Power Tab Editor

All right, I'll admit I am not familiar with any of the commercial tablature editing programs available--if there are any. As I said, I really don't know. But if there are, I say forget about it! Power Tab Editor is all you could ask or hope for, and for some reason, it's free!

As you can see, it doesn't just do tablature but standard notation as well, and will export your work to MIDI files. Both of these features combine nicely for me because it is helping me understand rhythm in standard musical notation. I am sure it will also assist me in learning the notes in standard musical scores as well--something the average guitarist (such as myself) seems to shy away from. Too many options I think. Piano is one key per note, (relatively) simple. Guitar, we can play the same note in several places--a little more daunting from my perspective.

Anyway, back to Power Tab.

This application is just amazing! It has a chord finder that helps you locate the right inversion for your particular needs. It has a "score checker" & "score polisher". Shifting tools. It is easy to navigate and enter/edit your notes. It has options to enter musical directions. It can import MIDI files and convert them to Tab & standard notation. What can I say, it has it all. Too bad there is no port for Linux (yet), otherwise this program is perfect. Free? What are they thinking? But I'm really glad it is...

Power Tab.net

Download Page

PS Grab CutePDF to print out your Tablature/Standard Notation creations to PDF files.
Once it's installed, use File --> Print --> CutePDF Writer as your printer and it will generate a PDF of your musical score for you. Very convenient and it looks quite nice as well (compared to ASCII output ;-)

PPS Promote Power Tab Editor!
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