Discover new guitar songs online
About Guitar Tabs.nl
For years I wanted to learn to play the guitar and I was always afraid that I could not, because reading notes is not my strong point. Eventually took the plunge and took a subscription. Within two days I can strum some tunes! So nicely constructed with the staves and the accompanying tabs. And all actions clearly explained, so that suddenly learning to play the guitar is possible. Super!
"Guitar Tabs aims to help every guitarist learn to play the guitar or rise up in their segment."
Jan van der Heide
The Beginning of Guitar Tabs (almost 25 years)
I figured out how to play the basic chords, but I also wanted to know how these chords were put together. What are the connections between the chords? What does the 'minor' or '7' in a chord mean and how can you translate it to all chords? Because I was studying a lot of theory, the guitar went everywhere with me. Moreover, I wrote everything down on paper. This all happened during my high school days.
After secondary technical school I went to the HTS (Industrial Automation) in Utrecht. There we had to make a website with the subject of programming. I also wanted to try this at home. So I made a website on various topics: coasters (Heineken), our homework and the basic guitar lessons I had worked out about learning to play the guitar.
Guitar music website
I decided to focus on the guitar music and lessons I had already posted online. The rest I got off the website. Of the 30 visitors I had per month I wanted to go to 100. That's why I converted the information from Wordperfect to HTML pages (notepad). Then I uploaded everything via the 56k modem. Do you remember the sound of the modems ? During the lessons I had made pictures in Paint: the guitar website was born. All this on a free URL of tripod.lycos.nl/123/# and therefore an unforgettable URL.
The website ran pretty well. The 100 visitors per month quickly became 100 per day. This was very motivating. That's how I started to convert piano songs into tablature. It was a huge job, but I thought it was worth it. Besides, I learned a lot from it. During this time, I posted a lot of tabs and lessons myself online.
The site ran for a number of years and grew enormously. So by now it had its own domain name. I never really doubted the name. Guitar Tabs was a clear and logical choice.
Collaborate with experts
It would be a good mix to give Guitar Tabs more content. This was difficult with my HTS background and lack of skilled music knowledge. I knew that if I wanted to do something about this, I had to work with (trained) guitar teachers. I went looking for guitar teachers, cameraman and a studio.
The teachers were harder to find in the beginning. Fortunately, Karst, Jesse and Sjoerd, who also lived in Utrecht, thought the concept of “online guitar lessons” was really cool. They wanted to help. The first studio where we recorded guitar lessons was on the old canal in the center of Utrecht. In retrospect it was much too small. Because of this, the material we shot then never appeared online. We started looking for a new studio. We ended up at Studio Moscow , also in Utrecht. This turned out to be the best option. Here we have recorded several guitar lessons. Even though not all the film material has come online.
After several years of recording online guitar lessons, we started to work out Tabs well in consultation with the teachers. First we did this with label (verified) and later in GuitarPro with an online playback script. At that time there was not yet the possibility to play along with streaming.
Our experts and guitar teachers
Lead Gitarist Gitaartabs
ProTabs gitarist
Riffs & Licks gitarist
Gitarist
ProTabs Gitarist
Gitarist
Gitarist
Gitarist
Second clash with music rights
This didn't come again until two years later, ProTabs. This is where we as Guitar Tabs could distinguish ourselves. That was really cool! However, it didn't take long before we were attacked (again) by the music rights organization. What now? The site took over 20 years of time and energy. In addition, we had more than 75,000 members. I couldn't just let this go. That is why I often work day (and night) on the site with great passion to make it better and keep it up and running.
special contribution
I know that Guitar Tabs is an added value for many musicians. Moreover, I know that in this way I can really contribute something in learning to play an instrument. Anyone can learn to play guitar by taking guitar lessons, simply playing guitar songs or streaming.
The best thing really remains when you talk to someone on an occasion about his or her hobby and he or she plays guitar and knows Guitar Tabs. How cool is that! The special contribution of Guitar Tabs in the music world is very dear to me. Therefore , I would like to take the opportunity to say the following .
Thank you for your trust in me and therefore in Guitar Tabs!
Jan from Guitar Tabs