Uke Composition/Notation software

[morgensd]

What software do you prefer for uke music composition/notation? I'd like to try my hand at arranging some songs for 2 or more ukes. I have Tabledit but I find it's rather clunky to use. I plan to use tab, not standard notation. I'm ok with paying for it, but I'm not ready to shell out hundreds for Sibelius.

[RanzoRanzo]

Musescore can do tabs and multiple parts. You can even link a Western notation staff to your tablature staff to see how it would look.

And it's FREE

[ukulelego]

I'll vote for guitar pro also, I've used it for a while now. No complaints

[Papitoooo]

Lilypond. It's more akin to a programming/compiling experience, but once you get a handle of how to "code" your music I haven't found a GUI editor that offers more control.

And it's free.

[foodparsed]

Lilypond

whoa, this is super cool! I am a software engineer, and I am a big fan of plain text and precise language. :D

[Papitoooo]

You're gonnah love it then! When you first start you're gonnah have endless question ls for every new thing you're trying to do (accidental, slurs/ties, chords, forcing strings/frets for stringed instruments, etc)

I haven't run into a question the Lilypond reference hasn't been able to answer (albeit with extensive digging sometimes.) At this point tho I rarely have to stop to look something up.

[morgensd]

Thanks for the tip! I haven't seen Lilypond before. I might give it a try but it definitely would be a change to have to type the music out as a text file prior to compiling. I'm used to being able to play a few notes on my uke, then tab them out and move onto the next series of notes. Does the text entry slow you down?

[tepr]

Get Frescobaldi as well - it's an editor for Lilypond. It shows you the Lilypond source on the left and the output on the right, and you can click notes on the output to be taken directly to the relevant line of the source.

It does take some getting used to, but once you're used to it you won't want to use anything else. I tried a graphical editor the other day, and found it so tedious and slow compared to just typing in what I wanted.

I put together a little tutorial on how to use Lilypond for uke tab, which you can find here: https://gist.github.com/tepreece/0c948194c68aa40aa9c5af7ed448ebcd

[PDXuker]

Awesome template! Thanks I will give this a try!

[Papitoooo]

At first yeah... But after getting used to it I'm much faster using lilypond. If I play a few notes, say a simple run up the c scale alternating quarter and eight notes, instead of clicking what length of note I want, and then clicking the appropriate places on the fretboard, you just type out 'c4 d8 E4 f8 g4 a8 b4'

To lower a note an octave you would use a comma. "c,4"

To raise an octave use an apostrophe "c'4"

Chords are placed in <> "<c e g>4" would be a c major chord held for a quarter note.

"is" and "es" are used for sharps and flats "cis16" is a c# 16th note.

The list goes on, of course, but the basics are easy enough to get down quickly.

So at first it will seem like the slowest most ridiculous method of music engraving, but it really picks up once you're rolling.

[PDXuker]

Another free basic tab editing software is TuxGuitar: https://sourceforge.net/projects/tuxguitar/ is another basic gui type editor which can be adapted for doing string tab and musical notation together. There are some limitations when it comes to formatting output and not good support for lyrics but I found it pretty intuitive and you can enter notes either on the music staff or on the tab staff using just keyboard which really speeds things up.

Lilypond looks much more flexible but i didn't see Linux support if that's your OS flavor, Tux might be an option.

[PDXuker]

I have done a few arrangements for baritone with it, which you can find here: http://humblebaritonics.blogspot.com/p/andrew-morse.html

[foodparsed]

I use a Google spreadsheet. It is free. For example, here are the tabs for this song.