I can't answer the original question, but I do want to a respond to a comment about MusicXML in the original post:
> MusicXML records the fret and the pitch; but not the tuning > (its a big specification, might have missed that). MusicXML does indeed record the tuning for tablature staves. This is done with the staff-tuning element. An example of specifying alternate tuning for guitar tablature is available in the Jonatha Brooke example file at: http://www.recordare.com/xml/samples.html#Contributed Here's the representation of the alternate guitar tablature tuning from that file. Line 1 is the line at the bottom of the tablature staff. Octave 4 is the octave that starts with middle C: <staff-details> <staff-lines>6</staff-lines> <staff-tuning line="1"> <tuning-step>D</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>2</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <staff-tuning line="2"> <tuning-step>A</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>2</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <staff-tuning line="3"> <tuning-step>D</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <staff-tuning line="4"> <tuning-step>G</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <staff-tuning line="5"> <tuning-step>B</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>3</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <staff-tuning line="6"> <tuning-step>D</tuning-step> <tuning-octave>4</tuning-octave> </staff-tuning> <capo>4</capo> </staff-details> The show-frets attribute of the staff-details element also allows for frets to be represented using either letters or numbers. This was included specifically to help represent lute tablature. If you have comments or suggestions on how MusicXML might better support lute tablature in the future, please feel free to discuss this on the MusicXML discussion mailing list. Signup is available at: http://www.recordare.com/lists#MusicXML Best regards, Michael Good Recordare LLC www.recordare.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
