The question that decides it
Did you play to a click, exactly at the tempo in your file? If you did, nearly any method will stay in time. If you played freely, with the push and pull that makes a performance sound human, any tab running at the file’s own tempo will drift away from you. That one question separates these options.
The options
SheetVideo is our tool, and the rest are described from their own pages as of November 2026. Products change, so check the current details before you commit to one.
SheetVideo
Drop your video and your Guitar Pro file, and you get the finished video: tab in time with your take, wherever you pushed or held back. Add a fretboard showing each note, or falling Fret Lights.
- No click needed, since the tab follows your playing
- A finished video, with no editor
- A neck showing every note, as well as tab
- Pick your part from a band file
- Wide or upright from the same files
Choose it when you played it your way and want to post it today.
Tab2Vid and your own editor
Turns a Guitar Pro or MusicXML file into an MP4 of animated tab, in your colours, wide or upright. Its site explains that you import that strip into your editor and place it over your video.
- Fast from a file
- Colour control, with saved styles
- You need an editor, and a take at the file’s tempo
- One track per video
- 10 free minutes in total, then a subscription
Choose it if you edit your videos yourself, play to a click and want a strip to place freely.
Screen record Guitar Pro, then line it up
Play the file in Guitar Pro, capture the screen with OBS, crop to the tab, and lay it over your take in your editor.
- You already own the software
- Needs a take played to the file’s tempo
- Crop, align and export for each video
- Wide only, unless you rearrange it by hand
Choose it if you play to a click and only make the odd video.
A video editor, by hand
Make images of each bar or line of tab, place them on the timeline in Final Cut, Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, and time each one by hand.
- Complete freedom in the design
- Very slow
- Hard to show the note being played
Choose it for a special one-off, such as a music video where the tab is part of the art.
Making the tab easy to read
- Keep the tab where the phone interface will not cover it. On Shorts and Reels, avoid the bottom edge and the right side.
- Show one part. A viewer learning your lead line does not want the bass underneath.
- Tell them the tuning and capo in the first few seconds and in the description.
- Leave your hands in the shot. People want to see the fingering next to the tab.
- Offer the file. A link to your Guitar Pro or PDF in the description brings people back.
Do you need a Guitar Pro file?
It gives the best results, because it holds every string and fret exactly. MusicXML with tab works just as well. A plain text tab does not have the timing, so write it into Guitar Pro or a free program like TuxGuitar first. If you have no file and do not want one, SheetVideo’s tap along option lets you tap chords or notes as your video plays.