The New Way To Link Tabs & Sheet Music In MuseScore 4

MuseScore is one of my favorite, most-used tools that help with my instructional content for guitar. It's an amazing, free piece of software that allows me to write out tabs, sheet music, and chord charts for my lessons and videos. Unfortunately, recent updates have made this process a lot more difficult for me when sitting down to write something. What used to be such a smooth, efficient process has turned into a headache. Fortunately, I found some workarounds that fix the new issue.

The Old MuseScore Method

Before recent MuseScore updates, I've been able to open up a new project, select a simultaneous tab and sheet music transcription option, and be on my merry way with writing.

I like to include both sheet music and tabs for guitarists for several reasons. I have to use tabs simply because that's what most guitarists rely on when learning something. They are very easy to use and learning them is pretty quick. I also like to use sheet music in addition to tabs because it's a better way to depict rhythm. Sheet music is also something most guitarists don't know how to read, so I like to give all my students some exposure to it.

Before recent updates, you were able to simply select a solo instrument arrangement and incorporate a linked tab and standard notation staff. This was nice because easily allowed you to write a note on a tab and have that same note appear on the sheet music (or vice versa) as soon as you started a new project.

The Problem With New MuseScore Updates

With the new MuseScore updates, getting both sheet music and tabs to appear simultaneously is now a colossal pain in the neck. I no longer see a way to start a guitar solo project that allows me to select combined sheet music and tabs from the start. MuseScore has always had some issues with not being intuitive with certain things, but this new challenge just takes the cake. I haven't been able to find anything online that addresses this either. Now, I can select a tab project or a sheet music project, but not both staff types at the same time. Even worse is that I can't figure out how to revert MuseScore back to an older version. Fortunately, I've found a few ways to work around this issue.

Workarounds

Below are 3 different ways to remedy the problem with the new MuseScore 4 update.

Method 1: If you have an existing project that you wrote before the recent MuseScore 4 updates, open it up and use that project as a template.  Delete the existing notation, then use the new blank project to add notes the same way as done in previous versions of MuseScore 4.  Don't forget to save this new project as something different to preserve your previous project.

Method 2: Use the following sequence:

• Open new project
• Strings - plucked
• Electric Guitar
• Select arrow —>
• Electric Guitar (tablature)
• Select arrow —>
• Write your music on the tab staff
• Copy and paste the tab music into the standard notation staff

Method 3: Use the following sequence:

• Open new project
• Strings - plucked
• Electric Guitar
• Select arrow —>
• Click "Next" to add more details, or click "Done"
• Instruments, drop-down arrow (Electric Guitar), Create Linked Staff
• Click the gear icon next to the newest instrument, then change Staff Type to “Tab. 6-str. simple”

Conclusion

Despite my challenge with starting a new guitar project that combines tabs and standard notation, I still think MuseScore is a very useful tool. I continue to use it for writing ideas and for creating visuals for my lessons by using the workarounds I showed you. I hope that MuseScore addresses this issue in future updates. Are you experiencing similar issues? Have you figured out a better solution for it? If so, PLEASE let me know. If not, I hope my workarounds have helped you.

Watch the full lesson here: The New Way To Link Tabs & Sheet Music In MuseScore 4