If you play the guitar, and you have an iPad, you should buy TabToolkit. Short of having a teacher with you all the time, it?s probably the best way I have seen to learn new music.
Guitar Tab is a way of writing down music specifically for the guitar. It?s not as information-rich as standard musical notation, but it?s a lot easier to follow. At its core, TabToolkit will display tabs for you, just like they?d look on paper. But if you use Power Tab or Guitar Pro files, both designed to be read on by computer, then TabToolkit goes into overdrive.
Load in a song (from your computer or via the built-in web-browser) and you?ll see the tab along with musical notation, and below that there is a picture of a guitar?s fretboard and strings. Press play and things really get going. A line runs along the notation to show you where you are in the song, and red dots appear on the fretboard to show you where your fingers should be. Better still, the app actually plays the song thanks to a built-in multi-track synthesizer. That?s right, you get a whole band to play along with, only they never get tired and they never drink all your beer.
There are various controls and options. The best is the speed-dial: spin the wheel and you can slow the music down (or speed it up, should you really hate yourself). you can also choose which instrument you want to learn. Tabs default to the main guitar track, but you can choose to see any instrument for which a sequencer track has been included. You can also switch off the standard musical notation, change the size of the display, switch to left-handed mode (try that with printed tabs) and have a keyboard instead of a fretboard shown at the bottom.
There are some problems with this iPad version (launched in April ? there?s an older iPhone version). While you can tap-to-stop the music, doing so skips the ?playhead? to wherever you touch on-screen. Further, you need to hit the tiny play-button to resume. But that?s about it. As I said, if you?re learning the guitar, you owe it to yourself to spend $10 on this app. My favorite part? Take a look at the screenshot at the top: You can choose to have the metronome sound as a cow-bell. Just where might that be useful?
I played the guitar a lot when I was younger. Back then, there was no internet. Songs came in books, or on pieces of paper scribbled by friends. If something like TabToolkit had existed back then, I wouldn?t be such a terrible player today.
TabToolkit product page [Agile]
See Also:
iPad Sheet-Music Foot-Switch is a Real Page-Turner
Headstock Guitar Tuner Picks Up Vibes
Turn Your iPhone Into an Electric Guitar With iShred
Mobile Phone Guitar Makes Sweet Music
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
VEECO INSTRUMENTS VARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ASSOCIATES UNITED ONLINE UNISYS
No comments:
Post a Comment