October 31, 2007
Start-Playing-Guitar.com's 'The Bridge'
Volume 2, Issue 10: Cool New Online Tools
Work In Progress:
Coming soon to the web-site!
- The New Format & Layout!
Conversion is complete and testing is underway! I hope to have all the new updates posted during November (exact date TBD).
| SIDEBAR: Keep up to date with all the changes by subscribing to our RSS feed (click to open a window of help and subscription instructions). It will keep you up to date with new pages and other special announcements. I will not overload you with every grammar-fix, new image, or other minor mod. |
Cool New Online Tools
Our friends at Seventh String Software have posted two online tools that every beginning guitarist can use: a full-featured metronome, and the first online chromatic tuner that I know of. In addition, each of these tools are available for offline use, via download, at no charge.
The Seventh String Online Metronome
A metronome can help develop skills in a number of ways. Rather than restate those here, I encourage you to read the article here...
If you haven't purchased one yet, you might want to hold off until you try out Seventh String's online version. It includes the most frequently used functions of modern metronomes:
- Easily variable from 40 to 208 BPM (beats per minute)
- A solid audible click
- Tap Tempo
To start the metronome, simply click on it. You can change the tempo by entering a BPM value, by clicking on a BPM scale, or by tapping in the tempo (using mouse-clicks or by tapping on the T on your keyboard).
Simple, and free!
Give it a try here...
The Seventh String Online Chromatic Tuner
This is the most powerful online tuner I've found, and best of all, it's an automatic chromatic tuner. That means it automatically detects the note you play, and tells you how close your note is to correct tuning. If you need to understand more about tuning guitars, read the Tuning Methods page.
To use the online tuner, first set up your computer for input from your guitar. For details on how to do this, read the article on Recording Guitar for descriptions of input methods.
After your guitar and computer are ready, load the online chromatic tuner. Waiting until your guitar is ready can avoid sound detection problems.
Next, simply pluck the string you want to tune. The tuner instantly detects your tone and displays the closest note, displays a scale to show how sharp or flat your tone is along with a blue pointer showing your tone. Simply adjust your tuning key until the blue pointer lines up with the center of the scale.
Full instructions are given below the tuner controls, and include hints for Windows, Linux and Mac users. The first time the page loads you will need to accept an Applet Security Verification form. If you want to use the tuner without Internet access, you can download a copy.
Go For A Big Finish!
I hope you've enjoyed this issue of The Bridge. See you next month!
Steve
Steve@Start-Playing-Guitar.com