Get a MuseScore score onto your phone as tab

By machado001 · 18 September 2026

Open your tab file with Tabline

Why .mscz is the wrong file to move

MuseScore's own format is built for MuseScore. Nothing else reads it, and there is no phone app that opens it directly. MusicXML exists precisely for this trip.

Exporting

1. Open the score in MuseScore on the computer.
2. File → Export…, choose MusicXML. Compressed (.mxl) is smaller and works the same.
3. Save it somewhere the phone can reach: Drive, Dropbox, or an email to yourself.
4. On the phone, tap the file and choose Open with → Tabline.

Getting tablature out of it, not just notation

This is the part people miss. If your MuseScore score has only a standard notation staff, the export has only pitches, and any reader can show you notation but has no string-and-fret information to draw tab from. If you want tab on the phone, add a tablature staff in MuseScore first (Add → Instruments, then a guitar with tablature, or link a tab staff to the existing one) and export after that.

What to check after it opens

• Tuning. A drop or open tuning set in MuseScore should come across; if the frets look wrong, the tuning did not.
• Tempo. Exports sometimes carry only the initial tempo mark.
• Instrument sounds. Playback uses the reader's own sound bank, not MuseScore's, so a part will sound like the instrument it claims to be, not like your MuseScore setup.