While writing down lyrics and guitar chords with a pen and paper is simple enough, TabBank makes it just as streamlined on your iOS devices. It’s as easy as typing a text.
The app, which released today, is from designer Chris Ladd, who made the guitar lesson app ChordBank and note-taking app Better Notes. It lets you put together songs with chords, lyrics, and even tablature that you can then print out or share online in PDF form.
The app also lets you import existing tabs from the web, so you can tweak them yourself, or use the app’s audio preview feature to hear how a solo is supposed to sound. Importing requires a mobile Safari extension, but once you have it installed, just head to your favourite guitar tab sites, find a song you like, and hit the Share button. The song will then appear in the app.
But if you’re a creative type, writing out your own songs is a cinch because TabBank places your most-used chords at the top of the keyboard, so you can write an entire verse in a matter of seconds. And editing and navigating tablature is fast with the app’s arrow keys. Also, you can always tap a chord or tab note to see what it sounds like while you’re editing your music.
You can download TabBank on the iOS App Store for free and use it to write your own songs. But if you want to share those songs as PDFs, print them, or import someone else’s tabs, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version for $10. Ladd says a desktop version is also in the works for later this fall.
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