Guitar tab paper
Six lines for six strings, spaced far enough apart that a two-digit fret number actually fits between them.
Guitar tablature is six lines, one for each string, with a fret number written on the line for the string it belongs to. That is the whole notation, and it is why it spread: it tells you where to put your fingers rather than which pitches to produce, so you can read it before you can read music.
The line that catches everyone out is the top one. In tab the highest line is the highest-sounding string — the thin E — not the one nearest your chin when the guitar is on your knee. Tab is drawn as though you have turned the neck to face you, and the low E sits at the bottom. Blank paper cannot help you with that, but it is worth knowing before you fill a page in upside down.
The one measurement that matters on tab paper is the gap between two lines, because that gap has to hold a fret number. Anything past the ninth fret is two digits, and two digits at a size you can read is about four and a half millimetres of clear space. Printed tab pads are frequently tighter than that, which is why so much handwritten tab ends up with the numbers crowding the lines above and below.
Set the tab lines control if your instrument does not have six strings. A seven-string guitar takes seven, a baritone ukulele four; the sheet is otherwise the same and the spacing control still means the same thing.
Eight systems of four bars is thirty-two bars to a page, which is most of a song for anything with a repeating structure. Turn the bar lines off if you are transcribing something whose bar lengths you do not know yet — an empty staff is easier to fit an odd bar into than one already divided into four. The TAB letters down the left are on by default and switch off with the tab label control.
Staff and tab paper by instrument
- Staff and tab paper, any sizeThe full generator — any staff height, six systems
- Blank sheet musicFive-line staves · manuscript paper at any staff height
- Bass tab paperFour lines · wider spacing for high fret numbers
- Ukulele tab paperFour lines · tighter spacing, short neck
- Grand staff paperTwo staves joined by a brace · piano, harp, organ
- Staff and tab paperNotation over tablature · joined as one system
Questions
Which line is the low E string?
The bottom one. Tab is drawn from the player's point of view with the neck turned to face you, so the highest line is the thinnest, highest-sounding string and the lowest line is the low E. It is the opposite of how the strings sit when you look down at the guitar in your lap.
How many bars should I put on a line?
Four is the usual working figure and it is what this page opens with, but it depends entirely on how dense the passage is: a strummed verse fits four bars comfortably, a solo with two notes a beat wants two. Set the bar lines to zero and rule them yourself if the piece changes density as it goes.
How do I check the tab printed at the right size?
Measure from the top line to the bottom line and divide by five, because six lines have five gaps between them. At the 4.5 mm default that whole span is 22.5 mm. Measuring one gap will not tell you much — the error you are looking for is a percent or two, which is invisible over 4.5 mm and obvious over 22.
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