Free Guitar Tab Renderer
Paste ASCII guitar or bass tab to see it as notation over tab, detect its tuning, and catch lines that don’t line up.
What is a Guitar Tab Renderer?
ASCII tab is how most guitar and bass parts are shared online: one line of dashes per string, with fret numbers where notes are played. This renderer reads that text, works out the tuning, and draws it as standard notation over tab with alphaTab.
Notes that start in the same column become chords, bar lines become bars, and hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, vibrato and dead notes are kept as techniques. The tab is converted to alphaTex, alphaTab’s text format, which you can copy. To write new tab from a description instead, use the Guitar Tab Generator.
Key Features
Notation Over Tab
Standard notation drawn above the tab by alphaTab, the open-source notation library.
Tuning Detection
Standard, drop D, DADGAD, open G, bass and 7-string tunings from the string names.
Chords and Techniques
Stacked frets become chords; h, p, slides, bends, ~ and x are read.
alphaTex Output
Copy the converted tab into any project that uses alphaTab.
Tab Check
Uneven lines, stray chord names and frets past 24, each with its line.
Perfect for everyone
- Guitarists and bassists
- Teachers
- Transcribers and developers using alphaTab
How to Use the Guitar Tab Renderer
Paste tab from a tab site, a forum post or your own notes, or open a text file. The score, alphaTex and check all come from the same reading of the tab, so a fix you make in the text shows up in every view at once.
Paste the Tab
Keep one line per string, with the string name before the first bar line.
Read the Score
See notation over tab, with chords stacked and bars split.
Check It
Fix lines of different lengths and stray text the check finds.
Copy alphaTex
Use the alphaTex in a site or app that draws tab with alphaTab.
ASCII Tab, Read and Converted
Each row is tab as players post it, from a riff with techniques to a bass line and a few broken examples. Each answer is this tool’s check or the alphaTex it writes, which alphaTab then draws as the score you see in the preview.
“Intro riff (let ring) e|-----------------|-----------------| B|---1-------1-----|-----3-------3---| G|-----0-------0---|-------2h4-----0-| D|-------2-------2-|---------------2-| A|-3---------------|-5/7-------------| E|-----------------|-----------------| Solo e|--------5-8b10---|-12~----| B|----5-8----------|--------| G|--7--------------|--------| D|-----------------|--------| A|-----------------|--------| E|-----------------|--------| ”
“Intro riff (let ring) e|-----------------|-----------------| B|---1-------1-----|-----3-------3---| G|-----0-------0---|-------2h4-----0-| D|-------2-------2-|---------------2-| A|-3---------------|-5/7-------------| E|-----------------|-----------------| Solo e|--------5-8b10---|-12~----| B|----5-8----------|--------| G|--7--------------|--------| D|-----------------|--------| A|-----------------|--------| E|-----------------|--------| ”
“D|-----------------| A|-----------------| F|-----------------| C|-----------------| G|-5-5-x-x-5-5-7-8-| D|-5-5-x-x-5-5-7-8-| ”
“e|-----------------| B|-----------------| G|-----------------| D|-0-2-3-0-2-3-0---| A|-----------------| E|-----------------| ”
“e|-0---------| B|-0---------| G|-1---------| D|-2---------| A|-2---------| E|-0---------| ”
“G|-----------------| D|-----------------| A|-----3-----5-----| E|-3-3---3-3---3-3-| ”
“e|-----------------| B|-----------------| G|-----------------| D|-----------------| A|-----------------| D|-0-0-5-0-0-7-5-3-| ”
“|--0--3--| |--1--1--| |--0--0--| |--2--2--| |--3--3--| |--------| ”
“e|--0--3--| B|--1--1--| G|--0--0--| D|--2--2--Am| A|--3--3--| E|--------| ”
“e|--27--| B|------| G|------| D|------| A|------| E|------| ”
Tab Symbols This Renderer Reads
Tab writers use a small set of letters and symbols between the fret numbers to show how a note is played. These are the ones this renderer turns into techniques in the score, and what each one tells a player to do with the fretting or picking hand.
Fret Numbers
The fret to press on that string; 0 is the open string.
“What does 0 mean?”
Stacked Numbers
Numbers in the same column sound together as a chord.
“How are chords written?”
h
Hammer-on: sound the next note by tapping it with the fretting hand, as in 5h7.
“What does 5h7 mean?”
p
Pull-off: pluck the string while lifting a finger, as in 7p5.
“What does 7p5 mean?”
/ and \
Slides up and down, as in 5/7 or 7\5.
“What does 5/7 mean?”
b
Bend the string, optionally to the pitch of a fret, as in 8b10.
“What does 8b10 mean?”
~
Vibrato on the note before it.
“What does 12~ mean?”
x
A dead or muted note with no pitch.
“What does x mean?”
Tunings It Recognises
The string names down the left of the tab set the tuning. The renderer reads them from the lowest string up, gives each string the nearest pitch above the one below, and names the tuning when it matches a common one players use. Anything else is shown as a custom tuning with its notes.
Standard
E A D G B E, from low to high, the default for unlabelled six-string tab.
Drop D
The low E lowered to D, for heavy riffs and one-finger power chords.
DADGAD and Open Tunings
DADGAD, open G and open D for folk, slide and fingerstyle.
Lowered Tunings
Half a step and a whole step down, as many rock bands play.
7-String
A low B below standard tuning.
Bass
Four-string E A D G and five-string with a low B.
What ASCII Tab Can’t Tell You
ASCII tab is quick to write and read, but it leaves out much of what standard notation records. The renderer fills those gaps with simple, predictable rules, so you know exactly what you are looking at in the score. Listen to a recording to fill in the rhythm and feel.
Rhythm
Tab has no note lengths, so every beat is drawn as an eighth note.
Time Signatures
Each bar gets a time signature that counts its beats, such as 7/8.
Spacing
Wider gaps don’t mean longer notes; only the order of columns counts.
Fingering
Tab shows where to play, not which finger to use.
Dynamics
Accents, palm muting and dynamics written in words aren’t read.
How to Read ASCII Tab
Tab is a picture of the fretboard laid on its side, read from left to right like text. Once you know which way up it is, the rest follows quickly, and the score this tool draws shows the same notes in standard notation for comparison.
Top Line Is the Thinnest String
The highest-pitched string is at the top, even though it is nearest the floor when you play.
Numbers Are Frets
Each number is the fret to press on that line’s string. 0 means play it open.
Left to Right Is Time
Play the columns in order, one after another, the way you read a sentence.
Same Column, Same Moment
Numbers stacked in one column are struck together as a chord.
Bar Lines Group Beats
A | through every string marks the end of a bar.
Letters Show Technique
Letters and symbols between numbers say how to move from one note to the next.
About alphaTab and alphaTex
The score in the preview is drawn by alphaTab, an open-source library for music notation and guitar tablature on the web. This tool translates your ASCII tab into alphaTex, the plain-text format alphaTab reads, so you can reuse it anywhere alphaTab runs.
What alphaTab Draws
Standard notation and tab together, with bars, time signatures and techniques.
alphaTex Basics
Each note is fret.string, so 3.5 is the third fret on the fifth string.
Chords in alphaTex
Notes in brackets sound together, as in (0.1 1.2 0.3).
Effects in Braces
Techniques follow a note in braces, such as {h} for a hammer-on or {v} for vibrato.
Other Formats
alphaTab also opens Guitar Pro and MusicXML files in its own players.
When to Use a Tab Renderer
Whenever you have tab as text and want to read it as music, check it before sharing, or turn it into something a notation program can use. It is also a quick way to see the actual notes in a riff before you learn it by ear.
Learning Songs
See the notes and chords behind tab from a forum or a lesson.
Teaching
Show students notation and tab together from tab you type.
Transcribing
Check a transcription lines up before posting it.
Building Apps
Get alphaTex for a site that renders tab with alphaTab.
Bass Lines
Read four- and five-string bass tab the same way.
Tab Pitfalls
Mistakes that make tab hard to read, or read differently by another player, most of which come down to columns that don’t line up. The check finds most of them, but they are easier to avoid while you type.
Uneven Lines
Strings of different lengths shift notes into the wrong beat.
Two-Digit Frets
Pad other strings so 10 and 12 don’t push the next notes along.
Missing Bar Lines
Without | in every string, the whole system is one long bar.
Text in the Tab
Chord names on a string line get ignored. Put them above the tab.
Unlabelled Strings
Without names, standard tuning is assumed, which is wrong for drop D.
Proportional Fonts
Tab only lines up in a monospaced font. Paste it as plain text.