Show HN: Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard

This is very interesting however i don't know guitar. Can somebody give me a couple of tips on which keys to press so I could play well known song? For example Angie by the rolling stones?

Very well done. Looks and sounds great.

A couple of UX thoughts I had while using it:

1. Since the chords are all within a specific key, have you considered using the numbers 1 through 7 to play the respective chords? That way playing a 1-4-5 or a 2-5-1 would be very intuitive?

2. Have you considered using modifier keys (shift, ctrl, alt) to control whether a chord is strummed down versus up (e.g. pressing A would be down, but Shift+A would be up) or major/minor (A would be major, Alt+A would be minor)? I guess Ctrl could be a 7th chord modifier too.

Just some thoughts. Great tool!

I just spent 30 minutes playing with this. It's incredible, well done to the author!

This is very nice. One suggestion based on a guitar related hobby webapp I built myself: fretboard renders in potrait probably makes for nicer ux.

My tool does not focus on strumming at all as this one does though.

Nice work. Am having fun with it.

The chord names not matching the keys on my keyboard are throwing me off a lot on this, but that's difficult to get anything other than major chords. Maybe it would be playable by using modifiers to shift to minor and 7th etc.

Another idea I had was being able to bend by holding two keys like monophonic synths.

This looks great!

I noticed that the strumming seems a bit off on chord changes. A good default is to let strings that don't change on chord change to continue to ring through. Just think about the strings as actual strings and the kinds of things that happen to them when you play.

Also, different songs will have different techniques like bar chords that may have less brightness, palm muting etc.

I'm working on a physical guitar digital luthier kit right now as part of a project at Toronto Metropolitan University working with disabled musicians. Our aim is to release it so anyone can build one.

Here is our documentation of examining an existing assistive guitar built a few years ago in the UK. https://www.designingsoundfutures.org/kellycaster-mark-1/

Now we're taking lessons learned from that and working on robust versions for touring musicians, and variations to adapt to different assistive and artistic needs.

Great to see others doing nifty work with this guitar based music stuff.

Very well done! When adding a chord on a key, I'm missing a small preview of the chords as they appear in the autocomplete list, or would be nice to be able to assemble a chord on a fretboard view. What made you start work on this app? And what is the logic behind how the chords are laid out on the keyboard?

In solo mode, there should be a horizontally flipped version, such that such that the 0 key plays open E on the 1st string, and the 9 plays F on the 1st string, etc. That would allow me to hold my wireless keyboard backwards, facing the screen, rely on the muscle memory of my hands.

Been working on something similar (a DAW, to learn more about music) - and just wanted to say that your guitar voice is quite good! Bravo

Had fun with this on my phone! Any chance of calculating velocity based on speed of pick movement? I'm sure some super basic ASDR and maybe a low-oass would get you to a very satisfying place

Next steps: add Guitar Hero controller or/and Rock Band interface support

Very nicely done, at first I thought it was gimmicky but it's actually playable

Why does it show a left-handed guitar on Player view, and a right-handed one on Audience view?

It's great! As far as I can tell, the toggle for Let ring is not working: when i disable it, notes still ring out after letting go of the key (in solo mode on electric guitar currently)

Before I knew it, ten minutes had gone! good job

This was much better than I expected. Nice job.

Really really enjoyable, but how do I turn on drive for the electric guitar?

Nicely done!

This is so cool.

Would be lovely to have a faq section about who you are and how you built it (how long did it take you, which tools did you use, how much back and forth did you need to do with the ai agent, what is your background in terms of programming, web, design and music, etc.)

This looks very interesting, I may finally learn wonderwall.

This is really good.

This is super fun, thanks!

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel:

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Sick, love it

This is absolutely amazing. Well done.

This is excellent. Thank you.

This is great, great design, great functionality, TY!

That's awesome!

Holy shit, this is incredible. As a guitar player this actually feels like playing a guitar. So cool.

Only suggestion I would have would be to make all 6 strings strummable independently in the chord instead of just the 4, so you can do finger picking on it.

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This is kinda cool, but it's nowhere near as fun as being able to play the real thing. Sounds better IRL.

It is nice that it shows the chords.