LEARNING SONGS
How to learn a song on guitar from tabs
Downloaded a tab of your favourite song but can't keep up at the original tempo? That's how everyone learns: slowly, piece by piece and many times in a row. Tabify puts it all in one window — slow-down, looping, metronome, tuner and live sound.
Download for freeWindows, macOS and Linux
Step by step
- Tune your guitar. The tuner is built into Tabify. If the song is in another tuning — Drop D, Eb, a whole step down — change the tuning in one click and the tab adjusts itself.
- Listen to the whole tab and split the song into parts: intro, verse, chorus, solo.
- Loop the hard part. Select the bars you need and turn on Loop — they will repeat until you nail them.
- Slow down to a speed where you play without mistakes, even if it's half the original.
- Speed up gradually — in small steps and with a metronome, until you reach the original tempo.
- Play along with the song. Plug your guitar in through an audio interface and VST, and play over the other tracks of the tab with live sound.
Try Tabify for free
Windows, macOS and Linux. 14 days of Pro free after signing up.
Why slow means faster
Your hands remember what you repeat. If you keep playing a hard passage at full speed with mistakes, you practise the mistakes. Playing cleanly at a slow tempo and speeding up step by step is the shortest way to playing the whole part. Select a bar, slow it down, turn on the metronome — your fingers will learn the rest.
What you need
- Tabify — tempo, Loop, metronome and tuner are in the free version.
- A tab of the song — .gp, .gp5, .gpx and other popular formats open right away. More in “How to open GP5, GPX and GP files”.
- An audio interface — optional, to play with live sound. See how it works in “Tabs with live sound”.
Want to write down your own part or fix a downloaded tab? That's what the tab editor is for.
FAQ
Can I slow down a tab for free?
Yes. Tempo control, Loop, metronome and tuner are part of the free version of Tabify, with no time limit.
How do I loop a hard passage?
Select the bars and turn on Loop — the fragment repeats until you turn it off. You can change the tempo at the same time.
Does slowing down distort the sound?
No. A tab is notation, not an audio recording, so the pitch doesn't change and the sound doesn't warble when you slow down.
Where do I get tabs?
Tabify opens .gp3, .gp4, .gp5, .gpx and .gp files that are shared on tab websites, as well as MusicXML. Pro also includes a score catalogue.