iPhone App: Fretboard Warrior
The iPhone has changed the way we use apps and there is an abundance of guitar ones available on the store.
Fretboard Warrior is a great tool that helps improve your knowledge of the fretboard.
Thanks to Francois for the review code.
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Tab Toolkit – Review
Tab Toolkit
Tab Toolkit is brought to you by the same company that gave us Guitar Toolkit (see previous review).
It is an all in one solution for reading tabs on the go or if you do not have access to a computer and costs £5.99 on the app store.
First impressions are that it is well presented and intuitive, no need for a help file here to show you where to go.
It is compatible with:
* Guitar Pro
* Power Tab
* Plain Text
So it covers pretty much all bases.
Song List
The main song list page lets you see all of the tabs that you have on your phone, it organises by Artist or Song.
Well laid out and easy to read.
Clicking on one of the tabs then takes you into the main area of the program, here you can view the tab in the given format e.g. guitar pro, text etc.
Main Tab Area
You can see from the picture (Main Tab Area) that it looks just as you would expect in guitar pro, you can also turn your iPhone sideways for full landscape. This works really well and through the settings menu you can change the tempo and configure the metronome.
This works so well I would fully expect to replace using the screen with this, easier to have by your side and easy to read. It even shows the fretboard so that you can see the notes more visually. The sound is also just as you would expect from Guitar Pro.
You can select the different instruments using the guitar icon in the bottom left hand corner, this shows all available for the your chosen track.
Downloading Tab
One of my favourite features of this software is its ability to download tab as you go without having to take it from a PC. There are two options for getting tab onto the program:
1. Copy from a computer using a browser (type in a given IP address)
2. Use the 'Download Tab' option and it brings up Google. You can then navigate to any of the various tab websites to get one of the supported file types. If you are on a text only page, a message pops up and allows you to download this also. You are then asked to enter the Artist and Song name so that it can be added to your song list, I found this to be good but would be nice to auto-fill once I had entered the first few letters.
Overall
Tab Toolkit is another must have for iPhone owning guitar players, I can see it being invaluable when gigging / rehearsing. How many other people carry around a folder of paper, I know I do.
There are a few improvements (already mentioned auto-fill) but also the google search once you have a page displayed seemed a little unpredictable but it certainly doesn't detract from making this one of the best applications available.
G | H rating 4.5/5
Guitar Toolkit – Update, it has scales
After posting my review Jack at AgilePartners got in contact to let me know that the FRETBOARD section of the app contains a bit more than I thought.
If you hit the 'i' (see image below)
Hit the i in the bottom right hand corner
You get the following
Allowing you to select a whole host of scales (see above image), in which you can click on the notes to hear them.
Brilliant!! Thanks for the update.
Guitar Toolkit – iPhone Review
The iPhone is great for keeping in touch but the apps is where its made strides in the winning the phone wars.
As a guitar player there are loads of apps out there, this is my favourite though.
This application currently retails at £5.99 on the app store and is selling well, I also spot they have a Tab Toolkit application which I will download and review.
What do you get?
This applications comes with the following functionality:
Tuner
The tuner is easy to see and has a handy RED/GREEN light as seen with most normal tuners.
You have a MODE button which allows you change the tuning options:
* All notes
* Standard tuning
The standard tuning was selected in the options setting (last tab) and can be changed, there are a wide variety of alternative tunings here including dropped D and Baritone.
It uses the built in MIC and does a great job in a quiet environment so is great for home use and rehearsal (if you can shut your band mates up for a few minutes).
Fretboard
This is a virtual fretboard, you can strum each string but cannot play any fretted notes. Its a handy guide to tuning if you are doing it by ear (which I recommend you do).
Not much more to say here, works well.
Metronome
All guitarists must practise with a metronome to get a good sense of timing, it also helps with those chromatic runs and exercises to help coordination.
The metronome on here is excellent and the BPM can be adjusted from 20 to 300.
It uses a Cow Bell sound, which isn't too irritating.
Chords
Massive chord database, cant see you needing anymore chords here..
Great having a pocket book of chords that you have access to, especially when reading from tabs.
Instrument
This screen allows you to select which instrument (6 string, 12 string, 5 string bass, 6 string bass, banjo, mandolin and ukulele) and tuning options you want.
Overall
G | H rating 5/5 - This is a must for all iPhone owning guitar players.