Re: major feature request (tablature)

[Jonathan Kulp]

address@hidden wrote:

> > The ideal (in my opinion) would be to put tablature information right in
> > with the music input
>
> huh?  the tablature _IS_ the music information.  No way we should be
> asking the user to do any translation from tab glyphs to pitch.  Too many
> errors, too much time, and, what the hell is the computer for anyway?
>
> , so the exact same music expression can be passed to
> > the tablature and the staff (that's how LilyPond currently does it).  
>
> IMNSHO it is most unfortunate that Ly is now abusing its users that way.
>
> > it may be a little bit more awkward for the person doing the transcription,
>
> a LITTLE? it is abusive to the person doing the data entry to have to
> enter the same information redundantly in different forms.
>
> > it greatly facilitates mixing tablature with staff notation.
>
> if it is that badly needed internally than it can be calculated and used
> internally.  

I think I'm starting to see the misunderstanding here (it takes a while 
sometimes :)).  I'm guessing most of us who use Lilypond think in terms 
of pitches on staves, and it's counter-intuitive to think in terms of 
fingers on frets, irrespective (in data-entry terms) of the pitches 
involved.  I don't know that I'd call it abusive, but it's definitely 
onerous to have to translate from tab to staff notation just to get back 
to tab output.  Would it not be possible to enter Tab data in a way 
similar to fretboard markups, where the string and fret are indicated thus:

6-x;5-x;4-o;3-2;2-3;1-1

In this way the person transcribing would not have to translate from tab 
to pitch and back again (definitely error-prone).  There's still the 
matter of rhythm, of course, but I see Dana's point about having to 
enter the data in terms of pitch instead of in terms of finger 
placement.  This sort of input would (I suppose) assume that no staff 
output was desired and it wouldn't need to figure out what pitches are 
being entered, or have to create MIDI output, etc.

Just some thoughts...

Jon


--
Jonathan Kulp
http://www.jonathankulp.com