# 2 Free tools for learning songs, chords & scales



## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Just a heads-up on a couple of free tools I found recently. First up is a Windows program called "BestPractice" Here's what it says on the website:

"BestPractice is a musician's practice tool, to slow down or speed up music, either from an MP3 file or directly from a CD. Ordinarily the sound is distorted when slowed down or sped up - you get the effect like when playing a 33 rpm record on 45 rpm speed (remember the Chipmunks?). BestPractice tries to correct this, so you can slow down and speed up music, while keeping the original pitch. It is also possible to change the pitch of the music without affecting its tempo. Play along with for instance Eb tuned guitars without retuning your own, or slow down that high-speed guitar solo on a CD that you like to learn."

I know there are paid programs you can use for this but the fact that this is free and does, or probably does, most of what the paid ones cost is pretty impressive. I've been using it for about a week and I don't hear any artifacts either slowing down or speeding up the music. You can also change the pitch without affecting the speed. There's even a "Karaoke" mode which eliminates all or most of the lead vocals so you can hear the backing more clearly. Needless to say you can have a lot of fun with this. Imagine turning Celine Dion into a baritone and speeding up her song "My Heart Will Go On" to 3 or 4 times the speed? 
The website's here: BestPractice, an open-source audio time-stretching tool for Windows


This second one can be used on any OS as it's a website.

Fretboard Note Finder

Displays the notes of a Chord or Scale in every position on the fretboard.

This started off as an Android app but the developer has turned it into a web page. You pick the root note, and the chord/scale type, and the notes are shown on the fret board. There's an extra option to change the open notes of the guitar. Click the button, and change the tuning to anything you want.

Here's the website: Find Notes On Fretboard - by Lespauled

Hope these help out.


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