MIDI to Guitar Tab Converter: Playable Tabs from Any MIDI File

To convert MIDI to guitar tab, drop a .mid file on the converter below and pick the track you want to play. ToMIDI chooses a string and a fret for every note so the part stays under one hand, using your tuning, capo and fret span, and writes the tab under standard notation. Play it back to check it, then download ASCII tab, MusicXML with a tab staff or MIDI, or print it to PDF. Guitar, bass and ukulele, free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Playable Fingering
Guitar, Bass, Ukulele
Free, No Sign-up
ASCII, MusicXML, PDF

Open a MIDI file to turn it into guitar or bass tab

MID · MIDI · KARup to 10 MB, converted in your browser

or drop a file anywhere on this cardO open a fileD first demo

Demo files

Public domain or our own pieces, opened in one click

Runs in your browser, nothing uploadedFree to convertNo sign-up to listen

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Why MIDI to Guitar Tab Needs More Than Note Names

A MIDI file says "play E4 on beat three". It never says where. On a guitar that one note lives in up to five places, and the right choice depends on the notes around it. A MIDI to guitar tab converter has to pick a string and a fret for every note so the whole phrase sits under your hand, not just each note on its own.

The same pitch can be played on four or five different strings.
Taking the lowest fret for every note sends your hand jumping up and down the neck.
Piano chords spread wider than a hand and hold more notes than a guitar has strings.
Drop tunings and a capo change every fret number in the tab.

Open a MIDI File

Why Use ToMIDI to Convert MIDI to Guitar Tab

What matters when the tab has to be something you can actually play.

Fingering planned for the whole phrase
The converter scores every possible shape for every note and chord, then follows the path with the lowest overall cost for stretch and hand movement, so runs tend to stay in one position. It is a rule of thumb, not a teacher: move any note to another string if you finger it differently.
Your tuning, capo and fret span
Standard, Drop D, DADGAD, open tunings and more for 6 and 7-string guitar, standard and drop tunings for 4 and 5-string bass, and ukulele. Add a capo, or let Suggest find the easiest one, and limit how far the hand may stretch.
Pick the track to play
The converter picks the guitar or bass track for you when the file names one. Switch to any other track, tab the full part, the melody only or just the bass line, shift it by an octave, and pick a 1/16 or 1/32 rhythm grid.
Tab and notation, with playback
Read the tab under a standard notation staff, press play and watch a fretboard follow the notes. Slow it down, loop a few bars or add a metronome while you practise.
Nothing leaves your device
Reading the file, working out the fingering, playback and export all run in your browser tab. No upload, no account, no queue.
Exports that open everywhere
Copy plain ASCII tab into a forum post, download MusicXML with a tab staff for Guitar Pro, MuseScore or TuxGuitar, save a .mid, or print the tab to PDF.

How to Convert MIDI to Guitar Tabs in Four Steps

The notes are already in the file, so there is nothing to transcribe: the tab appears as soon as you choose a track.

Drop a .mid or .midi file on the converter above. Exports from a DAW, Guitar Pro, a notation app or our free audio to MIDI converter all work.
Choose guitar, bass or ukulele and the track you want to play. A melody from a vocal or flute track works as well as a guitar part.
Pick your tuning, add a capo or press Suggest, set the widest stretch and the hand position you like. The fingering is worked out again for every change.
Listen to the part with the notes lit, then download ASCII tab, MusicXML or MIDI, or print the MIDI to tab result as a PDF.

Step 1 · Open your MIDI file

From MIDI to Tab You Can Actually Play

What happens between the MIDI notes and the numbers on the tab.

Fingering planned across the whole passage

For each note and chord the converter lists every playable shape, scores it for stretch, height on the neck, open strings and skipped strings, then finds the cheapest path through the whole part, charging more for a big shift when the notes come fast. The result is MIDI to guitar tab that tends to stay in position instead of chasing the lowest fret, and any note you would play elsewhere moves to another string with one click.

See the Fingering

Tunings, capo and fret span

Switch from Standard to Drop D, DADGAD, Open G or another tuning and every fret number is recalculated for the new open strings. A capo moves the frets with it, and Suggest tries frets 0 to 7 and keeps the easiest fingering. Set the widest stretch to 4, 5 or 6 frets for smaller hands, or keep the hand near the open position, V, VII, IX or XII. Notes the instrument cannot reach are moved by octaves into range.

Change the Tuning

Tab under standard notation, with playback

The tab sits under a notation staff, so you see the rhythm and the fret at the same time. Press play and the notes light up as they sound, which is the quickest way to check a MIDI to guitar conversion by ear before you learn it.

Play a Tab

ASCII tab, MusicXML, MIDI or PDF

Plain ASCII tab pastes into a forum, a chat or a text file. MusicXML carries the notes with a tab staff into Guitar Pro, MuseScore or TuxGuitar for editing. The .mid keeps the notes for a DAW, and the print option gives a paged PDF of the tab, with or without notation.

Export Your Tab

ToMIDI

greensleeves.txtASCII tab export

Greensleeves
Tuning: E A D G B E (Standard)  |  Tempo: 92 BPM  |  Time: 3/4
Made with ToMIDI

  1
e|----------|-0---1--0---|----------|------------|
B|-1----3---|------------|-3----0---|--------0---|
G|----------|------------|----------|-0---2------|
D|----------|------------|----------|------------|
A|----------|------------|----------|------------|
E|----------|------------|----------|------------|

MusicXMLGuitar Pro · MuseScore · TuxGuitar

.midAny DAW

PDFPrint, tab with or without notation

MIDI to Guitar Tab Example: Greensleeves

Live, not a screenshot: the fingering below is worked out in your browser by the same code the converter uses. Change the tuning, the capo or the track and watch the tab rewrite itself.

Greensleeves · greensleeves.mid

2 tracks · 3/4 · 92 BPM · traditional, public domain

Capo 0

Standard · E A D G B ENo capo20 notes · 9 bars

What you are looking at

The file holds two tracks: the Greensleeves melody and a bass line. Pick the melody for guitar tab, or the bass line to see MIDI to bass tabs on four strings. Try Drop D or a capo and the fret numbers move in this MIDI to guitar tab example, while the notes you hear stay the same. Switch to ASCII to see exactly what the text export gives you.

Convert Your Own MIDI File

What a MIDI to Tab Converter Cannot Know

MIDI records pitch, timing and loudness. It has no idea whether a note was bent, slid into, hammered on or palm muted, or which finger played it. So MIDI to guitar tab gives you a clean, playable fingering of the notes, and the guitar techniques stay with you. Parts written for other instruments may also need simplifying.

It does not add bends, slides, hammer-ons, vibrato or palm muting.
It does not write strumming patterns or rhythm slashes for chords.
Chords with more notes than strings, or wider than your stretch limit, lose inner notes.
It does not tab drum tracks, and a full orchestral part will rarely be playable as it is.

Try a Guitar Track

Tips for Better MIDI Guitar Tabs

Small choices before you convert MIDI to guitar tab make the result easier to learn.

Start from a guitar part

A track written for guitar, or a single melody, gives the cleanest MIDI to tab result. Piano parts work, but expect to drop notes.

Match your real tuning

If the song is in Drop D or half a step down, pick that tuning first so the low notes land on open strings.

Tighten the fret span

Shapes too wide for your hand? Set the widest stretch to 4 frets: inner chord notes drop instead of stretching.

Check it by ear

Play the tab before printing. If a passage sounds right but feels awkward, a capo or another tuning often fixes it.

MIDI to Guitar Tab Tools Compared

As of November 2026, from each product's own pages. Desktop editors are best for writing tabs by hand; ToMIDI is the quick way to go from MIDI to guitar tab in the browser.

MIDI to Guitar Tab Tools Compared
	This siteToMIDI	Tabtify	TuxGuitar	MuseScore Studio
Where it runs	In your browser, nothing to install	In your browser, with an account	Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux)	Desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Price	Free, no account	Free exports on any account	Free and open source	Free and open source
How frets are chosen	Planned for the whole phrase, for your tuning, capo and span	AI draft mapped to tuning, capo and starting fret	Assigned on MIDI import, then edit by hand	Add a tab staff to a guitar part, then edit by hand
Editing	Quick fixes: move a note to another string, delete, undo	Yes, a tab editor	Yes, a full tab editor	Yes, a full notation editor
Exports	ASCII tab, MusicXML, MIDI, PDF via print	Guitar Pro, MIDI, PDF, MusicXML	Guitar Pro 5, MIDI, ASCII tab, LilyPond	PDF, MusicXML, MIDI, PNG, SVG, audio
Your file	Stays on your device	Processed online	Stays on your computer	Stays on your computer

What to Expect from MIDI to Guitar by Track Type

The notes in a MIDI file are exact; how playable your MIDI to guitar tab is depends on what the track was written for.

What to Expect from MIDI to Guitar by Track Type
	What you get	Best next step
Guitar track from a DAW or Guitar Pro	A playable tab that follows the part closely	Match the tuning, then export
Single melody (voice, flute, synth lead)	A clean single-note tab	Try a capo to move it into an easy position
Bass line	Bass tab on four or five strings	Choose bass and its tuning
Piano part	Playable, but big chords lose inner notes	Tab the melody only, or just the bass line
MIDI made from audio	Extra short notes from the transcription	Clean it in the MIDI editor first
Drums or orchestral pads	Not useful as tab	Pick a pitched, single-part track

Who Converts MIDI to Tab

Guitarists and bassists who have the notes as MIDI and want them where their fingers go.

Guitarists learning a song

Found a MIDI file of the song you want to play? Convert MIDI to guitar tab, pick the guitar track and learn it from a playable tab instead of a piano roll.

Producers and songwriters

Wrote a riff on a keyboard in your DAW? Export the MIDI and see how it falls on the neck before you record the real guitar.

Bass players

Turn the bass track of any MIDI file into tab for four or five strings, or pull the bass line out of a piano part. For a recording instead, use the bass tab generator.

Teachers

Hand students a tab and a notation part from the same file, and print versions in two tunings for a mixed class.

MIDI to Guitar Tab Questions, Answered

Straight answers, including what MIDI cannot tell a tab.

How do I convert MIDI to guitar tab?

Drop the .mid file on the converter at the top of this page, pick the track you want, choose guitar, bass or ukulele and your tuning, then download ASCII tab, MusicXML or MIDI, or print a PDF. MIDI to guitar tab conversion is free, needs no account and runs in your browser.

Can any MIDI file be converted to guitar tabs?

Any standard .mid or .midi file opens, single-track or multi-track. How playable the result is depends on the track: guitar parts and single melodies convert cleanly, piano parts need some notes dropped, and drum tracks cannot be tabbed.

How does it choose which string and fret to play?

It lists every way each note or chord can be played in your tuning, scores each shape for stretch, position and open strings, then follows the path through the whole piece with the lowest overall cost. A note can therefore land on a higher string when that keeps a run in one position. It is a heuristic, so treat the result as a strong first draft: change the hand position or stretch, or move a single note to another string.

Which tunings are supported? Can I use a capo?

Guitar: Standard, Eb Standard, Drop D, Drop C, D Standard, DADGAD, Open G, Open D and Open E. 7-string guitar: Standard (B) and Drop A. Bass: Standard, Eb Standard, Drop D and D Standard, plus 5-string. Ukulele: gCEA, low G and baritone. A capo from fret 1 to 12 works with any of them, the tab counts frets from the capo, and Suggest tries frets 0 to 7 for the easiest fingering.

Can I make bass tabs from MIDI?

Yes. Choose bass and the bass track is picked for you; MIDI to bass tabs works on 4 or 5-string bass, in standard or drop tuning. From a piano or band track, tab just its bass line. Notes below the lowest string are moved up an octave so everything stays playable.

My MIDI has several tracks. Which one should I pick?

The one you want to play. The converter starts on the guitar track when the file has one, or the track that fits the neck best; switch to any other. Converting one part at a time gives a tab you can read.

Can it turn a piano part into guitar tab?

Yes, with limits. A guitar has six strings and one hand on the neck, so chords with more notes keep their top and bass notes and drop inner ones, and a tighter stretch limit drops more. For an easy arrangement, tab the melody only and add chords by ear. After converting, the converter tells you how many notes it moved by an octave or could not place.

Can I open the tab in Guitar Pro, MuseScore or TuxGuitar?

Yes. Download MusicXML: it carries the notes with a tab staff, and Guitar Pro, MuseScore and TuxGuitar can open it for editing. There is no direct .gp or .gp5 export.

Does the tab include bends, slides or strumming patterns?

No. MIDI does not record playing techniques, so the tab shows the notes, their timing and where to fret them. Add bends, slides, hammer-ons, palm muting and strumming in a tab editor.

Can I print the tab or save it as a PDF?

Yes. Choose the print option, with or without the notation staff, then pick Save as PDF in your browser's print dialog. There is no separate PDF file generator; the print route works on any computer or phone.

Is this MIDI to tab converter free?

Yes, with no sign-up and no length limit, and every export is the full tab; the text and PDF files carry a one-line ToMIDI credit. It runs in your browser, so there is nothing to install.

Is my MIDI file uploaded?

No. The file is read, fingered, played and exported inside your browser tab. Nothing is sent to a server.

Can I get guitar tab from an MP3 or a recording?

Not on this page, which starts from MIDI. For a recording, use the guitar tab generator, or turn the audio into a .mid with guitar to MIDI or MP3 to MIDI and bring it here.

Can I turn sheet music into guitar tab?

Yes, in two steps. Convert the score with MusicXML to MIDI, or PDF to MIDI for a printed page, then open the .mid here and pick the part.

More Ways to Get Tabs and MIDI

Starting from a recording or a score instead of a MIDI file? Pick the matching tool.

Keep Working on Your MIDI Tabs

After MIDI to tab: print a score, fix notes, tune up or change the key.