ISPOG — Is it Playable on Guitar?
ISPOG checks whether a score can be played on the guitar. It reads a MusicXML file, finds string and fret positions for every note, fingers simultaneous and held notes together, and returns the score with each notehead colored:
| color | meaning |
|---|---|
| green | playable |
| orange | difficult (e.g. pinky barré, wide stretch, crossed fingers) |
| red | unplayable |
| purple | playable only as one note: a unison re-attacked while another voice still holds it |
| black | not analyzed (e.g. harmonics, microtones, cue notes) |
Each note gets a string, a fret and a finger of the fretting hand; held notes keep theirs. The fingering is chosen over the whole part, not chord by chord.
Unisons across voices: two voices writing the same pitch at the same time are read as one note written twice, unless the score marks them as two (different string numbers, different spelling such as E4/F♭4, or different fingerings on both). Hidden notes are ignored.
Three ways to use it, with the same analysis: the desktop app (Windows, macOS), the web version and, from version 1.0, a plugin for MuseScore Studio.
- Author: Stefano Mancuso
- Input: MusicXML (
.musicxml,.xml) and compressed MusicXML (.mxl) from any notation program (MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale, Dorico, Guitar Pro); multi-part scores - Output: the colored MusicXML score (full score or one file per part) and a
playability report (
<name>_report.txt) - Source code, changelog, bug tracker: https://github.com/StefanoMancuso/ISPOG
Download
| Folder | Version | Content |
|---|---|---|
| main folder | 0.10.0 (stable) | the version to use for work and for citations |
beta/ |
1.0 beta | newest features, for testers: one instrument per part, problem list, MuseScore plugin |
archive/ |
earlier releases | one folder per version, kept for reference and citations |
The first public alpha, 0.9.1, is ISPOG_0.9.1.zip in the main folder; it moves to
archive/0.9.1/ with the next stable release. The version is in every file name. What
changed in each version: CHANGELOG.
| System | File |
|---|---|
| Windows 10/11 | ISPOG-<version>-windows.exe |
| macOS, Apple Silicon (M1 and later) | ISPOG-<version>-macos-arm64.zip |
| macOS, Intel | ISPOG-<version>-macos-x86_64.zip |
| MuseScore Studio 4.6+ plugin (1.0 beta) | ISPOG-<version>-musescore.zip |
No installation and no Python needed: on Windows run the .exe; on macOS unzip and move
ISPOG.app to Applications.
First launch
The executables are not digitally signed, so the system asks for one extra confirmation the first time:
- Windows (SmartScreen, "Windows protected your PC"): "More info" → "Run anyway".
- macOS ("ISPOG can't be opened" or "Apple could not verify…"): close the message, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, "Open Anyway", then confirm.
Security scan warning
Hugging Face may mark the macOS .zip files as "unsafe" (scanner: Protect AI). This is a
false positive (under review with Hugging Face): PyInstaller bundles pack the Python
libraries, including pickle-related modules, and the scanner flags them inside the
archive. The files are built from the GitHub repository by its release workflow, and each
executable passes ISPOG --self-test before publishing. To verify a download, compare its
SHA-256 with the one shown on the file's page.
Quick usage
Desktop app, 1.0 beta
- Launch ISPOG.
- Open a score with Browse…, or drop it on the window or on the ISPOG icon.
- Parts: guitar parts are ticked automatically; each part has its own instrument.
Choose a preset (Standard, Drop D, Open G, From score when the MusicXML gives the
tuning, Custom) or type the tuning, string 1 first (e.g.
E4 B3 G3 D3 A2 E2), and set the number of frets. Other parts can be ticked and analyzed with the tuning you give. - Choose the output (Full score or Separate parts) and whether to Add labels to score.
- Click Analyze Playability. The Problems tab lists the difficult, unplayable and not-as-written points in score order; click one for its reason and the closest fingering. The full report is in the Report tab.
- Save colored score… saves the score (or the parts) and the report.
Desktop app, 0.10.0 (stable)
Steps 1, 2 and 4 as above. One tuning (Standard, Drop D, Open G or Custom), number of strings and of frets for all the parts; Analyze Playability asks where to save the colored score and the report.
Problems can be reported from the app: Help → Report a problem…. Nothing is sent until you press Send.
MuseScore plugin (1.0 beta)
The analysis inside MuseScore Studio 4.6 or later, on the open score: no export needed.
- Unzip
ISPOG-<version>-musescore.zipintoDocuments/MuseScore4/Plugins. - Restart MuseScore, then Home → Plugins → enable ISPOG.
- Open a score, then Plugins → Color notes → ISPOG.
- Set tuning and frets per part, then Analyze (whole score) or Selected measures (faster, on a large score). Click a problem to select its notes in the score; Clear colors removes the colors. Every coloring can be undone (Edit → Undo).
Not read from the score by the plugin: string numbers and fingerings written on the notes, capo. Details: plugin README.
Online version
No download needed: https://ispog.onrender.com. On the free server the first analysis after a pause can take up to a minute.
License
© 2026 Stefano Mancuso — GNU GPL v3.0 or later. Third-party components: THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. Version 0.9.1 remains under the terms it was released with.
Citation
If you use ISPOG in research, please cite the paper:
Crecchi, Niccolò, and Stefano Mancuso. "Dealing with a Guitar's Historical Limit through Computer-Assisted Composition." In Sounding the Posthuman: Proceedings of the 25th Colloquium on Music Informatics. L'Aquila, Italy, 13–16 October 2026. Forthcoming.
and the software, with the version you used (shown in the window title and at the bottom of every analyzed score):
Mancuso, Stefano. ISPOG — Is it Playable on Guitar? Version <version>, 2026. https://github.com/StefanoMancuso/ISPOG
Machine-readable citation: CITATION.cff.