For my first entry into my Guitar Basics/Get To Know Series I'm going to be showing you a site called Songsterr.
I discovered this website about 5 years ago, at that point I was already an accomplished guitar player having played in various bands over the past 15 years. Songsterr is a great little site containing thousands upon thousands of tablature entries or 'tabs' for popular Rock/Metal/Pop songs. It is an ideal tool at your disposal for when you first start out and want something easy to get to know and play as you get to know your instrument, OR even returning to later on to learn passages of songs you've forgotten or never learnt. There's something here for everyone of all skill levels.
The site is far from a normal guitar tablature website though and in addition contains tabs for Bass, Drums/Percussion, Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar and more. The genius of the site is that you can select the tab you want and actually flick between different instruments in the mix. You can then press PLAY on the tab and it will play a midi version of the song to accompany you whilst you play so you can learn the parts accurately.
This example here shows instrument selection:
In addition to the wealth of songs available and ability to switch instrument tracks and listen to midis to play along to for FREE (on any song) you can also slow down the midi file to further learn at your own pace and start to build up the speed of the part you are playing. This is invaluable for guitarists for example just starting out. Especially learning fast guitar solos in the Hard Rock and Metal world. The feature to slow down playback is however locked to the 'Songsterr Plus' Plan, a Premium 'Paid' mode. Along with some other features like printing the tablature, a full breakdown can be seen here:
Scoring Round Up
Ease Of Use - 9/10
Free Features - 8/10
Premium Features - 9/10
Song/Genre Selection - 8/10
OVERALL - 9/10
Conclusion
Songsterr to me is the next level of guitar tablature online. Having used it on and off over the past several years it's become one of my top resources I recommend for beginner guitarists. From the very easy layout and general ease of use, to the song selection and features I highly recommend beginner guitarists check this out as well as professional players looking to brush up on some parts of songs if they cannot figure out a riff or two.
The ability to switch instrument tracks and play along to a midi version of the song is great, and really helps new players learn songs and pick out parts they want to focus on to improve.
One thing I would like is the ability for the FREE plan to include mobile access. I appreciate that Songsterr needs to make some cash but locking other features to Songsterr Plus makes more sense rather than locking the whole mobile access to it. I think they are limiting themselves with that decision as some people just don't use desktop PCs often. In the end they are losing some potential Songsterr Plus subscriptions with this decision to lock it behind the paywall, so hopefully in the future that changes.
From my experience though the paid plan is very much worth the money and I recommend it to everyone. The FREE version also goes above and beyond what most guitar sites currently offer so comes highly recommended. Bottom line? Check out Songsterr.com for yourself, give it a go and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at whats on offer. You'll be jamming new tunes before you know it, within weeks of picking up your instrument or even days.
Enjoy the site! \m/
~PyroMessiah86
