So, you can finally say that you know how to play the guitar.
But, knowing all the chords and the strumming patterns mean nothing without songs to play.
For players just like you, websites like Ultimate Guitar are incredibly valuable tools.
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Table of Contents
Ultimate Guitar
- Website: https://www.ultimate-guitar.com
- Contact: support@ultimate-guitar.com
What is Ultimate Guitar Pro?
Ultimate Guitar is a website founded in 1998 in Kaliningrad, Russia. It’s one of the largest guitar-oriented websites in the world with more than 10 million registered users and over 1 million chords and tabs available. It has been in Times Top100 Best Apps of 2014 list and is recognized as Top Developer by Google Play.
Ultimate Guitar Pro is their premium subscription module that allows you to opt-in on a monthly or annual basis and makes the next step in song learning and have access to more than 250,000 professional interactive tabs that are completely accurate to the original.
Photo Credit: TechBigs.com
What Makes Ultimate Guitar Pro Products Stand Out From the Competition?
Ultimate Guitar Pro represents the biggest modern song database available publicly. It’s amazing to see how accurate those tabs especially when compared to the free versions - they will help you play just like an original in no time.
It will be a valuable tool for figuring out what’s going on in the song. Tempo, metronome, and loop editor may be handy for your skill practicing, too.
Ultimate Guitar Pro is also the most affordable way to get your hands on such content. For the price that some websites are asking for a monthly subscription, you can get the annual Ultimate Guitar subscription.
Ultimate Guitar Pro
PROS
CONS
What Recent Buyers Report
Buyers say that they could find most songs they were interested in and that the transcriptions were extremely accurate and they comment that the special offers for annual subscription are quite often.
But, while the mobile app version is completely functional, it seems that Free users are aggressively spammed with ad campaigns.
Why it Stands Out to Us
Tabs are probably the fastest way to learn how to play a certain song and the chances that your favorite song is available on Ultimate Guitar Pro is huge, especially if you’re looking for a rock or metal song.
While you can get the necessary info by just reading the tabs, the Pro version allows you to practice along the backing track, adjust the tempo, or use the metronome in the loop for a specific part that’s bugging you. You can also check the virtual fretboard as visual aid may sometimes help more than audio.
And best of all, more than 250,000 Pro tabs available.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for 100% correct tabs of your favorite songs, Ultimate Guitar Pro is the way to go. It will help you learn songs in a much faster way and provide you with all the tools to do it at your own pace.
Types of Lessons Offered By Ultimate Guitar Pro
Lessons aren’t the main part of the Ultimate Guitar Pro website, but they do have resourceful content available and organized in several categories in blog format, so let’s name a few:
For Beginners
These lessons are tailored for beginners and you can either browse them all and see if you can find the interesting content or apply a search for a specific term you’re currently interested in, so let's name a few:
- Strumming techniques
- Picking patterns
- How to play by ear
- Tone-shaping tips
- How to set up a signal chai properly
- Basic info about guitar models and what makes them different
Practice Tips
There is no way to master a guitar without practicing at first. Some of the lessons you may learn here are:
- How to improve your skills in the most efficient way
- What to do when you’re not feeling in the mood for practicing
- What parts of your technique should you build first
- How to avoid some common mistakes
Soloing
For those who are polishing their lead playing skills, the soloing category may come in handy as many useful tips will make your playing skills better in a shorter period. Many shortcuts can help your lead parts sound more interesting and technically demanding and you can research them in this section by either analyzing some famous tracks or looking for general tips such as “the fastest pentatonic scale position”.
Songwriting
Usually, the most neglected part of every guitar learning is songwriting and that’s why we have emphasized it for you. Within these lessons you will find:
How to Read Guitar Tabs
So, you are interested, but not quite sure if you can read tabs. Well, here’s a quick 101 tab reading tutorial for you:
What are Guitar Tabs?
Guitar tabs or tablatures are just a notation system adjusted to guitar instruments specifically. It's a perfect alternative for all those who don’t know how to read standard notation.
Instead of standard notes, guitar tabs are using six or more lines where each line represents a certain guitar string. Your low E string will be placed on the bottom and the high E will be on the top of your tab sheet.
The number found on each line defines the fret you need to play on a specific string. If you find there is a numerical zero, it means you should hit the open string.
If there are several numbers stacked in the same position on several lines it means those strings should be played together.
If you take a look at the tabs, you may also notice the slashes, letters, and other symbols found in tabs as they are representing the specific playing techniques. So, for example:
- v or ~ - vibrato
- PM or _ or. - palm mute
- h - hammer on
- p - pull off
- / - slide up
- \ - slide down
But, if you’re just starting, you should know that these techniques are optional and can be ignored in general.
If you want to check the video of the method we have just described, check the link below:
Comparison Overview
Let us compare now how the Ultimate Guitar Pro stands against some other famous guitar learning websites:
Ultimate Guitar Pro vs Jamplay
Jamplay is probably the most resourceful website available at the moment not just for those who want to learn how to play the guitar but also for those who want to master their skills.
You can find guitar lessons tailored for various skill levels in so many different genres by acclaimed professionals and there’s even another dedicated website for bass guitar learning classes, too. They really decided to choose quality over quantity.
On the other hand, besides having a forum to discuss all the troubles and read advice from other users, Ultimate Guitar Pro is pretty much a self-service website. It may not be so useful for complete beginners. But, once you learn all the stuff, it can be a very handy add-on as you can apply all the lessons learned at Jamplay in real life situations.
Ultimate Guitar Pro vs Guitar Tricks
If you take a look at Jamplay and Ultimate Guitar Pro, Guitar Tricks seems to fit in the middle ground. It may not be so resourceful as Jamplay in terms of guitar lessons or have that incredibly huge collection of tabs like Ultimate Guitar Pro, but it can be just enough to give you a bit of both.
But, unfortunately, while the content provided is definitely worth the price, it's still about ten times more expensive so we may understand it doesn’t fit your budget so well. If you already know how to play the guitar perhaps an Ultimate Guitar Pro subscription could be a better deal.
Ultimate Guitar Pro vs Fender Play
Fender Play is probably the best optimized and most interactive mobile guitar learning app on the market. We like how modern it looks and how the content is organized in general, especially with the gamification assets applied so you will be motivated to keep on with learning just a little bit more. We find it’s appropriate to name it Duolingo for guitars.
Fender Play tries to cover all guitar genres and extends even further providing you with dedicated Ukulele and bass guitar lessons at the same price. All lessons are accompanied by the comprehensive video material and additional content such as tabs and chord diagrams used in the lessons.
Ultimate Guitar Pro isn’t so interactive and unique and besides virtual fretboard and multitrack playback, it relies more on blog content with videos you can find online for yourself. But, it is still undoubtedly the largest guitar song database available.
But, for some reason, unlike Ultimate Guitar and other websites, Fender Play isn’t available in all countries so check it out first.
Conclusion
We truly believe that the Ultimate Guitar Pro version can help you learn many songs accurately so that next time someone asks you for a specific song you can impress them straight away. And remember, learning how famous songs are made is probably one of the best ways to learn guitar in general.
People Also Ask
Hopefully, you will apply for an Ultimate Guitar Pro subscription soon. But, meanwhile, stay with us as we’re going to explain the guitar tab importance, is it better than learning standard notation and how far can you get with learning guitar by using only Ultimate Guitar Pro:
Do Professional Guitarists Use Tabs?
Tabs are a convenient way to write down the notation for a specific song. So, the answer is - yes, professional players, especially those oriented towards contemporary music, use tabs. Tabs may come in handy for those shows when you don’t have enough time.
Is It Better to Learn Tabs or Notes?
Each system has its own pros and cons. Tabs can show you which string you need to pick and how exactly to do it. But, unlike standard notation, tabs usually don’t have any rhythmic value included, so, unless you know the song, you may have a hard time guessing the exact rhythmic pattern.
Can I Learn to Play Guitar with Ultimate Guitar Pro?
While we wouldn’t recommend doing the first guitar learning steps with this website, the lessons blog section has a lot of material that may help you get the right approach. Also, they have an active forum community with a bunch of threads where you can learn about many music genres, especially rock-oriented.
How Much Does Ultimate Guitar Pro Cost?
Subscription for Ultimate Guitar Pro costs $9.99 per month or $3.33 per month if you decide to opt for an annual subscription. It also offers you an option of a free trial in 7 days, but you will have to input your bank credit number and the rest of your credentials first.
Is Ultimate Guitar Pro Worth It?
If you’re interested in getting more accurate tabs, Ultimate Guitar Pro is worth every penny. The free version can get you far as well, but the Pro version has features made by professional guitar players such as synced lyrics, backing track, Tonebridge preset, and chord version.
Does Ultimate Guitar Pro Have Lessons?
While they don’t tend to compete with other guitar online lessons websites, there is a website section where you can find many useful lessons about guitar learning. They are organized per category and you can easily navigate the content either by browsing or entering the keyword.
