Essential Audio Tools Every Guitarist Should Use

Back in the late eighties the Ibanez guitar company revolutionized the way guitarists learned songs with the release of the "Rock & Play". This device enabled you to take a cassette tape and slow songs down without effecting the pitch of the song.  This was a game changer and it made learning and mastering songs significantly easier. 

Technology has advanced significantly since then, but the core benefits of being able to do things like slow songs down, change pitch, and even isolate guitar tracks (so that you only hear the guitars) remain extremely valuable tools that enable guitarists to learn and master songs exponentially faster.

In this guide, I'm going to start by showing you how to easily adjust the speed of your favorite songs when using the three most popular music streaming platforms (Spotify, Youtube and Apple Music).

After that, I’ll cover a couple of really cool options that include more advanced features (like track separation) AND are platform / device neutral.

Why Change the Speed of a Song?

There are two main benefits to being able to change the speed of a song:

• To hear complex parts more clearly: Slowing down fast or intricate guitar parts helps you pick out every note and nuance--something that is especially useful when learning lead guitar lines or complicated rhythm parts.
• To play along with the song at a comfortable tempo: Playing along with a song that you are trying to learn is one of the best ways to master it. That being the case, being able to change the speed to a tempo that you're comfortable with gives you a huge advantage!
  
  

How to Change Song Speed on Popular Streaming Platforms

YouTube

If YouTube is your go-to for music, slowing down a song is simple:

1.  Open the video of the song you want to learn.
2. Click the settings gear icon.
3. Select Playback speed.
4. Use the custom speed slider to adjust the speed in 5% increments.

Spotify

As of now, Spotify doesn’t have a built-in speed control feature. But don’t worry — there’s a great workaround. You can install a Chrome extension that adds speed controls directly to the Spotify web player.

1. Search for "Spotify Playback Speed chrome extension".
2. Add the extension to Chrome.
3. Log in to Spotify via the Chrome browser.
4. Use the speed control sliders next to the playback bar to adjust the song speed.

Apple Music

Apple Music also lacks built-in speed controls, but third-party apps come to the rescue. One popular option is the Amazing Slow Downer, available for free in the App Store.

This app connects directly to your Apple Music library and allows you to slow songs down just like on YouTube or Spotify. Just note that most apps like this only work with Apple Music and won’t support Spotify or YouTube Music.

Changing the Pitch / Key of a Song

Sometimes may want to adjust the pitch as well as the speed of the song.  This is especially handy if the guitarist in the song has tuned down.  And since everyone knows that guitarists are the "lazy musicians" it follows that we'd much rather use pitch correction than go through the trouble of tuning our guitars down!

For this, I use the music speed changer tool on the True Tone Guitar website. However, using this tool requires that you posses an actual Mp3 file of the song you're learning. No worries--here’s a quick way to get an Mp3 file of any song:

Using Yout.com to Convert Any Song to an Mp3 File

1. Find the song on YouTube and copy its URL.
2. Delete the last three letters of “youtube” in the URL so it reads “yout.com”.
3. Press enter, and you’ll automatically be taken to a page where you can download an Mp3 file of the song.

Once you have the Mp3, upload it to the True Tone tool. You’ll see controls to adjust both speed and pitch. For example, with a song like “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” which is tuned down half a step, just raise the pitch by one semitone to play along in standard tuning. You can also loop specific parts of the song for focused practice.

Isolating Guitar Tracks (and More) with the Moises App

For the most part, simply slowing a song down or adjusting the pitch is all you will need to do to master the song more quickly. However, there may be times when you want to go a step further and separate the tracks of a song so that you can remove the vocals or isolate the guitars so that you can hear them more clearly. This is where the Moises app shines.

This powerful app works on both desktop and mobile and lets you separate a song into individual tracks — vocals, bass, drums, and “other” (which usually includes guitars). You simply drag and drop the MP3 of the song you want to learn, and Moises does the rest.

The free version separates the song into four tracks, but if you want to go deeper — like separating acoustic and electric guitars — you can upgrade to their affordable premium version.

Once the tracks are separated, you can:

• Solo the guitar track to hear it clearly.
• Slow down or adjust pitch to your liking.
• Create your own backing tracks by muting vocals and guitars and exporting the mix as an Mp3!

Not only is Moises a fantastic learning tool, it's also a lot of fun to experiment with!

Conclusion

The ability to use audio tools to learn songs faster is an essential skill for any guitar student. Whether you use YouTube’s built-in speed controls, install handy browser extensions for Spotify, use third-party apps with Apple Music, or dive into advanced track separation with Moises, there’s a tool out there to fit your needs.

Try these tools out and you’ll find yourself mastering songs faster and with less frustration in no time! Happy practicing!