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🎸 Online Guitar Tab Maker
Create guitar tablature online by selecting fret positions, adding notes or chords, and arranging them into riffs and progressions. Preview your tabs with audio, edit fret numbers, and export standard six-string ASCII guitar tabs.
1. Guitar Settings
Tuning changes affect playback pitches and string labels. Existing fret numbers stay in place.
2. Select Notes on the Guitar Fretboard
Choose a tab column below, then click fret positions to enter notes. Clicking a different fret on the same string replaces that note. Clicking an already selected fret removes it. Select multiple strings to build a chord.
3. Edit Your Guitar Tab
Each column represents one playback step. Enter a fret number from 0 to your selected fret limit, or use a dash for a silent string. Multiple notes in the same column play together. Select a numbered column to edit it using the fretboard.
Ready to create your guitar tab.4. ASCII Guitar Tab Output
Generate plain-text guitar tablature that can be copied into notes, documents, messages, or websites. Each column is spaced evenly for readability; timing is approximate and not a full rhythmic notation system.
📚 Guitar Tab Maker: Quick Guide
0 means an open string. A number such as 3 means play the third fret. A dash means that string is not played in that column. Notes entered vertically in the same column are played together, while notes in successive columns are played in order.
Tip: Start with a short riff of four to eight notes. Listen to the playback, then add chords or duplicate sections to develop your idea. For more accurate rhythm, use a separate notation tool or add rhythmic instructions alongside the exported tab.
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An Online Guitar Tab Maker helps guitarists, songwriters, music students, teachers, and producers create guitar tablature directly in their web browser. Whether you're writing an original guitar riff, documenting a chord progression, creating a lesson, or saving a musical idea, this interactive tool makes it easier to organize notes into readable guitar tabs.
Unlike traditional sheet music, guitar tablature (tabs) shows which strings and frets to play rather than requiring you to read notes on a musical staff.
How to Use the Guitar Tab Maker
Start by choosing your guitar tuning and the number of frets you want displayed.
The tool includes several common guitar tunings, including:
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Standard Tuning: E – A – D – G – B – E
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Drop D: D – A – D – G – B – E
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DADGAD: D – A – D – G – A – D
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Open G: D – G – D – G – B – D
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Open D: D – A – D – F♯ – A – D
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Half Step Down: E♭ – A♭ – D♭ – G♭ – B♭ – E♭
These tunings are listed from the lowest-pitched string to the highest.
Choose a tab column and click the fretboard to enter a note. You can also type fret numbers directly into the tablature editor.
Use Add Column to extend your tab or Duplicate Column to repeat a chord shape or riff.
Understanding Guitar Tablature
Standard guitar tablature contains six horizontal lines representing the six strings of a guitar.
The top line represents the highest-pitched string, while the bottom line represents the lowest-pitched string.
Numbers indicate which fret to play.
For example, 0 means an open string, 3 means the third fret, and 5 means the fifth fret.
When several fret numbers appear vertically in the same column, they represent notes intended to be played together, such as a chord.
When numbers appear in successive columns, they represent notes played in sequence.
Create Guitar Riffs and Chord Progressions
The tab maker can be used to build simple guitar melodies, riffs, chord patterns, and exercises.
For example, you might create a short melody using notes on one string before expanding it across several strings.
You can also enter multiple notes in the same column to create chord shapes.
This makes the tool useful for documenting songwriting ideas before recording them.
Preview Your Guitar Tabs With Audio
Use Play Tab to hear the pitches in your tablature.
The playback feature generates synthesized tones corresponding to the selected strings and frets.
You can adjust the tempo to hear your musical ideas at different speeds.
The audio preview is intended for checking notes and simple chord sequences. It does not reproduce guitar articulation, strumming patterns, string noise, or realistic guitar tone.
Copy or Download Guitar Tabs
Once you've finished creating your tab, use the Copy Guitar Tab button to copy the ASCII tablature as plain text.
You can paste the result into a document, message, lesson plan, songwriting notebook, or website.
You can also download your guitar tab as a .txt file for later reference.
Guitar Tabs vs. Sheet Music
Guitar tablature is especially useful for showing fretboard positions, but it doesn't automatically provide all the information available in standard musical notation.
Traditional sheet music can communicate precise rhythms, note durations, dynamics, articulation, and other performance details.
This guitar tab maker uses evenly spaced columns and simple tempo-based playback, so it works best for straightforward riffs, chord shapes, and musical sketches.
Advanced guitar techniques such as slides, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, palm muting, and detailed rhythmic notation are not currently represented.
Who Can Use This Tool?
Guitarists can use the tool to write riffs and practice exercises, while songwriters can document musical ideas and chord progressions.
Music teachers can create simple tablature examples for students, and producers can sketch guitar parts before recording or arranging them.
Beginners may also find it useful for learning how fret numbers correspond to pitches.
Tip: Start by creating a simple four-note melody or chord progression. Use the playback feature to check the pitches, then experiment with different fret positions or alternate tunings. Remember that the same musical pitch can sometimes be played on different guitar strings, so the fret positions you choose can affect how comfortably a passage can be performed.
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