Tuxguitar 1.1 supports polyphony

Until a couple of months ago, the only Windows proprietary application I needed on my GNU/Linux box was Guitar Pro, a shareware tab-editor available just for Windows and Mac. The free/libre alternative, TuxGuitar – despite the important benefit of running natively in Linux, that is without using Wine – could not satisfy me because it did not support polyphony. As I write mostly music for fingerstyle guitar, I do need to be able to display correctly the two voices (upper and lower) which define every fingerstyle piece.

It's basically a graphic issue. In fact, if you want the midi playing to be polyphonic, there are some workarounds: for example, you can add a track that plays the lower voice; or you can tie the notes in the lower voice. Nevertheless the output of the score is not correct, because the stems will have the same direction (as they belong to the same voice). But in a real score the upper voice's stems are upward, the lower voice's stems are downward.

Below you can see what I mean (screenshot taken by TuxGuitar 1.1):

You may think I'm a perfectionist (yes, you guess right).. But the thing is: when you write a tablature, the main goal is creating something easy to be read and understood. If the stems are displayed correctly, it's much easier to understand the voices without any ambiguity and therefore know which notes must be picked by the thumb and which ones by the other fingers. Also, if you want to use your score for educational purposes or for professional publishing, this can't be considered a minor issue.

Install and Configuration

In the beginning of April Tuxguitar 1.1 was released. Few changes were announced, but one of them is very precious for me: polyphony, something I had looked forward for two years. Actually, it is a double voicing, but support to more voices is planned to be added in next releases. Anyway, for fingerstyle guitar two voices are enough.

TuxGuitar is crossplatform (Win, Mac, Linux, BSD). Here are some basic tips for the GNU/Linux users:

• first, install the last release available here: there are either general packages for all the distros either packages compiled specifically for some distros, such as Debian or Ubuntu (you can use the ubuntu package if you have a distro derivated from it, like gNewSense);
• in order to be able to play the midi and so listen to what you are transcribing or reading, you need a MIDI software. Usually, people recommend Timidity... but actually Qsynth is much better, and it works both using Alsa or Jack. You also need good soundfonts.

If you can read italian or not, check the great howto by Senbee about music applications for GNU/Linux.

From Guitar Pro to TuxGuitar

Switching from GuitarPro to TuxGuitar is actually very easy and straight, as TG is designed to look like GP. However there are some tiny differences which can puzzle who has used GP for years.
This is a basic list of the peculiarities of TuxGuitar, at least what I could find out during this two-month intense use:

• Key Signature: the tonality of the piece is set not by choosing a major or minor chord, but by choosing the number and kind of accidentals (flat or sharp) you want to add to the score. Puzzled? The circle of fifths will explain everything.
• capo: where is it gone? In TuxGuitar it's called offset and it's located in the menu Track>>Property. As it allows to also lower the tuning, I think the word defines more properly a function whose meaning is beyond the physical capo.
• rests: yes, you can't insert a rest, because they are automatically inserted. This is probably connected to the next point.
• errors while typing: TuxGuitar does not warn you about some errors in the notes' value (for example, if a measure of 4/4 is filled by notes whose total duration is 5/4 or 3/4), simply because TG does not allow to make an 'error'. That is, you can't insert in a measure note values which exceed the time signature; if you forget inserting a note, it will be replaced by a pause. In a nutshell: in TG the duration of a measure is always consistent with the related time signature; if something is missing, it's replaced by a pause somewhere.
• keyboard shortcuts: why are the two voices shortcuts (ctrl+A and ctrl+B) not working on my PC? I asked in the TuxGuitar forum and I was told they use the numpad key codes. You can also reset the shortcuts (Tools>>Shortcuts): doubleclick and set the combination desired. This is a very useful feature, as you can set the shortcut you like for the commands you use more often. For example, I set some shortcuts for the note values and now I can write a tablature just using the keyboard, without (almost) ever using the mouse. AFAIK, GuitarPro misses this feature.

TuxGuitar 1.1's features

So far we've looked through the main differences between the same features which have names or different behaviors in each application. Now we'll see which features Tuxguitar has and GuitarPro has not, and viceversa.

What TuxGuitar has more:

• double dot: it's not an hot feature, I know, but - surprisingly - I never managed to see the double dot in GuitarPro. Eventually, even though I'm not that sure, I came to the conclusion that GP missed it. Please comment and correct me if I'm wrong.
• shortcut editor: as I mentioned before, a very powerful tool to be mouse-independent and write tabs with great ease. Again, never found on GP.
• Lilypond plugin: even though in early stages, this could be a great tool in the future (see below).

What Tuxguitar misses (so far):

• musical directions (D.C, Segno, Coda, etc.), as it's said here, are not implemented yet, but I guess they will in the near future. Anyway you already have the repeats and alternatives, which work great.
• double bar line, the one that closes a section, is not available yet.
• cut&paste: you can cut and paste an entire measure, but not just a voice. I hope this will be implemented in the next releases, as polyphony is in its early stages but I guess it's one of the main issues in the road to version 2.0.
• grouping beats can't be defined yet: you can just set the time signature, not the way the beats must be grouped inside each measure.

These are the main missing features I could find in my daily usage. It's likely that some other GP users will find other features missing, it depends on individuals' needs.
Now the question is: Are these missing features important for me? It depends if you want to produce an amatorial or a profesional score.
Amatorial - If you just need to read on the screen, play and print the tablatures you find on the Internet for your personal use, TuxGuitar is absolutely fine. Also, it's very good if you want to write music or transcribe very fast.
Professional - What if you want a professional-quality printing of the score? GuitarPro claims to achieve that quality, but, even though its PDFs are better than the ones produced by TuxGuitar, the output is not professional at all. You need professional software if you want to produce a professional score. And again you have to choose between two options: Finale, proprietary and expensive, and Lilypond, free as in freedom (and as in beer).

Perfect tablatures and scores with GNU Lilypond

All the limits of TuxGuitar I listed before, plus many other limits shared by all tablature editors, can be easily overcome using GNU Lilypond. You can get some information about this project on the wikipedia page.
Lilypond is flexible, can meet almost every graphic demand and produce high-quality PDFs, as you can see browsing the Mutopia website. I suggest the reading of this review, which makes a comparison between Finale and Lilypond.

Lilypond has just one inconvenient: it does not exist a reliable GUI interface yet (Denemo is a good try, but still far from something really useful). There is a number of reasons for that, but this is not the place to discuss about it. The point is: you'll have to learn a new syntax if you want to use Lilypond. It's not that difficult and you can rely on a huge and clear documentation. But I can imagine people used to GUI interface will feel annoyed about that.

I also have a very good news for the tablature's fans. Even though many people think of Lilypond as a software for classical musicians who writes just scores, it can print a tablature staff below the score staff, as in any tab editor. But the default output of the tablature is rather bad-looking because it displays many unuseful symbols for a tab (note values, ties, etc.). Fortunately, the Lilypond community is working on a configuration file – called tablature.ly – which, if included in a lilypond score, produces a cleaner tablature containing just the symbols really needed by tablature (slide or legato, palm mute, ghost note, etc.). It will be probably included in the next development version, 2.13.2.

I will write soon some articles about lilypond for beginners and tablature users.

W Unix Philosophy!

According to the Unix philosophy, it's better to write a software that can do one thing extremely well, rather than create many features without paying attention to the quality. The thing is: proprietary software is based on commercial strategies, so they have to meet the desires of the general user (i.e.: have a GUI) and they must also persuade them to buy upgrades by showing new features. Free Software projects, especially niche applications like Lilypond, usually don't give a damn about that. Lilypond development goes on maybe slowly, but without losing the main goal: producing perfect scores. Other free software projects will care for different implementations and tools, which can be integrated quite easily in a free software environment.

If you can feel the Unix mantra, maybe you'll agree with these two statements:

• I'll use TuxGuitar if I do not have special graphic demands and if I want to write directly on the tablature without worrying about notes (very useful when transcribing, that is finding music by ear).
• I'll use Lilypond to write professional scores, maybe aimed at publishing.

Just Free Software notation programs from now on!!!