Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs

In 1975 my Dad got a guitar for Christmas. I was 10 and I was under strict instructions not to touch it. But you know us little boys I touched it as often as I could and never got caught. I got my own when I was 16 and earned my own money. It wasn’t that my parents wouldn’t get me one. I was too embarrassed to ask for something I might not be able to pick up. I’d fooled around with my dads and had no idea what to do with it. I met a guy at my first job who was also learning to play as well and he told me about Tab’s. But as you know in 1980 the only place you could find tabs were in music books at the music store and you were lucky to find a song you liked to work on. And they were $15 to $25 a pop. It was insane. So I picked up what I could until I got married had a kid etc and so on until my divorce in 1997. I’d sold off all my guitars, music, chords and amps etc. over the years so I had to start from scratch. I’d bought my first computer in 1990 and got on the internet around 1992ish. Then I heard about harmony Central and WOW. I STILL HAVE TABS THAT I PRINTED OFF THAT SITE. Anyway when that site was shut down I was depressed but at the time I was in a working band playing every weekend. That and broke up around 2003 when I got my first iPhone this App was available and off we went. I LOVE YOUR APP AND I CANNOT OVER STATE THAT. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. IT HAS EVERYTHING A NEW GUITARIST COULD WANT.

I have used this app for years without purchasing it because I am cheap. My kids got the paid version, and convinced me to pay for the app as well. It is more than worth it. I play in several bands and from time to time I need lyrics and chords. By purchasing the app, it allows you to save your songs as a playlist and also be allows you to print. You definitely have to check out each song and the chords to make sure that they are correct. I play with a Fiddler who has used this app to get chords for a song she wanted to play and I did not check before the show and in the middle of the show realized the chords were totally wrong. Some are not but I think that’s just the way it is. I love the ability to transpose a song to any key instantly. I use this every once in a while. It’s very cool. I have definitely got some excellent cords that are just like what I was looking for and I’ve gotten some that I have no idea what version they listen to to come up with those cords, all in all it’s money well spent, I use the app all the time. My kids showed me about the scrolling feature, which is awesome because I hate using a phone or iPad to play a song and have to stop to reach down to change the page the scrolling feature allows you to watch it as it goes. I like to memorize the words and chords to play, but the scrolling feature is nice when you’re just learning the song. I have Not had the greatest luck using the auto scroll it either jumps really quickly or it doesn’t move at all for me. I have used just the standard scrolling feature and then adjust the speed. Great job guys.

I think this app is really good and it was revolutionary for when I was a beginner first starting out. It introduced me to so many tablatures, and made things so much smoother. Using MIDI rather than a live recording is a blessing and a curse. You can slow down the recording as much as you want without distorting the track which is super helpful. However, the MIDI is sometimes a bit too straight and rigid when the song is supposed to be expressive. But that’s something you can’t really work around with MIDI, it’s just something we all have to deal with. I also have to say I really love your UG Official team is, every time I see a comment on an official tab, there is always someone responding to what they say, providing help or fixing a problem with the tablature. I think you guys are doing great work with one of, if not the largest amount high quality tabs, that really help. ESPECIALLY with beginners. I guess if I had to make one critical comment it would be to not make every official tab solely available on pro. I think you should allow non-pro users to have a certain amount of pro tabs a week or a month, and they have to upgrade in order to have unlimited. A lot of novices would benefit greatly from having access to at least a few popular but high quality tabs, because a lot of people have doubts on if they want to spend actual money on playing the guitar because they don’t know if it’s going to be worth while in the long run. And, maybe after having access to a few pro tabs, they would want to pay for more.