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Folktab is the editor: tunes are written in ABC and drawn as you type. Everything is saved in your browser.

Tunes

• New tune starts one. Paste ABC or Upload adds existing files.
• Find tunes online searches 23,000+ tunes from The Session and adds them to your library.
• Click a note in the score to jump to it in the code. Warnings link to their line.
• The play button plays the tune. Choose the sound under Defaults.

Display options

The settings button on a tune, set or book opens its options. Anything left on Default is inherited: tune ← set ← book ← Defaults.

• Tab: fiddle, mandolin, tenor and Irish banjo, guitar, DADGAD, bouzouki, ukulele or accordion.
• Notation: hide it to show tab only. Rhythm under tab then draws stems, beams and rests.
• Tab label: instrument name on the first line, every line, or hidden.
• Transpose: shifts the score and the tab together, up to ±12 semitones.
• In bulk: in a set or book, Settings for all… changes every entry at once. Tick tunes in the library, or entries in a set or book, and use Settings… to change only those. Only the options you choose are changed, Reset removes their own settings, and a set or book change applies in that set or book only.
• Heading: alignment, size, and whether type, composer and source show.

Diatonic accordion tab

Pick an accordion as the tab. Each note is drawn on a line for its row, with the button number counted from the chin end. Bass and chord buttons are never drawn.

• Models: G/C, D/G, A/D, C/F, B/C, and one-row C, G, D and A.
• Fingering
  • Strict stays on the home row, and leaves it only for a note the row lacks.
  • Free uses both rows to change the bellows as little as possible.
  • Follow chords prefers the bellows direction of the chord. It reads chord symbols in the ABC, or guesses chords bar by bar if there are none.
• Home row: guessed from the notes and the key (Am and A dorian on the G row of a G/C, Dm on the C row). Accordion home row overrides the guess.
• Push / pull mark: arrows, blank, or your own characters and size. Characters are empty by default.
• Overrides in the ABC: put a remark right before a note, such as [r:pull]. abcjs ignores remarks, so they never show in the score.
  • [r:push] or [r:pull]: that note's bellows direction.
  • [r:7]: button 7, on whichever row suits. [r:G7]: button 7 of the G row. [r:G7 pull] sets both.
  • [r:home=G] or [r:fing=free]: change the home row or mode from that note on. home=auto guesses again.
  • A line r:home=C fing=chords in the header sets them for the whole tune, over the display options.
  In the editor, click a note, thenFingering…. An override the button cannot play is ignored, with a warning.
• Your own models: Defaults → Edit, upload or download models. Built-in models are read-only: choose Copy to edit, then click a button to change its notes, drag to renumber, or use + to add one. Rows and bass buttons are editable too. Models are saved as JSON files you can share, and appear in the Tab list. Notes are written like C4, F#3, Bb4. Bass: g a bass note, G a chord, Am a minor chord.

Sets, books and cheat sheets

• Sets group tunes. Books group tunes and sets, with a cover, contents page, numbering and text pages.
• Cheat sheets put the tunes' parts on one page.
• Drag items to reorder them.

Print and export

• PDF for A4, from any tune, set, book or sheet. Free-version PDFs carry a folktab.com footer.
• Tunes also export as ABC, SVG and MIDI.

ABC settings

Folktab uses abcjs, so its %% directives work.

• In a tune: put a directive on its own line in the header, and it applies to that tune only. Lines starting with a single % are comments.
• For every tune: Defaults → ABC settings, one %% line each. They are added before each tune.

%%barnumbers 1
%%gchordfont Arial 14
%%staffwidth 600
%%scale 0.9

Chord symbols in quotes ("Am") drive Follow chords.

Backups and privacy

• Your library lives in this browser only. Clearing site data deletes it, so use Library backup to download a file now and then.
• A backup file can be loaded back in from the same menu.
• The editor works offline once loaded. See Privacy.