9 Best Free Guitar Tab Creator Software for Windows

Here is a list of best free guitar tab creator software for Windows. Using these free software, you can create printable guitar tablatures i.e., guitar sheet music. You can also edit existing guitar tab files or even import MIDI tracks to edit respective notations.

A guitar tablature is basically a type of musical notation used for indicating guitar fingering. It contains numbers which indicate notes, harmonies, and chords. The guitarists use these guitar tabs to be able to learn songs and for guitar exercises.

All of these software let you setup basic properties of your composition including key signature, time signature, strings, tuning, initial tempo, etc. You can later add notes (whole, half, quarter, dotted, triplet,etc.), rests, chords, tablature symbols, effects (vibrato, bend, tremolo bar, slide, dead note, ghost note, hammer-on, accentuated note, harmonic, etc.), and more. You can also add various texts to the guitar tab to make it more informative, such as title, composer, chord symbols, lyrics, staff text, tempo marking, etc.

After composing guitar tablature, you can listen to the created musical notation. Other than that, you can directly print the guitar tablature sheet or save it locally as SVG, PDF, PNG, and other files.

My Favorite Free Guitar Tab Creator Software for Windows:

Power Tab Editor is my favorite software to create guitar tabs. It is a featured software for creating guitar sheet music with some additional utilities like Chord Dictionary, Tuning Dictionary, Chord Identification Tool, Rhythm Slash Converter, Tonality Tool, ASCII Tablature File Fixer, etc.

MuseScore is also good as it is a very simple software and contains all essential features to create guitar tabs.

You may also check out lists of best free Music Theory Software, Music Notation Software, and MIDI Sequencer Software for Windows.

Power Tab Editor

Power Tab Editor is a nice free guitar tab creator software for Windows. You can easily create guitar sheet music using this free software. It provides various elements to notate guitar and bass guitar. You get the flexibility to create guitar tablature from scratch or import a MIDI track and visualize and edit its notation.

Features to look out for in this free guitar tab creator software:

• You can define guitar settings to be used in a song. These settings include strings, MIDI, capo, pan, reverb, chorus, tempo, tuning editor, etc.
• You can add different notes to the tablature sheet such as whole, half, quarter, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th, dotted, tied, staccato, accent, octave, left ring, Fermenta, acciaccatura, muted, ghost note, etc.
• It lets you add multibar rest, normal/high melody rest, or low melody rest.
• It provides various musical symbols to add to the guitar tablature which include tempo marker, rehearsal sign, alternation of pace, key signature, time signature, musical direction, repeat ending, dynamic, fade in/out, and volume swell.
• You can find various tablature symbols to add, including Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs, Bend, Slides, Vibrato, Palm Mute, Tremolo Picking, Arpeggio, Trill, Tremolo Bar, Tab, Harmonics, and Pickstroke.
• It contains a Rhythm Slash menu which is basically used for the notation of the chord strumming pattern of a rhythm guitar.
• It lets you insert new section, attach staff, increase/decrease line width, increase decrease position width, etc.
• You can also add text to add chords name, lyrics, and more information to the tablature sheet.
• It also lets you add information including song properties, performance notes, and setup font preferences too.
• It lets you move to any of the staff or section position, clear tab number, shift forward/ backward, or shift tab number up/down.
• It provides a lot more useful tools including Chord Dictionary, Tuning Dictionary, Score Checker, Score Polisher, Chord Identification Tool, Rhythm Slash Converter, Shifter Tool, Tonality Tool, ASCII Tablature File Fixer, and Recovery Tool.
• After finishing up creating guitar tablature, you can listen to the MIDI audio. You can setup MIDI, playback, and Metronome settings accordingly.
• You can directly print the guitar tablature on paper or save it as a PDF. Apart from that, it lets you export created guitar sheet music as a MIDI, HTML, or ASCII file.

All in all, it is one of the best free guitar tab maker software on this list.

MuseScore

MuseScore is the next free guitar tab creator software for Windows. It is a simple yet effective software to create guitar tabs.

While creating a new score, you can select Solo > Guitar Tablature templates from the available ones. You can set the key signature, time signature, number of measures, and tempo of the song. Now, you can insert notes, intervals, tuplets, frames, etc. You can find a palette with Clefs, Key Signatures, Time Signatures, Tempo, Grace Notes, Text, Articulations, Lines, Barlines, Repeats & Jumps, etc. You can quickly use any of these elements to create a guitar tablature. It also lets you insert text to add title, lyricist, lyrics, expression name, chords symbol, tempo marking, staff text, instrument change, and more to the guitar tablature. You can also customize the format of page and musical notation such as page size, margin, element color, increase/decrease layout stretch, etc.

You can listen to the music piece you composed and after that, you can export it as WAV, FLAC, OGG, MP3, and MIDI audio file. As for the guitar sheet music, you can export it as PDF, PNG, SVG, or MusicXML file. Other than that, you can directly print the guitar tablature.

MuseScore is a popular free music sheet creator software. It also provides Pianoroll Editor and tools like Transpose, Explode, Implode, Respell Pitches, Regroup Rhythms, Image Capture, Join Selected Measures, Split Measure Before Selected Note/Rest, etc. It contains some plugins to enhance the functionality of the software.

TuxGuitar

TuxGuitar is a free open source multitrack guitar tab creator software for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

How to create guitar tab using this free software:

You can start with a blank tablature or use a template (Blues Trio, Classical Guitar Duo). You can also import a MIDI track or TEF file to edit respective notations. It allows you to add multiple tracks while configuring respective track properties including instrument, tuning, etc. Now, you can define some options to setup the structure and meter of your composition like time signature, tempo, clef, triplet feel, alternative repeats, etc. It then lets you add measures, markers, etc., to the tablature sheet.

From the Beats menu, you can add tied note, rest note, note value, chord, etc. You can also add effects like vibrato, bend, tremolo bar, slide, dead note, ghost note, hammer-on, accentuated note, harmonic, grace note, trill, tremolo picking, palm mute, staccato, etc. Besides that, it lets you set dynamic of notes as Paino Pianissimo, Pianissimo, Piano, Mezzo Piano, Mezzo Forte, Forte, Fortissimo, or Forte Fortissimo.

It lets you play the composed music with basic playback controls and Metronome.

To export guitar sheet music, it supports formats like ASCII, Lilypond, PDF, SVG, MusicXML, etc. You can also directly print the guitar tab. Apart from that, it lets you export the composition as MIDI and audio file (WAVE, AU, AIFF).

TuxGuitar is another great guitar tab maker software on this list. It contains some more useful tools which include Transpose, Scale List, File Format Batch Converter, Guitar Tuner, etc. Some additional plugins can also be used for enhancing the functionality of this software.

Finale Notepad

Finale Notepad is a popular free music notation software for Windows. Using it, you can easily create guitar tablature.

While starting with a new music notation document, you can select type as Tablature > Guitar [TAB]. You can then select a time signature, set measures, and choose a concert key signature. Now, you can use available tools to complete the guitar music sheet. You can use notes (full, half, quarter, eight, 16th, 32nd), sharp, chords, rest, tuplet tool, articulation tool, repeat tool, and more to create guitar tabs. It also provides tools to insert text and lyrics to the guitar sheet. You can listen to the MIDI audio of composed notation.

You can directly print the guitar tab sheet or save the music notation as MIDI sound. It also supports the MusicXML file format to import and export.

In this guitar tab maker software, you can find various quickly accessible toolbars such as smart shape palette, simple entry palette, simple entry rest palette, playback controls, etc. It also lets you setup MIDI configurations, Quantization Settings, Set Panning, Reassign Playback Sounds, Enable Human Playback, etc.

LilyPond

LilyPond is a text based guitar tab creator software for Windows, Mac, and Unix. It is also a musical notation software using which you can create guitar tabs. This software has no interface. To be able to create guitar tabs, you first have to create a text file with guitar tablature codes and then drop the file onto the LilyPond application icon. As soon as you do that, it will produce a PDF of guitar sheet music.

An example of text code to create guitar tabs in LilyPond is as below:

music = \relative {
< a\3 \deadNote c\2 a'\1 >4
< b\3 \deadNote d\2 b'\1 >
< c\3 \deadNote e\2 c'\1 >
\deadNotesOn
\tuplet 3/2 { g8 b e }
\deadNotesOff
< a,\3 c\2 e\1 >1
}
\new StaffGroup << \new Staff { \clef "treble_8" \music } \new TabStaff { \music } >>

The output PDF of this code can be seen by clicking on above screenshot.

In a similar manner, you can create custom guitar tablatures. You can view its documentation regarding guitar notations here.

Aria Maestosa

Aria Maestosa is an open source MIDI sequencer and editor software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. It can also be used as a guitar tab creator software as it provides a Guitar Tablature Editor. You can select draw notes tool to insert notes (whole, half, quarter, triplet, dotted, etc.) and also setup song properties like length, time signature, initial tempo, start, etc. You can add multiple tracks, duplicate track settings, or delete a track. It even lets you import a MIDI track and edit its notation.

Other than Guitar Tab Editor, it provides Paino Editor, Score Editor, Drum Editor, and Controller Editor. After creating a guitar tablature sheet, you can play the MIDI audio and export the sound as MIDI file. It lets you print the guitar tablature sheet as well.

This software lets you work on multiple composition at a time due to its multi-tab interface.

RandyTab

RandyTab is one more free guitar tab creator software for Windows. Using it, you can create printable guitar tablature. Let’s see what are the features that you get in this free software:

Features of this free guitar tab maker:

• You can set tempo and insert power chords, space, separator, and comment to the guitar tablature.
• It lets you insert whole note, half a beat, quarter of a beat, eighth of a beat, sixteenth of a beat, and dotted beat to the guitar tab.
• It also lets you add effects like hammer-on, harmonic, bend, tremolo, slide, muffled note, dash, etc.
• You can easily move to a string position in the guitar tablature.
• When you are done creating guitar tab, you can play the MIDI song. You can setup MIDI preferences as well, such as device, instrument, playback settings, tempo, etc.
• You can directly print the created guitar tablature using the Print option. The same option can be used to save guitar tab as a PDF.

Tab Writer

Tab Writer is a bass and guitar tab creator software for Windows. It is the simplest software on this list to create guitar tablature.

To start with, you first need to setup width of the tablature sheet. After that, from Strings menu, you can select guitar strings (6, 7, 8, or 12) or open custom strings settings. In the custom strings settings, you can define custom instrument and also define note as sharp, natural, or flat. Now, you can add staff, divider, repeat start, repeat end, lines, etc. In similar manner, you can create a bass tablature.

When you are done creating a guitar tab sheet, you can simply print it or save it as a PDF. Also, you can save created tablature as a TWF file or TXT file.

TabPlayer

TabPlayer is the next free guitar tab creator software for Windows. It lets you create, edit, convert, and save tablature files. You can start with creating your own guitar tab files or use the example file that comes with this software. It lets you import tablature files in formats like Tab Files (.tab), Chord Files (.crd), Text Files, ChordPro Files (.pro), etc.

For creating guitar tab, it provides several tools. You can compose a tab sheet layout to start with or directly insert guitar tablature, bass tablature, separator, etc. It also provides options to insert tab symbols, tuning info, disclaimer, personal information, reporting corrections, etc. Besides that, it contains some more tools which are as follows:

• It contains a Chord Panel where you can find a Chord Dictionary and options to insert chord header and add horizontal/vertical chords. You can also use its chord finder utility to determine a chord by its formula.
• You can also find Guitar Tuner, Metronome, etc. in it.
• It comes with an inbuilt MP3 player too.
• You can play the sound of created guitar notation.
• It lets you print the guitar tablature sheet with all information.
• Other than printing, you can save the guitar sheet music as plain text (TXT, TAB, CRD) or formatted text file (RTF, DOC, etc.)

Note: This software is discontinued and is now completely free. It shows registration popup on screen, but while I tried to register with mentioned information from its homepage, it didn’t stop showing the message to register.