A Little Help for The Aspiring Cigar Box Guitar Composer
My interest in cigar box guitars sure has taken some interesting twists and turns. Up to this point, I've focused mostly on building them, not so much on playing them.
I've dabbled with music composition in the past. I have always owned a guitar, and I think anyone with a passion for music will eventually write one, two or more songs. That's what I've done. Strangely, cigar box guitars seem to have little to offer in the way of available music that is written specifically for them. Mostly the slide CBG has little available, which seems to invite those with a creative nature to step in and add to its charm.
So here I am, thinking that it would be great to write music specifically for the cigar box guitar. However, finding a program that would allow me to write TAB notation specifically for cigar box guitar seemed unavailable, but I refused to give up. I did contact Glenn Watt because he had beautifully displayed tabs on his website, and I wanted to know the software he used, and being the gentleman that he is, he was quick to give an answer. The program is called TablEdit.
I can't comment on the value of the program, because, quite honestly, I'm poor and can't afford to buy it (not that it's overly expensive). Maybe Glenn can review the product in the future. So that being said, I decided to turn to my old friend, the free software MuseScore. I've used it in the past to write a few short songs. It does have a learning curve, but with some time I have learned to make it work for my specific needs.
I sat down with my computer and stared searching for answers. I knew that MuseScore had TAB notation for traditional string instrument, but the staff for cigar box guitar TAB's was something different all together. It only has three lines; whereas most guitar TAB's use six lines. Looking through the list of instruments in the program, I couldn't find anything compatible, so I took to the internet to find a solution.
After several hours of surfing, I learned that it was possible to customize a staff in MuseScore—lines removed or added, notes for each line changed. Also, once the the changes had been perfected, the work could be saved as a template. Outstanding!
It took me a couple more hours to design and perfect two separate templates, but now I have them and can always start with a fresh staff when I compose for the cigar box guitar.
So what am I saying here? I'm suggesting that we need more creative effort in the creation of music that is written for the cigar box guitar. The free software is available and is compatible with writing TAB's on a three line staff.
If you have never used MuseScore, I will tell you that it does have a learning curve. The documentation is available online at the website (www.musescore.org), but sometimes the difficult questions are hard to answer. Nonetheless, once you get over the hump, it's quite a pleasure to use. I think everyone who owns a CBG should give it a try, even if you're just writing TAB's for a popular song and want to bring it to the world of cigar box guitars.
I do plan on making my templates publicly available, and if I can do so here, I will. I see no reason why anyone need reinvent the wheel when I have it on my computer.
cigar%20box%20guitar%20tab.mscz
4StringTemplate.mscz Contributed by turtlehead
Comments
nice work. I agree with what you say as someone who tries to play modern songs (i.e not bluesslide stuff) any tab you want needs to be made yourself. that said it you are not fussy with the songs key, I've found you can tab most songs. great work on the tab program so far.
Gary,
You can easily create your own TAB for the dulcimer in MuseScore.
Choose "New" file.
Choose "Instrument" in the score selection.
Choose "Acoustic Guitar Tablature" in instruments.
Right click on the stave.
Choose "Staff Properties."
From the popup window you can add or subtract the number of stave lines. In the bottom left corner, you can choose the note for each open string (stave line).
When done simply save the file in your "Templates" folder (user\documents\musescore2\templates). You can then reuse it any time you want.
It took me a long time to figure out the above, but it really is quite simple.
This seems like alot of work when the dulcimer is also a three position instrument and there is tab everywhere for that. There should be a tab program somewhere for the dulcimer that can be used.
Ron "Oily" Sprague Hey, No, I haven't thought about that. I'm more interested in making my own at this time. There are those who enjoy breaking down anther's music and bringing it to the CBG community. I hope my post gives them the resources for that endeavor.
For notation / score creation, you will need either the Windows, OS X, or Linux desktop versions.
Still, free is good.
Kudos for digging into this software, and trying to get the rest of us to document our compositions. A question: have you ever considered or tried to TAB someone else's composition from an existing video?
Here's a little something I made before bed. It's not much but interesting to give it a try...