TablEdit Users Say:

"One of my current projects is learning the gypsy jazz guitar style and work of Django Reinhardt. I can play his music fairly well, and have great notation for most of his tunes (done by the Nolan Trio in Amsterdam--great work those folks are doing). So I don't need to re-do their work.

But I write my own original tunes in that gypsy style: with a head in standard notation or guitar tab, chord names above the staff, and lyrics when used below. A simple line.

And somewhere I need to show diagrams of chord forms because they're often in gypsy style (and are odd looking to many) and need to be pictured.

So two pages is what I do for a song. Head, etc. on the left; chord forms for the song on a page to the right. Plus a gypsy feel to it all. TablEdit scores well with its "Title, etc." font set. I can get an old 30s jazz feel from your fonts. Cool."
Gary Entsminger - Vermont, USA

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Tutorial

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This portion of the manual is designed to walk you through the various stages of tablature creation. We'll start off with the basic steps and then add features as we go along. Although we recommend that you go through the entire tutorial, how much you actually read depends on your own ambitions concerning the writing of tablature. If you're only interested in writing down basic tunes or licks without regard to how they sound when played back in the program, you may only want to read the first few chapters. If, on the other hand, your aim is to provide a highly detailed tablature that not only contains exact fingerings and timings but sounds reasonably like an actual performance (we call these "Performance" or "Note-for-note" tabs) you'll probably want to read through the entire tutorial.  

Shortcuts have been provided in TablEdit for all of the more common functions such as changing note duration (this includes toggling the dotted and triplet functions on and off), the most common effects (slides, pull-offs, hammer-ons, muted notes), changing scale views, Cut and Paste operations, etc. A complete list of the keyboard shortcuts available is found under "Hotkeys". I guarantee you that learning the ones for the functions you use most often will simplify your tablature-writing life enormously.  
 
   First words  
 
Basic setup  
 
The first step in creating a tablature is, of course, setting up the framework, whether this be a tablature grid or a classical stave, into which the notes and effects will entered. There are, however a few other things that should be done right from the start.  
 
Score structure in TablEdit  
 
Note entry and Editing  
 
   Note entry is, of course, the most basic of operations in TablEdit. Notes can be entered in either the tablature grid or in the stave. There are, however, differences in the procedures used and the functions available in each.  
 
Basic Entry  
 
Duration  
 
This explains the importance of correct note duration as concerns both the appearance of your tablature and the sound it produces.  
 
Dynamics  
 
How to use dynamics to produce a more "live performance" sound to your tablatures.  
 
Notation Display  
 
A page of tips about making classical notation come out right.  
 
See also:  
 
Larry Kuhn's Tutorial  
 
Bob Wolford' Tutorial