Mike,

What program is that screenshot from? Is it a specialized guitar notation app?

I don't know the software, it's from this blog post: https://www.guitarchalk.com/sheet-music-guitar-tabs-correlation/.

Here's a Musescore forum post:  https://musescore.org/en/node/275196 wherein they say "In some published tablature scores, half notes and whole notes are indicated by encircling those frets marks. Sibelius and Finale have no such option, but Notion and Scoremaker ZERO do. Attached is an example from Alfred music publishing."

That post was written in 2018.  I figured by now Finale would do it.

Finale has had almost no real updates for years. They trumpet all sorts of things, but they're mostly sizzle, not steak. The only major advance was the switch to SMuFL fonts, which, IMHO, caused more problems than it fixed. So, don't wait for this to appear in Finale.

Scoremaker Zero seems to be a Japanese app. At least, that's the only way it comes up on Google. I tried it with Notion on my iPad. It uses long stems, with no differentiation between half and quarter. Also they are full length stems, not below the TAB staff. The Presonus website has a single picture of TAB with some circled notes, but no stems. That might only be available on the desktop app. What about Guitar Pro? That might be worth looking into.

TAB has never given a player every nuance in a score—not the way that notation can. As interesting as those circles are, I believe they are solutions looking for a problem. I have guitar and lute tablature going back hundreds of years and have never seen the need,

The layout of the grid tells you which are half and which are quarter when combined with the time signature. Same goes for whole where there are no stems.

Although I have many different notation apps that I use for various tasks, Finale is the only one I ever use for TAB. It works exactly as I like and it’s very easy to edit fingerings. Printouts are easy to read by others.

I'm not sure how this reply helps.  Are you trying to convince me to not want this feature?  Because "it's always been that way?"  Because you never use it?  Because your grid layout is regular enough that you can see quarter notes and half notes in the spacing?

My grid does not lend to using spacing as a clue.  I have seen circles used in other applications, and I use it when I write tabs by hand.  It's the only thing I need that's missing from score notation "nuance".

I like using Finale to make tabs, but there's no reason to disrespect my expectation because you wouldn't use the feature. Quarter notes and half notes are indistinguishible.  This is a notational flaw.  To have stems, ties, augmentation dots and tuples that distinguish all the possible time values except half and quarter note is a defect.

To turn this discussion in a positive direction, in what way would you suggest that I can do something with Finale that would differentiate quarter notes from half notes on a tab staff?  My current solution is create parts that have both the score and the tab.  The reader can read the time value from the five-line staff (bass clef or treble clef, depending) and the tab notation from the tab staff.  It wastes space, but provides all the necessary information.  I'd like something more compact, ideally within the tab staff itself.  I suppose I could never use half notes and make all half-note durations be two quarter-notes tied together.  Then I can tell the reader that there are no half notes in the notation.  I'm looking for other brainstorm ideas if Finale doesn't have the capability.

Mike Bonnice,

You can add the circle with the Expression Tool.

It can be a little time consuming to add those circles, one by one, but you can work faster by using a metatool for the circle expression.

This (well known) example was done 12 years ago with Finale:

If you send me an e-mail (gtpthomsen ad aim . com), I shall be happy to send you my Finale document.

Mike B., no need to get testy. I can see where what you want could be useful to a certain subset of players, the same way some teachers ask for colored notes, fixed-do solfedge, alpha notes, and all the rest.

As Peter points out, it can be done, but not easily. You could set up your own expressions with the circles and lines of different lengths.

I think you will be better served by a program that already does what you want, rather than wanting it in Finale.

… expressions with the circles and lines of different lengths …

What lines, Mike?

- do you mean the stems?

In the document (shown in my attached graphic) Finale draws the stems automatically.

No need to do the stems as expressions.

I'm working with the expression designer just now, I haven't used it before so this was a useful tip. 

Here's a fantastic find: Utilities > Apply Articulation...  I can apply the circle all at once to all the half notes, dotted half and whole notes!  This is the work-around that will work.  Thanks for the tip about expression designer.

I'm writing parts for bass guitar for someone who's a beginner. There are a lot of half notes in 4/4 time.  A basic pedestrian beat just plays the root and 5th over and over as half notes.  When I want the student to try something with more feel, I need quarter notes, dotted quarter notes, eighth notes in addition to the half note.  Fortunately this articulation trick will work until Finale comes up with a solution that is tied to the note-head and stems.

What lines, Mike?

- do you mean the stems?

In the document (shown in my attached graphic) Finale draws the stems automatically.

No need to do the stems as expressions.

Yes, that's what I meant, Peter. Mike B. requested different length lines representing half vs. quarter notes. I thought that having a short line, and a longer one, would be  the way to go as expressions. Or as an articulation that could be applied with the Utility. (Good catch on that, BTW. I've never used it, but I like it!)

I'm not sure how this reply helps.  Are you trying to convince me to not want this feature?  Because "it's always been that way?"  Because you never use it?  Because your grid layout is regular enough that you can see quarter notes and half notes in the spacing?

Peter pointed out that it can be done but you need to do it manually. You already knew that which now makes it a Feature Request—and there's a separate section for that.

I pointed out that circles have never been necessary and then gave it historical context. As a player and teacher, I would find them distracting. If Finale decided to add that feature because of a demand that I'm pretty sure does not exist, I would hope the feature could be turned off in Preferences for the rest of us. 

I'm in the "Notation is best when it's kept simple" camp.

Finale is all about options (that you can toggle on/off).

Quoting forum member Ben Byram-Wigfield:

… Wiggy's Law: For every Finale user who eagerly desires a feature, there's another user who wants it turned off …

For the sake of completeness, here is another idea. A user posted it 6 years ago:

Yes, Peter. But without context, is that a dotted whole (wrong, of course...), a dotted quarter or a dotted half? Mike B.s original question was about having different length descending lines, as a further clue to the duration.

Wiggy's Law is so, so true.

My favorite, though, has to be Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage.

Once we see the circle with a stem, we know it's a half note.  

The example I posted that showed shorter stems seems like an alternative (redundant?) method for indicating duration.  

My original question did not presume a solution, though it posted suggestions.  I asked what is Finale's way of distinguishing quarter from half and presumably the answer is it doesn't (though I haven't heard the official answer yet since I just sent the support request yesterday).  

I'm not married to either the circles or the stem length idea, just something that doesn't confound quarter and half.  I'll let the notation designers choose a solution. Though my personal preference would be an oval around the note heads, I'd adapt to anything that works.

 presumably the answer is it doesn't

That is correct. At the risk of repeating myself, Finale doesn't have to. Tablature is always laid out on a grid and the position of the numbers and stems tells us what is what — as it has for hundreds of years. Players do make decisions on absolute duration of notes but circles won't change that.

I get the desire for circles as a tool for absolute beginners but since TAB is never written that way, I don't see the point of insisting that it be a default for Finale. Neither do I see enough demand for anyone to write a plugin that adds such functionality. Since it can be done manually in Finale and there are dedicated apps that can do it, I wouldn't expect it soon.

I don't know how many commenting on this thread read, write or teach TAB but I do for guitar and lute and have since the 1960s. Not bass, though — my bass players learn to read notation, chord symbols and Nashville Numbering when they're advanced enough. I have never seen the need for TAB on a bass. But I'm not you.

My interest is in maximizing information content within the staff and providing a complete notation for duration within tab.  Perhaps an innovation is needed.  I don't mind innovation, Finale already has a lot of amazing features that enable me to do things that were never possible with pencil and paper.  Here's an example for lap steel guitar:

https://mikebonnice.com/licks/tenversatilevampsA/SteelC6/index.html

(I need to change the tab slide from a slur to an arrow so the slur isn't confused with a tie.)

Maximizing information content within the staff means not needing a separate staff to communicate note duration.  It also means that the information can be within the staff lines, the duration notation doesn't need to be outside the staff lines.

Complete means that any time value can be interpreted from the markings on the page.  On a tab staff Finale can already show stems, tuplets, ties and augmentation dots.  These are extremenly useful and I find it a mark of excellence that Finale can do those.  The incomplete part is that half notes are the only ones having ambiguous duration notation.  Spacing is also ambiguous as it changes from measure to measure because the spacing of a half note depends on the other notes within the measure and their duration.

Algorithmically, my proposal would be this.  Assuming that ties, tuples and augmentation dots are turned on in their various dialog boxes, then stems would be turned on in the staff attribute.  The stem algorithm would do this:

• sixteenth note: draw a stem and two flags

• eighth note: draw a stem and one flag

• quarter note: draw a stem

• half note: draw a stem and encircle the note head(s)

• whole note: draw no stem

Regarding whole notes, I'm indifferent whether it should be encircled.  The notation would be compact, complete and unambiguous either way.  The notation designer can use other design criteria to decide what to do.  As for double whole notes, I defer to the design expert.

The encircling rule would be:

• if a notehead is isolated with no note noteheads on adjacent staff lines, put a compact curved enclosure around it

• if noteheads are found on adjacent staff lines, encircle all that adjacent ones them with a single compact curved enclosure

Those who don't want half-note circles won't enable stems.  Those who enable stems do it to indicate duration, in which case circles resolve the current ambiguity.

I applaud your vision even if I do not share it.

I don’t know your programming skills but there are a number of commercial plug-ins and templates available for Finale. Rather than spend time listing them, I’ll point you to Robert Piéchaud’s Medieval 2. The page lists many of his other accomplishments as well. What you want should be nowhere near as difficult as what he has done.

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/robert-piechaud-releases-medieval-2/ 

Normally, this would be academic as I have been semi-retired for the last couple years. I am currently considering a couple of job offers at schools, one would have me directing a liturgical music program where I get back into plainsong and chant; the other would have me directing multiple praise bands where I might be getting back into TAB. 

There is no standard for half notes in tabs. I always write half-notes and whole notes with additional stems without noteheads like this:

For a halfnote I write 2 quarters and set the notehead size of the second note to zero. (for exact playback I have to mute the second quarter and expand the duration of the first quarter to 200%).
http://www.hochweber.ch/theorie/tabulatur/tabulatur.htm 
Jürg