Well, I've just had a week off work, the majority of which was spent sat in the sunshine playing my guitar - A refreshing change from sitting in front of my laptop for hours on end! Anyway, since picking my guitar back up a couple of months ago, I've discovered some web sites and iPhone apps that are really useful to all guitarists, of any skill level, and I thought I'd take time out to share them...
Useful Sites
I've found it really helpful to sit down in front of my PC with my guitar and learn from online tabs and video lessons, so here's my list of some of the best guitar sites...
- Ultimate Guitar - I suspect most guitarists already know this one, so forgive me for stating the obvious, but this site definately needs mentioning. Great content, including reviews of guitars, hardware, bands and more, a huge repository of song tabs and chords, interviews, lessons and much more. This should be your first stop!
- Free Guitar Videos - I really like this site. A huge amount of video based lessons in all styles, with well produced videos. A good one to site in front of your PC with your guitar and actually have "virtual lessons". This is a site that has really helped me get back up to speed since picking my guitar up after not playing for a few years!
- JGuitar - Although it's design looks very dated, JGuitar has a few handy features, including a Chord Calculator that automatically determines every mathematically possible fingering for a chord based on the options you specify, handy for sussing out alternative fingerings, a Tab Mapper, that takes a tab URL and generates chord structures, and a Chord Search function. It's well worth exploring.
- Justin Guitar - If you want to learn how to play well known tracks, or you're interested in getting to grips with some music theory, Justin Sandercoe's site is brilliant. Justin Sandercoe is a London based guitarist, songwriter, performer, producer and educato, and his video lessons on YouTube have had over 60 million views! I've spent quiet a bit of time on this site, and my playing has definately improved! Even if you spend just 10 minutes on Justin Guitar, you will see how much much time, effort and enthusiasm Justin has spent on making his site a brilliant guitarists resource.
- Guitarists.net - Another site with great content, although the design and layout is a bit dated. It features quite a few good lessons, for beginners and also for more advanced players, covering music theory, scales, licks, tricks and more. There is also an interesting directory of music/guitar related software. Check it out!
- Chops from Hell - This is one for my colleague Tristan! A proper "RAWK" site with cheesy design, but this site has some lessons and videos for the "shredder" guitarist. Definately not for beginners, but worth checking out if you want to see some guys who can really play "metal" lead guitar. While I'm not really into some of the heavier rock music, I really admire people who can "shred".
- Guitar Player - Another really good resource, from the magazine Guitar Player. Lots of great content, including video lessons from some amazing musicians (Check out Joe Bonamassa's blues videos). This site has also has some interesting "non-lesson" articles - Have a read of "
- Guitar Player World - This site has a few good lessons, covering beginners and some more advanced stuff, along with articles and lessons about playing different styles. A lot of the lessons are more text/theory based, rather than video or tabs, but still worth reading!
- YouTube - Although not a dedicated guitarist's site, there are literally thousands of video guitar lessons available on YouTube. Some are definately better than others, but a few users worth checking out include RockOnGoodPeople, BerkleeMusic, GuitarJamzDotCom and LickLibrary
- ChordBook - This one's a bit different, as it is Flash based, with an interactive section allows you to choose guitar type (electric or acoustic) and find any chord and hear them played on the virtual guitar. You can also create your own chords and save them for later use. Chord book also has a Flash based interactive Scales tool to help you learn your scales!
iPhone Apps
As well as using my PC to improve my guitar skill, I've also discovered "there's an app for that" when it comes to the iPhone too! Here's the list of guitar related apps I have on my iPhone...
- Guitar Toolkit - This is one of my favourites. A really well put together app, with a tuner for most popular tunings and suitable for 6 and 12 string guitars, bass, banjo, mandolin and ukelele, a metronome, complete with tap pad to set your own timing, and chord and scale libraries. A must buy, and a definate bargain at £5.99.
- Ultimate Guitar Tabs - Another app that I have used almost daily since getting back into guitar. It uses Ultimate Guitar's huge database of tabs and chords, allowingyou to search for any song you want to learn to play, with both tabs and chords. Most songs have multiple versions, rated by other users so you can easily see which is the best or most accurate version to learn. This one would be good on the iPad, as tab and chords tend to need a decent screen area so you can read and play, but still handy on the iPhone.
- Guitar: Play and Share - This one is just amazing. there are quiet a few "iphoine guitar" apps, that allow you to "play" chords and scales, but to be honest, none of them work that well, as the iphone is'nt really anything like a guitar! Guitar: Play and Share gets around this by simply providing buttons for chords (over 1900 in the library, and you can define your own) , then you simply hit the strings you want to play. A simple, but ingenious solution, and it's a fantastic tool for creating your own progressions and songs, even without your guitar. If you ever find yourself having an idea, but you don't have a guitar to hand, this is a must have.
- Fretboard - FretBoard holds a collection of more than 140 instrument tunings in 15 instrument groups and a huge amount of music theory packed in a simple and intuitive interface guaranteeing fast access and easy understanding, and helps visualize chords and scales.
- ChordMaster - A very handy chord library, from D'Addario. With more than 7800 chords and variations, with the ability to strum and hear individual notes in each chord. Very handy indeed!
I'm sure there are more iPhone apps out there, but that's the list of apps I've installed and use regularly. I hope those of you who play guitar finds something handy, in the meantime, I'm off to sit in the garden and practice!
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