Tab guide
Everything you need to read and post tabs on Harptabs.com. The notation table below is the most important part — it's the dialect every tab on the site is written in. Need the notes for your harp? See the note chart.
Notation reference
On a C harp, hole 3 has four draw notes: -3 = B, -3' = B♭, -3'' = A, -3''' = A♭.
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| + | Blow note |
| − | Draw note |
| b or ' | Half-step bend |
| bb or '' | Two half-step bend |
| bbb or ''' | Three half-step bend |
| (###) | Chord — relevant hole numbers in parentheses |
| < or * | Push the button in (chromatic harmonica) |
Posting tips
Compiled by Harptabs.com contributor mmolino54 — a six-step path from “I'd like to tab this song” to a polished post.
1.Choose a song to tab
The sheer volume of untabbed songs can be daunting, but save yourself time and confirm the song really is yet to be tabbed. Search Harptabs and Google first — try alternative spellings, author / band names — just to make sure. You can always offer an alternative of an already-tabbed song, but most of the fun comes from tabbing something new. You don't have to tab the whole song either: you can tab the melody, a solo, the intro, a riff. Choose something you like, or fulfill an open request. Keep your skill level and the song's difficulty in mind — too simple and you'll be bored, too complicated and you'll frustrate yourself.
2.Tab from the best source you can
Get access to the cleanest version of the song you can find. Repeated listening helps. Three basic approaches:
- Tab the song by ear (“sound it out”).
- Translate from a copy — software like HarpingMIDI converts MIDIs to tab; tab rulers help you tab from sheet music by hand.
- A combination of the two.
3.Use consistent notation
Use the notation table at the top of this page. If you have to use a different system, include an explanatory note or legend with your post so readers know what you mean.
4.Put it in electronic format
Use a monospace font like Courier and the space bar (not tabs) to align the tab and any lyrics. Prepare the tab in a plain-text editor (Notepad, VS Code, BBEdit, anything that doesn't auto-format) before pasting into the submission form — that way you control the line breaks and column alignment.
5.Test it
Try playing your tab yourself. Does it sound right? Play along to the original if you can. Make any corrections before posting.
6.Post it
Go to Submit a tab and paste your tab into the body. Fill in the metadata:
- Use full song titles (“The Rolling Stones”, not “The Stones”).
- Composer / singer / band goes in the artist field — leave blank if unknown.
- Pick the harp key, harp type, and genre from the dropdowns.
- If a MIDI version exists online, paste the URL in the MIDI field.
Thanks for contributing.