Creating a tablature staff

Overview

Music for fretted, stringed instruments is commonly notated using tablature (often abbreviated as tab); this gives a visual representation of the strings and fret numbers. Tablature is frequently found in combination with traditional staff notation.

Types of tablature staves

A variety of tablature templates for common instruments are supplied. If this isn't quite what you're looking for, you can easily change the template (see Changing tablature staff type), and/or customize the staff (see Tablature: customization).

Adding a tablature staff to your score

There are three possibilities:

• Create tablature as part of a new score.
• Add tablature to an existing score.
• Change an existing staff from standard to tablature.

Add tablature using the New Score dialog

To create tablature as part of a new score:

1. Open the New Score dialog.
2. Select the required tablature from either the Choose Instruments or Create from template tabs.

3. Complete the rest of the New Score dialog.

Add tablature using the Instruments dialog

To create a tablature staff in an existing score:

1. In the Layout panel, click on the Add button; or press the shortcut key, I. This brings up the Add or remove instruments dialog.

2. Click on the Strings – Plucked family and choose the desired tablature from the Instruments column.

3. Press OK.

Change an existing staff from standard to tablature

1. Make sure that the standard staff contains a plucked string instrument;

2. Use one of the methods described under Changing tablature staff type.

Creating paired standard and tablature staves

Music for the guitar (and other plucked-string instruments) is often notated using paired standard and tablature staves. In MuseScore, the staves can be either linked or unlinked.

• Linked: Any change you make to the notation in one staff automatically updates the other.

• Unlinked: Each staff is edited independently. To update the other staff, copy and paste the relevant music notation.

Note : In both cases, the staff/tablature pair shares the same instrument.

Create paired standard/tab staves using the New Score Wizard

There are two ways to do this when creating a new score (A or B):

A. For linked staves only:

1. Open the New Score Wizard.

2. In the "Create from template" tab, click on the "Solo" category and choose the "Guitar + Tablature" .

3. Complete the rest of the New Score wizard.

4. Change the instrument type, if required, in Staff / Part properties.
5. Change the tablature type, if required (see Changing tablature staff type).

B. For linked or unlinked staves:

1. Open the New Score Wizard.

2. In the "Choose instruments" tab, click on the "Strings – Plucked" family, and select a staff option from the "Instruments" column.

3. Complete the rest of the wizard.

4. Add the desired staff using the Instruments panel.

Create paired standard/tab staves using the Instruments dialog

Use this method when you want to add to an existing score:

1. Open the Add or remove instruments dialog: press I; or, alternatively, the Add button in the Instruments sidebar

2. Click on the Strings – Plucked family and choose the desired staff from the Instruments column.

3. Press OK.

4. Add the desired tablature from the Layout panel.

Note: If you already have one staff of a standard/tab pair in your score, you can simply add the missing staff from the Instruments panel. See Adding and configuring staves.