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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| Converting guitar tabs to ukulele tabs | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Mon Jul 17th, 2006 03:30 pm |
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1st Post |
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absurdus_delirium Approved 
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I ran across quite a few guitar tabs (all in guitar pro 4 format) and wouldn't mind the trouble of converting them to ukulele tabs. What kind of musical knowledge would I need in order to do sthg like that? Do I have to "know music" or is there some trick any program provides?
____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/absurdus_delirium i guess, the more u like music, the more music u like! |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18th, 2006 11:58 am |
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2nd Post |
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absurdus_delirium Approved
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Never mind! Got it!  Poking around Guitar Pro I noticed that it had a "Export MIDI..." feature. I checked TablEdit knowing that there is bound to be a "Import MIDI..." feature. And, of course, there it was.  Below I am attaching the two tabs I made (I feel kind of ashamed saying "made" since I actually did very little, anyways...) for "Turkey in the Straw". Both of them are only the first 16 measures ( I will get the full version of TablEdit ASAP) and the second had the "Optimise fingering" option ticked. Are they optimised? PLUS, absurdus Turkey in the Straw TablEdited by absurdus_delirium | | | | | | | | |------------------------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10------2---3---| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |5---7---5---2---5-------10--12--|14------14------14--12--10--12--| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |14------12------12------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10------2---3---| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |5---7---5---2---5-------10--12--|14------17------17--14--10--12--| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |14------12------10------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10------2---3---| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |5---7---5---2---5-------10--12--|14------14------14--12--10--12--| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | |14------12------12------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10------2---3---| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | |5---7---5---2---5-------10--12--| |--------------------------------| |--------------------------------| |--------------------------------| Created with TablEdit http://www.tabledit.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkey in the Straw (optimised fingering) TablEdited by absurdus_delirium | | | | | | | | A |------------------------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10--------------| E |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| C |--------------------------------|------------------------11--12--| G |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | A |------------------------10--12--|14------14------14--12------12--| E |10------10------10--------------|--------------------------------| C |------------11------------------|--------------------------------| G |----9---------------------------|------------------------12------| | | | | | | | | A |14------12------12------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10--------------| E |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| C |--------------------------------|------------------------11--12--| G |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | A |------------------------10--12--|14------17------17--14----------| E |10------10------10--------------|------------------------15------| C |------------11------------------|--------------------------------| G |----9---------------------------|----------------------------14--| | | | | | | | | A |14------12--------------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10--------------| E |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| C |--------------------------------|------------------------11--12--| G |----------------12--------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | A |------------------------10--12--|14------14------14--12------12--| E |10------10------10--------------|--------------------------------| C |------------11------------------|--------------------------------| G |----9---------------------------|------------------------12------| | | | | | | | | A |14------12------12------14--12--|10--9---10--12--10--------------| E |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| C |--------------------------------|------------------------11--12--| G |--------------------------------|--------------------------------| | | | | | | | | A |------------------------10--12--|14------17------17--14----------| E |10------10------10--------------|------------------------15------| C |------------11------------------|--------------------------------| G |----9---------------------------|----------------------------14--| Created with TablEdit http://www.tabledit.com/ Last edited on Tue Jul 18th, 2006 12:54 pm by absurdus_delirium ____________________ http://ezfolk.com/audio/absurdus_delirium i guess, the more u like music, the more music u like! |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 18th, 2006 01:31 pm |
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3rd Post |
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Richard Hefner Administrator 
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Absurdus, That kind of theoretically works but in real practice those tabs aren't very playable (although the melody is there). I don't have a standard uke with 17 frets on it. Seems like most sopranos only go up to about the 12 fret... some maybe 14 I guess but staying up that high for a long time in a song doesn't work too well for me (could just be me though). That tab is written in the key of G. I think a better alternative would be to either lower the whole tune an octave or possibly just transpose it to a different key where the notes would be lower on the neck. There are a lot of fiddle tunes that fit nicely on the uke (see my arrangements of Cluck Old Hen and Hop High Ladies for a couple of pretty good examples). Turkey in the Straw is a great tune and it can be played on the uke but because the range is a bit wider it's quite a bit harder to play. The tab you came up with is a good starting place but since it's not practical to play you might want to go in and use TablEdit to transpose it. Do an automatic transposition in TablEdit from the key of G to the key of F (1 step down) and see if you end up with a better arrangement. You might also want to try the keys of E, D, C, and A to see what the program generates. The program is not perfect when it comes to generating automatic tabs and usually needs help from a human to get it right but it is a big help. Post the tabs if you want to and let's see what you get. Maybe I can help you create a good arrangement to play. 
____________________ Richard Hefner MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner Running Blog: http://old-runner.com |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 19th, 2006 06:34 pm |
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4th Post |
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Mike Bagneski Approved
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Looks like the lowest note is a B, and the highest is a D an octave and third above the B. If it's in G, moving it down to key of C would put the range at E-G, which would be okay for a 12 fret soprano. Key of A would be C#-E, which might be a bit sweeter and easier to reach. Mike B Last edited on Thu Jul 20th, 2006 04:01 am by Mike Bagneski |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 24th, 2006 05:06 pm |
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5th Post |
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ookman Approved
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absurdus_delirium, I'm glad that you asked this question becasue as it turns out it came on top of my Google search. I've been interested in fingerstyle guitar but I've never managed to learn how to do it. Now that I've started learning the ukulele, I'm planning to learn some of the fingerstyle pieces that I like from this site: http://www.frettedinstrumentsnyc.com/ This site provides a lot of MIDI [and ptb/tef] files that are ripe for conversion to ukulele tabs. My favorite 'fingerstylist' is Chet Atkins. I imported the 'Heartache.midi' file using TabView with the option to convert it to ukulele tabs and it seemed to do it. Now I need to figure out whether the conversion is playable. In any case, it's a good start for reusing material that is already available. Anyway, thanks again for asking the conversion question. As they say -- The only wrong question is that which is not asked." Have a pleasant ukulele playing time! absurdus_delirium wrote: Never mind! Got it!
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| Posted: Sun Sep 9th, 2007 05:34 am |
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6th Post |
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nevc*ernamed Approved 
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I am very interested in converting primarily guitar tablature to ukulele tabs (seeing as how guitar tabs are more plentiful on the internet for most popular types of music). This seems like a meaningful place to post my question. I have powertab installed, but what do I need to exactly to obtain similar results? If you don't mind could you post instructions on how exactly to convert tabs written for the guitar to a ukulele (tuned G-C-E-A)? Thanks in advance.
____________________ -- Cheers http://www.csethna.com |
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| Posted: Sun Sep 9th, 2007 07:54 pm |
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7th Post |
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banjo brad Super Moderator 
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I hope this doesn't come over as being flip, but the easiest way to convert chords is to buy a ukulele chord book. If the guitar chord is a "C" chord, look up the "C" chord in the uke book. Presto, you have converted the chord! Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10th, 2007 11:23 am |
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8th Post |
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nevc*ernamed Approved
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Right, I've done that before. I have a very nice ukulele chord dictionary. My question is I don't have much musical knowledge, and I was wondering how one goes about converting tablature (melodies; individual notes on the staff) from guitar to ukulele. Any help anybody could provide on that subject would be great!
____________________ -- Cheers http://www.csethna.com |
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10th, 2007 08:58 pm |
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9th Post |
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banjo brad Super Moderator
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That's a tougher nut to crack! Because the guitar runs from E below Middle C to over an octave above Middle C, you have a large range of notes that won't fit on the uke. I usually just sit and try to figure the melody out on the uke by trying different things. Usually I wind up in a different key, and there is a lot of stuff that never makes it onto the uke. Maybe some of the better uke players have methods. I don't think there is software that can do it for the reasons above. Good luck. Brad
____________________ ezFolk Help Brad Prickly Pear Music Banjo Brad's ezFolk page TOTMC |
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| Posted: Tue Sep 11th, 2007 08:21 pm |
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10th Post |
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nevc*ernamed Approved
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Well thanks for the prompt replies. I guess it's an excuse to learn some music theory now! Thanks!!
____________________ -- Cheers http://www.csethna.com |
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| Posted: Tue Nov 18th, 2008 03:48 pm |
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11th Post |
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curious Approved
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I hope it is not rude to raise a thread from the dead like this, but it still comes in quite high on google searches for questions about converting tab. The problem that a few people are asking about is not the easiest thing in the world to solve, but it doesn't require a lot of musical knowledge. Of course, I don't have a lot of musical knowledge either, so here's hoping I'm not just messing it up (nervous now). I've written some software to do this automatically for me, and the results sound good, but it's a bit clunky to use (command line), so I'll just explain how to do it by hand. One way of looking at the fretboard is that each fret represents a semitone. If you can look at the guitar and ukulele and compare them to a common root, you can see which frets on one match the frets on another. This is not very clear, is it? Let's take the note E0, which is the lowest note on a four string bass, as our "note 0". Remember that each fret/semitone adds one. Adding twelve takes us up one octave, it doubles the pitch. The note will sound similar to your ear though. The strings of the guitar are, low to high: 12, 17, 22, 27, 31, 36 (see how they're a fifth apart except for between strings two and three?) Each string has twenty-four frets, so for example, the lowest string, string 6, covers these tones: 12 (open), 13 (1st), 14 (2nd), 15 (3rd), 16 (4th), 17 (5th), 18 (6th), 19 (7th), 20 (8th), 21 (9th), 22 (10th), 23 (11th), 24 (12th) and so on up to 36 (24th). The guitar has a range from 12 to 36 + 24. The ukulele (re-entrant C tuning) has: 39, 32, 36, 41 (see that the G string is twice as high as you'd expect?) The ukulele (well, my ukulele) has twelve frets, so the C string runs: 32 (open), 33 (1st), 34 (2nd), 35 (3rd) ... 44 (12th). The ukulele has a range from 32 to 53. If I were you, at this point I'd get out some paper and draw two diagrams of the necks of the uke and the guitar, and write the tones down on each. This will make the next bit a lot easier. Take your tab, and start working left to right. Look at the string, and the fret, and work out the "tone number" (add the fret to the base number of the string). If it's higher than the range of the instrument you want to play on, keep subtracting twelve until it's inside the range (or, you can move the whole thing down as a few people suggested up above). If it's too low, repeatedly add twelve. Now look at the neck diagram for the target instrument and find the same tone - chances are there'll be a few places. This is your new string/fret combination! Maybe I had better do an example. This is harder to explain than to program.  Cream: Sunshine of Your Love
Second note is the same, so we can just write that down again. Third note is the 10th fret on the 4th string. 22 + 10 = 32. That's the open note on the 3rd string ( 32 + 0 ). The fifth note is where it gets interesting - the 12th note of the 5th string: 17 + 12 = 29. This is too low for a Ukulele, so let's add twelve to it (octave up), and we get.. 41. 41 actually appears on all the Ukulele strings, so our tab so far is:
You keep working on it this way, and eventually you get:
For chords, as suggested, use a book where you can. If you draw up the neck diagrams like I suggest, this is not as hard as it looks! You can also use it to transpose to other stringed instruments. Here are some other tunings based off pitch information I found on the net: 4 String Bass / 24 frets: 0, 5, 10, 15 Guitar (Drop D) / 24 Frets: 10, 17, 22, 27, 31, 36 Uke (Tenor C) / 12 Frets : 27, 32, 36, 41 Uke (G) / 12 Frets: 29, 34, 38, 43 Uke (D) / 12 Frets: 34, 27, 31, 36 Glenn Richards' mutant "Sunset Studies" guitar tuning / 24 frets: 12, 17, 22, 29, 31, 36 Does this help at all? - Bryn.
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