Capo 3The Apple Design Award-winning Capo has long been an excellent app for those looking to learn and improve their guitar-playing abilities, but the new version adds a significant new feature to help learn individual songs.

Capo 3 can automatically detect chords and let's users create guitar tablature -- musical notes -- from songs in the iTunes library in order to help guitar players quickly learn songs.

Capo 3 is a revolutionary tool that helps you learn the music in your iTunes library. By slowing your music, automatically detecting chords and quickly generating guitar tablature using the detailed spectrogram, Capo 3’s award-winning capabilities let you learn to play your songs faster than ever.

Capo will change the way you learn to play music. The audio-to-note approach will soon seem so natural to you that you will no longer regard your favorite bands’ music as inaccessible to play yourself. You can learn to play any music you have as a recorded audio file, whether an mp3, m4a, wav, or aiff file. This is the future of learning to play music. It’s no wonder Capo won a prestigious Apple Design Award.


Capo 3 is available from the Mac App Store for $29.99. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

drummingcraig Avatar
158 months ago
Does anyone know of an app like this...but for drums?

Lessons. :D
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Carlanga Avatar
158 months ago
what kind of sorcery is this!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nunyabinez Avatar
158 months ago
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.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Benguitar Avatar
158 months ago
Very cool if it actually works!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
till213 Avatar
158 months ago
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?

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?

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...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bradl Avatar
158 months ago
Wow, damn cool!

If only they'd had this app (and personal computers!) when I was a teenager learning guitar.

On one side, I'd agree..

But on the other side, it sorta takes the fun out of learning a song, as part of it is getting it down by ear. And that also helps with tuning by ear. Thanks to listening to songs over and over, I can tell just by listening to it not only the key of that song, but how the guitar might be tuned.

Either way, I just may get this if not just to figure out some of the overdubs put onto some songs.

BL.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4

Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
CarPlay Pinned Messages

iOS 26.2 Adds New CarPlay Setting

Thursday November 13, 2025 6:48 am PST by
iOS 26 extended pinned conversations in the Messages app to CarPlay, for quick access to your most frequent chats. However, some drivers may prefer the classic view with a list of individual conversations only, and Apple now lets users choose. Apple released the second beta of iOS 26.2 this week, and it introduces a new CarPlay setting for turning off pinned conversations in the Messages...
Tesla Charging

Tesla Working to Add Apple CarPlay Support to Vehicles

Thursday November 13, 2025 8:31 am PST by
Tesla is working to add support for Apple CarPlay in its vehicles, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Tesla vehicles rely on its own infotainment software system, which integrates vehicle functions, navigation, music, web browsing, and more. The automaker has been an outlier in foregoing support for Apple CarPlay, which has otherwise become an industry standard feature, allowing users to...
tvOS 26 Profiles

tvOS 26.2 Adds a Useful New Feature to Your Apple TV

Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account. In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...
iPhone Pocket Short

iPhone Pocket Now Available to Order, But Already Selling Out

Friday November 14, 2025 6:20 am PST by
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone. iPhone Pocket is available to order on Apple's online store starting today, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, it is already completely sold out in the United...
homepod mini thumb feature

New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and AirTag Were Expected This Year — Where Are They?

Wednesday November 12, 2025 11:42 am PST by
While it was rumored that Apple planned to release new versions of the HomePod mini, Apple TV, and AirTag this year, it is no longer clear if that will still happen. Back in January, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple planned to release new HomePod mini and Apple TV models "toward the end of the year," while he at one point expected a new AirTag to launch "around the middle of 2025." Yet,...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Available Next Month With These 8 New Features

Tuesday November 11, 2025 9:48 am PST by
Apple released the first iOS 26.2 beta last week. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date....
m1 chip slide

Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison

Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
walmart new ornametns

Walmart Black Friday Deals Begin Today With Low Prices on Headphones, TVs, and More

Friday November 14, 2025 7:55 am PST by
Walmart's Black Friday sale has officially kicked off today, with an online shopping event that's also seeing some matching deals in retail locations. There are quite a few major discounts in this sale, including savings on headphones, TVs, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.2 Beta 2

Wednesday November 12, 2025 3:29 pm PST by
Apple today provided developers with the second beta of iOS 26.2, which adds a few new features worth knowing about. Measure App Apple's Measure app now features a Liquid Glass design for the level, with two Liquid Glass bubbles instead of white circles. Games App There's now an option to sort games in the Games app Library by size, in addition to Name and Recent. CarPlay The...