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Turn any tab into an exercise, and never play it alone

Bring a Guitar Pro file or write a riff from scratch. Riff Quest turns it into an exercise with tempo control and note detection, puts a band behind it, and lets other players practise it too if you want them to.

Open the tab editorUpload a Guitar Pro file

The editor opens without an account. Saving and practising take a free one.

exercises written by players
190+
exercises written by players
Guitar Pro files uploaded
830+
Guitar Pro files uploaded

Bring the music

Start from a file, or from nothing

Whatever you want to practise, get it in as notes: a Guitar Pro file from your collection, or a tab you write yourself.

A Guitar Pro file you already have

Upload it to your library and it opens as a practice session: pick the track you play, set a time limit or none, and go. Up to 50 files of 1.5 MB each, sorted into folders. GP3, GP4, GP5, GPX, GP all work.

Or a blank tab

Write it in the tab editor, beat by beat, with the keyboard: frets, note values, rests, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, vibrato, palm mutes, taps and picking direction. It plays back as you write, at any tempo from 40 to 208 BPM, and it can pull one track out of a Guitar Pro file to start from.

The Riff Quest tab editor with two bars of sixteenth notes: a live preview of the tab on top, the editing grid with all six strings below, and the keyboard shortcuts beside it

Make it an exercise

One form, and it practises like the rest

Publish the tab and fill in what a teacher would tell you about it. From then on it sits in My Exercises and behaves like any exercise in the library.

  • Everything a library exercise has
    A title, a description, steps, tips, a tempo range with a recommended speed, a length, a category, a difficulty and the skills it trains.
  • Practised like one
    The tab scrolls, Pitch Detect marks every note, and the session counts towards your points and streak.
  • Part of your routine
    Put it in a practice plan next to library exercises, or set a goal on it and climb to a target tempo.
  • Public or private
    Share it with every player or keep it to yourself, and change your mind later. Either way you can keep editing it.

Play it with a band

Never practise against silence

A riff over a metronome tells you if you are in time. A riff over a band tells you if it sounds right. Which band you get depends on what you brought.

A band that reads your notes

An exercise with a tab gets its own backing, written for it: the app reads the key and the chords from the notes you wrote, picks a groove, and a soft electronic band of drums, bass and keys plays under you. Nothing to set up.

Share it

Someone else probably wants that drill

Public exercises go into the community tab, where every player can find them, practise them, rate them and say thanks.

  • 5 Fame for you each time a player sends thanks.
  • 1 Fame the first time each new player completes it.
  • A play count and a rating, so you can see what landed.

Most played in the community tab when this page was written

  • 7 day RIFF speed building routine243
  • Am Alternate Picking exercise242
  • Spider Pendulum 8 Note42
  • 1+3 Legato Hammer On Lvl 132

40+ players have written exercises so far.

Why it exists

The best exercise is usually the one you wrote

Most of what I practise is not in any library: a lick I took off a record, a part from a song one of my bands played, a drill I made up to fix one weak spot. For years those lived in text files and Guitar Pro tabs, and I played them against a metronome or nothing at all.

I wanted them to be first-class exercises, with the same tempo control, the same note detection and the same place in a routine as everything else. And I wanted a band behind them. The generated backing is deliberately plain: it reads your notes, picks chords that fit and stays out of the way.

Then it seemed a waste to keep them to myself. If a drill fixed something for me, it will fix it for somebody else.

Michael Apfel

Michael Apfel

Guitarist & Creator of Riff Quest

Frequently asked questions

What a practice session looks like once your exercise is in it: Interactive guitar practice

Do I need Guitar Pro?

No. The tab editor runs in the browser, and the Guitar Pro library takes files from Guitar Pro or any program that saves to its formats. You only need an account to save and practise what you made.

Which files can I upload?

GP3, GP4, GP5, GPX, GP, up to 1.5 MB each and 50 files in total.

Does the tab editor work on a phone?

No. It is built around the keyboard and a wide grid, so it opens on a computer. Exercises you make can be practised on any device.

Can I keep my exercises private?

Yes. Switch it to private when you save it, or later. Public exercises show up in the community tab; private ones only for you. You can edit it either way.

Can I play along to the original recording?

For songs from the library, yes. A YouTube video plays as picture in the browser and the desktop app, and the recording itself plays from your own audio file in the desktop app, synced to the tab.

What do I get when someone plays my exercise?

Players can rate it and send thanks, which gives you 5 Fame each time. The first time a new player completes it, you get 1 more.

Write the riff. Then play it with a band.

Open the tab editorSee my exercises