Techniques and articulations
Tabula supports the playing techniques and articulations you’d expect from a tab editor. Most are a single keystroke applied to the note or beat at the cursor, and all of them are in the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and the in-app reference (?). The Note & technique ▾ menu on the action bar carries the beat-and-passage marks — accent, staccato and dynamics on any track, plus palm mute, let ring, dead note and the two harmonics on a tab staff — and Open Technique Wheel, which puts hammer-on/pull-off, slide, bend, vibrato, palm mute and dead note one tap away.
The ones that mark a passage rather than a single note — palm mute, let ring, dead note, natural and pinch harmonics, staccato, accent, and dynamics — apply to every beat in a selection when there is one, in a single undo step, and to every note in those beats whatever string it sits on. The rest (hammer-on, bend, slide, vibrato, tie, tremolo, slur) join one note to the next, so they stay on the cursor’s note.
String techniques
Section titled “String techniques”These are all reached from a tab staff:
| Technique | Key | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer-on / pull-off to next | H | Tabula infers hammer vs. pull from the pitch direction and draws the slur to the next note on that string. |
| Bend (cycle preset) | B | Cycles through half-step, full-step, and release, then clears. |
| Slide to next | / | Slides into the next note on the string. |
| Tie to next | = | Ties the note into the next note on the same string. |
| Palm mute | P | |
| Let ring | L | |
| Dead (muted) note | M | |
| Vibrato (cycle) | V | Cycles vibrato width, then off. |
A bend is drawn the way Guitar Pro draws it: a curved arrow rising from the fret number to its amount (1/2, full, 1 1/2 and so on), a dashed line while it’s held, an arrow falling back for a release, and a straight arrow up for a pre-bend. Playback follows the curve, so a release comes back down and a bend reaches its full height — up to three tones — and only the bent string moves when the rest of a chord rings. Slides glide into the note they lead to.
The first four join one note to the next, so they act on the note on the active string and do nothing when that string is empty. Palm mute, let ring and dead note describe how a beat is played: they take the active string’s note when it has one, and otherwise every note in the beat — so a chord or a line written on strings you aren’t pointing at still takes the mark. The two harmonics work the same way; they live in the Note & technique ▾ menu and the command palette. Vibrato is a joining technique like the first four.
The technique wheel
Section titled “The technique wheel”Open the technique wheel with Alt+T (or double-click a note) for a radial menu of the six techniques you reach for most on a tab staff: hammer-on/pull-off, slide, bend, vibrato, palm mute and dead note. On a track without tab it offers vibrato and tie instead. Everything else — including the metal-oriented pinch harmonics, natural harmonics and tremolo picking — is behind the wheel’s centre More… button, which opens the command palette.
Beat-level articulations and dynamics
Section titled “Beat-level articulations and dynamics”These apply to a whole beat (all the notes in it), and are reached from the command palette:
- Staccato, accent, and slur grouping.
- Dynamics — cycle a dynamic mark on the beat through
pp · p · mp · mf · f · ff · fff, then off. The mark applies to every note in the beat.
Articulations affect playback
Section titled “Articulations affect playback”Techniques and dynamics aren’t just notation — they’re carried through to playback, so a palm-muted, accented passage sounds the way it reads:
- Let ring keeps a note sounding until its string is played again.
- Vibrato wavers the pitch — a guitar’s only upward, since a string can only be pushed sharp. Wide is slower and deeper than slight.
- Hammer-ons and pull-offs sound into the next note, which comes in softer because it’s fretted rather than picked. A slur plays each beat for its full length into the next, and so does a tenuto.
- Harmonics sound at the harmonic’s pitch: a natural harmonic at the 12th fret an octave over the open string, at the 7th an octave and a fifth. Artificial and tapped harmonics sound an octave over the fretted note, and a pinch harmonic an octave and a fifth over it.
- Ghost notes play softly and accents loudly; staccato, palm mute and dead notes cut the note short.
- Tremolo picking repeats the note at the speed its slashes mark.