5 Best Guitar Tab Websites

Best Guitar Tab Websites

If you’re a guitar player who learns best by actually playing songs, then guitar tablature can be your best friend if used properly. 

Guitar tabs can be a great way to learn new songs quickly, especially if you’re a beginner since they make the music easy to visualize.

The best part is that guitar tabs are so widely available online that you can essentially learn any song you want completely for free.

The only issue is that many online guitar tab websites can provide incorrect guitar tabs. And if you’re a beginner, you’ll never be able to recognize whether it’s accurate or not. 

Nonetheless, if you know where to look, guitar tabs can be an excellent way to learn your favorite songs. 

In the article, we’ll go over 5 of the best guitar tab websites that are completely free and provide the most accurate guitar tabs. 

Related Post: Interested in taking your guitar with you on the go? Then, also check out my guide on the best guitar tab apps for iOS and Android

Best Free Guitar Tab Sites

Guitar tablature has become one of the most widely adopted forms of music notation in recent years. 

Nowadays, it’s easy to learn how to play guitar without reading music

You can learn how to play any song you can think of with completely free online resources. 

The only problem is that most guitar tab sites online accept user-uploaded guitar tabs, which means many resources out there are inaccurate. 

If you’re a new player it’ll likely be difficult for you to distinguish the difference between good and bad guitar tabs. 

Luckily, I’ve gathered a list of the best guitar tab websites that I have found to very reliable for the most part. 

Here are 5 of the best free guitar tab sites:

Songsterr

Songsterr is probably my favorite guitar tab website on this entire list. 

Unlike typical guitar tab sites, Songsterr is a completely free online tab player. 

This means you can playback the guitar tabs with audible midi instruments. 

It’s very helpful because you’ll be able to hear what the tab is supposed to sound like. 

If you’re familiar with guitar tabs, then you’ll know that the main flaw with them is that they do not indicate the time signature, which makes it difficult to figure out the rhythm of a song. 

Being able to hear how the tab is supposed to be played makes your life a whole lot easier. 

The interface is gorgeous and intuitive allowing you to pause, play, and adjust the volume of individual instrument tracks. 

They have a database of over 500,000 guitar tabs, so you’ll pretty much be able to find any song you’d want. 

And the best part about Songsterr is that it’s completely free with no ads. 

They do have a pro version which gives you more control over playback and the ability to mute individual tracks, but the free version is more than enough for most people. 

Songsterr2

Ultimate Guitar

Ultimate Guitar is probably the most well-known guitar tab website out there. 

If you’ve been around the guitar community for a while, you’ve likely already heard of Ultimate Guitar. 

They have the largest collection of user-submitted guitar tabs out there, so you’ll be able to find pretty much anything you need. 

Also, they also have a dedicated tab player for Guitar Pro files, similar to Songsterr. If you want the best quality tabs, you can upgrade to their Ultimate Guitar Pro platform which offers more features. 

Ultimate Guitar

The only problem with Ultimate Guitar is that some of the tabs on the platform are that you might run into some inaccurate tabs if you don’t know how to use it. 

Here are some tips to help ensure that you’re finding the best guitar tabs that the website has to offer. 

Find tabs with high ratings

As mentioned, Guitar Pro is a collection of user-submitted tab files. People usually rate these tabs based on their overall quality, so be sure to look for tabs with a lot of 4 and 5-star reviews. These are usually pretty accurate and usually have multiple tracks.

Pay attention to the tab type

If you’re searching for a song you want to learn, be sure to pay attention to the right sidebar. You’ll see different tab types, such as “Chords” “Tab” “Guitar Pro” or “Pro”.

Chords will typically have the lyrics of the song and signify which chords you should play at each verse of the song. This does not support their dedicated tab player, so you won’t be able to hear what the song sounds like. 

Tab will only display the tabs in a text-like format. This also does not support Ultimate Guitar’s native tab player, so I typically avoid this type. 

Guitar Pro supports the native player, so always choose the tab with Guitar Pro if it’s available. You can also download the Guitar Pro tab file and edit the tab if you have the software. 

Overall, Ultimate Guitar is one of the best guitar tab websites out there if you know how to use it properly. 

Guitar Pro Tabs

Guitar Pro Tabs is another great website to find accurate guitar tabs.

Unlike typical guitar tab sites, Guitar Pro Tabs does not display any of the tabs, but rather has you download them on your computer. 

As the name implies, the website is essentially a huge collection of Guitar Pro files for thousands of songs. 

This means you’ll need to either download the official Guitar Pro software or use a third party alternative tab software, such as Tux Guitar. 

What makes this website so great is that you know exactly what you’re getting since they are all Guitar Pro files. 

Every tab file that you download will be playable in Guitar Pro, which means you’ll be able to play it back and listen to the songs. This makes learning a new song much easier.

Compared to Ultimate Guitar, where there may be different file types that do not support their native player, Guitar Pro Tabs provides a more consistent experience. 

The only drawback is that you have to download the files and open them in external software. 

It’s less convenient than something like Songsterr where you can play everything natively in your browser.

Nonetheless, Guitar Pro Tabs offers an excellent selection of songs, so I would consider it to be a good guitar tab site. 

Guitar Pro Tabs

GuitarTabs.CC

GuitarTabs.cc is another popular guitar tab website that has been around since the beginning. 

I’ve enjoyed using this website due to its simple and clean interface. 

You aren’t bombarded with ads and popups and there aren’t 20 different sidebars diverting your attention. 

There are only two columns of popular guitar tabs to learn and a search bar to help you find what you’re looking for. 

The selection of different tabs is very good.

While this site is meant for the more popular songs, I’ve found some lesser-known songs on here as well. 

In terms of accuracy, all of the songs that I’ve tried out have been spot on for the most part. 

My only gripe with this guitar tab site is that it does not have a native tab player.

All of the tabs are either text-based or just a list of chords. 

GuitarTabs.CC does, however, integrate with Ultimate Guitar Pro.

This means that for compatible songs, you’ll be able to playback your tabs using Ultimate Guitar’s tab software where you’ll be able to control each of the instrument tracks, playback speed and more. 

Unfortunately, you need to pay to have this feature, but it still adds a nice touch. 

YouTube

Believe it or not, YouTube is one of the best websites out there for guitar tabs. 

And on top of that, the fact that you have a video adds a whole other aspect to it. 

Some YouTube channels post videos of themselves playing a song with the guitar tabs displayed on the screen.

This is excellent for people trying to follow along because you’ll be able to see exactly how it’s supposed to be played. 

Being able to see the tabs along with the timing, bending habits, slides, and vibrato adds another layer that can’t fully be notated in typical tablature. 

Being able to pick up on these nuances is a huge advantage that can only be captured with video. 

As a result, I’ll pretty much always start with YouTube when I’m looking up tabs to learn a new song.

And, since YouTube has an unfathomable amount of content on it, the selection of songs is essentially limitless.

You’ll most likely be able to find guitar tabs for any song under the sun. 

Other Guitar Tab Resources

While guitar tab websites are an excellent tool to help learn songs, there are limitations.

When it comes to playing guitar, there are some technical aspects and nuances that cannot be represented with tab notation, which is why it can be helpful to have a teacher. 

However, some other guitar tab resources take it to the next level in terms of interactiveness.

If you’re interested in learning guitar using guitar tabs, there are plenty of options to choose from that can add to the overall experience. 

Want to learn how to play guitar on your own schedule? Get access to Guitar Tricks for 14 days completely free!

Guitar Tricks

One of my favorite guitar tab resources is Guitar Tricks.

Sometimes, just having guitar tabs on their own aren’t quite enough to learn a song. 

If you’re a beginner, then you might not have the technical skills or fundamental understanding of the instrument to play a song just by looking at the tab notation. 

In these cases, you’ll need someone to teach you how to play the song.

This is where Guitar Tricks comes into play. 

Guitar Tricks is an online guitar lesson service where you’ll have access to a full library of songs and lessons to choose from. 

You’ll have dedicated instructors teach you exactly how to play different songs and styles of music as well as the fundamentals of the instrument. 

All of the songs on the platform are professionally tabbed as well, which means you can be confident that they are accurate. 

Overall, it’s a huge advantage to have an instructor walk you through the guitar tabs note by note. 

If you’re interested in seeing exactly how it works, you can try Guitar Tricks for 14 days completely free by clicking here.

Check it out to see if it fits your learning style, you’ve got nothing to lose!

Rocksmith 

Rocksmith is a unique twist on traditional guitar tablature. 

It’s a guitar video game that’s a mix between Guitar Hero and guitar tablature. 

You can connect your real guitar to either your gaming console or computer and play along to their collection of hundreds of songs. 

When you pick a song, you’ll see a form of guitar tabs displayed on-screen signifying which frets you should play. 

The game will then give you a score based on how accurate you are at hitting the notes.

This is a fun and interesting way to learn guitar because unlike traditional tabs, it is much more interactive. 

It gives you live feedback on your playing, which lets you know if you’re playing the song correctly or not. 

Also, it gamifies learning the guitar by giving you a score which can make practice more bearable. 

Like any video game, it can be addicting trying to beat your high score. However, with Rocksmith, as your score improves, so does your ability as a player. 

There’s a lot of like about Rocksmith if you want something more than just a guitar tab website. 

Check out my full guide where I give a complete breakdown of whether Rocksmith is good for learning guitar. 

Useful Guitar Tab Software

If you want to have the best possible experience with guitar tabs, then you should consider investing in guitar tab software.

From my experience, I found that the best way to learn using guitar tabs is by being able to playback the tab so I can hear what it sounds like. 

In addition, when I’m learning a new song, it’s very helpful to be able to slow the song down and isolate certain sections. 

Having guitar tab software gives you full control to do all of this. 

Also, some of the guitar tab websites on the list require you to have a guitar tab software to run the tab files in the first place. 

Here are some useful applications that work on both PC and Mac. 

Guitar Pro

Guitar Pro is the industry standard when it comes to guitar tab software. It’s the most popular tabbing software out there.

From my experience, Guitar Pro has been the best way to learn new songs. 

It allows you to playback tab files, slow down section, and isolate different instrumental tracks. 

Since Guitar Pro is the most widely adopted guitar tab software out there, you can bet that most people who tab out songs are using it. 

Therefore, the selection of tabs available online will be much larger for Guitar Pro files rather than other tabbing software.

Many of the guitar tab websites above either require Guitar Pro to load files the tab or are natively reading guitar pro files. 

If you’re interested in trying out Guitar Pro, you can get a free 7-day trial here.

Power Tab

Power Tab is a free guitar tab software that is similar to Guitar Pro in many ways. 

The interface isn’t quite as elegant and the functionality isn’t as robust.

However, it is definitely extensive enough to get the job done. 

This software allows you to edit and create tab files and play them back so you can play along. 

The only problem with Power Tab is that it cannot read Guitar Pro files as well. 

Since this software isn’t nearly as popular, there are not a lot of people using it to tab out songs. 

Therefore, if you’re looking for tabs of a particular song online, it’ll be harder to find a Power Tab file.

Regardless, it’s still a great piece of software considering it’s free. 

If you’re interested, you can Download Power Tab here

Tux Guitar

Tux Guitar is a free third party guitar tab program that allows you to play Guitar Pro and Power Tab files. 

If you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford to pay for Guitar Pro, then Tux Guitar is your best bet. 

You can create, edit and load pretty much any type of guitar tab file. 

You can play it back, slow it down, and isolate individual tracks just like Guitar Pro. 

In terms of functionality, it has it all. 

However, the interface is not as intuitive as Guitar Pro. It can be clucky at times and hard to navigate. 

In addition, the midi playback doesn’t sound quite as good. It doesn’t handle some sections well, such as palm mutes and slides, often sounding distorted.

Also, there is no mobile version of this app, unlike Guitar Pro that has a dedicated mobile app.

Regardless, Tux Guitar is an excellent piece of guitar tab software that I would recommend to anyone who is just looking to playback some Guitar Pro files that you found online. 

You can download Tux Guitar for free here

Conclusion

I hope you found this post helpful. If you’re ever wondering where to get guitar tabs, now you have a list of the best guitar tab websites. 

With this list of resources, you’ll be able to learn how to play any song with a little practice. 

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Free Guitar tab websites

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