Image by Thomas Hawk

The guitar, like many instruments, is easy to learn but very hard to master. There are, however, plenty of books, teachers, and websites designed to help budding guitarists move from Guitar Hero to something a little more challenging :)

Songsterr is one of those sites that seems very simple on the surface; instead of just displaying chords, Songsterr plays them as well so you can get a feel for a song before having a go yourself. You can even control when the song moves on to the next chord if you want to go at a different pace to the default.

Now, I know other sites exist that do a similar thing, but most of the ones I have found expect you to pay for the privilege – whereas Songster is free. Yes, I’m Scottish, so “free” is always a bonus in my mind!

What are the big advantages to Songsterr then?

• It’s free!
• It’s simple – just a press of a button moves you on to the next chord
• It sounds decent – each song sounds vaguely like it’s meant to, as opposed to some terrible, cheesy, generic sound

And the disadvantages?

• “Proof of concept” – that phrase always worries me, because the site looks good but what if it never gets beyond the “proof of concept” stage?
• Still undergoing development – not all of the features are up and running yet (more on this later)
• Limited song library – there are only nine songs available at the moment

What about those developing features? Well, these will be very handy if they materialise. A song editor, to let you create your own songs… Guitar Learning Assistant, to help you with fingering, picking style, and so on… and an audio recorder so you can sing along and get an mp3 of your performance. Not too shabby.

Songsterr markets itself as a service for guitar players, songwriters, and for just playing around with (a la Guitar Hero). It remains to be seen whether the service will take off, but I can certainly see it appealing to all three demographics.

Check it out, and keep checking back for new features. This could be one to watch!