Songsterr: A Look at the Tab Player for iOS and Android

SongsterrWhile I am a big proponent of learning to read notation, I do agree that tab can be extremely useful, especially to the beginning musician. Tab has its place and its usefulness is undeniable, so I was looking forward to checking out the Songsterr Tab app on my iPad and iPhone.

Man. I wish I had this when I was coming up!

To start, the app’s layout is simple. The app is organized in groups, including popular tabs, your favorites, your browsing history and by tag. There’s also a search feature.

Once you’ve found the tab you want, clicking on it brings up a slick player that displays the tab notation in a surprisingly clean and easy to read way. You will see a scroll bar which aids you in keeping your place as the music scrolls by.

The controls allows you to play the song at normal speed or at half speed, loop a section (very cool, and it works beautifully), scroll back to the beginning. There’s even a tuner, which is an incredibly nice touch.

What is really extremely cool is the button in the top right hand corner, shaped like a guitar. If available for your current track, clicking this icon gives you access to all tab parts available for the song.

Songs in the popular tunes list may very well also contain tabs for the entire band, including drums, vocals, string parts, lead parts, rhythm parts, bass lines… you name it.

This blew me away. Granted not every tune available has all parts, but many of them do.

Songsterr screen examples:

If you choose, you can also subscribe to a paid service through their website to give you additional access and more control of the tracks (tempo control, metronome, mixer and the ability to print).

I’m totally blown away by the quality of the app and the simplicity with which you navigate it. This is an app designed to get right to work, and the wide variety of music and genre in the ever growing catalog.

Well worth the $20, I’d say.

Songsterr is available for iOS devices (universal app) from the App Store, and for Android from Google Play and Amazon.

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