Guitar Capo Notation

Added 27 Apr 2007 (last updated 19 Nov 2011)

For use with Sibelius 4.1, Sibelius 5, Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7

This is a set of resources for notating guitar music that uses a capo, especially in TAB staves. TAB staves do not support transposition changes, so if you want a staff that plays back at the correct pitch, you must define a staff type whose pitches are the pitches at the capoed fret.

1. Capo Notation plug-in. This plug-in takes an initial key and guitar tuning and calculates the tunings at various capo positions. It also calculates the transposition interval, final key, and transposition change setting for notation staves.
2. Special capo clef house styles. This is a series of house styles, each of which redefines the symbol \"Tall 4 string tab clef\", which is used for a clef style in Create > Clef. The house style name explains the kind of clef available (such as \"Tab Capo Clef Full 1.lib\", which has a marking for a full capo on fret 1, or \"Tab Capo Clef E Sus 2.lib\", which has a marker for a partial capo on strings 3, 4, and 5 on fret 2). Import the symbols from the desired house style into the document containing the TAB staff, and then use Create > Clef.
3. Capoed TAB staff definition house style, \"Capoed Staff Types\". This contains staff type definitions for tunings capoed from 1 to 12 frets, with both sharp and flat variants for these tunings:
• Standard, no rhythms
• Standard, with rhythms
• DADGAD
• Dropped D
• Double D
• D minor
• Open A
• Open C
• Open D
• Open G
• Open A
4. A set of scores, suitable for saving as manuscript paper, set up for standard tuning guitar (with rhythms) capoed from frets 1 to 12. A sample score that demonstrates how to set up a score for standard tuning capoed at fret 2 is also included.

To use these, you can make a copy of one of the included scores if applicable, or make up you own scores from the included parts.

Run the plug-in to determine which type of TAB staff you will need, or guess from the house style names after importing the staff types in house style \"Capoed Staff Types\". Then if you want a graphic marker, import the Tab… house styles appropriate to your TAB staff (only import symbols, noteheads, and text styles from these House Styles). If you have a standard tuning staff capoed with a complete capo on the 3rd fret, you should import \"Tab Capo Clef Full 3.lib\". Then Create > Clef, and pick the last TAB clef, the one with the line and number next to the word TAB.

The resulting TAB staves will play back at the capoed pitch and look nice too!

CapoNotation.plg updated 9 August 2011 to Sib 7 dialog control fixes.

• Download Capo Notation.zip (1032K, downloaded 3981 times)

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.

Fix TAB Collisions

Version 01.11.00
Added 29 Apr 2008 (last updated 23 Jun 2012)

For use with Sibelius 5, Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7

Looks on a TAB staff for places where there are 2 or more notes on the same string and the same starting position in a bar, and it tries to move notes to different strings.

It can trace the location of any notes it moves.

It won\'t try if there are more notes than strings. It tries to correct notes that have no string assignment. It will skip grace notes and unison notes with the same duration (though the location of skipped unison notes will be traced).

• Download FixTABCollisions.zip (9K, downloaded 6273 times)

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.

Circle TAB Half and Whole Notes

Version 01.08.00
Added 17 Sep 2009 (last updated 22 Jun 2012)

For use with Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7

Circle TAB for Half & Whole Notes will find half and whole notes in a guitar (guitar only) TAB staff, and add circle or ellipse symbols to cover these notes or chords, so as to indicate their duration. This is not as good as having Sibelius support this as a feature, but it really beats doing the same thing by hand.

The symbols will be in a drawing layer on top of the notes, so to access the notes you will have to pull the symbols out of the way. However, the plugin has an option to delete all the added symbols, and another to delete existing symbols and add new ones, which works well if you are still editing the score.

The zip file includes a House Style library that must be installed in the user House Style folder. The plugin will load symbols from this House Style.

The symbols and their placement are customizable, (if tediously) using the Options… button. You can choose different symbols and specify their X and Y offsets in the dialog, and these values are preserved over Sibelius sessions. The plugin author can provide more details if you actually want to try this.

• Download CircleTABHalfWhole.zip (104K, downloaded 3679 times)

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.

Alternate Picking

Version 01.12.00
Added 27 Mar 2011 (last updated 20 Jun 2012)

For use with Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7

This plugin will add downbow and upbow articulations to selected notes,based on Alternate Picking, which is often used for flatpicking fiddle tunes on guitar.

There are several options, and the rules used are explained in the main dialog.

A House Style that defines a smaller upbow symbol is included in the zip file, as is a PDF document explaining how the plugin can be used.

• Download AlternatePicking.zip (384K, downloaded 3120 times)

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.

Trace TAB Collisions

Version 01.15.00
Added 18 Nov 2011 (last updated 24 Jun 2012)

For use with Sibelius 5, Sibelius 6 and Sibelius 7

Looks on a TAB staff for places where there are 2 or more notes on the same string and the same starting position in a bar, and writes the location of any such notes to the Plugin Trace window.

Such collided notes are typically not visible, and can be a surprise in playback or when you copy to a notation staff, so it is useful to know if you have any.

• Download TraceTABCollisions.zip (6K, downloaded 1729 times)

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.