is this any different from guitar pro or power tab? can it open guitar pro or power tab format? those 2 are standard or guitar tab software.

dhlt25

Very cool site!

sonar_un

dont have a guitar, but it seems like a great idea, could do with more speed control and a-b repeat i think

bagano

while it does have a nice list of songs, its fairly small.

I looked around, and it doesn't seem there is a way to import or upload your own songs to the player.

pomokey

Might be a good place for some people to start, but I didn't see any bends or pull-offs in the tabs, which nearly all the songs I saw listed use. If you are going to indicate rhythm in the tabs, how about using the tab variation that uses stems and flags above the numbers to indicate rhythm, so if you wanted, you could improve your sight reading skills? The box shows two lines of bars, but doesn't bring the next bars into view until the vary end of current bars, I'm trying to say its hard to glance ahead in the tabs.

I kind of like it though, just could use some improvement.

pschroeter

@dhlt25: Is what I was thinking, too. The free Power Tab program has a HUGE database of songs you can download. For the uninitiated, PowerTab also lets you play the tab in midi and highlights the notes as they are played. You can also write your own tab with it.

Guitar Pro is a similar program (but not free) which, rather than midi, allows tabs to be played using authentic guitar sound samples.

da5id_nz

It's a great idea, but the execution is terrible. I'm a guitar student right now so I compared it to some songs I'm learning or have learned:

- "Hey Joe" by Hendrix is OK for the chords, but it's grossly simplified, and can you really learn a Hendrix song without bends or solos?

- "Hotel California" has a bizarre half-blank bit at the beginning, but after that the chord arpeggios are OK. There's no solo again, though.

- "Street Spirit" by Radiohead is missing the "C" chords.

- "Love me two times" by the Doors is missing the easy-to-play signature riffs that would make it sound like the real song, and has some clumsy chords instead.

So... I wouldn't trust it. GuitarPro is a much better free choice, and I prefer the printed tablature from sheetmusicdirect.com (they usually have both tab and real musical notation, which gives you the rhythm too.)

Michael Moncur

It's very hit or miss. Iron Man was sad and pathetic but their tab for Everlong was the best I've seen so far.

valadil

My suggestion for learning a song is to use www.ultimate-guitar.com to find the tab in PowerTab or GuitarPro format, and then use one of those programs to play the tab back. TuxGuitar is a good freeware program for GuitarPro.

In those programs, you can insert a tempo mark before a fast part like a solo to slow it down so it's easier to learn.

Spnkr

I usually just take tabs from ultimate-guitar.com as Spnkr mentions, and then open the song up with audacity, and slow it down to whatever speed I want. You have to either own a copy of the song or go download one, (torrents?) but it works well because you can play along with the artist singing, the drums, the other guitarist, etc.
And of course, you can export the slow version, pop it on your iPhone, and use it to practice anywhere rather than just on the computer this program is installed on.

The Amazing Ant

I should add that their tab for "Blackbird" was almost perfect. As valadil said, it's hit or miss.

Michael Moncur

what about actually learning to read music? Sorry, I guess it is the music teacher in me, but it frustrates me when people say they can "play the guitar" but need tabs or can only use power chords. Learning to actually play the instrument will take you so much further.

gforster

I've been playing by ear for about seventeen years, and I don't need tabs (I can read them if i want to learn a hard or fast part of some song). I absolutely agree that reading music would be a good thing, and a must for somebody who wanted to play professionally, but I don't think you can say somebody can't play because they can't read music (i agree with people who NEED tabs to play something). I don't know of a specific one right now, but I'm sure you can find some old blues master who can't read music.
That said... Guitar pro is cool, it also prints music for those tabs, and works as a backing track, you can turn off the guitars and play with the other instruments, it's good for practicing by yourself, and for learning new songs.

rafasan

Seconded - it's nonsense to say that learning to read tab is 'a must for the aspiring guitarist'. Learning to read musical notation will take you much further in the long term. And transcribing songs from the recordings will teach you loads more than just playing them off tabs.

nekomatic

@gforster: it's a bit disingenuous to say that someone can't actually play their instrument unless they read standard musical notation. Standard notation is very specialised for certain types of music and is full of ridiculously arbitrary decisions and choices. Now, if you said they should learn musical theory, I'd agree, but that's a different proposition entirely.

Kylotan

@gforster:

As someone with a Bachelor's Degree in music, and someone who writes for everything from orchestras to jazz bands, you might expect me to agree with you, but I don't.

I can read and write music notation, mostly on piano. I also play guitar, and while I can read basic guitar notation, I've never found a need to learn beyond very basic melodies, because guitar isn't a notation instrument.

If you're playing classical guitar, of course you have to read. If you're playing in a band, who the hell cares? The most difficult thing you're likely to see is a rhythmically-challenging chord chart.

How many millionaire rock stars making music today do you suppose read music? I would venture to guess around 3% of them. Most play by ear, and write down ideas as chords, not actual notes. Others might use tab for more intricate parts.

Lastly, tab is a much more efficient way of writing guitar parts. One note can be played in many different positions on the guitar, and tab eliminates the confusion.

There is a lot of benefit for any musician in learning to read notation, but for guitarists, I'm sorry, it's not only non-essential, it's usually a waste of time.

Vertigo50

"but I'm sure you can find some old blues master who can't read music."
Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Tabs are good to start with because you get a lot of motivation from learning songs you know quickly but learning to read music helps so much more in the long run.

nick3361

Thank you very much for this link!
I'm just about to pick up my habit of playing guitar again.

miniroquer

Not a bad start. I do like the GUI, but they do not have many songs built up in their database. I do like the chord information up at the top. There are many guitar players out there who do not know much about music theory because all they play is tabs. Maybe this will kick-start their music-theory interest?!

If you are looking for a larger selection of tabs, perhaps take a look at [tabit.net] They have quite a few tabs, created by users, that you can download and save as a *.tbt file so you can hear your favorite songs without even having to log on.

sharka8028

Thanks for writing about us and for your comments.

@dhlt25: Songsterr supports direct upload of GuitarPro tabs. This function is currently available for moderators only but will soon be open to general public.

@pschroeter: Effects (bends, pull-offs, etc) and Full Screen Mode will be added some time soon.

@da5id_nz: We plan to upload a large archive of songs in a month or so.

@Michael Moncur: The quality of tabs is indeed a problem for any tab archive out there. UG archive has lot's of tabs with poor quality as well. We are thinking about possible ways to solve this problem though.

Songsterr