Write guitar in standard tuning, change pitch

• Jan 7, 2022 - 21:34

When I had my old Sibelius software, it was so easy to just write my guitar notation and tablature out but change the pitch that came out (in this case I want to drop the pitch of every note down a minor 3rd). I have tried messing with all kinds of transposition settings and string changes, but nothing seems to be working. Is there a quick way to do this?

Thanks!


Comments

Hmm, it's not really clear to me what you mean. You want to have the sound be a minor third lower than written? The way to do this would be to go to the staff/part properties and set that as the transposition, then enter your notes with Concert Pitch turned off.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, Marc. Thanks for responding!
So when I do that, it changes the notation. For instance, if my guitar Key signature is D major to begin with, and I used the transpose feature (without Concert Pitch turned on), the guitar part still sounds the same original pitches but is now with a key signature of B-flat. A guitar's low E is now written as a G above that.

What I'm looking for is to basically write a guitar's low E as a low E (have the tablature also show it as an open E), but the pitch that comes out in playing back the score should now be a C#. Does that make sense?

In reply to by bpennington6

Sounds like you did it in the wrong order - my explanation specifically says to set the transposition first. That’s because MuseScore assumes when changing transposition, you want to keep the sound the same, which is indeed normally the case. If you’ve entered the wrong-sounding pitches and key signature already, just correct them with Tools / Transpose.

You wrote:
I want to drop the pitch of every note down a minor 3rd.
and:
Is there a quick way to do this?

Based on the limited amount of info. provided, a "quick way" would be to move a capo down 3 frets (a minor 3rd). Since a capo cannot be placed a minor 3rd below the nut, an alternative is to place the capo up a major 6th (9 semitones). So, assuming string 1 is an open E, fret 9 is a C# (and so a minor 3rd below the E octave at fret 12). If you are not satisfied with this "octave equivalence", you can use an 8va bassa line to sound the notes as a minor 3rd below. (The line can be made invisible, if desired.)

See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/capo-playback

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