Overview

TuxGuitar is a free, open-source guitar tablature editor and music composition tool that allows musicians to create, edit, play, and share guitar tablatures and sheet music. It supports multiple tracks, effects, time signatures, and a wide range of instruments, making it more than just a tablature editor. You can compose original songs, practice along with built-in playback, import or export Guitar Pro files, and print professional-quality sheet music. The project was rescued by new maintainers in 2023 and is now actively developed on GitHub, with version 2.0.1 released in December 2025.

Key Features

• Multi-Track Editing: Compose songs with multiple instrument tracks including drums, bass, and melody
• Guitar Pro Compatibility: Import and export Guitar Pro files (GP3-GP5) for collaboration
• Built-in Playback: Hear your compositions played back through MIDI with adjustable tempo
• Sheet Music & Tablature: View and edit both standard notation and tablature simultaneously
• Export Options: Export to MIDI, PDF, MusicXML, LilyPond, and audio formats

Why Use It

TuxGuitar is an essential tool for guitarists and music educators who want to create, learn, and share music without expensive proprietary software. Its Guitar Pro compatibility means you can collaborate with users of commercial tools while staying fully open-source.

Use Cases

• Guitar education: Create practice exercises and lesson materials with tablature and playback
• Songwriting: Compose original music with full multi-track arrangements
• Transcription: Convert recordings into tablature for learning and sharing
• Band collaboration: Share parts with band members in a universal format

Platform

Linux, macOS, Windows

Licence

GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1

Website

tuxguitar.app