TuxGuitar

TuxGuitar is a free, open-source tablature editor and player for stringed instruments. It lets musicians view, edit, and compose guitar tabs and sheet music, with playback using configurable sound fonts. The app supports multiple file formats including GuitarPro, and runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD and Android. It is popular among guitarists, bass players, and other musicians who work with tab-based notation rather than traditional sheet music notation.</description> <parameter name="recommendation">TuxGuitar currently ships only Intel/AMD x86_64 builds for macOS, and the project does not yet offer a native Apple Silicon build. The vendor's official documentation explicitly states "We currently only provide installation packages for Intel/AMD systems" and notes that macOS users can run the x86_64 packages on M-series hardware using Rosetta 2. Since Apple is removing Rosetta 2 support in macOS 28 (September 2028), TuxGuitar will stop launching on that release unless a native build is released before then. Contact the TuxGuitar project at [email protected] to inquire about native Apple Silicon development plans and timelines. In the meantime, monitor the project's website at tuxguitar.app for announcements of a Universal Binary or arm64 build. If you need a tablature editor that runs natively on Apple Silicon today, GarageBand (built into macOS) offers basic tab and notation support, or you can explore web-based alternatives like Ultimate Guitar's online editor.