- Pick a guitar sound (acoustic, electric, or classical) and a tuning — the virtual guitar retunes instantly
- Tap any string and fret to play it — fret 0 is the open string. Every note sounds and lands at the tab cursor as a fret number
- Pick each note’s value — sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, or whole (keys 1–5) — and the cursor advances by it; rhythm stems under the tab show every note’s length. To fix a duration later, tap the note in the tab and pick a new length — the tab reflows. Playing a chord? Turn on Chord mode to stack notes, then hit "Next beat"
- Add techniques to the last note you played — hammer-on, pull-off, slides, bend, vibrato — tap a Muted string button to write an x, or type fret numbers straight into any cell to transfer an existing tab
- Press Space for a rest, Backspace to undo, or tap any beat to move the cursor — then hit "Play tab" to hear everything played back at your tempo, with each note ringing for its written length
- Hit "Preview" to see the finished tab with clean continuous lines and the note values drawn as rhythm stems — print it or save it as a PDF right there — or copy it as text, export it as TXT or JSON, or send it to the Guitar Tab Maker to restructure measures and save it by name
| Note value | Stem in tab | Length button | Key | Counts as | Sixteenths | TXT letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 1 | 5 | 4 beats | 16 | W | |
| Half note | ½ | 4 | 2 beats | 8 | H | |
| Quarter note | ¼ | 3 | 1 beat | 4 | Q | |
| Eighth note | ⅛ | 2 | ½ beat | 2 | E | |
| Sixteenth note | 1⁄16 | 1 | ¼ beat | 1 | S | |
| Dotted notes · half again as long, written by spacing | ||||||
| Dotted half note | — | — | 3 beats | 12 | H. | |
| Dotted quarter note | — | — | 1½ beats | 6 | Q. | |
| Dotted eighth note | — | — | ¾ beat | 3 | E. | |
A dotted note lasts half again as long as the plain note — a dot sits beside the stem, and its TXT letter carries a dot too (so Q. is a dotted quarter = 6 sixteenths = 1½ beats). There’s no single button for dotted values; you write them by spacing — each note runs until the next one begins, so leaving a wider gap lengthens the note. Pick a length before you play, or tap a note already in the tab and pick a new one to resize it.
About the Virtual Guitar
Guitar Tool Hub's virtual guitar is a playable guitar in your browser — an online guitar simulator you play by tapping the strings and frets, with every note sounded by real sampled acoustic, electric, or classical guitar. What makes it different from other virtual guitars is the tab capture panel: the fretboard works like a keyboard, and each note you play is written down at the tab cursor as a fret number, so playing literally generates the guitar tab. Capture single-note melodies or stack notes into chords with Chord mode, give every note its own value — sixteenth, eighth, quarter, half, or whole, shown as rhythm stems under the tab, resizable any time by tapping the note and picking a new length — write muted strings as x, and mark hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends, and vibrato on any note you played — each technique is audible, from legato hammer-ons to gliding slides and pitch bends. Every cell is also directly typeable, so you can transfer an existing tab by hand. Then press Play to hear the whole tab back at your tempo, with each note sustained for its written length, techniques and all. Not sure where to start? Load the built-in sample song — the “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven's Ninth (public domain) — and the tab fills with a ready-made melody you can play back, study, and edit. When a riff is worth keeping, open the Preview — the same clean, continuous-line print rendering as the Guitar Tab Maker's, with the note values drawn as rhythm stems under every staff — and print it or save it as a PDF; copy it as text or export it as a TXT file, where a note-value line under every staff line letters each note (W, H, Q, E, S for whole to sixteenth, with dots for dotted notes); export it as JSON; or send it straight to the Guitar Tab Maker for measure-level editing and saving. Supports all 27 tunings shared across Guitar Tool Hub, works on desktop and mobile, and needs no account or download.
- 01Playable virtual guitar — tap strings and frets to hear real sampled guitar sound
- 02Acoustic, electric & classical guitar sounds
- 03Tab capture: every note you play is written down as a fret number
- 04Melody capture and Chord mode (stack notes on one beat)
- 05Musical note values — sixteenth to whole (keys 1–5), with rhythm stems shown under the tab and after-the-fact resizing
- 06Muted / dead notes — per-string mute buttons write an x in the tab
- 07Technique symbols: hammer-on, pull-off, slide up/down, bend, vibrato — audible live and in playback
- 08Directly typeable tab cells — transfer an existing tab by typing fret numbers, with arrow-key navigation
- 09Reads like printed tab — six string lines with fret numbers sitting on them and barlines at every measure
- 10Tab playback — hear your capture beat by beat at 40–240 BPM
- 11Built-in sample song — load Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” theme (public domain) as a ready-made tab to play back and edit
- 12Space for rests, Backspace to undo, tap any beat to move the cursor
- 1327 tunings including Drop D, Open G, and DADGAD
- 14Print/PDF preview — clean continuous lines with rhythm stems under each staff, print or save as PDF
- 15Copy the tab, or export as TXT (ASCII tab with a note-value line under every staff line) or JSON
- 16One-tap hand-off to the Guitar Tab Maker for detailed editing
- 17Auto-saves your capture in the browser
- 18Free — no account needed