Choose the correct tablature paper for transcribing your particular instrument. For a guitar, your tab paper should have six lines. Banjo tab paper should have four or five, depending on the type of banjo you have. You can find tab paper online at no charge (see Resources).
Listen to the music you want to transcribe to tablature. It's helpful to use audio playback equipment that allows you to slow songs down to hear them easier. Work with small portions of the song at a time, transcribing the notes you hear to your music paper. When you match what you hear to your instrument, write the fret number on the appropriate line of your tab to indicate the fret of the note you will play and which string it will be played on.
Write notes played one after the other separately, in the order the notes are played. For chords, write all of the notes of the chord in line with one another (stacked) to indicate all of the notes should be played simultaneously to make a chord.
Indicate any special techniques used when playing the notes. If a string is bent while being played, indicate this with a small, curved arrow and a fraction indicating how many steps the note is bent. The 1/2 fraction indicates the note should be bent a half step. Other typical tab symbols include the number 8 to indicate a passage should be played an octave higher and a diagonal line leading away from a note either up or down to indicate a slide in the direction of the line.
Separate the bars of music in tablature with a vertical, just as you would in standard music notation. Place a treble clef sign and a time signature at the beginning of the tablature in the same way it is notated on traditional sheet music. Typically, a time signature is 4/4, or common time.