Re: guitar tab feature request

[Marc Hohl]

[Sorry, the attached eps was too big; I converted it to png]

I have a wishlist of features for the tablature and guitar _notation_
feature request.
I don't know how far the work on the features has gone, so I post to the
list:

(1) writing muted notes (i.e. dead notes) is already possible, but
rather complicated
and - what's more important - different for notes and tablature.

I can define

#(define (x-tab-format str context event)
    (make-whiteout-markup
      (make-vcenter-markup
        (markup #:musicglyph "noteheads.s2cross"))))

headXOn  = \override NoteHead #'style = #'cross
headXOff = \override NoteHead #'style = #'default

tabXOn = \set tablatureFormat = #x-tab-format
tabXOff = \unset tablatureFormat

and use it to switch between crossed note heads (or crosses for tab
numbers respectively),
but if I write some funky chord lines with lots of muted strings, the
lilypond file gets
complicated to read. I could use shorter commands, but that does not
solve the problem.

Would it be too difficult to extend the parser, so that I could simply write

c8 xc8 c xc

to get my dead notes both in a normal Staff and a TabStaff?

(2) When I write a score with notes and additional tablature, I don't
need the stems and stuff,
so it would be good to have a \tabNumbersOnly-Feature which
automatically switches to the
desired output. But in cases where I have only tablature, there is a
problem with durations >=2.
I have a workaround with

#(define (nonr-tab-format str context event)
      (make-vcenter-markup
        (markup #:musicglyph "space")))
% I don't know whether this is a good definition, but it works.
% I simply copied the definition from above and replaced the cross by a
space,
% which doesn't need a white-out

tabNrOff = \set tablatureFormat = #nonr-tab-format
tabNrOn = \unset tablatureFormat

to remove the number and draw only the stem manually, but I think it
would be easier for me if
lilypond does the job. Attached is an example to clarify the situation
(it is the intro of
"My lover is" by Chris deBurgh, by the way).

Best wishes

Marc

PS: I have some ideas/wishes for handling bendings,
but it would be interesting to see how far David has come
with his ideas/feature requests.