates into tablature notation. In this case, the fret numbers represent the pitch as played on the lowest possible fret in standard guitar tuning. If you want the tab positioned farther up the neck, you would enter the desired fret in the Lowest Fret dialog box.

This ability to copy music from standard notation into tab, and specify a lowest fret, can be applied to smaller areas of the score by selecting part of the measure. To do this, click and drag over a region including the partial measure(s).

In addition to translating standard notation directly to tablature, you can also copy tablature directly into a standard notation staff. We will use the second half of “Spanish Dance No. 2” to demonstrate this. For this example the tablature is entered for you already.

Changing the String and Fret Number

You can edit tab numbers and move them between strings manually with the Simple Entry tool. This method gives more control over the movement of single and non-contiguous fingerings.

• While pressing the key, click a fret number and drag it down to the adjacent string. The fingering moves to the new string and fret, and the number changes accordingly.
• Use the up arrow and down arrow to move selected tab numbers between strings, or the left arrow and right arrow to move selection between fret numbers horizontally.

You can also easily change the fret number. The Simple Entry tool should still be selected.

• While pressing the key, click any fret number in the tab staff. The tab number changes color to indicate it is selected.
• In the numeric keypad (or while holding down + , type a new number. You can now use the numeric keypad to enter any one- or two-digit number.
• Hit the “+” or “-” key to raise or lower the fret number by one. Remember that when you change the fret number, you are effectively changing its pitch. To ensure the standard notation accurately represents the tablature, drag the tablature up to the standard notation staff with Selection tool.  

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