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An iPad running iPadOS 17 or later, an electric guitar, headphones, an audio interface that plugs the guitar into the iPad, and an amp app such as AmpliTube. An electric guitar is silent without an amp, and TabFollower is not one: it listens to your notes and plays the band, and the amp app makes your guitar audible. We test with the IK Multimedia iRig HD 2 and iRig HD X and AmpliTube; any class-compliant guitar interface with a headphone output, and any amp app that can run in the background, work the same way.
TabFollower listens to the guitar through the interface, not the iPad microphone, so it hears only your strings and never the band.
Connect the iRig and start the amp app before opening TabFollower. If you plug in while a song is playing, stop and start the song again.
Your guitar only comes out of the iRig's headphone socket, never the iPad speaker, so without headphones you hear the band but not yourself. Headphones also keep the band from bleeding into the pickups, which would confuse the note detector on a quiet passage.
TabFollower doesn't make the sound of your guitar; your amp app does. Open AmpliTube (or the amp app you use), check that a preset is loaded and its output isn't muted, and turn on its background audio setting so it keeps running when TabFollower is in front. Then switch back to TabFollower. If the amp app stops when you leave it, the background setting is off.
The note badge at the top right of the practice screen shows what TabFollower hears: if it shows notes while you play, the app side is fine.
Work down this list:
Yes. An electric guitar needs an amp to be heard, and TabFollower is not one. The normal setup is AmpliTube (or any amp app with a background audio setting) running in the background: open it, turn on Background Audio, then switch to TabFollower and you hear your tone and the band together.
Some amp sims also ship an Audio Unit extension (AmpliTube, Tonebridge, BIAS FX…). Menu › Amp plug-in loads one inside TabFollower instead, with its controls one tap away. The difference: a hosted amp is part of the videos you record; an amp app in the background is not.
Standard tab notation, shown from level 3 up. h between two fret numbers on one string: hammer-on, pick the first note and hammer the second with a fretting finger. p: pull-off, pick the first and pull the finger off to sound the lower note. / or \ between two numbers: slide up or down to the second note without picking again. A curved arrow with ½ or full: bend the note up a half step or a whole step. ~~~ after a number: vibrato, rock the note. PM over notes: palm mute, rest the picking hand lightly on the strings at the bridge. The iPad hears pitch and timing, not technique, so a note counts when it sounds right and on time; bends count on the target pitch or the fretted one.
Tap Library, pick a song, then tap Play. The band counts you in for one bar, then the tab scrolls under the orange playhead. Play each number as it reaches the line. A note you hit turns green, a note you missed turns red, and the next note is circled in orange.
At the end you get a card with your stars, your best streak, and up to three plain-language notes on what to fix.
Play mode is a performance: the band never stops, and a note counts as missed half a beat after its time.
Practice mode is an accompanist: when a note is overdue, the band loops that bar, holding the groove, until you play the note, then carries on from where you are. Nothing freezes and the clock never jumps.
Step mode has no clock and no band: the tab rests on the next note and moves on only when you play it, so you can work through a passage at your own pace, with no backing at all. Wrong notes are flagged and nothing is ever missed. Step runs are not timed, so they don't count towards your best score.
Switch between them with the picker under the tab before pressing Play.
Tap the tab while a song is playing to pause; tap Resume to continue with a short count-in.
Drag the tab to the right to go back in the song, or to the left to move ahead. Let go and the band counts you in from that bar. Anything you scrub past is rescored from there, so you can drill one passage as often as you like.
Yes. Tap Preview and the whole piece plays with the lead line synthesised on top of the band. Preview doesn't score anything.
Yes. Move the tempo slider before pressing Play. The band is rendered live, so any tempo sounds natural. Your best score for a song is kept whatever tempo you played it at, so start slow and work up.
Tap Tune. The tuner listens through the iRig and compares each string with the tuning the current song uses, so a flat low E reads as "E, tune up", not "D#". Pluck one string at a time and let it ring. Tap Done when every string sits in the middle.
Tap the record button next to Library (the circle) so it turns red, then Play. The run is recorded as a video: the tab with your hits and misses, the score, the stars at the end, and a "Played on TabFollower" mark. When the run ends, the finish card offers Save to Photos and Share.
What you hear in the video: the band, plus your guitar only if the amp is hosted inside TabFollower (Menu › Amp plug-in). An amp app running in the background is another app's sound and can't be captured, so those videos have the band alone.
Stars are the share of the song's notes you hit: three stars for 90% or more, two for 70%, one for 50%.
The feedback lines come from what the app heard. It can tell you which fret a wrong note actually came out as, how many plucks sounded muted and where, and whether you tend to rush or drag against the band. Bends, vibrato and tone are beyond a pitch detector, so it doesn't pretend to judge them.
Thirty pieces, six styles (chill, folk, moody, blues, rock and metal), five levels each. Level 1 is a first lesson on the two thin strings in the first five frets; level 3 adds hammer-ons and pull-offs across four strings; level 5 runs over all six strings with bends, vibrato and palm muting, some in 3/4 or 6/8. The library groups them by style with a level badge on each, and shows your best stars. No account is needed for any of it.
Song creation is part of TabFollower Plus and needs an account.
Plus includes five new songs a month, each up to three minutes long. The first song of the month is written by the strongest model and later ones by lighter ones, which is how the price stays at $4.99. The Account screen shows how many you have used and when the count resets.
In the Library, swipe left on a song under My songs and tap Delete. The song is removed from this iPad and from your account, so it won't come back on your other iPads either.
The thirty bundled songs can't be removed.
Yes, automatically. Songs you create are stored with your account. When you sign in on another iPad, open the Library and any songs that aren't on that iPad yet are downloaded. There is no sync button to press.
4/4, 3/4 and 6/8. Pick the time signature on the Create screen (or tell a connected AI); the band plays waltz or shuffle patterns to match, the count-in has three clicks for a three-beat bar, and the tempo is always quarter-note beats per minute. Imported tab in 2/4 is best written as 4/4 with two printed bars per bar. Other meters (5/4, 7/8, 12/8) are not supported yet.
Yes. TabFollower reads a small JSON format that describes the bars, chords and lead notes. Tap Import in the Library to pick a file, or drop files into the app's Pieces folder using the Files app (On My iPad, TabFollower, Pieces). The format is documented on the project page; write to support if you want a copy.
Not for the free library, the tuner, Preview, pause or scrubbing. You need one to create songs and to keep your scores and songs across iPads.
Open the menu at the top right of the practice screen and tap Sign in. Sign in with Apple is the quickest: one tap, and Apple can hide your email address if you prefer. Continue with Google works the same way with a Google account. Or create an account with an email address and a password of at least eight characters. Whichever you use, the same email lands in the same account.
Accounts made with Sign in with Apple or Google don't have a TabFollower password; just sign in with Apple or Google again.
The private relay address Apple created, which the Account screen shows. Password reset emails aren't needed for Apple accounts, and anything we send goes through that relay to your real inbox.
Open the Account screen and tap Delete account. Your account, your created songs and your play history are removed from our servers. Songs already downloaded to this iPad stay in the app until you delete them.
Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription. Cancel that in Settings first (see the Plus section).
$4.99 a month (local price shown in the app), billed by Apple through your Apple ID. It includes up to five created songs a month, each up to three minutes; connecting your own Claude, ChatGPT or Codex to compose up to 20 more songs a month, each up to five minutes; and keeping your songs and scores with your account. The free library stays free with or without Plus.
Sign in, then tap Create song in the Library, or open the Account screen and tap Subscribe. Apple handles the payment. The subscription is attached to the TabFollower account you were signed in to when you bought it.
Open the iPad Settings app, tap your name, then Subscriptions, then TabFollower, and tap Cancel. Or tap Manage subscription on the Account screen, which opens the same page. You keep Plus until the end of the period you already paid for. Deleting the app does not cancel it.
Make sure you are signed in to the same TabFollower account you subscribed with, then open the Account screen and tap Restore purchases. If you subscribed on another iPad, restoring on this one is all that is needed. If it still doesn't show, email support with the date of the purchase.
Refunds for App Store purchases are handled by Apple. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with your Apple ID, and choose the TabFollower purchase.
TabFollower is in OpenAI's plugin directory, so ChatGPT connects with a normal sign-in. It needs a paid ChatGPT plan.
Songs from a connected AI have their own allowance, 20 a month, each up to five minutes, separate from the five TabFollower writes. To disconnect, remove the plugin in ChatGPT, or delete the token in the app if you signed in with one.
Codex, OpenAI's agent, is built into the ChatGPT desktop app for Mac (the Work tab) and into the codex command-line tool, and it connects to TabFollower with a token from the app. It needs a paid ChatGPT plan.
Try it: "Using the TabFollower tools, create a beginner electric-guitar song in A minor, 80 BPM, with a simple backing track, and save it to my TabFollower library." The song appears under My songs on your iPad within a minute. Songs from a connected AI have their own allowance, 20 a month, separate from the five TabFollower writes. If Codex reports that the tools need TabFollower Plus, open the TabFollower app once so it can refresh your subscription, then start a new task.
Command line: the app shows a codex mcp add command as well (it reads the token from a TABFOLLOWER_TOKEN variable, so keep the export line in your shell profile). Note: this entry is a Codex MCP server; for ordinary ChatGPT chats use the TabFollower plugin instead (previous question).
Claude is the AI we recommend for this right now: it reads the composing brief, fixes what the checker flags, and gets pieces right first time. Claude adds TabFollower as a custom connector, in the Claude app or at claude.ai, on paid Claude plans.
Try it: "Create a beginner electric-guitar song in A minor, 80 BPM, with a simple backing track, and save it to my TabFollower library." It appears under My songs on your iPad. Songs from a connected AI have their own allowance, 20 a month, separate from the five TabFollower writes.
A token from the app (Account, Connect ChatGPT or Claude, Create token) is a key to your TabFollower library, and only your library. Codex uses it as a header on its MCP connection. Claude shows a TabFollower sign-in page instead and takes either that token or, for accounts created with an email and password, the password; accounts created with Apple or Google have no password, so they paste a token. Your password is never shared with an AI. To disconnect, delete the token under Account, Connect ChatGPT or Claude, and remove the connection in the AI app; deleting the token alone is enough to stop the AI reaching your library. Command-line tools such as Claude Code connect with a token too; the app shows the exact command.
The detector needs a clean single note. Things that help: a little less gain on the iRig, the neck pickup with the tone rolled back slightly, and letting each note ring instead of stopping it early. Going straight into the iRig, without distortion or a noise gate in front, makes the biggest difference. The note badge at the top right shows what the app is hearing in real time, so you can check your signal on an open string.
Muted means the app heard a pluck but no steady pitch. Palm muting, a finger touching the next string, or a very short staccato note all read that way. Let the note sustain for at least a quarter beat.
Close other audio apps, unplug and reconnect the iRig, and open TabFollower again. Low Power Mode and very old Lightning cables can also cause dropouts.
Quit the app (swipe it away in the app switcher), reconnect the iRig, and open it again. Always stop the song before unplugging.
Both are right. A chromatic tuner names the nearest note; TabFollower compares the string with the note the song expects from it, so it tells you which way to turn the peg.
Or email support@tabfollower.com. Tell us your iPad model, the iPadOS version, which interface you use, and what happened. We answer within two working days.