Comparison

Guitar Tab Notes vs Guitar Chords

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Guitar Tab Notes

Features
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Guitar Tab Notes is a fast sketchpad for guitar players. When a riff or a chord shape shows up, open the app and get it down before it slips away. Instead of finger numbers or fret numbers, every position on the fretboard is shown as the actual note it plays (C, C#, D and so on). You read the sounds, not the shapes, so an idea still makes sense days later and is easy to move around in your head. WHY GUITARISTS USE IT - Capture ideas fast. Tap the fretboard and the note appears. Nothing in the way. - Think in any tuning. Standard, drop, open, or completely custom alt tunings that you type in and save. Every note name updates instantly across all of your chords. - Made for sketches, not for perfection. Group ideas into projects, drop in quick section labels like verse or chorus, and reorder everything by dragging. - Hear it back. Tap play to strum a chord and check an idea on the spot. - Color your voicings. Highlight alternate notes in four accent colors (turquoise, violet, amber, coral) right on the diagram. Colors can even share one spot with the main note: the dot splits into colored sections. - Capo aware. Set a capo and the fretboard and note names follow along. EVERYWHERE YOU WRITE Guitar Tab Notes runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and your whole sketchbook syncs automatically through your private iCloud. Start a riff on the couch with your phone, then finish the arrangement on iPad or Mac later. Nothing to set up and no account to create. EXPORT AND SHARE Send a single chord as an image, or a whole song as plain text or as a print-ready PDF: clean black-on-white A4 pages with your section labels, automatic page breaks and a choice of 2, 3 or 4 chords per row. On Mac, exports go through the standard Save dialog. Simple on purpose and quick by design. Keep the guitar in your hands and let the ideas land.

About

Guitar Chords

Features
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ChordCoach is a complete guitar chord workshop: a 355-voicing chord book, a fretboard you can build chords on, and a library of the progressions that built popular music. THE CHORD BOOK Every chord in every key โ€” major, minor, dominant 7th, major 7th, minor 7th, suspended and more โ€” and every chord comes with several ways to play it. Take C major open at the nut, or as an A shape at the 3rd fret, an E shape at the 8th, a D shape at the 10th. Search by chord, by key, or by flavour and it's there in a keystroke. Each shape is drawn on a clean six-string diagram with numbered circles showing exactly which finger goes where, plus open and muted markers so you always know which strings to play. Tap any string to hear its note, or press Play Chord to strum the whole shape with real-time plucked-string sound. Every string is labelled with the note it sounds, so a little theory comes along for free. THE CHORD BUILDER Put your own notes anywhere on a full 15-fret neck and the app names what you've spelled โ€” the chord, its inversion, and what each note is doing inside it. Strum it, spell it out one note at a time, or open it in the chord book. It's the fastest way to understand why a shape sounds the way it does. THE PROGRESSIONS 29 progressions, from the three-chord trick to the doo-wop changes to the 12-bar blues, each with the songs that made it famous. Play any of them in any of the 12 keys, at any tempo, and the chord diagrams move with you. Tap a song and the whole page shifts into that record's key and tempo โ€” so what's on screen is what's on the record. FAVOURITES Star the voicings and progressions you're working on and they're waiting for you on the next practice session. DESIGNED FOR IPAD On iPad the chord book becomes a sidebar with the diagram beside it, the neck stretches out to full size, and every page uses the room it's given. โ€ข 355 voicings across every key and flavour โ€ข Search by chord, key or flavour โ€ข A 15-fret builder that names what you play โ€ข 29 progressions with the songs behind them โ€ข Any key, any tempo, chords that follow along โ€ข Favourites that persist between sessions โ€ข No account, no ads, no tracking โ€” works completely offline Whether you are pressing your very first chord or working out why a voicing up the neck sounds different, ChordCoach helps it click faster. Pick up your guitar and start playing.

Screenshots

Guitar Tab Notes4 screens
Guitar Chords4 screens

Verdict

The call

Guitar Tab Notes and Guitar Chords are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Guitar Tab Notes versus Guitar Chords: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGuitar Tab NotesGuitar Chords
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size2 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUnited App Sp. z o.o.LEE HARRISON HARROLD

In-app purchases

None

Guitar Tab Notes

No in-app purchases

None

Guitar Chords

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Guitar Tab Notes free?
Guitar Tab Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Guitar Chords free?
Guitar Chords is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Guitar Tab Notes or Guitar Chords have ads?
Neither Guitar Tab Notes nor Guitar Chords shows ads.

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