Re: TabStaff feature requests

[Carl Sorensen]

On 11/23/10 12:37 AM, "Steve Yegge" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> The TabStaff is amazingly cool.  I'm not a big tab user myself,
> but for people who want tabs, LilyPond makes it easy to add them.
> 
> I've been busily adding tabs for a few months and have some feature
> requests to put into the queue if possible.
> 
> 1) Setting fixed strings to use for ascending/descending chords.
> Currently it's nontrivial to specify tab positions for something like:
> 
> <c c'> <d d'> <e e'> <f f'>
> <g g'> <a a'> <b b'> <c c'>
> 
> I've found it's most convenient to append the actual strings after
> every chord, hence:
> 
> <c c'>\5\3 <d d'>\5\3 <e e'>\5\3 <f f'>\5\3
> <g g'>\5\3 <a a'>\5\3 <b b'>\5\3 <c c'>\5\3

Why not
<c\5 c'\3>

Why do you want to put the string numbers *after* the chords, even when
you're putting finger numbers inside the chords?

> 
> 2) Have the automatic tab calculator understand the -0 fingering.
> Currently if you do something like this:
> 
> \relative c' {
>   \set TabStaff.minimumFret = #2
>   <d'-0 a'-2 d-3 f-1>
> }

I would not be in favor of this -- all other fingerings except 0 indicate a
finger number, but zero indicates a fret number.  I think it's much better
to have you write:

<d'\4 a'-2 d-3 f-1>

This will get you just what you want.

> 
> It will choose strings 5, 4, 3, 2.  Obviously in this case you could
> just set the minimum fret to #0, but this may be an exception to a
> passage that is otherwise all in position 2.
> 
> Moreover the calculator gets confused by open chords in higher
> positions, e.g.
> 
> \relative c {
>   <e'-2\5 ges-1 d'-3 b-0 b'-4>
> }
> 
> It picks correct strings for all the notes except the open b, which
> is ignored (and for which a warning is issued).  You can fix it
> by specifying the remaining strings:
> 
> <e-2\5 gs-1 d'-3 b-0 b'-4>16\4\3\2\1

I think it will work correctly if you just specify the string for the note
you want open:

<e-2\5 gs-1 d'-3 b\2 b'-4>16

HTH,

Carl