Guitar Tab - Generator

[Scouser]

Just wondered if such a thing exists. Something that can generate some tabs would be fantastic and such a time saver for me, even to have something that can determine/recognise note length, then I could input the notes...

[N i g e l]

I think Dorico does tab, also staff & drums.

Dorico is a comprehensive music engraving program and mini DAW.
SE is free and does 8 parts.

https://archive.steinberg.help/dorico/v ... ure_c.html

might be a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... +Tablature

[merlyn]

Do you want to give software audio and it outputs tab? I saw an app Neural Note that will turn audio into MIDI. From there you could find software that turns MIDI into tab, like Musescore. Outputting the tab for exactly what the guitarist played is beyond where we're at at the moment as on the guitar there are several places to play the same note.

As a first step though you could try pitch to MIDI:

https://github.com/DamRsn/NeuralNote/releases

[N i g e l]

1/4" Guitar jack to MIDI can be done polyphonically with JAM ORIGINs MIDI Guitar App.
Dorico can record MIDI realtime and render to Staff/tab.

[Scouser]

Thanks folks, it would seem that the technology is not quite there, not sure it ever will be for obvious reasons...

Even though the same notes can be played in different positions, I can often tell the difference, makes me feel good that I can still do things that computers struggle with, although in this instance I wish it AI had that ability

[merlyn]

A neural network could be trained to take guitar audio as an input and produce tab as an output. No-one has done that yet that I know of. The training data would be pairs of (a lot) of guitar music and the correct tabs. Neural Note that I linked above has been trained on pairs of audio and the correct MIDI.

Musescore's notation-to-tab algorithm is basic. It uses the fingering nearest to an open string. In any tab I have produced with Musescore I have had to hand edit it. It's easy -- the notation stays the same and the tab can be dragged around into sensible fingerings. I don't imagine Dorico is any better, as the focus of these apps is notation. @Nigel may know more about Dorico's notation-to-tab.

[N i g e l]

I am a novice to dorico & a novice to notation. Dorico seems very intelligent tho & from those utube videos, it seems it will be very sensible/intellegent with the fingering. And of course, very easy to edit if its not to your liking [which it will be as there will always be duff notes if your playing in live]

[BWC]

Musescore's notation-to-tab algorithm is basic. It uses the fingering nearest to an open string.

This is the default behavior of LilyPond (which is what's under Musescore's hood). In LilyPond, you could change this by setting a value for minimumFret and setting restrainOpenStrings to #t. Maybe there are equivalent buttons / settings in Musescore?
https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Document ... ed-strings

[merlyn]

As far as I know Musescore is a separate project from Lilypond. What I'm saying is that Musescore doesn't know how to play the guitar. In that respect it is entirely clueless. I'm fine with that as tweaking the produced tab is simply a matter of moving notes to the right strings.

I prefer that approach to a software assistant or wizard that assumes it knows what I want to do.

[BWC]

Yes, they are separate projects, but LilyPond is an open-source engraver and is used in the back end of several notation editors, including Musescore (I wouldn't be surprised if Dorico also used it, but I don't know, for sure, if it does or not). What I'm saying is that you could move multiple (consecutive or simultaneous) notes to the desired position by setting a value for minimumFret and setting restrainOpenStrings to #t, rather than having to move one note at a time.

Don't know what assistants or wizards have to do with it, LilyPond is about as far from such things as you can get.

[merlyn]

I don't know where you've gotten the idea that Lilypond is the backend for Musescore. A quick Google suggests that Musescore and Lilypond don't share any code. If Lilypond was the backend for Musescore, Musescore's engraving would be the same as Lilypond's, which it isn't.

What I'm saying is that there may be tab options in Musescore, but I prefer doing it by hand. It really isn't too much hassle.

[BWC]

Looks like my information is out of date. I got the idea, years ago, when looking for a GUI front end for LilyPond, and Musescore was suggested (in LilyPond's documentation, IIRC). Seems that LilyPond was dropped from Musescore two or three versions ago. The engraving still looks like LilyPond to me though (at least, what you've posted here does). Would you be so kind as to point out to me some of the differences you've spotted?

[N i g e l]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6FSaqh9Siw

Dorico in action for {slow motion !} live input tab, starts @ 4:30 (the prelude is set up). 5:19 up is the editing.

A more comprehensive tutorial for manually guitar or drums score is here..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW3p1I1ZJhY

[merlyn]

Lilypond has the reputation of having the best engraving, better than Musescore, for complex scores. I haven't noticed much difference on one line of guitar with tab. It's the old WYSIWYG vs markup. Like LaTeX vs Word. Using markup allows the app to use algorithms to come up with the best layout.

What I thought @Scouser was looking for was a transcription app. There are pitch to MIDI transcription apps, but as yet, not a guitar specific tab transcription app. There are so many fingerings for the same notes on the guitar. If we take a two octave C scale:

Above is the default tab on Musescore. There's nothing wrong with the fingering as such, it's just not what most people would play.

Now if we get rid of open strings we have a CAGED A shape with position shifts, or you could call this a Berklee F Lydian with a position shift. F on the E string is where the first finger would be if this scale was extended downward:


Three notes per string Lydian:


Berklee Mixolydian:


Three notes per string Mixolydian:


Caged G shape:

The number of possibilities is getting ludicrous. Notice that the notation has not changed at all.

Berklee Aeolian:

It's still a C major scale. I'm using 'Aeolian' to refer to the fingering.

Three notes per string Aeolian:


Caged E shape or Berklee Locrian:

If someone knew one major scale fingering, I would expect it to be CAGED E.

Three notes per string Locrian:


Berklee major:


Three notes per string major:


The notation did not change. It would be a challenge for software to work out which exact fingering was used just from the audio.

[BigRedX]

If you were to input the guitar part using a guitar with a hexaphonic pickup could the MIDI channel information be used to show which string is being played when converting to TAB?

[merlyn]

I didn't think @Scouser wanted to make tabs of himself playing. I thought he wanted to give an app a recording, and have the app output tab. An application of this would be if a student asks for a transcription of a song by their favourite band. Let's say the student is into Polyphia. It would save time to have an app transcribe that, rather than doing it by ear, as it may be required to slow it down.

[Sam Spoons]

Given the methods discussed in this thread I thought it superfluous to start a new thread to as this question.

I have some .pdf head sheets, i.e. chords and melody (standard 'Real Book' format though not in the real book). I can't find them transposed for Bb instruments and we have a couple of trumpet and Bb clarinet players who are in the beginning stages of learning gypsy jazz who would benefit from Bb copies.

Any suggestions for different methods of getting the music into XLM or midi form so it can be easily transposed? So far I have tried ACE Studio's online beta and the results were unusable. I think my best option will be to play it into Reaper on a midi keyboard and save from there then edit in a score editor. It's a shame that iReal Book, for copyright reasons, only displays chord sequences.

[merlyn]

I have used pencil and paper for longer than I have used Musescore. To me notation programs are digital pencil and paper. Transposing is a bit tedious, and is the sort of thing that software is good for. I would just click it into Musescore and transpose from there.

There are optical music recognition apps which would save you the clicking in stage. A quick google turned up PlayScore2

https://www.playscore.co/blog/convert-s ... c-to-midi/

I don't know what it's like but I'm sure you could find something to scan sheet music.

[Sam Spoons]

That's where I'm up to but a relatively brief attempt last night was unsuccessful with the resulting copy being unusable. I'm still trying to get to grips with notation software but it's a laborious process for me so far hence the search for a less time consuming alternative.

[merlyn]

Musescore has a built-in .pdf import function. If that doesn't work on a lead sheet -- a single line with chords -- I wouldn't think it is of a whole lot of use. For an A ... eh, I mean a neural network app there is SoundSlice. Again, I don't know what these are like. I would have thought that by now optical music recognition would be OK as we have pretty decent handwriting recognition.

[Sam Spoons]

Yes, me too, I'll maybe try the free trial of MuseScore, the free version doesn't do OCS but I don't think I can justify the sub for half a dozen tunes a year (there's a 90% off offer just now, £40 a year which is still a bit much for the amount I'll be using it so I'll probably still have to find another way.

[merlyn]

The notation editor program is now called Musescore Studio, and it's free to download and use. 'Musescore' now refers to the website with sheet music. A subscription is not required to use the app.