This tutorial will explain how to convert sheet music to tabs. There are actually many software available which can help you convert guitar tabs into sheet music. But, when it comes to converting sheet music to tabs, there are almost no standalone free software or websites to do that. So, after spending a lot of time, I have come up with a simple trick or say a method to convert sheet music to tabs. Using this method, you can now easily turn any sheet music into readable and playable guitar tabs. This method includes using two different software named, “MuseScore” and “Power Tab Editor“.
To turn a sheet music into tabs, you would actually need to convert it first to a MIDI file. This can be done using MuseScore. After that, you can use Power Tab Editor to convert the MIDI file into guitar tabs. The method might sound little tricky, but is not, and you can follow the steps explained below to easily achieve the above goal.
How to Convert Sheet Music to Tabs:
Step 1: To get started, the first thing you need to do is convert the sheet music into a MIDI file. To do that, install “MuseScore” on your PC and then import the PDF file that contains the sheet music. Then it will automatically turn the PDF file into a MuseScore project which you can later import, convert, and then export as a MIDI file. You can see the detailed tutorial on how to convert sheet music to MIDI file from here.
Step 2: Once you’re done turning the sheet music to a MIDI file, you can proceed to convert it into tabs. For this, you would need to download and install “Power Tab Editor” on your PC. The download link is provided at the end of this tutorial. After that, open it up and select “Import → MIDI Track” from the File menu. Now, you can choose the MIDI file which you have converted from sheet music.
Step 3: Once you’re done importing the MIDI file, a wizard will open up where you would need to select the “import process type” as “Import the MIDI Track into a new Power Tab Document” in the first step. Then select the “MIDI track to import” either as Guitar Score or Bass Score. Now, in the last step, you can adjust various settings for the MIDI track including Clef, Quantization, Transpose, Fingering, and Tuning.
Step 4: As soon as you’re done with the settings, simply hit the “Finish” button and the sheet music inside the MIDI file will be converted into tabs. You will be able to see the tabs below the associated sheet music notations, as shown in the below image.
Step 5: Now, you will be able to read the guitar tabs, play them using the built-in player, or export to your PC. It lets you export the converted tabs as various files including PDF, MIDI, HTML, ASCII, and Power Tab Score.
Closing Words:
This is how you can easily convert sheet music into tabs. This method might look a little lengthy, but it absolutely worth it as there are almost no such tools or online application which can convert sheet music to readable & playable guitar tabs. The combination of MuseScore and Power Tab Editor makes it possible for you to do that with ease. Let me know what you think in the comments.
