Self-taught guitarist for many years (much to the chagrin of my dear neighbors), the web has been a great resource in my learning. Playing guitar is a fantastic way to relax (and a major asset for flirtingThe great thing about the guitar, and I'm living proof, is that you don't need to be a virtuoso to have fun. You just need to know a few chords and you can play along to tons of songs. All you need is a good website with all the guitar chords and lyrics to your favorite songs.
The good news is that on the web, everything you need is just a click away!
So here is a selection of websites that will allow you to find free guitar chords and lyrics for all the most popular songs.
Ultimate Guitar : the reference of the genre
It's hard not to start this list with Ultimate Guitar. It is undoubtedly the benchmark in the field with a truly gigantic song database (the site claims sheet music for over 1,100,000 songs).
Ultimate Guitar has a huge community of guitarists who contribute their chords and tabs. Most of the time you will even have access to several different versions of your favorite songs.
The site has a super smart search engine that lets you find songs based on name or artist, which is pretty standard, but also based on chords you know. Clever!
What's also nice is that users can rate song versions with a score out of five, making it easy to quickly find out which version is the best.
Finally, on the sheet music, the site has an auto-scroll option allowing you to scroll through the chords as you play.
Chordie : a pleasant interface
On Chordie, you can search by song name, artist, lyrics, or chords you want to play. The song database isn't as impressive as Ultimate Guitar's, but Chordie presents chords and lyrics in a super clean interface.
Chordie also relies on a friendly community of guitarists, who contribute by uploading sheet music and lyrics. The great thing about Chordie is that there is only one version of each song, so you don't have to work through five bad versions before you find the right one!
When you open a song on Chordie, the chords you need are displayed in the upper right corner.
You also have some handy little tools at your disposal, allowing you to change the font size, transpose to another key, adjust chords according to your capo position, and scroll automatically while you play. The clean interface also includes a tablature section for important riffs.
Chordify : play to the music
Chordify is a bit different in concept as it focuses on learning by playing along with the music. This site has a pretty efficient interface with large chord diagrams that update as the song is played in real time.
Press the “Play” button to start and Chordify launches a YouTube video in the corner and begins playing. The interface then lets you follow the progress of the music by showing you the chord to play (along with its diagram) and the chords to come.
The interface is meant to be very clean and focused on the guitar. There are no lyrics… but at the same time, you're not really there for that 😉!
Chordify has a paid version with quite a few other options if you like this basic concept!
FranceTabs : for fans of French song
If you want to focus on French music, the aptly named FranceTabs is for you. The site combines tablature and chord charts for French songs.
With a very classic design, you will be able to find a good number of French-speaking artists classified in alphabetical order or search by song.
The site also has a toolbox in French allowing you to complete your learning of the instrument. You will also find a very practical chord dictionary to get started!
For each song, you will find at the top of the piece the diagram of the chords to know as well as a YouTube video of the song.
E-Chords
The E-Chords homepage offers quite a lot, including video lessons and tutorials to help you progress.
Searching for songs or artists is quite standard, but the real interest of this site lies in the song pages where you will discover a large number of tools.
It is thus possible to personalize the songs by choosing simplified chords (ideal for beginners), by changing the color of the chords, by adjusting the font size, but also by modifying the tone of the song.
If the chord diagrams aren't initially displayed, you can hover your mouse over them to see them appear. If you want to keep them on the screen, simply drag the box and place it where you want.
Finally, the site has an option to scroll the screen as you play the song.
The Notebook a modern French-language alternative
Le Carnet is a French website that provides free access to the lyrics and chords of over 2,500 French and international songs. The catalog features a significant selection of French-language songs, from timeless classics to more recent releases.
Each song features an interactive score with chords directly positioned within the lyrics. It's possible to transpose the piece, adapt the display to your instrument (guitar, piano, or ukulele), and view diagrams of the chords used.
The site also offers several features designed for playing directly from the screen: automatic scrolling, synchronized playback with the music on certain tracks, rhythms, tuner, metronome and chord library.
The Notebook is completely free and ad-free, and works equally well on computers and mobile devices.
To your guitars
Now you have everything you need to practice guitar, learn, train... Test these different sites and take what is good to take from each of them...
