Re: TabStaff feature requests

[Marc Hohl]

Am 24.11.2010 06:25, schrieb Steve Yegge:
> [...]
>
> \include "english.ly <http://english.ly>"
> music = \relative c {
> <a' e' a cs a'>1
> }
>
> \score {
> <<
>     \new Staff {
>       \music
>     }
>     \new TabStaff {
>       \transpose c c, { \music }
>     }
> >>
> }
Just for clarification: as the guitar is notated one octave above its 
sounding pitch,
I use the following template:

\score {
  \new StaffGroup <<
    \new Staff {
      \new Voice { \global \clef "treble_8"
                   \override Voice.StringNumber #'transparent = ##t
                   \music }
     }
    \new TabStaff {
       \new TabVoice { \global \clef "moderntab" \music }
       }
>>
}

The octavated treble clef just does the right thing, and with the 
override, you
remove the unneccesary string numbers.


> In this example, the low A is placed on the 5th fret, 6th string.
> The minimum fret is the default (zero), but the tab calculator
> does not choose the open-A string, even though it would be
> far more convenient to play it that way.  If you annotate it with
> fingerings:
>
> <a'-0 e'-1 a-1 cs-1 a'-4>1
>
> it becomes doubly clear to the guitarist that the open-A string is
> intended here, both because of the -0 fingering notation and
> because it is the only physically reasonable configuration.
I see your point, but I have no idea whether a suitable algorithm
can be found to cope all possible fingerings.
> There are actually _two_ signals here that the tab calculator
> should be picking up but is not.  They are separate issues.
> One is that even though the TabStaff.minimumFret is zero, the
> calculator is not actually using the minimum fret.
IIUC, the calculator tries to put all fret positions within a four fret 
interval,
so <d\5 g> would show up as
e---
b---
g---
D-5-
A-5-
E---
>  The other is
> my #2 feature request, which is that it should respect open
> string "fingering" requests, because they are unambiguous.
>
> The workaround is to use string numbers external to the chord.
> Putting them next to their notes merely creates redundant and
> possibly irritating text for the guitarist to parse.  It's already clear
> that it's an open A, so having a circled string number at that
> note is pointless.

As mentioned above, the simple override solves at least this problem.

Regards,

Marc