It seems like the only two options to get tabs nowadays are gtabs and songsterr. I prefer songsterr out of the two, but constantly get harassed to buy the premium version and certain important features are paywalled.
Basically my question is is there a way to bypass the premium subscription to get all the full features or a better alternative out there with a database of tabs as large as the two have. I want to be able to hear the playback of the tab and control the speed at which it goes.
The thing about ultimate guitar is that you can’t hear the playback without the pro subscription. That’s an important thing for me to have.
So like, I know this might sound weird, and I hate to be “that guy” but…
Is it really necessary? I get you probably want to play it like it’s guitar hero, which is cool and great and all. Just, you could also queue up the song in youtube and do it old-school style.
It’s just, good not to be too dependent on your limitations when learning an instrument. At some point, you will surpass them.
Good luck though, don’t let me bring you down.
I’ve never played guitar hero so I don’t know what you mean by that. I’m learning bass and want to be able to hear the rhythm and actually hear the bass in the program because it’s hard to hear in a lot of songs. Eventually I will get to a level where I don’t need that, but at this point in my journey I do. YouTube is a lot harder to use than tab programs for me.
Don’t fucking let anyone tab shame you my friend. Use them if you need them. The important thing is you are playing and learning and having fun. You can always learn new things too when you are ready.
If you’ve seen the Simply Guitar or Yousicion ads (I’m not linking them, too cringe!), you’ve got the general idea.
UG Pro’s midi player didn’t exist when I first started playing with the guitar, so something I’ll do with tab or sheet music, when I need to hear something to understand what I’m reading, is to enter the tab or standard notation into MuseScore and use it to create a midi track I can listen to. You can speed it up or slow it down as necessary.
It’s also possible to take a midi file, open it using MuseScore, and it will convert the midi data into standard notation. From there you can have it translated into tab. Tab created this way isn’t great, and you will have to modify the fret choices it makes to make the song playable, but it will get you in the ball park. The rest is just learning your instrument/tuning, what notes are where, that sort of thing.
Most popular songs should have a midi file available, especially popular music pre-2010ish. Downloading mp3s on a 56k modem sucked! Midi’s were a much faster download.
Another thing you can do is take the audio track your interested in learning from and load it into a DAW. Use an EQ filter to isolate the instrument, and add a boost after the EQ so you can hear the instrument clearly. Depending on the DAW, you may also be able to slow down the track and pitch shift it back up into the correct frequencies. This is a bit more difficult but will let you learn directly from the musician you’re interested in. I seem to recall an application that could do this in a more automated fashion, but I don’t remember what it was called.
So what you did here was tell a guy who is learning how to play the guitar to “LOL just play it.”
You can download PowerTab or TuxGuitar for free. You can also sail the high seas and get the GOAT, Guitar Pro 5. With those programs you can download the Guitar Pro/PowerTab versions of the songs on UG and have all the full featured playback that you want.
I must be a dummy, I cannot find a way to download anything off UG other than PDF. (I do have a premium subscription.)
Can you spell it out for me? Where the heck are the Guitar Pro or PowerTab versions? I just looked around for 5 minutes and could not figure it out.
Edit to add: I saw someone else with the same question and someone posted a pic. I swear to God I have never seen this button in UG!
https://i.imgur.com/1ph2q2t.png
Gotta choose the Guitar Pro version of the tab in the search results then scroll aaaaalll the way to the bottom of the page to find that button.
Ah hah, now I get it. Thanks!
Awesome. Glad you found it! Enjoy!
TYVM. I think a big part of my problem is I had been grabbing chords for most things, not tabs… And when I did get tabs I was looking at the Official ones which don’t have this download.
Pirate Guitar Pro, install it, and download the GP files from Ultimate Guitar. Easy.