A fantastic site to learn the guitar on (ultimate-guitar.com)

Member Name: dajack36

Product:	ultimate-guitar.com
Date:	06/08/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Many tabs, all rated, also features reviews, video lessons are nice

Disadvantages: None

Ultimate Guitar is a website that was designed for people who wanted to learn to play the guitar, electric or classical, without having to pay out around £15 or so a week for lessons. Instead, it features a large archive of tabs for users to choose between and learn. But does it work? Can songs actually be learnt from Ultimate Guitar with no lessons in person?

The reason why it is actually possible to upload thousands and thousands of tabs to Ultimate Guitar is because the users actually do it themselves. If they have a tab for a song, then they will be able to write it into the website using a special piece of software available on the site used for tabs. The users who upload good songs then get a cut of the advertising revenue made from people looking at their page. So basically for all of us, Ultimate Guitar is made free by advertising!

I have found the tabs easy enough to learn from. Normally with a song, especially a popular one, different users will have each uploaded a version, resulting in a number to choose from, which means there will normally be one that is suited to your specific guitar needs. Tabs are also rated by those who use them, giving players a rough idea of whether or not the tab is good or not. So it is definitely to learn from Ultimate Guitar, but it is always a good idea to have a Youtube vid of the song playing as well, so you know the rhythm, as Ultimate Guitar has no way of indicating what the correct one is.

Ultimate Guitar has more recently begun to make their own video lessons, these are done on all of their popular songs. So basically you have a free lesson right there for the popular songs! These videos to work well and give a much better indication at how to play the piece properly than the tab, and before long I wouldn't be surprised if the whole of Ultimate Guitar has them and users are allowed to upload them after some sort of screening process.

Reviews of guitar equipment and other musical related things are are also available. I recently had the decision for a guitar peddle to buy swayed by one of these reviews, and I could not be happier that I did. The one I went for in the end, as suggested by Ultimate Guitar, works perfectly and I am glad I listened to them.

So in summary, I certainly think that it is possible to learn to play the guitar using this website. It features many thousands of different songs, and in many case different tabs for the same song. It also features helpful video lessons on popular songs to make them much easier to play. And as a nice little add on all tabs are rated so that the guitarists know which ones will be good. If your a keen guitar player, or just want to learn without having to cough up for lessons, then Ultimate Guitar is the site for you.

Summary: Recommended for eager guitarists