Melodic: a customisable, instrument-agnostic tool for music tabs in simple text format which is open, accessible and useful

  • open: unlike images/pdfs of instrument positions or sheet music, you can easily make a copy and edit it as you wish, e.g. to fix transcription mistakes, add details, or transpose to other keys and instruments
  • accessible: the raw format is easily understandable at a glance (easy for beginners to read/write) and does not require anything more than a simple text editor
  • useful: when tabs in the raw format are entered as input here, you can do many things with it (see below for details)

✔:
  • convert tabs to your preferred notation format, e.g. from numbers in kalimba tabs to letters, or from letters in simple flute tabs to solfege
  • make tabs easier to read by colour-coding notes and customising the whitespace
  • transpose tabs up/down by X semitones
  • suggest good values of X for transposition by comparing the notes in the song to the instrument's comfortable range, taking into account which notes you find harder to play
  • show basic info about the song like the overall range, and show notes sorted by frequency
  • play tabs as midi with a dynamic visualisation for easy checking of transcriptions, and click on specific notes to jump to the matching points in the audio playback
  • import/export simple midi files
  • display as simple sheet music for reading practice (note recognition only)
  • your browser will remember all the tabs and instruments you use (if you give them a name), and you can import/export all your tabs and instruments as a set
  • direct support for some instruments:
    • Piano: choose 'waterfall' under 'midi visualiser' and use the midi widget under 'Notes' tab
    • Fingerstyle Guitar / Guitalele / Violin: choose the relevant option under 'sheet music tablature' and look at 'Sheet' tab
    • Harmonica / Ocarina / Recorder / Tin Whistle: choose the relevant option under 'instrument for tab display' and look at 'Notes' tab. Hover over each note to see the matching fingering/instruction or tick the 'Swap?' checkbox to display those directly

❌:
  • ignores note/rest durations as it assumes you know the song and can figure the rhythm out from memory, so please work with sheet music/MIDI/MuseScore if timing is important to you
  • melody only, no direct chord support
  • can only convert to, NOT from, simplified sheet music and image tabs

  • make tabs in a compatible melodic format and post it on your site or in a forum/subreddit. if you are allowed to use html, see the integration section below for how to embed it or link this site with autofill. otherwise, a simple link will do. if the song is in the public domain and you want it to be added to the guest section of this site, please say so in your post along with how you want to be credited, and tag/PM (don't chat) u/ungluedstudio on Reddit
  • send free fonts in TTF format for other instruments with source (or how you want to be credited if you are the creator), license information and note-to-character mappings to the above, and also corrections to current fonts and sources for the unknowns
  • feature requests and bug reports may also be sent to the above, but with absolutely no guarantees for any replies, implementation or fixes
  • tell me if you know of any pure python (no need apt install) or javascript (less preferred) library that converts from midi to abc notation or the reverse
  • add more instrument tablatures (e.g. ukelele) to abcjs
  • add more instrument visualisers (e.g. kalimba) to magenta-js

Here's the code to include this site as an iframe:
<form action="https://melodic.vercel.app/custom/alphabet/ocarina12_0_t" method="post" target="meloFrame">
<input type="hidden" name="name" value="the name of a nice song">
<input type="hidden" name="contents" value="
    
1 2 3
Do re mi
3 2 1
Mi re do">
<input type="hidden" name="transpose" value="7">
<button type="submit">Go!</button>
</form>
<iframe name="meloFrame" style="width: 100%; height: 500px;"></iframe>
 Remove the form target and iframe if you just want to link to the site with the song tab embedded. Modify the URL if you want to use another output type or instrument font.

To start with your own tabs or to use the ones you've found, use the 'Custom' link below. See here for a rough how-to guide.
Or to use the hosted tabs on this site, click the 'Table' link below and login with username 'guest' and password 'pw'.


Table List Custom