Tabfall

Tab falls down six string lanes and you play it on a real guitar. Prop up your phone: it listens through the mic, with no cable.

Get it on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Tabfall playing a Carulli andantino in Listen mode: fret numbers in coral and yellow blocks fall down six string lanes to a strike line

It shows what it heard.

The usual complaint about play-along apps is "it can't hear me", or that it passed a note you fluffed, with no way to tell why. Tabfall has The Ear: a live readout of what it's hearing, all the time.

When a note isn't counted, you see what it heard instead. A phone mic in a real room has limits. You should be able to see them, not guess.

Listen

Hear the piece and watch the tab fall. Bends, slides and hammer-ons are drawn on the tails, and chords come as one named row.

Play along

The clock runs and you join in. Slow it down, or loop any A-B section.

Wait

The music stops until it hears you. Your results then point at the bar that slipped, with "loop that bit" one tap away.

Chords falling as rows in Tabfall: a D chord's frets, then a G chord's, each row with its name beside it

225 pieces, one wall

Every piece is a screenprint drawn from its own notes. Public-domain and openly licensed classical guitar, folk and blues (Tárrega, Carcassi, Carulli, Giuliani, Sor, Bach), plus 82 rock riffs, progressions and exercises written for Tabfall. Levels 1 to 5, all with backing.

Poster for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Bring your own

.gp3 .gp4 .gp5 .gp .musicxml .mxl .mid

Import Guitar Pro 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, MusicXML or MIDI, then pick the part you want. MIDI has no fingering, so Tabfall works out strings and frets. If it can't read a file (Guitar Pro 6's .gpx, for now) or has to drop a note, it says so.

Tabfall comes with nobody else's tabs, and files stay on your phone. Only import what you have the right to use.

Tabfall's Which part? sheet offering the tracks of an imported file: Lead, Low and Keys, with note counts

Set up for your guitar

A tuner with a guard

More than two semitones out, it says that looks wrong and doesn't urge you on.

Level check and timing

Play your low E to set the level, then strum on the clicks so it knows your phone's delay, separately for speaker and headphones.

Acoustic, classical or electric

An unplugged electric is quiet, so keep the phone close or use an amp. Left-handed lanes are in Settings.

Bass and ukulele: beta

Import a bass or ukulele part and the lanes follow its tuning. We haven't tested these on real ones yet.

What you need

An iPhone on iOS 17 or later, or a phone on Android 8 or later, and something to prop it on.

Backing and speakers

Headphones are best. On the speaker, keep the backing low so the mic hears your guitar over it. It starts low.

£12.99, once.

Free with three pieces and one imported file, with the same listening, every mode and no time limit, so you can try it on your own guitar before paying. One payment unlocks all 225 pieces and unlimited imports. No subscription, no account, no ads, and it works offline.

Straight answers

Will it catch every note?

No. Room noise, a quiet guitar and backing from the speaker all get in the way. The Ear shows you when that's happening.

What happens to the sound?

It's analysed on your phone as it arrives, then discarded. Nothing is recorded or sent unless you turn on Send my recordings, which is off by default. See the privacy policy.

Can I play my favourite band's songs?

The library is public-domain and openly licensed pieces and our own writing, so its rock is ours rather than famous bands'. You can import files or paste plain-text tabs you have the right to use, and they stay on your phone.

Is there a subscription?

No. See guitar play-along apps you can pay for once.

Questions or bugs?

admin@onibaku.co.uk. We reply within two working days.

Credits

Music

All tab is our own conversion. These encodings ask for credit:

Andantino, Op. 241 No. 5 (Carulli): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 4.0, converted to tab.
Waltz, Op. 241 No. 1 (Carulli): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 4.0, converted to tab.
Op. 50 No. 1 (Giuliani): encoded by Stephen Rhen, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Tempo di Valse (Carulli): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 4.0, converted to tab.
Waltz, Op. 241 No. 4 (Carulli): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 4.0, converted to tab.
Menuett (Coste): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Andantino (Mertz): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Ländler (Sor): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Op. 50 No. 2 (Giuliani): encoded by Stephen Rhen, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Op. 50 No. 5 (Giuliani): encoded by Stephen Rhen, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Op. 50 No. 7 (Giuliani): encoded by Stephen Rhen, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.
Cantabile (Mertz): encoded by Louie van Bommel, source, CC BY 3.0, converted to tab.

Listening

The on-device listener was trained using GuitarSet by Qingyang Xi, Rachel M. Bittner, Johan Pauwels, Xuzhou Ye and Juan P. Bello (CC BY 4.0), Guitar-TECHS by Hegel Emmanuel Pedroza Villalobos, Termeh Taheri, Wallace Abreu, Ryan Corey and Iran R. Roman (CC BY 4.0), and OpenSLR RIRS_NOISES (Apache 2.0). Our changes: training a new model on them; neither they nor their authors endorse Tabfall.

Sounds and type

Guitar, bass and ukulele samples from FreePats (CC0 1.0). Steel guitar and drums from MuseScore General (MIT), with its notices in the app. Type: Big Shoulders Display, Copyright 2019 The Big Shoulders Project Authors, SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Guitar Pro is a trademark of Arobas Music. Tabfall is independent and isn't affiliated with Arobas Music or any guitar maker.