Tabs. The encyclopedia of music. These simple, portable images carry the cryptic language that unlocks songs and allows guitarists to share their tunes with others of like mind. This blog offers an array of resources and sites for everyday players, as well as some great apps for your smartphone or tablet device
Table of Contents
Best Apps For Guitar Tabs
Songsterr – My Pick for the Best Guitar Tab App
By: Guitar Tabs LLC | website
Platform: iOS and Android
iOS Price: Free with $4.99/month for Pro Verison
Android Price: $4.99, no subscription needed.
Download Links: iOS | Android
Songsterr is quite possibly my favorite guitar tab apps out there and my go-to whenever I’m trying to learn a new song.
Originally, Songsterr was exclusively a guitar tab website, but has extended their platform to mobile so you can get your guitar tab fix on the go.
One of my favorite things about Songsterr is the overall look and user interface of the platform. When using it on my computer in a web browser, the layout is intuitive and everything just seemed to make sense.
The same holds true with their guitar tab app. Everything is simple to navigate and works exactly as you would expect.
What really makes Songsterr one of the best guitar tab apps out there is their interactive guitar tab player.
This easily allows you to find guitar tabs in their database and play them back so you can hear exactly what the song is supposed to sound like.
If you’re trying to learn how to play a new song, especially one that you haven’t heard before, it can be impossible just by looking at written guitar tabs due to the lack of time signature.
Having the interactive guitar tab allows you to see and hear the notes that are being played, so you can easily follow along.
They do offer a paid add-on which allows you to slow down the playback speed and isolate individual tracks for songs with multiple instrument parts.
This is definitely helpful for more difficult songs as it allows you to slow it down and process the notes that are being played. However, the free version is more than good enough for most people. The fact that the interactive guitar tab player itself is free is awesome considering this is a paid feature for most other guitar tab apps.
Read Also: 13 Best Guitar Learning Apps for iOS and Android
Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords
By: Ultimate Guitar | website
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: Yes, Pro Version Available $14.99/year
Download Links: iOS | Android
If you’ve been playing guitar for a while, then you have undoubtedly come across the Ultimate Guitar forum before.
Ultimate Guitar currently has the largest archive of guitar tabs and chords for songs on the internet.
As a result, the official Ultimate Guitar app for iOS and Android is one of the best guitar tab apps out there for those trying to learn new songs.
Their database currently has over 1.6 million different guitar tabs to choose from, so you’ll basically be able to find any song you’re looking for.
One thing to note is that all the tabs on this guitar tab app are user submitted. Since these are not official or professional guitar tabs, the accuracy can be hit or miss sometimes.
However, the Ultimate Guitar tab app does a good job of displaying user star reviews next to each song. This makes it much easier to sort out the good guitar tabs from the bad ones.
From my experience, if you stick to the guitar tabs with 4 or 5 star ratings, they are usually pretty accurate. Also, if you’re trying to learn a popular song, then the tabs are typically spot on because the song is so well documented.
For example, everyone knows how to play Stairway to Heaven, so you can bet that the guitar tabs out there are pretty accurate.
In terms of the actual interface of the app, it’s pretty solid. While I much prefer the overall look and feel of Songsterr, I think the Ultimate Guitar Tabs app does a decent job of displaying the tabs.
It’s very straight forward and basic. Also, if the song is in chord format instead of guitar tab format, then you’ll be able to see the lyrics of the song with the chords that you’re supposed to play on top.
There are options for more features and functionality, but you’ll have to pay for their premium monthly service.
My main issue with this app is that the interactive guitar tab player, similar to what you would find on Songsterr, requires you to pay for the monthly subscription. It’s fairly inexpensive at $20 for an entire year, but it’s a tough sell when Songsterr has their base interactive guitar tab player for free.
If you don’t pay for Ultimate Guitar’s pro service, then there’s not much you can do in the app. In addition, the amount of popups that try to sell you their pro service is pretty annoying after the 10th time they pitch it to you.
Guitar Pro
By: Arobas Music | website
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: $6.99 on iOS | $5.49 on Android
In App Purchases: No
Download Links: iOS | Android
Guitar Pro is the industry standard when it comes to guitar tablature software. It was originally designed for the computer for composers to create their own guitar tabs that can be played back and shared.
Now, Guitar Pro is one of the best guitar tab apps out there.
The app allows you to view guitar tabs and play them back audibly. This makes it much easier to learn songs because you’ll have an idea of what it should sound like.
The interface is very intuitive and easy to use, allowing you to adjust playback speed, volume, and instrumental tracks.
One of the best features about this guitar tab is that there is a ton of support for it.
Since Guitar Pro is so well known among musicians, there are thousands of songs available in the Guitar Pro format.
The fact that most people use Guitar Pro as their default guitar tabbing software when they are writing music means that you’ll basically be able to find tabs for any song out there.
Guitar Pro allows you to upload guitar tab pro files directly to your iOS or Android device.
Simply download a Guitar Pro file from any popular guitar tab website on your computer, and upload it directly to your mobile device using the app’s feature.
Overall, Guitar Pro is definitely one the cleanest and most polished guitar tab apps out there.
Guitar Lessons by Guitar Tricks
By: Guitar Tricks Inc.| website
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: Yes, Paid Subscription $19.95/month with 14 Day Free Trial
Download Links: iOS | Android
If you’re trying to learn how to play your favorite songs, then why stop at just a “guitar tab app.”
Guitar Lessons by Guitar Tricks takes it to the next level by offering full guitar lesson video with professional instructors.
To be clear, this is not a typical guitar tab app like the rest of this list where it’s essentially just a database of guitar tabs.
Rather, Guitar Tricks is a full featured online guitar lesson service that actually teaches you how to play guitar whether you’re a beginner or an advanced player.
Of course, they do have guitar tabs for thousands of songs. They just have full on guitar lesson videos to accompany the tabs.
For this reason, Guitar Tricks is one of my favorite guitar tab apps out there.
If you’re a beginner, then sometimes just having guitar tabs in front of you isn’t enough to help you learn a song.
There are a lot of nuances including strum patterns, picking techniques, finger shapes and time signatures that don’t translate well in typical guitar tablature.
Therefore, having a professional instructor actually teaching you how to play the song alongside the guitar tabs is SUPER helpful.
While Guitar Tricks isn’t free ($20 per month for a subscription), it’s definitely worth it for many because it essentially acts as a replacement for traditional guitar lessons.
Free Trial
Guitar Tricks
Guitar Tricks
14-Day Free Trial
Guitar Tricks is an easy and fun way to the learn guitar from the comfort of your own home. Get access to thousands of guitar video lessons by professional guitar teachers. Get your 14-day Free Trial!
Start Your Free Trial
GuitarTab – Tabs & Chords
By: Markus Schiess
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: Yes, Pro Version Available
Download Links: iOS | Android
GuitarTab – Tabs & Chords is one of my personal favorite guitar tab apps on the market.
In terms of functionality, it’s on par with the rest of the apps on this list.
But the main reason I like it is for it’s playback options and overall versatility.
With this guitar tab app, you’ll have access to a database of over 80,000 different guitar and bass tabs.
This app reads Guitar Pro files, so you’ll essentially have access to an unlimited number of songs since you’ll be able to download these tab files online and import them.
It has the typical playback option that you would expect which allows you to audibly hear how the tabs are supposed to sound with midi instruments.
However, you’ll also be able to transpose the guitar tab time and convert it to a pure text format.
For more experienced players who just need to have a quick glance and don’t need to play along with it, this is much faster because you can see the more of the song on a page with minimal scrolling.
On the other hand, if you’re a complete beginner, having the playback option is nice. But in addition to the regular guitar tab playback, the app also pulls in YouTube guitar lessons for select songs, which is a great feature to have.
Yousician
By: Yousician Ltd | website
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: Yes, Paid Subscription $9.99/month annual $19.99/month monthly
Download Links: iOS | Android
Yousician takes guitar tab apps to the next level by making the guitar tabs interactive like a video game.
Yousician is meant to be a way to help you learn guitar by actually listening to you play and giving real time feedback based on your performance.
Rather than just being a way to to display your guitar tabs, Yousician actually teaches you how to play the song.
In this regard, it’s basically a form of online guitar lessons, similar to Guitar Tricks. As such, Yousician is a paid application, reasonably priced at $9.99/month for a yearly subscription or $19.99 if you opt for the monthly subscription.
If you’re a beginner and are looking for a guitar tab help to help you learn new songs, Yousician is a great option.
The main issue with Yousican is that there is a limited selection of songs to choose from in the platform. They used to have a way to import your own songs, but that was removed due to copyright issues.
If you’re already an experienced player and just want a quick way to display your tabs, then you’ll probably want to go with a regular guitar tab app that allows you to download Guitar Pro files.
Guitar Tabs & Chords
By: Flap Ninja
Platform: iOS and Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: Yes
Download Links: iOS | Android
This guitar tab app is one of the highest rated music apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
And for good reason.
Most of the other apps of this list started as full on guitar tab websites and ported to mobile devices after.
While the other guitar tab apps are great, you can tell that the priority for these other companies still lies in their websites.
For Guitar Tabs & Chords, it is apparent that it was designed as an app intended for mobile devices first and foremost.
It offers all of the same functionality as the other apps on this list in terms of the playing back guitar tab files and chords for songs.
However, it takes it to the next level with useful features that are handy to have right on your phone including a guitar tuner and a chord bank that lets you quickly see the finger positions for common chords that you’ll need.
The interface is clean and intuitive, allowing you to navigate between the different app features relatively easily.
In terms of song selection, it’s on par with the others on this list, mainly because it basically reads the same guitar tab files as the other apps. It allows you to download tabs from the main sites on the web, so you’ll essentially have access to the same guitar tabs.
Guitar Tab Player
By: tower120
Platform: Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: No
Download Links: Android
Guitar Tab Player is exactly as the name suggests…
It’s simply an app that plays back guitar tab files. That’s it.
But its simplicity is the best part about using this guitar tab app. There aren’t a hundred different features that boggle down the user experience.
The app is meant to play back guitar tab apps to help you learn a song and does a great job at it.
It supports all versions of Guitar Pro files, so you’ll be able to download and playback pretty much any song you can imagine.
The interface is very clean, easy to use, and readable.
In terms of features, it has everything you would need including the ability to switch between tracks, adjust the volume of tracks, change playback speed and more.
If you’re someone who simply wants something to playback your guitar tab file and nothing else, then this app is a great pick.
Tux Guitar
By: Julian Casadesus
Platform: Android
Price: Free
In App Purchases: No, but there is a paid Ad Free version
Download Links: Android
Tux Guitar is known by many as the premier free Guitar Pro alternative.
It was originally a completely open source guitar tabbing software available on the computer, but a mobile app had since been created to compete with Guitar Pro.
Like I mentioned, it’s completely free with no strings attached. No freemium subscription plans or in-app purchases to speak of.
In terms of features, it offers everything you would expect from Guitar Pro including the ability to view and playback guitar tabs.
Tux Guitar actually supports several different formats including Guitar Pro and PowerTab files, which is one thing it has over Guitar Pro.
Aside from that, it’s pretty much the Guitar Pro app, but for free. So if you’re using an Android phone and don’t want to pay, this is your best bet.
One thing about Tux Guitar is that it likely won’t get updated as frequently as Guitar Pro, since it’s an open source project rather than a large corporation.
Also, if you’re an iOS user, then it’s not available at this point in time.
Best free guitar tab app
- Ultimate Guitar
Ultimate Guitar guitar tab website
Ultimate Guitar is one of the most comprehensive guitar resources available today. Alongside guitar tabs, there are sections for news, reviews, and lessons. There’s also a thriving community accessible on Ultimate Guitar’s forum.
The site has been operational since 1998 and has since amassed 10 million registered users and 1.1 million guitar and bass tabs. Frequently updated charts like Fresh Tabs and Top 100 make it easy to find something new to play if you are looking for inspiration. Alongside tabs, the site offers a large selection of guitar chords as well, placing it among the best websites to find guitar chords for songs.
Importantly, unlike some guitar tab sites, all tabs are officially licensed. In the past, musicians could sell their own tab books or sheet music. These days, the content is freely available online, potentially depriving artists of income.
By licensing the tabs, Ultimate Guitar supports your favorite musicians. This setup does mean that, occasionally, you won’t be able to find a tab that you’re after. However, the company has also released an Android app, so you can conveniently access tabs on your smartphone.
Also, should you want some extra support and guidance, Ultimate Guitar Pro offers an interactive way to use guitar and bass tabs. The service allows you to play along with a synthesized version of the track, and you learn to read music by toggling between tabs and sheet music.
- 911Tabs
911Tabs guitar tabs website
911Tabs has existed since 2004 and is now an essential destination for guitarists and bassists around the world. However, unlike Ultimate Guitar, 911Tabs doesn’t host tabs itself, thereby excluding themselves from copyright licensing and disputes.
Instead, the site is a meta-search engine—a search provider that aggregates results from other sources. The creators of the website even refer to it as “like Google, but smaller and more accurate” for tabs only.
The minimal home page is comprised of a single search box. Enter your favorite artist or song into the search bar, and 911Tabs will return a comprehensive list of every tab available online. There is even a “Users who played this also played…” suggestion box to the right of the results page.
You can also rate the tabs you access, which helps the most accurate tabs appear prominently in the search results. As it’s a gateway to other websites, 911Tabs doesn’t actually host the tabs.
When you select your chosen tab, the host website loads inside 911Tabs, so their banner and menu are still accessible for further searches. To date, 911Tabs has indexed over four million tabs, so you will surely find what you were looking for.
- Jellynote
Jellynote interactive sheet music
Many of the best guitar tab sites use text-based tabs to help you play along with your chosen track. Jellynote is different. The site launched in 2015. Since then, the French company designed the site to be more interactive than standard guitar tab websites.
So you won’t find any text-based tabs. Instead, the entire site is based around a service that’s not dissimilar to Ultimate Guitar Pro. Search for a song, and Jellynote will load a set of augmented sheet music. These come with MIDI instrumentation, so you can hear how the music should sound.
The company has also developed apps for Android and iOS. However, to support these features, most content on Jellynote is not free. Each song comes with a time-limited free sample, but to get full access to the library of songs, you’ll need to take out a $7.99 per month subscription. If you prefer to use your smartphone, consider one of the best free apps to help you learn to play the guitar as well.
Plus, you can adjust the tempo, allowing you to learn at your own pace. If there’s a section you want to conquer, you can even loop specific timeframes. If a song includes more than one instrument, you can view these all on a single page, and then mute those you don’t need. There’s also an option to toggle between sheet music and guitar tablature.
- Songsterr
Songsterr guitar tab site
If you’re after free guitar tabs that are more interactive, then check out Songsterr. The site takes some of the best elements from the premium offerings above while keeping the simplicity of standard guitar tabs, so there are no barriers to using the service.
The website is clean, uncluttered, and modern so that you can focus on the task at hand without distractions. Your chosen song’s MIDI recreations are based on the site’s library of more than 500,000 free to access guitar tabs.
Interestingly, instead of hosting multiple versions of the same song, Songsterr allows users to edit the tab if they spot an error or improvement. In this sense, Songsterr is the Wikipedia of tab websites. Despite this setup, the company still has to obtain licenses to display each tab.
Consequently, the site offers a premium subscription service called Songsterr Plus. The paid plan takes are of artist royalties so that the tabs don’t infringe copyrights. For $9.90 per month, you can access all tabs, use the Songsterr Android and iOS apps, remove ads, and adjust the interactive elements.
- YouTube
Although YouTube is one of the world’s most popular video streaming sites, it’s also home to a wide range of educational and instructional content. As a result, it is an excellent resource for finding free guitar tabs and bass tabs. Channels like Tab Sheet Music have a wide selection of tabs, ranging from popular music to video game and movie soundtracks.
Producing a video is more time consuming than transcribing a tab, so you won’t be able to find everything on YouTube. However, it’s a great place to practice your skills, especially for some of the most popular songs.
Also, you can watch another guitarist perform the song while also playing along to the tab. YouTube also allows you to control the playback speed of each video. So, if you need a little more time to catch a crucial detail, you can slow down or pause the video.
Conclusion
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Check out other publications to gain access to more digital resources if you are just starting out with Flux Resource.
Also contact us today to optimize your business(s)/Brand(s) for Search Engines