A MIDI guitar in your browser: connect a MIDI keyboard, a MIDI guitar pickup or a controller and every note it sends is fingered on the fretboard for you — no drivers, no download.
Play with your mouse or computer keyboard. On desktop, use your keyboard to play the fretboard without reaching for the mouse.
Hold a String key and press a Fret key to play that note. Same fret keys work for all strings.
Examples: Hold Q + press 8 = String 6, Fret 8 · Hold A + press 3 = String 5, Fret 3
Guitar and MIDI have always been an awkward pairing, because MIDI describes notes rather than vibrating strings. Modern hardware and a Web MIDI browser bridge that gap: plug in a MIDI keyboard and the fretboard below plays itself along with you, or read on to see what a MIDI guitar pickup does that software alone cannot.
A MIDI guitar is any guitar — or guitar-shaped controller — that reports each note as MIDI data: pitch, velocity and timing, with no audio signal involved. That data can drive a synth, a sampler or a browser instrument, which is why a guitarist can write a piano arrangement without touching a keyboard. What is unique about a MIDI guitar is polyphony: unlike a MIDI keyboard, six strings sound independently, so a MIDI guitar controller has to track six pitches at once.
There are two families of hardware. Hexaphonic pickups mount beside or replace the normal pickup and analyse each string separately — the approach behind classic pitch-to-MIDI systems such as MIDI Guitar 2. Dedicated controllers and smart instruments such as the Jamstik MIDI guitar or an Aeroband smart digital MIDI guitar sense fret and string position directly instead of guessing from pitch, which is why they follow bends and fast lines more cleanly. A MIDI guitar pedal then routes the resulting data to a synth, a computer or a browser.
Rather than tracking string pitch, this page accepts MIDI input from any class-compliant keyboard and fingers it for you: press MIDI above the fretboard, play a note, and the matching string and fret light up and sound. It follows the lowest-fret rule a guitarist would use — E4 is the open top string, not fret 5 of the B string — and reports notes that fall off the neck instead of transposing them silently. Octave −1 / +1 brings those notes back into range.
Hardware touch decides how hard each string is plucked, the sustain chip follows CC64 from a real pedal so notes ring on, and the whole connection needs no drivers, plug-ins or downloads — your operating system only has to recognise the keyboard first. If you would rather every pluck were identical, switch Velocity off and the fretboard ignores incoming dynamics.
No. A MIDI guitar pickup or a dedicated MIDI guitar controller is what you buy when you want a real guitar to drive a synth. To learn the fretboard, practise chord shapes and build progressions in the browser, a MIDI keyboard plugged into this page is enough, and it costs nothing. When you do move to hardware pitch tracking, everything you have learned here still applies.
Short, practical guides that match the instrument you are playing — read one in a few minutes, then come straight back.
A MIDI guitar turns string movement into note data a computer can read. Here is how pickups, pitch tracking and browser MIDI actually work on a real guitar.
Read guideG, C, D and Em unlock hundreds of songs. Here is how to play all four, how to change between them in time, and which key each combination puts you in.
Read guideThe six notes of standard tuning, how to remember them, how to check each string against the one below it, and exactly what changes in Drop D.
Read guideStandard tuning, which way to turn the peg, and how to get a stable reading from a microphone tuner. A complete beginner guide to tuning a guitar.
Read guideLearn the eight open guitar chords that unlock most songs, in the order that makes them easiest, plus how to make every string ring cleanly.
Read guideGuitar chord charts look cryptic for about five minutes. Here is what the strings, dots, numbers, O and X actually mean, with no theory required.
Read guideClick or tap anywhere on the fretboard to sound that string and fret, or use your computer keyboard with the mapping shown on the page. Each note is generated with a physically modelled plucked-string sound, so open strings ring longer and higher frets sound tighter, just like a real acoustic guitar.
Note labels print the name of every note on the frets, which makes it far easier to learn where C, F# or G sit across the neck. Mark mode lets you select a set of frets and play them back in sequence or together, which is ideal for drilling a scale shape, an arpeggio or a chord voicing.
Open the Chord Chart from the guitar hub and pick a chord to see its fingering diagram and hear how it should sound. Then return to the fretboard and press the same frets to reproduce the shape. Working through C, G, D, Em and Am first will cover a large share of popular songs.
Yes. The Guitar Tuner uses your device microphone to detect the pitch of the string you play and shows whether it is flat, sharp or in tune. Play one string at a time in a quiet room for the most reliable reading, and allow microphone access when the browser asks.
Move to the Guitar Song Builder and arrange your chords into a progression with a strumming pattern, then loop it and play along. Add the metronome to lock in your timing, and pick a beginner song from the song library so you are applying the chords to real music rather than isolated shapes.
Yes. Plug the keyboard in over USB (or pair it over Bluetooth), press MIDI above the fretboard and allow the browser prompt. Every note you play is then fingered on the neck for you: the matching string and fret light up and the string is plucked with the same modelled sound as a click.
It uses the lowest fret that can sound that pitch, which is how a guitarist would finger it — E4 is the open high E string rather than fret 5 of the B string. Notes below the low E or above the highest fret have no position on the neck, so the display says so instead of transposing them silently; the Octave −1 / +1 buttons bring those notes into range.
Yes. Velocity from a MIDI controller changes how hard each string is plucked, and a sustain pedal on CC64 lets notes ring on after you lift the key. Switch touch sensitivity off with the Velocity control if you would rather every pluck had the same strength.
No. A class-compliant USB MIDI keyboard or digital piano works as soon as the browser has permission — nothing to install, no account and no plug-in. Your operating system only has to recognise the keyboard first.
If the device supports Web MIDI, yes. Connect the keyboard with a USB-OTG adapter or Bluetooth MIDI and turn the device to landscape, where the MIDI bar sits directly above the fretboard so you can watch the strings respond as you play.
Yes. The recorder captures the audio of everything you play — hardware or on-screen — and lets you download it as a WebM file. Mark mode saves a set of frets to loop back, and playing from a MIDI keyboard also counts towards your activity points and streak exactly like playing with the mouse.