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Tab Builder

This is a sample tab, and it is yours to play with — nothing here is saved. Sign in to keep what you write.

A tab editor that knows the instrument

Most ways of writing tab down are really ways of typing dashes. This one knows what you are holding: pick guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, fiddle or bass and it knows how that instrument is tuned, where the notes fall on it, and which string each one wants to be on. Click a string at a beat, type the fret, and the tab draws itself as you go — in bars, in named sections, laid out like the tab in a book rather than like a text file.

The sample above is a real, working copy of it. Change the notes, add a bar, switch it to mandolin and watch the same lick re-finger itself.

Everything that makes a break sound like a break

  • Lengths and rests. The minus and equals keys make a note shorter or longer, a full stop dots it, T makes a triplet, R puts in a rest and L ties it into the next one.
  • The left hand. H for a hammer-on or pull-off, / for a slide, B for a bend, X for a muted note, V for vibrato.
  • The right hand. D and U for down and up strokes, on a single note or a whole chord.
  • Bars and sections. Click the beat numbers to select a bar — add one, delete it, duplicate it, or give it a different number of beats. A tune has as many sections as it has parts, named whatever you call them.
  • Capo-aware fingering. Set the key the tune is in and the capo you actually use. The capo does not transpose the tune; it re-fingers the tab into the shapes your hands really make, which is what a capo does.

The Shortcuts button above the tab lists every key, which is the fastest way to get quick at this.

Hear what you wrote

Writing tab down is guesswork until you hear it. Press play and the tab is picked out on a real recorded instrument — not a beep, an actual guitar, mandolin or banjo — at whatever tempo you set, so you find out straight away whether what you wrote is what you meant. Loop a section and drill it. Playback is part of a Woodshed membership.

Attach it to the song it belongs to

A tab on its own is a piece of paper. Attach one to a song, tune or recording in the Picker’s Guide catalog and it becomes part of that song for you: it shows up inside the practice player next to the chord chart and the lyrics, and you can pin it to a particular section — the fiddle break, the second verse — so it is waiting when you get to that part of the tune.

Print it on a clean sheet

The printer button gives you the tab on a Picker’s Guide sheet: the tune’s name, the key, the capo and the tab, with no browser headers, no site navigation and no URL across the bottom. Print it for the music stand, or save it as a PDF and send it to whoever you worked it out with.

What to write out

  • A break you worked out by ear, before next week arrives and you have lost it.
  • Somebody else’s break, a phrase at a time, at the speed you can actually hear it.
  • The two bars you keep fumbling — written down, a problem spot stops being a mystery and starts being four notes.
  • A tune for a student, printed on one clean page.

Part of a bigger practice room

The Tab Builder is one corner of Picker’s Guide: a deep catalog of bluegrass and old-time songs with chord charts, lyrics, recordings and histories, plus a practice player that runs any song at your tempo and in your key with a sampled backing band. Writing and printing tab comes with any membership; hearing it played back is part of the Woodshed, along with the practice player and the bands.

Questions about the Tab Builder

Can I write my own tab online?

Yes. Click a string at a beat, type the fret, and the tab draws itself as you go — for guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, fiddle or bass. Note lengths, rests, triplets, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends and muted notes are all a single key each, and the tab is laid out in bars and named sections rather than as rows of dashes.

Which instruments can I write tab for?

Guitar, mandolin, banjo, dobro, fiddle and bass. The instrument belongs to the tab, so the same notes can be re-fingered for another instrument by switching it — useful when you are working out how a fiddle tune sits on a mandolin.

Does the capo change the key?

No. The tune stays in the key it is in; the capo changes the shapes you play. Set your capo and the tab re-fingers itself to what your hands actually do.

Can I hear the tab played back?

Yes — press play and the tab is picked out on a real recorded instrument at whatever tempo you set, which is how you find out whether what you wrote down is what you meant. Playback is part of a Woodshed membership.

Can I print the tab?

Yes. The printer button lays the tab out on a clean sheet with the tune’s name, key and capo, and no browser headers or site navigation. Print it for the music stand or save it as a PDF. Printing is part of membership.

Do I need an account?

Not to try it. The sample tab on this page is fully editable — change the notes, add bars, switch instruments. An account is what keeps what you write, attaches it to the song it belongs to, prints it and plays it back.

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