Time is often the enemy of learning. Or at least it feels like it, right? You want to learn guitar on your own, but you don’t have much time.
You might have a day job. You might be in school. Maybe you just have a lot of other responsibilities. Whatever the case, it’s easy to get discouraged, especially if your progress slows or plateaus.
I’ve been there. Many times.
But there’s good news. In this crazy world of technology, there are now tools that can speed up the process of learning. Tools that make every minute more efficient.
And these are three of those tools that can help you quickly improve as a guitarist.
A Chord-Finding Website
One of the most useful tools as a guitarist — beginner or advanced — is a chord-finding website. You can literally learn any guitar chord you want thanks to the internet.
Two of the best websites for finding chords are JamPlay and ChordFind.
Not only can you look up the name of the chord you need, you can also look up the chord you’re playing. And if you’re like me, the latter option is amazing to have. I often put my fingers where they sound best, even if I don’t know the chord.
I have to say, even though both JamPlay and ChordFind are great, JamPlay is just easier to use. You can indicate where you’re putting your fingers by clicking the frets and strings on their digital guitar. Whereas with ChordFind, you have to type in the where you placing your fingers.
A Physical Guitar Chord Chart
You might be wondering why I’m suggesting you get a physical chord chart right after I went on and on about how awesome chord-finding websites are.
Stick with me.
I had a chord chart when I was learning guitar. Without it, things would’ve been much more difficult.
Ask yourself: what happens if you’re away from your computer and your phone is dead? What if you’re practising and you’re on a roll, only to get to a chord you can’t remember? Wouldn’t it be nice to just lift your head and a chord chart hanging on your wall?
Yes. It would. That’s why you can benefit from both a chord-finding website and a physical chord chart.
A Website With Guitar Tabs/Chords
Websites that have song tabs and chord charts are priceless when you’re learning guitar. That is unless you have a great ear for music and can figure out the exact chords of a song just by listening to it.
Some people can do that, but most people can’t.
The way I learned guitar was by going to a website like UltimateGuitar, searching for the chords to a song I wanted to learn, and then playing that song on guitar along with the CD.
And let me tell you, without these types of websites, learning guitar would have been boring. I may have given up entirely.
Here’s a list of some of my favourite guitar chord and tab websites:
- UltimateGuitar (my favourite)
- E-chords
- Uberchord
- GuitarLessons.org (newer, but has accurate chord charts)
What Tools Have You Used To Learn Guitar?
I know there are a ton of tools out there for learning guitar, and this list is by no means comprehensive. So what tools have you used that you’ve found helpful? Share your knowledge with the rest of us in the comments…
Want more tips on how to make music without much time or money? Yeah? Then you can check out my blog Musician With A Day Job.
More Guitar Lesson Blogs @ The Blogging Musician
Dude these articles have been great. Thank you for helping me.
Cheers Bradford. Thanks for stopping by.
Thank you for writing about this topic. It helped me a lot and I hope it can help others too.
You actually explained this perfectly!
Hi would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re working with?
I’m planning to start my own blog in the near future
but I’m having a tough time deciding between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something
unique. P.S Apologies for getting off-topic but I had to ask!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I truly appreciate your efforts and I
am waiting for your next post thank you once again.
Very soon this site will be famous amid all blog viewers, due to it’s good posts
Have a look at my website … ký gửi nhà bán quận 1
I find the last Ultimate Guitar App and website brilliant, as a I’m always having to little time on my hand, the Youtube integration is fun.
Besides that I use Chordify https://chordify.net/ , gives a good start how to play a song.
Regards
Lately I’ve found Youtube to be the best source of info when learning specific songs. It goes one better than tab in that you can actually hear and see the song being played in real-time.
Also, what with copyright and such, decent tab, especially for lessor known songs is getting harder and harder to come by.
Youtube, search on : “song title” + “guitar lesson”.
Job Done!
Thanks Gary…. Lots to have a look at there!.
Must get over to that Van-Halen pod-cast you posted, looks fasciniating.
Anyone else please do check out https://tunein-toneup.com/ . Its a fantastic source of info for guitar lessons.
Shutup & Play, SixStringsAttachedTV, Troy Grady for pick mechanics, TrueFire, Jens Larson, Matt Warnock and more
Hi Adam, long time mate and I hope you’re alright. I’m epically busy with day job and small child, but thought I’d take the time out to comment 🙂
Computer programmes I like: Transcribe is very useful (for slowing mp3s down, transposing easily, it also identifies some of the tones it plays and suggests chords and looping difficult bits). Ultimate Guitar is a must have (as you said and they’ve recently updated their website and app so you can now easily play the music from the app, edit the tabs to your favourites, play along with tabs with TrueTone sounds like the original and make playlists to use offline). Earmaster is fantastic (ridiculously powerful program for computer which trains your ear in interval, rhythm, scale and chord recognition and playback). GuitarPro is a powerful tool (lets you easily write and play back tabs). SingTrue and Sing&See are great ways of letting your computer show the pitch you sing.
Other apps: Guitar Master, iReal Pro VisualGuitar and ReadRhythm are all really good on the iPad. I really like Flipboard for keeping up with guitar related articles, chat and equipment.
Websites: GuitarPlayer, JustinGuitar, the Blogging Musician and tunein-toneup of course, musical-U, guitar, Premier Guitar, Harmony Central, and many more.
Podcasts: I have been going to town on these as part of my ‘practice/music education’. They’re great!! You can multi task and enjoy great content. Great podcasts: No Guitar is Safe, Riff Raff, Music is Win and Everybody loves Guitar for interviews; Tune in Tone up, Desi Serna, Texas Blues Alley and Guitar by the Glass for lessons; for musicality in general see the Musicality Podcast, Song Exploder, Talking up music education and rhythm n’groove podcast.
YouTube recommendations: GuitarLessons365, JustinGuitar, GuitarWorld, Adam Levy Guitar Tips, Elevated Jam Tracks, Thomas Berglund, Rick Beato, emusicworkshop, Marty Music, Adam Neely, David Walliman, Quist, TED-Ed, Shutup & PlayS