Tutorial 6: Guitar Notation

PrintMusic offers a variety of features for notation of guitar and other fretted instruments. In this chapter you will learn how to create a score with tablature, and edit tab staves. If you do not plan on notating for guitar (or another fretted instrument), feel free to skip ahead to the next chapter.  

Creating Guitar Tablature

Let’s start by creating a new document containing both standard and tablature notation. We’ll use the Document Setup Wizard to do this.

• 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

There are a few ways to enter into a tab staff. We’ll start with the most basic, copying music directly from a standard staff into tablature. To demonstrate this we’ll start with a document that already contains music in standard notation.   

• Open the tutorial document called “Tutorial 6.” A score titled “Spanish Dance No. 2” appears. The first eight measures contain standard notation, but no tab. Here’s how to create tab from existing music in standard notation.
• Click the Selection tool  .  
• Click the first measure so it is highlighted.
• Hold down the key and click measure 4. Now measures one through four should be highlighted.
• Drag the highlighted region down to the tab staff, and release the mouse button. You should now see the Lowest Fret dialog box. We’ll talk more about this dialog box soon.
• Click OK. The first four measures of music will now translate into tablature notation. You should now have tab of the melody line like the example below.

In this case, the fret numbers represent the pitch as played on the lowest possible fret in standard guitar tuning.

Now, let’s say you want the tab positioned farther up the neck. Here’s how to specify the lowest fret for any music copied from a regular notation staff into a tab staff. The Selection tool should still be selected.

• Click measure 5 so it is highlighted.
• Hold down the key and click measure 8. Now measures five through eight should be highlighted.
• Drag the highlighted region down to the tab staff. You should now see the Lowest Fret dialog box.
• For Specify Lowest Fret, enter “5”. We’ll say you want to place all the numbers on the 5th fret or above.
• Click OK. The tab staff will now have all notes fingered no lower than the 5th fret.

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.

• With the Selection tool selected, click measure 9 of the tab staff.
• Hold down the key and click measure 16 of the tab staff. Now measures nine through sixteen of the tab staff should be highlighted.
• Drag the highlighted region up to the standard staff. Measures nine through sixteen translate directly into standard notation. You should now have notation of the melody line like the following example (starting with measure 9).

In addition to changing the lowest fret while copying, you can also change the lowest fret for any region of tablature with the Selection tool. To do this, highlight a region of the tablature staff. Then, choose Utilities > Change > Lowest Fret. Enter the new Lowest Fret and click OK to apply your changes and return to the score.

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.

If you look at measure five in the tablature staff you’ll see that the fourth note is played at the fifth fret of the fourth string. It might be easier to finger this passage if that note was fingered at the tenth fret of the fifth string. Simple Entry makes this task easy.   

• Click the Simple Entry tool  .

• While pressing the key, on the fifth measure, click the “5” on the fourth string and drag it down to the fifth string. You will see that this fingering has moved to the new string and fret, and the number has changed accordingly. You can also 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.  

Entry Directly into a Tab Staff

In addition to copying from a standard notation staff, you can also enter tab directly into a tab staff. This comes in handy if you are working with a tab staff only or already know the tablature and not the standard notation. Again, we’ll continue to use the same file we’ve been working on to describe how to do this, first by entering tablature with your mouse, and then with your computer keyboard.

• Click the Selection tool   and highlight the first two measures of the tab staff. Measures 1 and 2 of the tab staff should be highlighted.
• Press the key to remove the existing tab notation from these first measures. You should now see standard notation above an empty tab staff for the first two measures.

• Click the Simple Entry tool . We are now ready to begin entering into the tab staff manually. For now, we’ll enter tab for the existing notes in the standard notation staff. In the future, you could use this procedure to enter into a score containing a tab staff only.
• Click the Eighth Note tool   in the Simple Entry palette. You will need to choose the rhythmic value of the entry first so PrintMusic knows its duration, and how to properly space each fret number.

Use the up and down arrows to move a selected fret number up or down a string. The number will adjust to reflect the same pitch on the new string.

• Click the tab staff on the third (G) string directly below the first note in the piece. A “0” (zero) appears. When you click directly into a tab staff, you will always see a “0” first.  
• Press numeric keypad 2 (or while holding down +. The “0” changes to “2”.
• Click the tab staff on the third string directly below the second note in the piece. A “0” appears on the G string.

If you do not have a numeric keypad, you can press to add a 0 on the caret pitch, then hold down + and type the number.

• Press numeric keypad 3. The second fret number changes to 3. You can use this method, first clicking the rhythmic duration, clicking the string and then typing the fret number to create all of your tab notation, but you can also quickly enter tablature without the use of the mouse with the Simple Entry Caret.
• Press the right arrow key. The caret is now active on the second beat of the first measure.
• On your QWERTY keyboard, type 2. Notice the Caret moves to the second (B) string. Use numbers 1 through 6 on your QWERTY keyboard to specify the string for the fret number you are about to enter. 1 is the top string, 6 is the bottom.

• Press numeric keypad 3. PrintMusic places a “3” on the B string and the caret moves to the right. (Notebook users, see the tip at right.)
• Press numeric keypad 1. PrintMusic places a “1” on the same string. Now, let’s say we want to add another note below the “1” on the second beat.
• Hold down and type 4 on the QWERTY keyboard. PrintMusic adds a “0” on the fourth string below the fret number you just entered.
• Hold down and type numeric keypad 3 (or, ++ 3). The “0” changes to a “3”. You can use the last two steps at any time, first entering the string and then the fret number to create chords. You can also use the up and down arrows to specify the string for an additional fret number and then hold down and press ) to add a note on the same string displayed on the caret. Then hold down and type the desired number on the numeric keypad.

• Press to remove the extra fret number. Now, let’s finish the measure.

To see a list of Simple Entry keyboard shortcuts from the Simple menu, choose TAB Specific Commands.  

• On the QWERTY keyboard, type 3 to specify the G string, then, on the numeric keypad, type 3 and then 2. You have completed tab for the first measure. The Caret should appear at the beginning of measure 2. Note that you can always press the left arrow key to select the fret number you just entered, type a new number on the numeric keypad to replace the old, and then press the right arrow key to continue entering.

Refer back to Tutorial 1a for information on entering standard notation with the Simple Entry Caret.

• Type numeric keypad 3 to enter the first fret number in measure 2. Now, we’ll enter a rest.
• Press . PrintMusic adds a rest ‘on the and’ of beat 1. Since rests are generally not displayed on tab staves, the rest is hidden. It will display as a shaded rest in the score, and will not appear in the printout. Now, let’s enter the half note on the second beat.
• Hold down , and and then, on the QWERTY keyboard, type 6. Notice the note on the Caret changes to a half note. The next fret number is on the same string, so we can just type in the fret number.
• Press Enter. PrintMusic places a 0 on the string. You could have instead hit the 0 key on the numeric keypad. Measures 1 and 2 are now complete.

Instead of typing the string and fret number, you can also use a MIDI device to enter tablature with the Simple Entry Caret. First, from the Simple menu, ensure Use MIDI Device for Input is checked. Then, with the Caret active, choose the rhythmic duration , and and the number on the QWERTY keyboard) and then play the note. PrintMusic will place the fret number on the appropriate string.

There are many additional keystrokes you can use while entering tablature using the Simple Entry Caret. For a complete list, from the Simple menu, choose TAB Specific Commands.

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