Mandolin tab

• Dec 1, 2020 - 19:26

Hello,

I am brand new to Musescore and would like to know how (if) I can add mandolin tab to music scores saved as a pdf and converted in musescore. I have tried all combinations that I can think of and the bottom line where the tab would be continues to show up blank. Any help would be appreciated.

Susan


Comments

When you create a score select choose instrument, or within a score press i, both options will lead you to the instruments dialog. To add only a tablature instrument, use the search box and select the Mandolin (Tablature) option. To add a tablature staff to an existing instrument, select staff 1 under the instrument name and click Add linked staff. To the right of the staff 2 that will be added there is a gray Standard that you can click and choose an appropriate tab option for the mandolin. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/tablature for more info on tabs.

In reply to by mike320

Mike,

I thought I had the process down but I am having a had time replicating my initial success. Could you walk me through the process of adding mandolin tab to an existing score (converted from a pdf file , downloaded from musescore import page and then loaded into musescore from that file. I now have a score consisting of music notation . From this point on I have tried everything. I have read and reread the link you sent. I think the problem lies in the linking of the two lines. I keep getting the notation converted to tab on the top line and the second line is blank. Or I get two lines of notation and a blank line where the tab goes. or I get just a line of tab and no other lines. Any help you can give would be helpful. I feel I am close to cracking it but either I am not putting in a step or I am putting in an extra step.

Thanks,
Susan

In reply to by ymcagymnastic

Doesn't matter where the score came from. To add an instrument, go to Edit / Instruments. For the common instruments, you can find them directly within that dialog; for others, best to use the search box at the bottom. So type the first few letters of "Mandolin" and you'll soon see the mandolin tab option appear.

If you mean you want to add a tablature staff to an existing mandolin instrument, click the existing staff, then click "Add staff" or "Add linked staff" (depending on where you want the staves automatically linked so music on one automatically appears on the other as well), then change the type of the newly added staff to one of the tab types using the dropdown.

In reply to by ymcagymnastic

My workflow on 3.6.2 unstable:

  1. Grab a tune from some ABC source, and import it. I now have a single stave of dots suitable for sight reading on a recorder. But I am learning Mandolin and require Tabs.

1a. Press I and observe that one stave is listed, and above "Stave: 1" there is no instrument type in the staves column. Click Cancel.

  1. Ctrl-A to select the staves, and right click for a context menu. Select "Stave/Part properties" and a dialog box appears. Click "Change Instrument" to get another dialog box. Click Common and select "All Instruments". Select "Mandolin" from the plucked strings part of the list. Click OK. Click OK. I now have the same stave appearance, but hidden from view the staves are marked as a Mandolin part.

  2. Press "I" to get the instrument dialog. Observe the stave is now showing as a Mandolin part. Click on Stave: 1 to select it, then click on "Add Linked Stave". "Stave: 2" of type "Standard" appears. Click on that "Standard" and select the Tab style of your choice, I like "Tab. 4-str. simple". Click OK. You should now see a new stave of Tabs below the stave of dots.

In reply to by erroneousbee1

Not sure what you mean by "unstable"; 3.6.2 is the latest official release. If you're using some sort of unofficial pre-release or third-party build, best to get the official release, as whatever you are using probably has critical issues that are fixed in the official release. I seem to recall some Linux distributions include some sort of unofficial/unstable build - is that what you are using? Best to grab the supported build - the AppImage from this site - instead.

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