5 Best Free Guitar Tab Software in 2024

If you’re a guitar music enthusiast, then finding and downloading the best free guitar tab software is a must. Such a utility allows you to make music sheets with maximum ease while using standard tablature symbols.

Top 5 Free Guitar Tab Software

  1. Power Tab Editor - Full selection of tablature symbols
  2. LilyPond - With chord dictionary
  3. Guitar Pro - Redesigned interface
  4. Aria Maestosa - For MIDI files
  5. Musescore - Popular music notation software

This post focuses on helping you find the best free guitar tab software for your needs while also including a couple of paid options, should you be willing to invest in a more robust and multifunctional tool that makes guitar tab creation even more convenient.

1. Power Tab Editor - Our Choice

Full selection of tablature symbols
  • Works flawlessly on newer systems
  • Completely free
  • Adds timing and note values
  • No recent updates

Verdict: Power Tab Editor is probably the easiest to use and most feature packed freeware guitar tab software on the internet. Even though this is a fairly new release, the features and ease of use are already quite good. The only real feature lacking is a chord dictionary or interactive interface.

Power Tab Editor has received many favorable reviews, because it is so easy to learn even for a beginner. You don't have to worry about having to get a guitar in order to begin using the software and the step by step videos are very easy to follow. The graphics are not too busy and there are many colors available, which makes the music experience a pleasant one for many people who like to color in the music. After using this software you can transfer the recorded track to music transcription software.

power tab editor interface

2. LilyPond

With chord dictionary
  • Part of the GNU Project
  • Excellent text-based music language
  • Produces beautiful sheet music
  • Text-based editing can be awkward

Verdict: LilyPond is a famous free guitar tab software that is used by many professional and amateur guitar players around the world. LilyPond interface is extremely user-friendly, which makes it easy for a beginner to learn to play the guitar tabs. However, the interface may not be very appealing to some users who are used to more aesthetically attractive interface's from other programs and audio editing software.

Another good thing about LilyPond is that it supports both the vertical and horizontal bar chords. This is great because it means that you do not need to learn separate bar chords in order to play songs. All you need to do is just turn on the LilyPond button and it will automatically play bar chords for you.

lilypond interface

3. Guitar Pro

Redesigned interface
  • Merging and splitting staves
  • Creates backing tracks
  • New tools and audio improvements
  • Buggy

Verdict: Guitar Pro is one of the best free guitar tab software programs available today. Guitar Pro allows its users to create and print their own tabs for songs they intend to play. You can also download guitar tabs from a variety of websites and music management software.

It comes with a complete set of video and text instructions, which come in handy when you're learning a new song or trying to improve your technique. If you've always wanted to learn to play your favorite songs on the guitar but don't want to spend a fortune, Guitar Pro is an ideal solution.

guitar pro free guitar tab software interface

4. Aria Maestosa

For MIDI files
  • Layout is excellent
  • Easy interface
  • UI comes with score
  • Supports multiple languages
  • Not for beginners

Verdict: Aria Maestosa has been designed to meet all the needs of the beginner and advance guitar player who would like to learn to play lead solos or jazz chords. There are many features that this product offers that will help the user to increase his understanding of music, even though he hasn't yet reached any of the advanced levels.

This is because of the fast and smooth navigation interface that the interface has. Most people who have been using this have commented on its ease of use and how accurately the chord dictionary and the interactive song library are presented on the screen.

aria maestosa free guitar tab software interface

5. Musescore

Popular music notation software
  • Free and open source
  • Great sheet sharing web page
  • Clean and easy to navigate interface
  • Plugin functionality
  • No real-time transcription tool

Verdict: The best thing about Musescore is that it has an interface that is extremely easy to use. Unlike many guitar tab software, it has a very simple set of features that anyone can use with ease.

The reason why this guitar tab software is so unique is because it allows you to learn hundreds of different chords by simply copying and pasting the chord from a YouTube video. This means that you won't need any fancy equipment at all, and you will be playing songs in literally minutes.

musescore free guitar tab software interface
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