Tab editor

Key features

The editor brings writing, editing and playback of a tab into a single interface aligned with the music stand.

Feature 1: write from any scale

The page uses the standard scale selector. You click the fretboard to place notes and the tab writes itself automatically. Each note remembers its interval in the current scale, and you can change scale at any moment while continuing the same tab.

Feature 2: two input modes

Melodic mode inserts a note on each click. Chord mode stacks several notes on the fretboard, one per string, then validates the insertion in one step (Enter confirms, Escape cancels). You can notate a solo line as well as a sequence of strummed chords.

Feature 3: rhythm and optional notation

A Rhythm setting shows or hides the note rhythm. Hidden, you get a simple sequence of notes, without bars or time signature, ideal to capture an idea. Shown, you get durations (from whole note to sixteenth) with stems, beams and matching rests, and bars are handled automatically.

Feature 4: direct editing and playing effects

Click a beat to select it and change its duration, effects, fingering, or delete it, with a reminder of the position on the fretboard. The essential effects are there: bend, vibrato, hammer-on, pull-off and slide, placed on the selected beat and drawn in the score.

Feature 5: fingerings and fretboard display

A left-hand fingering per note (thumb, 1 to 4) appears next to each fret number, including inside chords. Below the fretboard, a selector lets you choose how notes appear: intervals, note names or dots, exactly like in the diagram libraries.

Feature 6: integrated playback and multiple tabs

A playback button with adjustable tempo scrolls a cursor through the score, respecting rhythm and rests. You manage several named tabs (intro, verse, solo) in a side library: create, rename, duplicate as a variation and delete, all saved automatically.

How to use the tool

From the first note to the pinned riff, the path is direct.

1. Open the tab editor and choose your working scale.
2. Click the fretboard to place your notes, in Melodic or Chord mode.
3. Turn on the rhythm if you want to set durations, then adjust each beat.
4. Add effects and fingerings, and listen to the result with integrated playback.
5. Name your tab and pin it to the music stand to lay it out or print it.

Concrete example: to notate a riff in E minor pentatonic, select the scale, click the notes on the fretboard in Melodic mode, add a bend on the anchor note, turn on the rhythm to align the eighth notes, then pin the riff to the music stand to place it on your song sheet.

Benefits for musicians

• Visual input : you click the fretboard, the tab writes itself.
• Rhythmic flexibility : from a simple idea notebook to a full rhythmic tab.
• Built-in teaching : each note knows its interval in the active scale.
• Expressiveness : bend, vibrato, hammer-on, pull-off, slide and left-hand fingerings.
• Continuity : riffs pinnable to the music stand, playable on a sheet and printable.

Going further with Twelve Assistant

Pair the tab editor with the Chord Chart Editor to lay out the chart and the riff of the same song, and with the Fretboard Explorer to visualize the scale across the whole neck. The Chord Diagram Library complements your chords, and the digital music stand brings tabs, charts and diagrams together on your sheets.

Conclusion

Beginner noting a melody or guitarist shaping a solo, the tab editor lets you write your ideas as fast as they come, then files them in your music stand. Open the tool and lay down your first riff.