Guitar to Ukulele Tab Converter
Found a great tab for your next song but it was written for guitar instead of ukulele? Paste it in below and the UkuTabs guitar to ukulele tab converter gives you back a playable ukulele version in seconds. Unlike simple converters that just rename the strings, this one resolves every fret to its real musical pitch and then chooses the best matching position on the ukulele, so the output actually sounds like the song instead of just looking like it.
Switch between five ukulele tunings (standard high-G, low-G, baritone, English D and Canadian low-A) and two picking modes. Section markers, chord names, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, slides and ghost notes all roundtrip cleanly. 100% free, no signup, nothing uploaded, the whole conversion runs in your browser.
Paste a guitar tab, get back a playable ukulele version. Pitch-correct, not just visually correct.
Five tunings, two picking modes, sections and articulations preserved. Free, no signup.
- 100% freeFree
- Runs in your browserIn-browser
- Pitch-correct mappingPitch-correct
- 5 ukulele tunings5 tunings
- Nothing is uploadedPrivate
Paste a guitar tab below to convert it
Hand-friendly keeps your fretting hand in one spot on the neck, even if that means slightly higher frets. Better for solo phrasing.
Both modes produce pitch-correct output. Same notes, just different positions.
- Six lines per block in order
e B G D A E. Lowercaseefor high E, uppercaseEfor low E. - Separate tab blocks with one blank line so the parser can group them into measures.
- Sections, chord rows and annotations can sit anywhere between blocks. They pass through verbatim.
- Pitch-correct, not arrangement-correct. Bass lines shifted up an octave can muddy the voicing on a small instrument.
- No ukulele chord shape diagrams. Chord names pass through as text only.
- Standard tuning only on both sides (EADGBE on guitar, GCEA on ukulele).
Common tab notation, decoded
Every symbol you'll find inside a guitar tab, what it means, and how the converter handles it on the way to ukulele.
- 0 1 2…
- Fret numbers.
0is the open string. - -
- Padding or silence. The string isn't being played at that beat.
- |
- Bar line (end of a measure).
- (2)
- Ghost or optional note. Softer, or only played sometimes.
- 0h2
- Hammer-on: play fret 0, then hammer onto fret 2 without picking again.
- 2p0
- Pull-off: release a finger to sound a lower fret without picking.
- 7b9
- Bend the string from fret 7 up to the pitch of fret 9.
- 11br13
- Bend up to fret 13, release back to fret 11.
- 5/7
- Slide up from fret 5 to fret 7.
- 9\7
- Slide down from fret 9 to fret 7.
- 5~
- Vibrato. Wiggle the note for expressiveness.
- x
- Muted note. Strike the string while damping it.
High-G vs Low-G: which should I pick?
The two most common ukulele tunings. The dropdown above also includes baritone and re-entrant variations, but these two cover most ukuleles in the wild.
High-G
Defaultg4 · C4 · E4 · A4
What every ukulele ships with out of the box. If you've never swapped the 4th string yourself, you have high-G. Best default for chord strumming and traditional ukulele repertoire.
Low-G
LinearG3 · C4 · E4 · A4
Requires a dedicated wound low-G string. Best for fingerstyle arrangements and songs with low melody lines. The extra 5 semitones of low range let the converter keep more guitar bass notes in their original octave.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions players ask most about converting tabs between the two instruments.
Is this guitar to ukulele tab converter free?
Yes, completely free. No sign-up, no app to install. The converter runs entirely in your browser, on whatever device you're already holding.
How does the guitar to ukulele tab converter actually work?
It treats each fret on the guitar input as a real MIDI pitch, then searches all four ukulele strings (using each string's actual open-string note) for the position that produces the same pitch. For notes below the ukulele's range, meaning anything on the guitar's low E or A strings, the pitch is octave-shifted up by 12 or 24 semitones until it fits. The result is musically correct, not just visually similar.
Nothing is uploaded. The text you paste, the options you pick, and the output you get never leave your browser.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. The converter works on any phone, tablet, or laptop with a modern browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge). Paste your tab, pick a tuning, tap convert.
What ukulele tunings does it support?
Five common tunings, pickable from the dropdown: standard high-G (gCEA, what most ukuleles ship with), low-G (GCEA, linear), baritone (DGBE, same as the top four guitar strings), English D / D6 (aDF♯B, re-entrant), and Canadian low-A (ADF♯B, linear).
What's the difference between high-G and low-G?
High-G (G4 = 392 Hz) sits above the C string. This is re-entrant tuning, and it produces the classic ukulele jangle.
Low-G (G3 = 196 Hz, one octave lower) gives the ukulele a deeper range. It's useful for fingerpicking and solo melodic playing. To switch, swap your G string for a wound or thicker fluorocarbon version.
What's the difference between the two picking modes?
Lowest fret always picks the position closest to the nut. Easiest finger shapes, no high-fret stretches. Best for most songs.
Hand-friendly keeps your fretting hand in one spot on the neck instead of jumping around. If the previous note was at fret 5, the converter prefers another fret 5 to 7 option over a fret 1 option, even if fret 1 is technically easier. Better for solo phrasing; can feel awkward on simple chord progressions.
Both modes produce pitch-correct output. Same notes, just at different positions.
Why are some notes octave-shifted up in the result?
Guitar's low E string sits at roughly 82 Hz, about an octave below the lowest note a standard ukulele can play. Any guitar note below the uke's range gets nudged up by one or two octaves until it fits. This is the standard way to transcribe guitar music for ukulele, and every serious converter does it.
If your guitar tab has a lot of bass content and the result feels muddy, try switching to low-G tuning. The linear bottom string gives the converter 5 extra semitones of low range to work with.
The result sounds different from the original guitar. Is that normal?
Yes, and it's mostly because of the high-G ukulele's re-entrant tuning. A descending guitar line that walks string by string can't be reproduced exactly on a high-G uke, because the high-G string sits between the C and E strings in pitch (it's "out of order"). Switching to low-G fixes this for many songs because the tuning becomes linear like a guitar.
What about non-standard guitar tunings like drop-D or DADGAD?
The converter assumes the guitar input is in standard tuning (E A D G B E). Drop-D, DADGAD, open G and other alternate guitar tunings aren't supported. If you paste a tab in one of those, you'll get notes at incorrect pitches because the converter still maps each string position to its standard-tuning MIDI value.
If you have a tab in an alternate tuning, you'll need to manually translate the bottom string's fret numbers to their standard-tuning equivalents before pasting.
Does it preserve hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, and slides?
Yes. Articulation chains like 0h2p0, 7b9, 11br13, 5/7, 9\7 and 5~ are converted note by note and kept on a single ukulele string, as they physically must be. Parenthesised ghost notes like (2) stay parenthesised in the output.
What about section headers like [Intro] and [Verse 1]?
They're rewritten in UkuTabs canonical form (Intro:, Verse 1:) so they bold automatically when you paste the converted tab into a UkuTabs song page. Strumming hints, repeat markers (x3, == Play 2 times) and any free text between blocks pass through unchanged.
Will it handle a really long tab?
Yes. There's no length limit beyond what your browser can hold in a textarea. A full multi-page tab with dozens of sections converts in well under a second.
Can I convert ukulele tabs back to guitar?
Not yet in this version. We focused on making guitar to ukulele conversion as good as it can be, since that's the more common direction. Most online tabs are written for guitar. Ukulele to guitar is on the roadmap.
Is the converted tab copyright-clean?
The tool performs a mechanical transformation, it doesn't add anything new musically. Whatever copyright applies to the original tab carries through to the converted version. Use the output for personal practice, not commercial publication.
Output from this tool is for personal, non-commercial use only. The converter performs a mechanical transformation of whatever you paste; copyright in the original tab and the underlying musical work remains with the respective rights holders. To request removal of any content shared elsewhere on UkuTabs, see our Legal & Copyright page.