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.

1. Click the File menu, choose New, then select Document with Setup Wizard. You will now see page one of the Setup Wizard.
2. Click Next. We’ll set up our document staves manually. In the future you can select pre-set guitar documents and document styles here.
3. In the left column, click the Fretted Instruments category. A list of stringed instruments appears in the second column.
4. In the second column, click Guitar and then click the Add button. “Guitar” appears in the third column.
5. In the second column, click Guitar [Tab] and then click the Add button. Now, both “Guitar” and “Guitar [Tab]” appear in the third column.
6. Click Next. In the Score Information page the wizard asks you to enter some basic information.
7. Type “Guitar with Tab.”
8. Click in the Composer box and type your name.
9. 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.
10. 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.

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