Guitar Tools : A Compendium of Remarkable Resources for Guitarists

Search Swicki 

Custom Guitar Tools search engine

Guitar Tools Swicki

Optimized for guitar related information this Swicki provides highly relevant results. It uses a combination of filtering, tags and organized categories to make your searching more productive.

Guitar Tools Widget

You can put a Guitar Tools searchbox and buzzcloud on your own site with just a few lines of code.

Guitar Directories 

Guitar Notes

A large guitar resource index with a collection of links and information including favorite guitarists, guitar instruction for all levels, guitar chords and tablature, guitar makers, guitar stores, guitar equipment information, and hundreds of other online guitar resources.

GuitarSite.com: Guitars, Lessons, Reviews and Guitar News

A large directory and searchable database of guitar sites: guitars, bands, MP3, tablature, resources, software, tuition, etc. Also produces a weekly ezine.

Guitar Websites - Guitar Web Sites

Lists websites of interest to Guitarists.

The Guitar Sherpa Directory

A comprehensive online stringed instrument directory. Use it to find builders, dealers and manufacturers of guitars, mandolins, banjos and all ancillary product and information.

Guitar Blogs 

Electric Guitar Review

News, reviews and commentary about interesting guitars.

Guitar Guitar Guitar

Provides news and info about vintage guitars, equipment, history, repairs, building and accessories.

Guitarz

Links to interesting guitar sites and products found on the internet, news, and renovation projects.

Guitar Talk

No longer updated but the archives are full of handy tips, thoughts and commentary for guitar projects.

Kirk95's Guitar Geek Blog

No longer updated but the archives contain posts covering guitar related music, recording and equipment.

GuitaroJam News

Focusing on useful guitar resources, articles and learning materials

Music Gadgets

Covers musical instruments including: guitar, bass, piano, gadgets, amps, drums, keyboard, midi, percussion, synths and music technology topics.

Fretboard Journal Blog

Chronicles the most innovative instruments and instrument makers of the last 150 or so years Including mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, and guitars.

The Guitar Channel

News, reviews, and info from the world of Jazz Rock Fusion guitar (with a little tech news on the side).

Guitar Podcasts 

Fretworks Guitar Music

Greg West's streaming music station "Acoustic Guitar Masters". A channel of artists from the Soundclick community with lots of nice acoustic guitar performances.

iVideosongs

A video podcast that helps you learn to play popular songs from your favorite artists. Provides both free and paid tutorials..

Odeo Guitar Podcasts

Podcasting allows individuals to have a self-published, syndicated radio show. Odeo is a service for managing and distributing podcast feeds. These are shows tagged with "Guitar" providing quick access to guitar related podcasts with audio streaming.

Uncensored History of the Blues

The Delta Blues Museum's Uncensored Blues Podcast focuses on the early history of recorded blues music in the US. Each show includes a series of rare pre-war blues tracks and some discussion of those songs.

Guitar Wikis 

All about guitars and guitarists

Wikipedia Guitar

General knowledge about the instrument and links to Internet resources.

Wikipedia List of Guitar Related Topics

Links to guitar things, techniques, people and places.

Wikipedia Guitarist

Information about noted guitarists from all styles of music including Classical, Latin-American music, Flamenco, Jazz, Folk, and acoustic, Blues, Rock/pop, Metal, and more.

Guitar Wiki

A collaborative site where anyone can share guitar related knowledge. Includes history, information about the structure of the instrument, tablature, lessons and techniques.

Guitar - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks

A collaborative Wikibook and free guide to the guitar.

Wiki Guitar

A wiki site dedicated to self learning, knowledge sharing and high quality tabs.

Online Applications 

Online tune-up, chord & scale finders, fretboard orientation

ActoGuitar List of Online Guitar Tools

A mirror list of these handpicked resources released under a Creative Commons license so you can rip it, share it and build upon it.

Chord Voicings

An online program that attempts to find all the possible voicings of a given chord. Enter a chord name and run a search to produce chord diagrams showing the positions of the notes on the fretboard.

Gootar - Guitar Chord Finder Programs

Provides a collection of guitar theory tools for chord voicing and notation.

Guitar Tuner

An online utility to help tune your guitar by ear, available to download for PC and Mac. You can also watch a video on how to restring your electric guitar.

Guitar Scale and Chord Calculator

Music theory tools and charts showing the position of notes across the fretboard.

Guitar Chords and Scales Finder

Interactive tool that displays chords and scales on the guitar fretboard.

Guitar Chord Explorer

This is an online program that allows you to explore hundreds of chords for any type of 6-string guitar. Find the name of that great chord you've just discovered, with the powerful search engine. Build your own chord voicings quickly and easily. Explore the relationships between chords, using clear visual displays. Use any string tuning, for right- or left-handed guitars and more.

Guitar Trainer

A series of routines that help you to learn the notes of the fretboard.

JGuitar

JGuitar is a set of useful tools for players of stringed instruments including Chord Search - Chord Calculator - Scale Calculator - Tab Mapper - Chord Namer - Chord Dictionary - Scale Dictionary - Tuning (Standard) - instrument (Guitar)

Guitar Chords

A collection of guitar tools including tuner, metronome, chord/scale finders and other programs. The site features an interesting online program called The Guitar "Jam" Machine that lets you use the mouse to create and playback chord progressions displayed as guitar tablature.

InterChart

An Interactive Scale and Chord Chart Generator in Java. The software can also be downloaded for use offline. Full instructions are provided and there's a link to hundreds of pre-rendered guitar and bass charts.

Guitar Fret Board Simulator

This page will help you visualize the fret board of any guitar in any tuning*. Use the predefined profiles, or create your own combination of # of strings, # of frest and tuning.

(*) any tuning that uses the chromatic scale (12 notes in an octave).

Virtual Guitar & Chordbook

A flash modelled guitar with over 1300 guitar chords and inversions, movable capo and the ability to sequence your guitar chords and play them back. Learn to play scales and improve your lead solos, with the guitar scales generator. Quick tune your guitar using the guitar tuner and try out up to 8 alternative tunings.

Scale Finder

To find all scales that share a specific set of notes, check the notes you want and press the "Find Scales" button.

Guitar Chord Finder

Displays chord shapes/positions on the fretboard with a choice of around 70 different chord names for each key. In standard tuning.

Guitar Chord Generator by Cranwell

Shows main chord voicings across the fretboard, in different guitar tunings, for both right and left handed guitarists.

Chord House

Provides tools for locating chords and scales on the guitar fingerboard and piano keyboard.

Visual Guitar

Displays major scales and modes on guitar fretboard in every key. Web-based and downloadable version.

GuitarCodex

Allows you to see and hear chords, scales and displays associated guitar chords in a graphical representation. Using the mouse, fingerings can be made by clicking on the fingerboard (Java).

Jam Session

A collection of pre-recorded, streaming riff and chord progressions to play along to.

MusicaLexica Guitar Lexicon

An interactive tool that shows both movable chords and open chords, scales, and arpeggios. Note positions are shown graphically on the guitar fretboard along with descriptions for scale techniques. The database is organized by chord family and fingering pattern, with each page showing common substitutions for chords and scales. To see soloing techniques for any chord family, change the "Type" dropdown to "Scales."

GuitarScales.nl

Draws musical scales on a virtual fretboard. Uses the FUTEF API to get scale information from Wikipedia.

Guitar Jam Machine

Guitar Jam Machine.

Guitar Tabs 

Chordie - Guitar Tabs, Guitar Chords and Lyrics

Lets you browse or search for guitar chords and guitar tabs. Most of the songs have graphical chord grids that can automatically be transposed to a different key. Chordie covers all main genres, including rock, pop, jazz, country, blues and features a large chord chart in the resources section. Chordie offers one of the largest collections of chords and tabs on the Internet, with more than 200.000 songs from hundreds of artists.

Songsterr - Online Tab Player

Choose, play and control guitar tabs played by a realistic guitar engine.

Tab Converter

Takes standard format guitar tabs and converts them instantly into MIDI files and conventional sheet music. You can cut and paste tabs from web sites or upload them from your hardrive.

TabBasket

A guitar tab management tool allowing you to keep "tabs" of your guitar tabs. Upload Guitar Pro/Power Tab files, automatically find lyrics, videos, and more.

Tab Generator by Cranwell

Interface that allows you to create your own guitar tablature that you can print-out.

Recommended Viewing 

Al Di Meola 1998 - Montreal Jazz Festival

Al Di Meola rocking out at the 1998 Montreal Jazz Festival with acoustice and electric performances.
53 min 46 sec - Nov 29, 1990
www.aldimeola.com

Art of Guitar

A compilation video of guitar solos by famous guitarists.

Cityrag: 20 Greatest Guitar Solos Ever, With Videos

The top 20 videos from Guitar World's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos".

Jake Shimabukuro - Ukulele Gently Weeps

Jake performs his version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps by George Harrison using a ukulele.

Jason Becker Documentary

The story of Jason Becker, a neo-classical guitarist who achieved fame at age 16 as a technical virtuoso and guitar prodigy. At the age of 20 Jason was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which has left him paralysed. He now composes with the aid of a computer and other musicians.
19 min 18 sec
www.jasonbecker.com

Jimi Hendrix - Google Videos

Google Video search reveals a good selection of original Jimi Hendrix footage; this link takes you there. Check out the acoustic 12 string version of Hear My Train A Comin.

Li Jie Caprice

The talented young Chinese girl plays Paganini on classical guitar.

LiveGuitar Blog

Hand picked videos of live guitar performances.

Preston Reed - Millennium Stage

Preston Reed plays acoustic guitar in a revolutionary, self-created percussive style that organically integrates melodies and drum rhythms. Here are two performances on video taken six years apart:

January 31, 2006
Playing an array of guitars from acoustic to electric to classical. (1 hr 5 min)

January 9, 2000
Playing acoustic 12-string guitar. (60 Min)

Robin Trower - Rockpalast Crossroads

Robin Trower band performing 5 tracks:"Day of the Eagle","Bridge of Sighs","Sweet Angel", "Please Tell Me", "Little Bit of Sympathy". 27 min 56 sec.

Sean Gordon-'The Simpsons Theme' Unplugged

Sean plays the Simpsons intro music on acoustic guitar.

Stanley Jordan Playing Eleanor Rigby

Amazing solo electric guitar performance of the Beatles song.

Steve Vai - Google Videos

Google's collection of Steve Vai videos.

The Guitar Trio (Live In Loreley)

John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia. 1981 performance by the Guitar Trio in Loreley, Germany.
1 hr 13 min 20 sec
www.johnmclaughlin.com

The Super Guitar Trio & Friends

An evening of acoustic music recorded at 'Nightstage' in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 24th, 1990 with Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell and Bireli Lagrene.
1 hr 20 sec - Apr 16, 2005
www.aldimeola.com

YouTube-Group Guitar

A user group for guitar music of all kinds including classical, rock, pop, jazz, country, bluegrass, and more. Very useful for studying performances and techniques. Currently has around 1000 guitar related videos. For more specific styles and performers use the group search option. Highly recommended.

Video Tutorials 

Acto Guitarist Video Channels

Shared community videos for insight, entertainment and learning.

Rodrigo y Gabriela Guitar Tutorial

The musical duo specialise in playing fast, rhythmic acoustic guitars. This 16 minute tutorial gives an insight into their playing techniques.

Guitar Player TV

A free web TV network for guitarists from Guitar Player magazine. Features video channels of top guitarists discussing all aspects of performance and recording techniques. This is an educating and entertaining site, hosted by Larry Carlton.

David Gilmour Solo Guitar Lessons

An edited collection of live solo guitar performances by David Gilmour. Close-up shots reveal his playing technique on acoustic, electric and pedal steel guitars. 14 min 02 sec

Guitar Study 

Guitar lessons and tips

100 Greatest Guitar Solos

Links to guitar tablature for the top 100 guitar solos as voted by readers of Guitar World magazine.

ActoGuitar

Guitar learning community with free guitar lessons combining audio, video, text and graphics. All lessons are available under a Creative Commons license.

Alternate Tunings

A guide to different guitar tunings, also available as a PDF download.

Berklee Shares

Free guitar lessons that you can download, share and trade with your friends. The lessons can be downloaded as MP3 audio lessons, QuickTime video lessons, and PDF text/graphic/notation, print-ready. An electronic publishing initiative of Berklee College of Music using Creative Commons licenses.

Harmony Central Guitar Lessons

A comprehensive collection of lessons including articles from Guitar Lesson of the Week (a now defunct mailing list). In addition, there are a couple of Jim's Chord Study lessons and many of the lessons from the OLGA.

The Printable Staff Paper Page

Provides a range of printable manuscript templates including guitar tablature and fretboard.

Musemath - Guitar Science

A series of short interactive animated scenes explaining the physics of guitars and sound vibrations (Flash).

How to Choose an Acoustic Guitar

In this NPR audio show classical guitarist Jason Vieaux provides a crash course in what a top-flight musician looks for in his instrument. Features streaming music samples.

The Secrets of Great Amp Tone 

Amps - Effects - Gadgets - Set-Ups

Amptone.com

Guitar Amp Tone, Effects Placement, and Cranked-Amp Tone at Any Volume. Covers amplifiers, speakers, effects units, recording techniques and more.

Effective Use of Effects

A guide to the most frequently used effects grouped into three main families: Distortion - Frequency Modification - Time Shifting/Modulation.

Guitar Geek

The guitar rig database for unraveling the mysteries behind guitar and bass player's sounds. Provides equipment setups, regular reviews of guitar gadgets and features monthly artist interviews.

How to Choose a Guitar Amplifier for Rock Music

A quick guide to guitar amplification for beginners.

Tone Settings

A collaborative resource for guitar amp settings. Imagine you just bought a new amp, but you are not sure what to set all the settings to. This poses a problem for many guitar and bass players, and this is where Tone Settings comes in handy. Tones are constantly being submitted by users, so there is always fresh content to check out. Audio examples and demos are provided.

Recording Acoustic and Electric Guitars 

Recording The Acoustic Guitar

Tips from Michael Laskow, engineer/producer, for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Eric Clapton, Cheap Trick and countless others.

How To Get Expensive Guitar Sounds From a Cheap Home Studio

Another Michael Laskow article.

Online Music Collaboration 

Remixing - Sampling - Writing - Jamming

Artsforge.com - MusicForge

MusicForge artists share loops, grooves and musical ideas via the Internet, using programs like Live, Acid, GarageBand and Digital Performer to create songs in a collaborative manner. Completed songs are posted. MusicForge also offers ArtsForge's Ongoing Online MIDI Collaborative. MIDI files are posted and anyone is free to take them and expand them.

ccMixter

This is a community music site and tool for musicians to share ideas and build collaborative music projects. The site features remixes and audio samples licensed under Creative Commons.

You can upload your original songs so that other people can remix your work. The CC license means you can legally download, sample, and remix music on the site and share the results freely. ccMixter is a free service, open to all.

Collaboration Central

Provides tools and resources for musicians to meet and collaborate. You get a members web site where you can detail your info and tracks, have a gig calendar and 25MB of free space for your tunes.

Jammers Online Webring List

A cooperative of music sites and musical collaboration sites.

NINJAM

A free program that allows people to make real music together via the Internet. All participants can hear one another. Each user can also tweak their personal mix to his or her liking. NINJAM is cross-platform, with clients available for Mac OS X and Windows.

Open Music Factory

An independent musicians community open to all types of music projects. Musicians collaborate by using the forums to communicate and post audio files. The site advises using CC licenses and uploading via the "ccPublisher tool" to the Internet Archive, although any file hosting service can be used.

Indaba Music

A place for musicians to find one another, create and remix music, and showcase their work. Record with the online session console, find musicians around the world, and blog about your new creations.

eJamming AUDiiO

Connect, jam, and record online. Free during public Beta stage.

jam2jam - Collaborative and Generative Music Improvisation Software

jam2jam is an application that generates music that you can control while it plays. You can connect via a network with your friends who have jam2jam to jointly control the music. Jam just like a band, but without the need for complex instrumental skills.

"Jam Central Station" - Improvise Online!

Jam Central Station is a unique and innovative web page that allows visitors to play music (jam) online with a virtual band, seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day. Players of all instruments are given a choice of many song styles: blues, jazz, rock,
pop, and latin.

Kompoz.com

Music collaboration for virtual bands and creative commons online music makers - Collaborate with musicians and friends around the world. Download and upload music files, such as MP3 and more.

Kalabo

An online service that allows musicians of all skill levels to collaboratively mix and modify each others original work.

Jamglue

Upload or Record your own Tracks, Create an original Mix or personalize someone else's in the simple online Mixer. Show off your music: email it, embed it, or just sit back and let the Jamglue community discover your talent.

Splice

Meet, Make, Mix, and Mash music online.

Forums & Opinions 

Guitar Center's Archive

An archive of exclusive interviews where top artists discuss recent projects, career development and equipement setups.

Les Paul Forum

A guitar website where some of the most knowledgeable and avid Les Paul owners, players, builders & collectors gather to talk, teach, and share all things Les Paul.

Strange and Unusual Guitars 

BunnyBass Amusing Bass Guitars

Pictures of Basses, some wonderful, some totally revolting.

Brian Eastwood Guitars

A gallery of custom built guitars by the top UK luthier Brian Eastwood.

Cheesy Guitars

Vintage guitars, basses and effects from communist Europe and the Soviet Union. The links page provides more resources for underrated vintage guitars.

Exotic Guitars by Peter McGilton

Imaginative instrument designs and creations from a luthier with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts, and post graduate studies in classical instrument construction.

NAMM Oddities 2008

Barry presents more axes to marvel and wonder at.

Treasure Trove of Guitar Gems 

Guitar Face

Scott Williams' photo collection of facial expressions made by guitarists.

Martin OM-15 Guitar

David MacNeill recommends the Martin OM-15 acoustic as the best buy for the money.

Radio Broadcasts by Stefan Grossman

Four series of radio broadcasts by Stefan Grossman, recorded in the 1970s and early 1980s, mp3 for free download or streaming play. Includes:
Country Blues Guitar >> A Series of 17 Radio Broadcasts.
Contemporary Fingerpicking Guitar >> A Series of 17 Radio Broadcasts.
Fingerpicking Guitar Workshop >> A Series of 13 Radio Broadcasts.
Styles and Techniques >> Country Blues Guitar >> A Series of 10 Radio Broadcasts.