Today I wanted to cover a major topic that I go over with ALL of my clients. That is how to look up tabs. As simple as it may sound, it’s actually a little harder than you’d think to find a GOOD tab. You see, tab sites are like wikipedia. Although there is a lot of good information being posted, it is still unofficial and done mostly by non-experts. Well, allow me to help you carve through the rubbish and find a winner!
First of all, I only use ultimate-guitar.com It is by far the best tab site out there today. First of all, it has a vast amount of songs. Second of all, once you learn how to navigate the site, it is easy to narrow down a good tab! Here’s how:
Step 1: Type your song into the search bar
Step 2: Scroll through the different versions until you find one that has 5 stars. This is huge! These 5 stars are done by other guitar players (think yelp) and help you to quickly wade through the other crap out there!
Step 3: If there is more than one 5 star rated tab, choose the one with the most ratings. That number will be listed next to the rating.
That’s it! You’re done!
Now, if you can’t find a tab with 5 stars, look for one with 4 stars and acknowledge the fact that there will be flaws and LOOK for them. If a note or a chord sounds… “off,” it probably is.
One last thing. If you can, download Guitar Pro software. I believe it costs around $30 and is AMAZING. It will be accurate and usually will have ALL instruments note for note. By far one of the best investments I have ever made as a guitar player (2nd to only my guitar haha).
Hope this helps! Happy shredding!
Your favorite guitar instructor,
Drew
714.955.3278