Sexy Websites for Guitarists
By Matthew Toledo - 9/11/5
I was exploring the internet trying to find a website where I could print up a blank page of guitar tab when I realized just how many fantastic resources there are for guitarists. Who would of thought that the internet--long renowned for its massive collection of porn, political blogs, and yet more porn--also has an impressive collection of useful musician websites, especially if you play a stringed instrument. It just so happens that guitars have strings. How cool is that!
One of the best sites I've seen for serious guitar students was created by local musician and guitar instructor Jonathan Horne. Visit his website and take a look at the "students" section of his website. You'll find several java-based applets designed to help train your ear to recognize chords, notes, triads, intervals and scales. He even has an online metronome. I tried my hand at some of the ear exercises and I discovered I am actually good at figuring out if a chord is minor or major, but not so good at recognizing the interval (distance) between two notes, especially when the second note was lower than the first. Give it a try for your self by visiting his site.
There was one tool on John's site which I will include on the AMN. It is called the Guitar Codex and I've found it an incredibly handy tool when I'm writing out guitar tablature by hand. It translates fret values into the note playing, and it will also tell you the current cord (if there is one). I've never quite memorized what notes are on what fret, and since I play a lot of alternate tunings, this prevents me from major headaches.
|
While Jonathan's site is pretty cool, wholenote.com is the best online instructional website I've ever encountered. All of their lessons in their extensive lesson section contain tablature and a "play" button that lets you listen to the lesson. They also have a "groove-builder" page that lets you pick chords in sequence so you can hear what the chord sequence would sound like. While the groove-builder is cool, you'll have to ignore the cheesy midi background "groove" that is played behind your chords. They also have an extensive collection of free guitar tab thanks to a direct link to the On Line Guitar Archive commonly known as "OLGA."
When I joined Poppycock a few years back, I had to learn approximately twenty new songs in about a week. There was no way I could possibly commit it all to memory, so I purchased blank tablature book and wrote down the parts. The books set me back a few bucks and I wondered to myself if there was anyplace where I could get blank tablature for free.
Blanksheetmusic.net provides exactly the service I was looking for. Their Macromedia Flash based website lets you chose the type of sheet music you wish to print. There are options for piano music, guitar tab, bas tab, mandolin tab, and even 7 string tab for those of us who own seven stringed instruments. It also lets you adjust the darkness of the printout. A lighter print makes it easier for people to read your hand-written notation. The site asks you to install a free ear training program. You do not need to install the trainer in order to print the sheet music.
|
If you don't have the patience to edit tab by hand with paper and pencil, there is a computer program called tabledit that lets you write professional looking tab sheets similar to the ones you would find in a magazine like Guitar World. It took an hour of playing around with the program before I understood its nuances. After working out the kinks, I was able to write out three songs in an hour. I just sat down with my guitar, looked at my hands, and then transferred what I was doing to the screen. Granted, I write simple riffs so the speed at which I wrote may be faster than your results since I wasn't held back by trying to decipher any wailin' guitar solos--I don't have any. Tabledit is not free, although the demo version lets you save 16 measures of 4/4--which is still handy, especially if you're in a band where the keyboard player wants to know the exact notes you are playing on a difficult riff. Tabledit is a huge time-saver at practice if the folks in your band can read tab or sheet music.
Guitar chord charts also come in handy when you are transferring your musical creations from mind to paper. Guitar.about.com has blank chord charts that you can print for free. Guitarnotes.com has a populated chord chart containing just about every chord you'll ever need. The chart is free. You'll need Adobe Reader installed on your computer in order to download and print the cart.
A macromedia flash based utility on chordbook.com lets you build your own chords and hear what they sound like when strummed. It comes in two flavors: a relatively realistic sounding classical guitar, and a cheap-Casio sounding electric guitar. They also have an option that lets you learn various basic scales including my favorite: the harmonic minor.
Here's an interesting fact about guitar chords that I learned from gootar.com "There are 12 different notes, 27 chords, 12 frets--zero (open) through eleven (12th fret same as open unless using open strings, including open strings would multiply grand total by two or=7,838,208 ), 4 stretch's, 9 variations ...(average out of possible 24, some more, some less), 2 ways to string it (righty, lefty), 14 tunings. Multiply everything together and you get 12 x 27 x 12 x 4 x 9 x 2 x 14 = 3,919,104 different chords!" That's a big number, however, many of the chords that gootar.com computed can be eliminated because they are simply a different voicing of the same chords.
So there you have it: tons of lessons for guitarists of all levels. While all these utilities are neat, they are still no substitute for actually playing. So practice, play open stages, and I'll see you at you're next gig.
