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'Capo 3' Generates Guitar Tablature From Music in iTunes to Quickly Learn Songs

re: original article
transcribers are in its infancy still
if this can nail down:
satriani, vai, eric johnson, allan holdsworth, herb ellis, paco de lucia, paul gilbert, joe pass, manuel barrueco, tal farlow, lenny breau, edward van halen, uli jon roth, micheal schenker, sabicas, bucket head, george lynch, etc...
- then it would impress me
Doesnt look like it will touch transcribing the greats
Wouldnt come close to the actual fingerings - since all players hands are different. And dont get me started with players like satch and eddie who use musical feedback and harmonics and tapping
i say it would be a fun tool for the learning guitarists and learning basic songs
>then go and create your own crazy amazing music
> or as long if it make you have a good time using it - shred on
 
Would like to know what it detects for the infamous chord at the beginning of "A hard day's night".
 
The chords in this video are just basic chords. It's useful for beginners who can't find out these chords by ear but that's about it. It would be more interesting to see the software find out the most complex chords as well. I really wonder if it does.
 
Nunyabinez said:
I find this highly unlikely. I'm sure that for a solo guitar piece it is possible to generate some kind of tab, but for music that has multiple guitar parts playing simultaneously, how on earth would software detect what is going on?
Click to expand...

You should get yourself updated about what is possible these days with spectrum/beat/whatever analysis, e.g. this product:

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=melodyne

(a well-respected tool in the professional music industry).

Also, as anyone here who actually plays guitar knows, the same note can be played in many different locations on a guitar. How would it figure out exactly where on the neck it is being played?
Click to expand...

I - as a guitar player myself ;) - can only suspect that they have some "guitar patterns" ("expert knowledge") programmed in, so they'd figure out if e.g. a A (with a certain frequency) is played, followed by a C and G or whatever, then they are able to figure out the harmony and where (on which "location") to play this best.

Just a guess, though...
 
I downloaded and used the trial last night, and its a little hit or miss. Some songs it got perfectly, and some were off, but I will say, since I'm a beginner at guitar, this app would be mighty useful, especially since I can play by ear pretty well, and therefore correct the application if it guesses a chord wrong.

You can adjust by tuning your guitar differently, putting a capo on, slow things down, pretty neat. They might get my $30.
 
Not as advertised!

I quickly downloaded the trial and tried it on "Celia" by "The Motels".
The program has nice looks and so, but the advertised functionality just isn't there.

The rhythm detection is OK, from what I have seen, but the melodic part is where it gets troublesome.
The software suggests chord changes, where there are no changes but apparently gets fooled by the bass line.
Moreover, some of the suggested chords are just incorrect.

It probably is a nice tool to analyze songs (slow down etc.),
but you'll better of trusting your ears (or learn how to do that!)
than relying on this software.

It's a pity. I would have bought the program, even if the software had only passed the test on 'simple stuff', but it simply doesn't!
 
guys this is not rocket science and it's nothing new. if youre into music recording and had first hand experience in softwares like melodyne., you'll be suprise that you could easily learn any music by the aid of these waveform to polyphony converters. capo is really great because it gives normal users this ability. I should say 30 bucks is worth it if youre really into guitar playing. btw., i wont buy., my ears and UG is enough.
 
Didn't even know about this app. Thanks for the heads up. I will buy it now and give it whirl. :)
 
bradl said:
This may just be worth it!!

The only question I have is how would the software detect if a given piece of music has alternate tuning?

For example, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, and to an extent, Hendrix and a few others normally tune their guitar down 1/2 step from standard tuning. How is this software going to detect that, nevermind the nu-metal bands that play something crazy like a Drop C#, tuned down 2 1/2 steps?

And alternatively to that, what about artists who capo their guitar?

BL.
Click to expand...

alternate tuning and capo-ing your guitar doesn't change the notes it just changes how you play them. so a program that detects a G7 chord wouldn't care if the G in this chord is played on the third (normal tuning) or fourth (tuned down one half note) fret - it's the same note with the same frequency and should sound (more or less) the same.
 
gjveltink said:
I quickly downloaded the trial and tried it on "Celia" by "The Motels".
The program has nice looks and so, but the advertised functionality just isn't there.

The rhythm detection is OK, from what I have seen, but the melodic part is where it gets troublesome.
The software suggests chord changes, where there are no changes but apparently gets fooled by the bass line.
Moreover, some of the suggested chords are just incorrect.

It probably is a nice tool to analyze songs (slow down etc.),
but you'll better of trusting your ears (or learn how to do that!)
than relying on this software.

It's a pity. I would have bought the program, even if the software had only passed the test on 'simple stuff', but it simply doesn't!
Click to expand...

you know i had the same feeling. I wanted this to be good but it wasn't. This app on the iphone is sooo much more accurate and it's on a phone! Not perfect but i don't think you can get perfect yet.
 
Unami said:
alternate tuning and capo-ing your guitar doesn't change the notes it just changes how you play them. so a program that detects a G7 chord wouldn't care if the G in this chord is played on the third (normal tuning) or fourth (tuned down one half note) fret - it's the same note with the same frequency and should sound (more or less) the same.
Click to expand...

True, but a C#sus2 chord on a guitar that is tuned down 1 full step is going to sound exactly like a Bsus2 chord at standard tuning. How is the program going to detect that the chord, let alone that song, is not tuned down?

BL.
 
Its a fascinating example of technology. But as an enthusiastic Mac user and guitar player, I'm going to give it a miss.

Lets start out with the obvious: If you are a budding guitar player, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of resources you can go to get tabs of your favorite songs. Thousands more songs even have helpful YouTube videos that fellow-guitarists have created online lessons you can look at.

Then there is the musical purist in me: Part of becoming a good musician (and competent guitarist) is learning to listen to songs and recognize the chords/notes your own self. If you can't do this, you will never be a good guitar player.

Developing your musical ear, and learning how to accurately transcribe music from anothers' performance, is a key part of your musical development. You can "cheat" (if you will) by watching where your favorite axe-man's fingers go by carefully studying videos of his performances. But even doing this will provide helpful technique lessons. Don't take short cuts!
 
Haven't tried this yet, but ....

Yes, your concerns sound accurate to me. I don't believe software has reached the state where it can actually tab out guitar parts accurately (including selecting the proper neck position to play them in) when there are other instruments playing at the same time.

I suspect this app winds up able to do a fairly good job of showing where it "hears" particular chords sounding and where they change to the next one -- and can then depict those in tab form. This would probably wind up creating something like the "fake books" you see out there, which give you just enough information to strum chords to a given song. You can sing along to it that way, or let other musicians add on to the "base structure" you're strumming -- but it's not going to be anywhere near a note-for-note copy of all the solo parts, etc.


Nunyabinez said:
I find this highly unlikely. I'm sure that for a solo guitar piece it is possible to generate some kind of tab, but for music that has multiple guitar parts playing simultaneously, how on earth would software detect what is going on? Also, as anyone here who actually plays guitar knows, the same note can be played in many different locations on a guitar. How would it figure out exactly where on the neck it is being played?

This is not trivial because something can be easy to play in one position and mind-bogglingly difficult in a different position.

Maybe I am underestimating what this software can do. If it can do what they make it sound like it can do, it would be worth much more that what they are charging.
Click to expand...
 
bradl said:
This may just be worth it!!

The only question I have is how would the software detect if a given piece of music has alternate tuning?

For example, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, and to an extent, Hendrix and a few others normally tune their guitar down 1/2 step from standard tuning. How is this software going to detect that, nevermind the nu-metal bands that play something crazy like a Drop C#, tuned down 2 1/2 steps?

And alternatively to that, what about artists who capo their guitar?

BL.
Click to expand...

Notes lower than low-E would be a dead giveaway that drop tuning was used. Also the software can search for the most simple fingering and also it might assume there are some open strings. I doubt it could do it in every case but some things logic might work, There are after all only so many chord shapes and a computer can sort through 1,000 of those per second at least 'till it comes up with a sequence of shapes that is reasonable.

In other words it can try 1000 possible tabs and print out the most likely one that ask if you want to see the others.

----------
kingtj said:
I suspect this app winds up able to do a fairly good job of showing where it "hears" particular chords sounding and where they change to the next one -- and can then depict those in tab form. This would probably wind up creating something like the "fake books" you see out there, which give you just enough information to strum chords to a given song. You can sing along to it that way, or let other musicians add on to the "base structure" you're strumming -- but it's not going to be anywhere near a note-for-note copy of all the solo parts, etc.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the best of this kind of software? It is not perfect but very good. AudioScore (find it with Google) is able to track each instrument in a band to track who played each note. They have a free demo you can try.
 
bradl said:
This may just be worth it!!

The only question I have is how would the software detect if a given piece of music has alternate tuning?

For example, Yngwie Malmsteen,
Click to expand...


A harmonic minor. As fast as you can. Rinse, repeat.
 
JGRE said:
Not always. I downloaded the trail yesterday and tried 'Eruption' (Van Halen), I got chords but the the app was not able to produce an accurate guitar solo.
Click to expand...

lol, I knew somebody was going to test this app with Eruption.
 
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