I know nothing about any music except a little with drum tab. I’m still early in the beginner course, but really want to start trying to capture some of the bass I have heard so I can learn it. Since I know nothing about sheet music, I’d also like for it to display tab in sheet and vice versa.
There are a couple of posts like this and I think it’s between Sibelius and Musescore. Hopefully someone who has used these types of programs can jump in and answer:
Do they both to tabs? Sheet? Show both?
Sibelius looks like it has a free version. Does that fit what I need if I’m just doing bass?
Anything I didn’t ask because I don’t know what I don’t know?
Are you asking about software to use for writing scores?
If so, I use Crescendo Music Notation software by NCH. I only write my scores in music notation, but I know it writes tab also. I’ve never used that function, so I’m not sure how it works.
There’s a free version if you want to try it out. The paid version that I have was not very expensive as I recall.
Not for writing scores, just figuring out what other people are playing… If I hear a cool player on YouTube, I can watch their fingers/strings and build tab based on what I see them doing. Then I’ll have it to practice. I’d like the program to translate tab to sheet if possible so I can at least start familiarizing with sheet since I’ve never been exposed to it.
I almost disregarded this because my religion forbids me from using Apple products, but it looks like they have evolved and can run on real computers now as well! I’ll check Guitar Pro out, too!
Hey now name calling is not very cool, lol. Wait til you get lazy and want the computer to do something for you instead of learning how to use it, you’ll come around. There’s still hope.
I enter the sheet music, or an original composition, into Musescore and it will add the TAB, if I want it.
I am not sure if you can enter the TAB first and have it create the sheet music. You could just download it and give it a try.
Musescore is free whereas Sibelius is about $300. @PamPurrs mentioned Crescendo. It cost $40 for the Home edition and $60 for the Masters.
There are a few people on the forum that use Musescore and/or Crescendo.
I have managed just fine with Musescore but if I felt a need for something else would definitely give Crescendo a try before I lay out $300 for Sibelius.
Let us know what you decide and how it works for you.
HTH
$300! Ouch!
I’ll definitely report back when I figure something out. I’m also going to reach out to Sibelius support… their site shows a free version now, but maybe it is time limited.
Stay tuned! Probably won’t be this week or next, but sometime before I finish the first course I’ll for sure get something going and maybe write up a quick review of the tab/sheet creation/conversion for whichever products I test out (probably Garage Band, Musescore, and Sibelius).
Edit1a: I just realized how complicated this stuff is. A quick Guitar Pro video seems to fit what I need, so I’m going to use paper and pen for a little bit until the need hits too hard and then probably jump into that… I’d rather make a $60 mistake quickly than the right decision at a cost of 20 hours of research that I could have been playing bass during!
Edit1b: I also realized I was using Garage Band and Guitar Pro interchangeably. Yes, I’m a dummy.
I am… was planning to do it over 3 months, but so far I’m on track for 1 month. Really loving the instruction style and playing in general. I still suck, but bassassery cometh.
