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Composer

Your tab will appear here as you type.

Tip: Use spaces to separate notes, # for sharps, + for octaves. Invalid characters may cause display errors.

About the composer

Write tin whistle tab by typing the notes

The composer turns the notes you type into tin whistle tab: a finger diagram for every note, the same kind of tab every tune on TinWhistleTab uses. Type d e f# g and four diagrams appear as you type. When it looks right, download it as a PNG image or a PDF, or publish it on the site so other players can learn the tune.

Who it's for

Players who have a tune in their head or on paper and no tab for it, teachers writing out a tune for a class, and anyone who wants to share their own arrangement. If you have the tune in ABC, from The Session or a tunebook, switch the input to ABC and paste it in: the composer shows it as sheet music and as tab.

An example

Type this into the notes box:

dd aa bb a gg f#f# ee d

You get the first line of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in D: fourteen notes, grouped in the phrases you typed. Start a new line for the next phrase, add a title, then export it or publish it. Your draft stays in this browser if you close the page by accident; publishing needs a free account.

How to write the notes

  • Letters are the notes of a D whistle: d e f# g a b c#. A c on its own is C natural.
  • A + after a note puts it in the second octave, so d+ is high D.
  • A # after a letter makes it sharp, and a ^ half-covers a hole: e^ is F natural.
  • Spaces split the notes into phrases, a new line starts a new row of tab, and a line that starts with # is a heading, such as #Part B.
  • No notes yet? Use Or play it to record yourself on a D whistle, and the composer writes the notes in for you to check.

Already have the notes written somewhere else, as letters or ABC? The notes to tab converter turns a whole tune into tab in one go and can transpose it to fit your whistle.