capo settings ques

• Sep 26, 2020 - 03:06

hey folks

I have a piece of guitar music written, that I want to tab out. the piece is written in standard notation, but on the tab i want to have capo on 3 - thus, a 3rd fret g note played on the e string should read 'o' on the tab.

I tried following the tab instructiopns in the handbook, by both trying to add the capo via staff text to a>frist the music text b> the capo text and c>both

in all cases,. the tone was shifted up despite the music notation in the regular staff not changing.

How can I JUST have the tablature change, to reflect the capo, without affecting tonality or anything else?

in other words - the fret numbers are changing on the tab. thats all

thanks

Comments

• Sep 26, 2020 - 08:42

Is the TAB correct? If not then what's wrong?

Is the notation correct? If not then what is wrong?

Uploading a sample score, just a bar, would help to hear the problem.

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• Sep 26, 2020 - 17:44

i will upload the sample tonight, am not at the computer with the score on it. the capo doesnt get reflected on the TAB - thats all. I couldnt care less about it on the actual musical notation stave, as in my mind a g is a g no matter where the capo is. but on the TAB, it makes a big difference, if i want a 3rd fret G to be shown as 'O' so the piece is playable.

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• Sep 28, 2020 - 16:10

You wrote:
...the idea is, i want the tab to be capo 3, but audible transposition on the regular music stave.

I copied the last 9 measures of your score into this:
gm rag 4.mscz

To get the TAB to show 0 for open strings at the third fret, I re-tuned the (special) guitar. Right click on 'Acoustic guitar (special)' and click on 'Edit String Data" to see that the open strings are tuned to the third fret. I copied your notation into that special guitar staff.

Also. it looks like your "gm rag 3.mscz" came from a MIDI file. The instructions read: "Loose, Swing feel". A MIDI file interprets the performance literally, which complicates the "look" of the conversion to standard music notation - as evidenced by all the scattered ties and rests throughout your score.
You can simplify the notation and use 'Swing' in MuseScore to eliminate the complexity of the precise MIDI timings. See the second part of my example. I could have simplified it further by eliminating more ties, since most savvy guitarists, while fingerpicking chords, allow the notes to ring out anyway, without the necessity for entering every single tied note.

Regards.

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• Sep 28, 2020 - 23:19

i actually meant to write -but 'NO' autible transposition on the regular music stave, but i wrote it late at night and while quite intoxicated. my bad, that.

thanks for the long answer, i will give this a try. and i usually do try and have the miodi conversion setting set to swing, but sometimes it really hoses look and i end up with corrupted measures everywhere.

thanks! and yes, it comes from midi, i run most of my stuff through my daw as entry on the midi guitar converter - while not the best - is certainly better than doing everything by hand.

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