Summary: This post features the best guitar tab websites available. You will also find tools you can use to speed up your learning process and get more out of your practice sessions.

What are the best guitar tab websites out there?

I play a lot of guitar, but there are only two sites I use to find tabs.

I’d rather spend time playing my instrument than endlessly scouring the web to play songs that people haven’t even created tabs for, wouldn’t you?

And, even though new providers come along all the time, I generally don’t find the need for them. YouTube lessons only get you so far too.

But don’t worry – I’ll tell you what I use (I’ve been a music teacher for many years) – not just the sites I depend on for my tabs, but also the tools I use.

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Ultimate Guitar Tabs, for Guitarists

If you’ve been a part of the guitar community for any length of time, you probably know about Ultimate Guitar Tabs already. But something you might not know is how to use it. And no, I’m not insulting your intelligence.

I have found that two people can use the same site and have a completely different experience (that was certainly the case for some of my students). So, here are some tips to guide you:

• Find highly rated tabs. Ultimate Guitar Tabs has a five-star community rating system for all their tabs. As much as possible, only reference tabs with five-star ratings. Also, look for more votes rather than fewer. This is how you know whether the tab you’re looking at is accurate. Accurate tabs make all the difference while you’re learning.
• Choose the right tab type. This is displayed in the column on the far right. If you’re looking to learn the guitar part, you shouldn’t select “bass”. Don’t choose “chords” unless you want a lead sheet for the song. Use “tab”.
• If available, download Guitar Pro or Power Tab files. I’ll talk more about this later. These are great programs that allow you to do more with your tabs than just look at them. But if you don’t have the software, downloading these will do nothing. What I said about highly rated tabs also applies here.

Ultimate Guitar Tabs has a huge number of available tabs and features, both for guitarists and for bass, which is what makes it a good site. Check out their song library.

Songsterr, Guitar Tab Site

Songsterr is starting to get more established now, and so is their song library, which is helpful.

It works a lot like Guitar Pro and Power Tab Editor. In other words, Songsterr is an online guitar app. Their tagline is “Guitar Tabs With Rhythm.” Incidentally, it requires the use of Adobe Flash Player – so, its features aren’t exactly Mac-friendly.

But they have a large archive of tabs, and if you’re looking for any of the standard fare, like AC/DC, Guns ‘N Roses, Metallica, Nirvana, and Green Day, it’s all there. They even have some obscure tabs – I’m a fan of Extreme and Harem Scarem myself and was able to find a few of their tabs on the website.

I’m not much for software I don’t need, so if I can get away with using a website rather than a desktop application, I’m all for it. Every guitar player should know about Songsterr though. It’s a great resource.

Should you subscribe? That’s up to you! You can use Songsterr for free up to a point.

Google Image Search, for Musicians

I sometimes use Google Image Search to find practice and lesson ideas, and I still do this as a music teacher.

There’s a ton of content online. Website after website. I think there are still many niches to be filled in the guitar lesson space, but you can discover and find more of what you’re looking for by the day.

I’ve found that image searches can lead to interesting discoveries. You might be able to find the sheet music for songs you can’t find tab versions of. You may also be able to find riffs or little segments of music for particular guitarists or songs you like. These examples are easily digestible, which makes them great for practice and lesson ideas (if you’re a guitar teacher).

Even if you don’t use it all the time, it’s nice to know that you can find interesting free content using this method.

Free & Paid Tools You Need to Learn Guitar

What are some of the drawbacks of standard tab?

For one, you can’t hear the tab. You can always listen to the song on YouTube or Spotify, but it can be hard to tell exactly how to play a passage of music without hearing the guitar part separated from the vocals and other instruments.

Two, you can’t slow down music. To be fair, some music players and apps do this now (MooSick Music Player comes to mind), but if you’re trying to figure out a fast segment of music (via Al Di Meola, for example), it’s nice to have this feature.

Three, you can’t change the tuning of the guitars. There’s no altering what’s been committed to tape, CD or MP3.

But with Power Tab or Guitar Pro, you can take a guitar part that’s been recorded a half step down, for instance, and bring it back up to standard tuning. If you don’t have multiple guitars in different tunings sitting around, this is fantastic.

Here’s a summary of the tools:

• MooSick Music Player: Slow down the tracks you’re listening to, so you can figure out songs by ear.
• Power Tab Editor: Get it so you can download, view, and play Power Tab files from sites like Ultimate Guitar Tabs. Yes, the software makes a sound.
• Guitar Pro: Likewise, you should consider getting Guitar Pro so you can download, view, and play Guitar Pro files.

Guitar Tab Tools and Guitar Tab Sites

So, here are the two tools you may want to get better acquainted with, especially if you want to learn songs:

• Power Tab. Power Tab hasn’t been updated in quite a while, but it’s free and a great program to have, if only because there are plenty of Power Tab files floating around. You can use it to compose music and export it to plain text or MIDI later. Here’s a secret – I’ve used Power Tab to compose the keyboard or strings parts for some of my recorded tracks. Another great feature is the ability to edit tabs, change the key of the music, or the tuning of the guitars.
• Guitar Pro. Guitar Pro costs money. So, if you don’t have much of a software budget, you may want to put it off until you can afford it. But it’s a more powerful version of Power Tab – in terms of reading and composing tabs and playback capabilities. Of course, you can edit tabs too. It’s got better features users will love. The reason I use both Power Tab and Guitar Pro is because it’s sometimes easier to find quality tabs for one program over the other.

Again, Power Tab and Guitar Pro can only read proprietary Power Tab or Guitar Pro files. Ultimate Guitar Tabs is a great place to find and download them. Then, load up the files in the program that reads them.

Bonus: More Guitar Tab Websites and Other Resources

I’ve shared my favorite websites and tools above. But there are many other great websites out there for guitar players. So, here are some additional sites to check out:

• Guitar Tab Universe: A site focused exclusively on guitar tabs (as opposed to Ultimate Guitar Tabs, which has articles, news items, and so forth).
• Tabs4acoustic: For acoustic guitar lovers. They’ve also got news, a forum, a blog, and more.
• A-Z Guitar Tabs: An easily searchable database of guitar tabs for learning your instrument.
• Guitar Pro Tabs: If you’re looking for Guitar Pro compatible tabs, you’ll love this tab archive.
• Classical Guitar Tablature: For all those times you want to learn some Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart.
• Guitar Alliance: This is a little more of a general guitar site with chords, techniques, acoustic guitar lessons, and more. But they do have a big archive of tabs too.
• 911Tabs: 911Tabs used to be an Ultimate Guitar Tabs clone. Now it’s more like a search engine!

More Instruments

Interested in learning other instruments? Need more help for your band?

• Bass tablature is not in short supply. If anything, bass has gotten a lot more popular lately. You can find bass tablature at the many sites already introduced.
• If you’re looking for ukulele tabs and ukulele chords, check out UkuTabs.
• There is tablature for drums and percussion too. Songsterr‘s got them.
• It’s a little weird, but you can find piano tabs too. I don’t know how much piano users would appreciate tablature though. If it makes the piano easier to play, I can’t argue with it.

Is Guitar Tab Easier Than Sheet Music?

Yes! That’s why tab sites are a big deal.

But you should know your guitar chords, and have your fundamentals under your fingers. That will make it much easier to read.

Final Thoughts, Best Guitar Tab Site

Books can also be a good resource for quality tabs, so if you can’t find something anywhere else, it might be worth looking it up on Amazon.

Either way, it’s time to sink your teeth into some music and grow as a guitarist!

Did you already know about these sites? Do you use others when you’re looking for tabs?

Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter.