Parent article: Best Guitar Lesson Apps
Updated by Bobby
Updated on May 8th, 2023
Some major updates to the Ultimate Guitar Pro pricing, which changes a lot about this review, and not for the better.
Ultimate Guitar Pro ReView
Is it worth it?
Plain text guitar tabs are a thing of the past, thanks to tools like Ultimate Guitar Pro. While you can get tabs in a lot of places, UG Pro is one of the most helpful and functional tab resources on the market. That said, the increase in price to its current $99 per year or $25 per month is far too high.
The Ultimate Guitar Pro membership is an add-on to the popular website's guitar tab database, which runs directly in your browser as a web application.
While Ultimate Guitar has always been a tab website, almost all of the content is user-submitted as a plain text file. Ultimate Guitar Pro provides tabs that are structured similarly to the Guitar Pro software and put together by the Ultimate Guitar staff instead of just user submitted.
This means they're 100 percent accurate, or at least very close.
It also means they're properly scored like standard notation and played with sound and a backing track.
Lots of tabs that aren't plain text.
Video Ultimate Guitar Pro Review
Prefer to watch the review? I did a screencast and walk-through of Ultimate Guitar Pro a couple of days after publishing the written review. You can check that out here as well:
Please note, this video review likely contains some information that is outdated, and may not be correct.
Comparing from UG Tabs with UG Pro Tabs
Just for comparison's sake, let's look at the free Ultimate Guitar tabs and the Ultimate Guitar Pro tabs for "Invincible" by Tool.
Pro tabs are listed as "Pro" and "Official" and only accessible to those with a Pro membership.
Free Version: User-Submitted
Below is a screen shot of the plain text tab that we're used to seeing on Ultimate Guitar:
Plain text tabs (old style) on Ultimate Guitar.
Pro Version: Staff Created
The Pro version looks like a Guitar Pro file with properly scored notation and a red line that follows along as the song plays:
The Pro tab is easy to distinguish from the plain text variation.
This version is dramatically different from the free version, for a number of reasons. First, let's look at the basic features of this Pro tab and see what you're getting in a quicker list.
Compare to Other Online Guitar Lesson Programs
Guitar Chalk is a reader-supported magazine which means we recommend programs that we like, and if you buy through (or even sign up for a free trial), it helps us out without costing you any extra. In addition to Ultimate Guitar Pro, checkout some of the other programs we've reviewed and recommend, perhaps if you need something to supplement Ultimate Guitar Pro.
PROGRAM | DETAILS | RATING | TRY |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Guitar Tricks
| 92.8 | |
 | JamPlay
| 88.7 | |
 | TrueFire
| 86.7 | |
| Ultimate Guitar Pro
| n/a |
Features of Ultimate Guitar Pro Tabs (quick list)
There's a lot of nuance to the Pro tabs in Ultimate Guitar, making them vastly more functional, accurate, and useful compared to the free, plain text versions. You can see this by simply looking at the two screenshots above, but I'll list the most obvious improvements that Ultimate Guitar Pro offers their users:
- Guitar Pro-style tab notation with time signatures and sight reading elements
- Multiple instrument parts, often including bass, synth, vocals, and drums
- Fretboard view for multiple instruments
- Chords-only versions of the songs
- Printable
- Tonebridge compatibility and other misc features
These are the main features representing the bulk of what you're paying for if you buy Ultimate Guitar Pro. For those wanting a little more detail, I'll go into each feature, one at a time.
Notation-Style Tab Sheets
Guitar tabs are traditionally displayed in a Courier font typed up in a plain text file.
While this can be useful in certain contexts, it's limiting in terms of the information you can display on your tab sheets. The Guitar Pro-style tabs solve this by showing timing, bars, and a wide range of notational elements that can't be displayed in a plain text document.
For example, you can see bends, time signatures (lines beneath notes), and bars displayed in "Sweet Child O' Mine" in the Pro tab version:
Guitar Pro tabs are far more complete and musically accurate than plain text tabs.
These tabs can also be played back audibly, with some helpful sound features like section looping, slowing down, speeding up, transposing, and even a metronome.
Some of the control features for Pro tabs in the Ultimate Guitar app.
Of course, you could buy the Guitar Pro software itself from Arobas music, but they don't have a tab database like Ultimate Guitar does. This feature is the main thing you're paying for, plus the work that Ultimate Guitar staff has gone through to curate and maintain all the pro-level tabs.
Multiple Instruments (bass, synth, drums, etc.)
I think what's most remarkable about Ultimate Guitar Pro is that most tabs have multiple instrument channels for each part of the song. For example, they might have bass, but then they'll also have different channels for each bass part.
To stick with our Tool example:
- Bass 1
- Bass 2 (drive)
- Bass solo
Here's what that part of the interface looks like:
You'll often have multiple parts for each instrument added.
And then for Adam Jones' guitar tracks:
- Lead guitar
- Solo guitar
- Rhythm guitar
My guess is that Ultimate Guitar has access to some kind of database where official scores and tab sheets are stored for licensed music, because doing all this manually would be an incredible time investment.
Either way, they deserve credit for getting so much material to their users.
Here's another look at the instrument selection interface:
Another look at the instrument selection interface. This conveniently pops out on the left side of the tab, making instrument selection super easy.
You'll often see piano, synth, and multiple guitar tracks included, each with their own tabs. This can be extremely helpful for dissecting different part of a song you might be trying to learn.
Fretboard View
The fretboard view in Ultimate Guitar Pro shows you a fretboard from an angle that seems like you're looking down at the fretboard and plays along by showing you the fret location for each corresponding note in the tab sheet.
Here's what the interface looks like:
The fretboard view combined with the speed adjustment makes an already excellent resource even more helpful and functional.
As the tab and audio play, this element will light up with a yellow dot on the fret and string corresponding to each note. In combination with the ability to slow down the tab, this is extremely helpful and should also be noted as a valuable teaching tool.
When I taught lessons I'd have a lot of students ask me to help them learn a particular song and this resource would have been incredibly helpful for that task.
Chord Versions of Each Song
One of the coolest, "low profile" features of Ultimate Guitar Pro is the inclusion of chords-only versions of each song. This lets you quickly pickup the basic chord progressions for a song, regardless of whether it's played in a traditional acoustic or chord-friendly rhythm style.
The chords for "Africa" by Toto are a great example:
I found myself using the chords-only resource more than any other feature.
The tab/chord toggle is above the instrument selection panel:
You can easily toggle back and forth between the tab and chord version of each song.
While the song itself isn't exactly a "strumming tune" it's great to have a chord reference like this for getting the general idea and following a bass line. Then, if you want more detail, you can look at the instrument sections for different parts of the tab.
I can't confirm that every song has the chords listed, but after using the program several times - at length - I didn't see a single Pro tab without it.
It's a great feature and an under-emphasized aspect of the program.
Printable
It's technically possible to print the free Ultimate Guitar content, but it isn't really supposed to be (there's no print button) and the printable version of each song is only available in Pro tabs. You can see the print button to the right of the screen over where the tab starts.
Printing or a printable format is only available in the Pro version.
Both the chord or Pro tab version of each song are printable, similar to a PDF file.
Miscellaneous Features
There are a few other features that I won't give a full paragraph to. Instead, we'll just list them here.
- Zoom in/out
- Tonebridge functionality (effects and amp settings app)
- Left-handed view
- Countdown for starting songs
- Metronome
Ultimate Guitar Pro Cost: How much is it?
To get a feel for the value of this program, we need to know how much it costs. This was surprisingly tricky, though after going to an incognito browser (I already had a testing Pro account for this review) and filling out a form about what kind of music I liked and what instruments I played, I finally got to see the pricing structure.
I did the same thing this year to get updated pricing which, as I mentioned, has changed dramatically.
The price of Ultimate Guitar Pro has gone up significantly.
Here's what it cost when I initially published this review.
The prices for an Ultimate Guitar Pro membership, when we first published this review.
This increase in price is pretty disappointing, especially the month-to-month cost. The $25 per month is actually higher than Guitar Tricks, which is a vastly more comprehensive program. The thought process that went into this price increase is something we can only speculate about, but the bottom line is that it's too high.
Again, this is a bummer, because they have a great product on their hands. They're just charging way too much for it.
Here's a quick summary of the Ultimate Guitar Pro cost:
- $25 per month
- $99 per year
- $65 per year (spring sale)
Conclusion
All together, Ultimate Guitar Pro is one of the easiest and most functional ways to learn a song on the internet. It makes the plain text tab essentially a thing of the past.
And my experience with Ultimate Guitar Pro has been entirely positive. It's a simple, extremely helpful resource that significantly improves over what the site offers for free. However, I have to revise how I feel about the value of the program, given the increase in price.
For tabs, $25 per month is absolutely too high. Even the $99 per year is too high. And this is even more of a bummer, since their price points used to be really good.
So in summary, it's a great program that takes a hit because of what they charge.
Your Questions and Comments
Do you have questions about our Ultimate Guitar Pro review or the cost of the program? If so, leave them in the comments section below and I'll be happy to help out. I've also got contacts at Ultimate Guitar I can refer you to if I can't personally answer your question.
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I discovered that the annual UG Pro price now is $99!!! So expensive…. :((((
Yeah they may have raised their pricing. Where did you see this? Did you try to buy a sub? I don’t see it listed publicly.
Yes they actually have increased it, and making it as an offer. I did my subscription on 2021, and back than was like 15$ (euros for me). I cancelled this year, because at that period I didnt have my guitar with me, and now its an “offer” of 5 euros a month (65 euros/year). If you dont take the offer its 99 euros a year. If you do it monthly its 25 euros. Thats crazy. Like I get they run a business, but considering millions of people use that, its a crazy increase in the price. Obviously, they run how they wish, but its very expensive, especially if you`re like a 16 y/o kid.
Good grief, yeah that’s ridiculous. Ok, I’ll revise the article to reflect this. They’re keeping documentation showing this price under wraps. I’ll see if I can get a screen shot.
Update. I did check on it from the app on my phone, and as an offer, I got a 29€/year, which is much better. I guess they try to trick people into giving them as much money as possible. Ill probably do it because it is actually very useful, for basically the cost of a cup of coffee a month, but still this is very shady.
They have a spring deal that’s going on. I wouldn’t say they’re “tricking” people, but they’ve definitely run the price up, which is really disappointing to me because I think they had a great thing going before. Right now they’re clearly charging too much.
That said, I know some of the UG people and they’ve always been really good to me. We don’t have a partnership or anything, but I used to write for them.
Thanks for sharing, Fiorelo.
Is there a maximum number of songs you can download? I have over a 1000 and when I do an internal search for a song I already have, it crashes or at times shows a song I’ve never heard of. I have the pro version that I’ve had for years and use it every day but the inability to do an internal search if frustrating
A search?? That shouldn’t matter. And I don’t know of a song limit. Does your browser crash? Probably an issue with that.
HOW COME WHEN I TRANSPOSE TO A DIFFERENT KEY WHEN EDITING THE PRINTOUT COMES BACK IN THE ORIGINAL KEY
I’ve used Ultimate Guitar for years and think it’s great. I have always used the “Open With” function to export songs into the OnSong app for use on stage. Now that function doesn’t work anymore and I’m not able to contact tech support. Does anyone know how to fix this or contact them?
Hey Beth – how did you get to the Open With function? Was it somewhere on the actual tab page?
yes, upper right hand corner, 3 dots. Only from the chord page, not tab but that’s what I need to put into OnSong. But here’s the weird thing, just opened it and it’s obviously been updated because the entire interface is different (since Monday, wtf) And I just clicked on the 3 dots, found an option to Share, and then another menu that let me open it in OnSong, so I guess my original comment is moot. LOL.
Oh ok, interesting. I wonder if you hit on a time when they were tinkering/testing the design and then settled on what we see now. Glad it worked out!
DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT give Ultimate Guitar a single cent of your money. That site is the biggest scam. All their “Pro” tabs are just whatever the highest rated Guitar Pro tabs are which are free to access. They will also keep charging you after you’ve cancelled your membership. I’m assuming they payed this Bobby guy to promote their garbage.
No. They did not pay me and we do not have a partnership agreement. Moreover, your experience is not universal. Songsterr is an apt comparison.
The official forums are full of people who had the same experience as me. They are literally scamming people of their money. You can turn off auto-renew and it will still end up renewing and charging you for an entire year. Then they refuse to give a full refund. There’s also no way of removing your payment information which has to be against the law. If not it should be. On top of all that they’re charging you for other people’s hardwork. They claim they have a “team” that creates these tabs but they just pick the highest rated one and call it theirs. The official tabs might be created by them but they don’t allow you to download them at all. It’s a huge scam and waste of money.
I hear your experience and I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong. But be more thoughtful about you put forward this type of thing. You mouthed off about me being paid without having any clue (or reading our affiliate disclosure). So if you have legitimate criticism, which I think you do, you discredit yourself by being so indignant.
By the way, if you have links/examples – feel free to send them. Right now it’s your word against their’s.
OK, I had the same experience with autorenew. There was no advance notice and they wouldn’t refund my money. Even if the app/site is good, this is a deceptive and sleazy business practice. If you are going to use the site/app, I would advise NOT using autorenew and not saving any card details.
Yeah I would turn that off.
The guy said in his response (Nov 18 @11:31pm) that you can turn off the auto-renew function but you will be charged for another year anyway and won’t get a refund even though you bring the matter to the attention of Ultimate Guitar. This would be a huge problem for subscribers!
Total manure. Don’t listen to this comment. UG is awsome.
I would tend to agree. OP’s experience is definitely the exception and not the norm.
Totally agree. Same thing is happening to me right now. Tabs and functionality are great. Having so many songs online is awesome BUT…..don’t ever upgrade or give them payment information. If you turn off “auto renew”, it keeps renewing! You can’t delete your credit card or anything. They also don’t ever tell you that an auto-renew payment is coming in spite of what the website says. It just shows up on your card EVEN IF YOU TURNED IT OFF!!!! If you contact them, they tell you they talked to the head office. Really? Head office contains the entire company and is about 40 people.
I’m sorry about your experience, Randy. I believe they are based in Russia, and a bit difficult to get a hold of (took me a long time).
Price is now £64.99 to me and that’s with the Halloween special offer, seems to have risen rather a lot since your $40 price just 2 months ago?
I wonder if that price includes their new courses? It’s so hard to get a reliable price from these guys. I’m pretty sure the people I used to correspond with (they were great) no longer work there. I just emailed support for an updated price. Will post it on this review.
Noticed that this article does not cover the recent addition of Guitar Courses to their site. Given some of your other lesson articles, how do Ultimate Guitar courses stack up compared to Guitar Tricks, etc?
Hey Michael – I have not gotten a chance to explore those lessons yet, but the Guitar Tricks/JamPlay/Truefire trifecta have ruled the roost for years. I wouldn’t expect UG – whose wheelhouse is guitar tabs – to be able to compete this quickly.
Is there a way to print the score with TAB on the bottom and the music notes/score above the tabs?
Hey Opal – unfortunately I don’t believe so.
Correction – They offered a one time pro lifetime membership but they dont offer it anymore. I have had pro now for at least 6 years.
I had pro as well – “lifetime” – but now it appears they cancelled it. Does yours still work?
Yeah, mine is still active. Are you having trouble logging in? Or does it look like your account has just been downgraded?
I used to have mambership that expired just last month. I will be happy to renew my membership at the same price I paid last year.
I have an UG Pro account … How do I download the official versions created by UG Guitar Team? Most of these are better than original versions that I could actually use in my repertoire.
What type of file are you trying to download? PDF, I assume?
Midi file if possible … so I can open it on TuxGuitar
Ultimate Guitar continues to charge your credit card for years after cancelling. Guess I will have to replace my card to get this to stop.
I don’t think this is common. Let me know if you need a hand with this and I can get in touch with my contact at UG.
I have contacted them in years past, challenged the charge on my card, everything. They just keep slipping it in.
Hi I have Ultimate Guitar Pro and I play bass and it is a fantastic tool for learning lyrics, chords and bass lines especially the Official Tab with all instrumentation included. It even has drum tabs. Well worth the money.
Thanks for sharing, Janis. I agree.
I realize this is for guitar, but does this have vocal harmony parts as well?
BTW, upon returning to my computer this am, there is a new “Spring offer” timer running.
I know it has the melody line for vocals but I’m not sure about harmony.
Could I copy & paste the chord charts into Word?
If so, then I could size the charts for a 6×9 iPad, then print to pdf and upload to PiaScore for gigs (in this current case for a classic rock band)
I’m not sure if that would work or not. You could always just screen grab it and then convert the image to a PDF.
Thanks, I could do this with the free version so I would expect to do the same with the Pro version. So for me, the membership would be to access the accurate versions of the songs, with better notation, and the extra features for learning would be a bonus. It seems like Piascore is better for gigging (e.g. creating set-lists, auto-scroll, etc) although this might work for that as well if you can create set list, but I’m not seeing that.
Hey Vic – I don’t believe you can create a set list. To keep everything on your iPad, Piascore might be the better option.
UG the paid version is a very good learning tool. You get tons of “official” songs with individual instrument tabs and notation. You can control the speed to practice at slower tempo. I’m pretty sure the songs are transcribed manually and new songs are often based on user requests. I signed up 2 years ago in June through the Apple app store and I only pay $20 for annual renewal. It’s by far the best deal you can find.
I agree, the price tag is completely manageable and reasonable. UG deserves props for keeping it so cheap.
UG quite literally saved my life. I am 64 years old and on disability with unrelenting, treatment resistant major depressive disorder, adult onset ADD, and uncontrolled anxiety. Although I wasn’t suicidal, I wouldn’t have moved if I knew a train was about to run over me. This illness also means I never know when I can crawl out of bed. So I picked up the guitar again after 20 years and signed up for UG Pro to help with all of the above. I was self taught and did an exceptionally poor job of it. UG has treated me with unmatched respect, been uncommonly empathetic without sympathy, and incredibly helpful when I’ve reached out for instruction. It is no exaggeration to say working with UG is second only to God and family as incentive to live, chew through the restraints, and keep fighting. Music is a part of my life again and, thanks to UG, hopefully my recovery as well. I couldn’t possibly recommend them enough.
Sam – thanks for sharing your story. I suffer from a depression disorder as well, though mine responds fairly well to treatment.
Glad you’ve found a good spot working with UG and all the best as you recover.
UG quite literally saved my life. I am 64 years old and on disability with unrelenting, treatment resistant major depressive disorder, adult onset ADD, and uncontrolled anxiety. Although I wasn’t suicidal, I wouldn’t have moved if I knew a train was about to run over me. This illness also means I never know when I can crawl out of bed. So I picked up the guitar again after 20 years and signed up for UG Pro to help with all of the above. I was self taught and did an exceptionally poor job of it. UG has treated me with unmatched respect, been uncommonly empathetic without sympathy, and incredibly helpful when I’ve reached out for instruction. It is no exaggeration to say working with UG is second only to God and family as incentive to live, chew through the restraints, and keep fighting. Music is a part of my life again and, thanks to UG, hopefully my recovery as well. I couldn’t possibly recommend them enough.
With ultimate guitar pro can you playback the real audio track on Spotify and sync the tab playback with it? It would be nice to play the real recording on my speaker and follow the tabs on real-time without having to continuously scroll. Thanks!
No, it’s some kind of a MIDI playback but not the original track. Chordify does this with YouTube videos, but they just show you chords instead of full tabs.
Can you download songs from Ultimate Guitar to a iPad?
I think you can access song via the UG app, but if you’re talking about downloading a PDF of your tab, it would need to be on a desktop computer via web browser.
One of the plus sides of Ultimate Guitar is that you can host your own tabs there too in private mode.
So I just upload my Guitar Pro files and then have links for our band members.
I think to upload them you need to be a member but not to view and download them.
That’s a great feature, Chris. Thanks for pointing it out.
Went to check it out — they have an 80% off sale now… but that is still 65$ a year ( 50$ if you click back) — as of september 2021. There regula price is %70 off ( 9.99 / month) — month to month is 24$ US — just an FYI
Thanks, Mark.
For those checking for the current prices, as of Sept 17th:
Annual : £99.99 ($137)
Discounted [75%] : £74.99 ($103)
Monthly: £24.99 ($34)
Guessing the discounted value is based on the monthly rather than annual options. At $40 I’d have been tempted, and probably just impulse bought at the $24.99 discount annual price they had before, but $100 a year is quite the jump….
Thanks for posting this, Stefan.
I signed up, didn’t like the tabs, not accurate and difficult to read and find. Website wasn’t useful to me, so I forgot about it.
A year later it automatically renewed and they refuse to give me my money back.
Stay away, it is not a trustworthy company at all.
I agree with Richard King 100%.
Were you able to get in touch with customer support? Did they just flat refuse a refund?
UG is the new Columbia House. If you like and use the service I guess it’s great but heaven help you if you want to cancel. Just got charged $99.99 for my “free” trial. Trying to cancel is like trying to find your way out of, well, a Columbia House subscription! 🙂
Is this midi files so will it work with fret light guitars? Is this the same as Fret light’s guitar pro 7.5?
Ross – I don’t believe so. That’s a different program entirely.
Original price is 299.88 € per year
Your price: 64.99 € per year
Hi It used to be 40$ for a lifetime license i purchased it like 5 years ago so i dont pay montlhy, Back then i guess the subscription based mentality wasnt around. Its a great app.
I believe that’s correct, Federico. Thanks for sharing.
I signed up for ultimate guitar and it took my money(25.00 friday deal),have used UG for a long time to get words and music and print,(print buttons don’t work anymore.I can’t make UG work at all and the one thing that i wanted m ost was backing tracks so i could play some lead a long with them, does work or i can’ figure it out…i think i just gave 25.00 away for nothing
Email their support. You should be able to get access worked out or get a refund. What happens when you go to Ultimate-Guitar.com/pro?
I have very recently purchased the annual subscription to ultimate guitar ap for my iPad, and would now like to upgrade to the ultimate guitar pro. Can I get a refund on the more basic ap when I upgrade to the pro.
Ron – what is the “basic” version? The only subscription I know of from UG is the Pro membership. How much did you pay in?
Is there a way to make/collect a song list?
And if there is. How do I do this on my IPad?
Yes, I believe there is. I think that falls to your regular Ultimate Guitar membership.
Hello there. I have signed up for a year at the cost of £24.99 but the sound is brutal. I am using my chrome book. Please advise?
Thank you
You mean the playback audio? Can you describe a little more what you mean by brutal? It is loud enough? Distorted?
I think i know what the user is talking about. The playback audio sounds nothing like an actual instrument, and is very synthy compared to other platforms.
I think that’s because it’s some kind of a MIDI playback.
At least you are getting some sound on your Chromebook. My UG is silent on that device.
I learned guitar only with chords dome time ago but just learning ukulele. I looked at this UG to find a song I didn’t know the chords to but I like to know how much something costs before buying anything. This link to 80% off and not telling customers what that cost is is a turn off. Good deal or not I would not buy something not knowing upfront what the cost is going to be. Thanks for this article forum. I see at least a ballpark figure but if they were just up front with customers I think they would get more sales. Not knowing is a no starter for me.
Hey Cathy – I thought the price was readily available but it looks like they’ve made that a bit harder to find since I wrote this review. They might also keep the discounted price a little more ambiguous.
Thanks for this info! Great review of the UG Pro service. Unfortunately Cathy is right and they’ve made it a pain to see pro pricing. Just sign up for a free trial, or create an account to get charged. Pretty shady, in my opinion. Though I’ve been using UG for almost 20 years, so I trust them – just annoyed with the marketing decision they’ve made. Regardless, thanks for providing pricing info here. UG hiding it is actually how I ended up at your review. Cheers!
Good deal – glad my review was helpful in this case.
Their price is really decent, actually. So I’m surprised that they conceal it as much as they do. I’d say just make it clear up front. But what do I know.
I took up a 7 day free trial and they scammed me and stole $98.99. I looked at the site for 10 minutes and decided that it wasn’t what I wanted and cancelled. They put through two transactions, one for $0 for the free trial and the other immediately after for $98.99 and will now not refund. SCAMMERS DO NOT USE EVER
Did you get in touch with their support team?
Do they charge you throughout the year or do you pay one time the 40 dollars
My understanding is that it’s a one-time $40 fee.
Is lifetime membership available and what is the cost?
Gary – I believe the annual membership is their longest term option. Right now they’re doing some kind of new year’s sale (still) for 80% off.
:O
I did not know how much the membership cost … I have it PRO for life lol
How’d you get PRO without knowing what it cost?
Today I received an email from Ultimate Guitar Pro that I could take advantage of a 90% off New Year sale. It didn’t show how much the cost would be. I know a regular price on their website it $39.95 for a year but this promotion did not show that. I clicked the link to go to the website to complete the sale. I picked PayPal but still no dollar amount is shown. I click continue hoping to see the final price. The sale was completed but never showed what I would be charged.
I was charged $14.95. If my math is correct that means an annual cost is supposedly $149.50 a year. WTF!
How do you know the charge is for one month? Wouldn’t that be your charge for the entire year?
Lol. You completely missed the point. At no point did they say they think they were charged a monthly fee. In fact, they are saying the opposite. The KNOW they got a yearly subscription for $14.95. The point they were making is that the sale said “90% off” and yet they were charged $14.95. If $14.95 is 90% off, then the regular price would be $149.50 per annum…which we know it isnt. So the ultimate point they were making was that they were mislead, essentially lied to about this “90%” off.
Do you offer the same options of chords,scales and tabs for a bass guitar?
Jaime – all of the Pro Tabs I’ve looked at have the corresponding bass track as well.
I am interested in Ultimate Guitar Pro but I would like to hear a sample of a given song eg “It’s All in the Movies by Merle Haggard. Is there anywhere I can see the bank of songs covered by Ultimate Guitar Pro. This is what I need to subscribe. Wade Seymour
I am anxious to get started….please contact me a.s.a.p.
Hey Wade – just make a free UG account and browse around. All the available Pro songs are highlighted. They have pretty much anything you could think of.
Just wanted to put in 2 cents:
couple years ago they offered a lifetime pro membership for a laughable 60$ or so… I happened to visit the site at that time and still have it… I made a good purchase there but think it unfair to newer guys to NOT have that option :/
thumbs down in that regard.
Holy smokes – $60? I haven’t seen that price anywhere, or even the lifetime membership offer.
Are the arrangements on the Pro version covered by copyright?
Hey Carolyn – I believe that’s the case. Anything that isn’t user-submitted should be covered.
Can more than one track be displayed at a time?
Hey Myles – I don’t believe you can do that. Do you mean like one instrument’s tabs displayed underneath another?
Does Pro have the option to download chord sheets so I could open them if I didn’t have Internet?
Hey Susannah – I think you can export them as PDFs and then print them.
I’m not a fan of the scam pricing. They claim that it costs $130 normally, but oh, it’s 80% off so it’s only $25! then if you go partway through the sign up process and decide to back out they’ll offer an even lower price. instead of just offering that price up front.
I mean, I get that it’s annoying. But to be fair to UG, a lot of companies do pricing that way. Plus, you’re still getting the lower price.
I am surprised to read that “a lot of companies” give a lower price to people who click away. I personally have never heard of this, and I would imagine it would be considered illegal or at least bad practice in Europe.
Is this maybe an “American” thing?
If you look at it objectively, it is hardly a practice used by a serious business, right?
Those people who don’t click away, they end up paying a price that is unfairly high. Because why would you give a lower price to people who are not interested anyway?
Sorry, but I would not give my money to a company like Ultimate Guitar if they use this practice.
Just my 5 cents 🙂
Not sure why that would/should be illegal anywhere. It’s just trying to entice a potential customer who might be balking at the advertised price tag. I don’t think this makes the product itself any less valuable. In terms of their marketing practices, UG isn’t that bad. I’d like to see more transparent pricing system, but once you do find pricing, it’s fairly cheap.
I’ve experienced that with mobile phone providers & security providers. So this strategy is happening in other business, but it is good to know that a better price is just a “back-click” away.
Actually, this is a Russian company. They just have a business address in San Fransico. I’ve been submitting highly accurate tabs to the site for years that they make money from you to using my tabs. All I get out of it is a dopamine hit (and free membership).
Bobby, I’m an Open Mic player, does UG Pro have an auto scrolling feature and can it transpose a song to a different key?
What other product is available that scrolls, transposes and has a library of songs?
Thanks for your assistance .
Hey Jeff – yes on both counts. As the back track plays it scrolls and it does have both a transpose and pitch changing function.
What device are you primarily using? If you let me know, I could give you additional suggestions.
Love to sing and virtual Open Mics have given me the opportunity to follow chord charts to lots of new songs. I’m using an Android tablet. The ability to scroll, transposing and have access to a library of songs would enhance the experience. Are there other’s besides UG that offer these benefits? Does UG offer a trial run?
Thanks again Bobby
Yeah, the closest alternative would probably be a Songsterr Plus account, but of the two I prefer UG Pro. To be honest, it does everything you would need, and it does the job pretty cheap.
I’ve been using the JSongSheet app for gigging and have been more than happy with it.
It does what you are looking for and more.
There are both iPhone and Android versions which is helpful when I need to share sheets with my bass player and singer who have iPhones
If Ultimate guitar pro is purchased on an ipad, is it then also available on the person’s iphone for the same cost? If so, what needs to be done to activate on both devices? Thank you, Don
Hey Don – you would use the same login for all devices. When I bought it, it just upgraded my existing UG account, then whatever device I logged in on, I was logging into a “Pro” account. No activation necessary. Hope this helps!
The uncool part is becoming totally, or near totally, dependent on tabs. Better to develop your ear to hear the basic chord changes in a progression. Learn chord progressions and you unlock hundreds of songs that share the same chord intervals. For example:
I, IV, V
iim, V, I
I, vim, iim, V
etc., you get the idea.
That’s a valid point. Ideally, I think a player should be able to “hear” or feel out better than 50% of a song – or at least a bass line – and use tabs to refine.
As far as I can see, I’m not sure this has anything to do with the Arobas Guitar Pro software rather just Ultimate Guitar’s (not as good) version of it…?
Not to mention, how many wrong tabs there are on UG. When a song has 3, 4, or 5 tab versions on UG, which one is correct? Which one is the UG staff formatting for your use Tabs hold you back from developing your ear to truly “hear” what it is you want to play. Develop your ear. Develop your ability to listen and play what you hear. You should be able to sing what you’re hearing. If you can’t sing it, then your listening skills need work.
Well, gee, thanks, I know my listening skills need work. Most of my skills need work. That’s why I’m practicing. Some of that practice includes training those skills you think are the be-all and end-all, but some of it also just includes playing songs I enjoy.
Hey Bobby – thanks for this article. I’ve been looking for information on this site for some time.
A minor correction: printing is available on the free version, too. The button is not at the top, though. It’s near the bottom, just above the comments section. I have printed several free tabs over the last year or so. It’s usually well formatted.
Also, the 80% off promotion seems to be semi-permanent. It is offered every time I’ve visited the website.
PS – I appear to have a Pro membership, even though I have never joined. It’s either a glitch or an automatic trial. (It could be related to the virus pandemic.)
Hey, Mark – thanks for the notes here. I’ll update the article per the printing correction.
Are you able to access the Pro tabs? If so that’s good news. I’d roll with it.
I do have access to the Pro tabs. In my account settings, under “Subscription,” it says “You’ve got an access to Ultimate Guitar Pro. That’s as cool as it gets :).” under “Payments History” there is nothing, which makes sense. I guess I should roll with it, as you said, and not look a gift horse in the mouth.
By the way, I agree with you about Fender Play, but when they had a 50% sale on the annual plan, I bought it to get 10% off Fender Products. Sweetwater honors it, and I’ve already saved a couple of hundred bucks. Still, Fender Play is pretty awful.
Thanks for your site.
That’s an interesting silver lining to a Fender Play account that I didn’t address (or even think of, really). I suppose if you’re gonna buy a guitar or amp, it’s a pretty awesome way to save some money. Thanks again, Mark.
If you are a contributor (of quality content) they will waive your fee lifetime. You have to have a good track record of providing accurate high-quality tabs though. So, in a way, you do pay for it – with your time.