Every guitarist has their go to websites and items that they like to use in their musical adventures. However, if you ask each artist or musician individually, this list is guaranteed to be different for each one. Therefore, I would like to tell you all my top 10 guitar resources and items that you guys should pick up or check out if you ever want to try something new!

Note: I purposefully avoided picks, strings, and tuners in this article because everyone has their own preference and it is way overdone! However, some of the resources could help you decided on new picks, strings, or tuners if interested!

1. Artists in person!

Nowadays, a lot of artists have gone out of their way to make themselves more approachable! If these artists are people you idolize or love listening to, ask them what you can do or learn to help you get better. Most of the time, they'll be willing to give you advice, talk to you about how far you want to go in the music industry, or even just teach you the riff from your favorite song that you have been dying to learn (that's what Tyler, pictured above, from State Champs did for me when he came to Maine)!

2. Rob Chapman's Youtube Channel

This youtube channel is extremely helpful to guitar players around the world! First, they do all these blindfold guitar tests that teach you the slight nuances about differing guitars so you can learn to hear and feel the difference between two guitars that would otherwise feel and sound the same. That part is very helpful for when you are looking at new guitars. These guys (Rob and his friend) also make videos about whether it is better to buy certain things used or new, how thick of a pick is right for you, and so on. Definitely a helpful youtube channel worth checking out!

3. Strap Pick Holder

Okay, I have to admit that when I bought this, it was a complete impulse buy because it was $4.99. I decided that this would be a cool tool to try and $5 wasn't a terrible price for a piece of plastic. However, I have come to LOVE this guitar pick holder! Every guitar player knows that once you drop a pick, as long as you didn't watch it fall, 8 out of 10 times you will never see that pick again. If you do see it again, you have to bend over and pick it up. Sure, at shows you have guitar pick holders on your microphones or you have someone to run them out to you, but what do you do when you're at home? Just clip this onto your guitar strap, put 6 picks in it, and you never have to worry about it again! Definitely worth the $5 on Amazon.

4. Guitar Center

Cue all the crap I will get from certain people about this one! In the guitar industry, just like every other industry, you get the "buy local so you can help the economy and save money at the same time" argument. I have met plenty of people that will not go into a store like Guitar Center and will only buy from local shops or eBay. However, Guitar Center is one of the most helpful resources the guitar world has to offer! There are certain things that you should just buy for the quality of product. Go ahead, buy music editing software, pedals, picks, and strings from elsewhere because I do too--usually. However, the only place I will ever get a new guitar from is Guitar Center. There is an overwhelming amount of quality and care in the guitars they have that they pride themselves on, and they have an incredible customer service team. Not to mention, they know what they are talking about! I definitely recommend Guitar Center to anyone and everyone.

5. Fender Tune

This virtual tuner is actually a recent discovery of mine! At some point in every guitarist's life time, we end up without our tuner, but we want to jam. For me, this is usually at a friend's house when they have a guitar but never use it. Most tuning apps will get the job done, but Fender goes above and beyond! You can create custom tunings, it has auto and manual tuning options, and your strings will sound 99% in tune most of the time! The best part of all is that the app--and its features--, at least for now, are FREE! All you need to use this app is to create an account with Fender and you are good to go!

6. Guitar Pro

I have to put Guitar Pro on here for one reason and one reason only--songwriting. I personally prefer to write songs in my songwriting book and I have a couple apps I use to bounce back and forth between different songs. However, Guitar Pro, for Mac or Windows, is by far the quickest application to use for tabbing! You can layer tabs and create tabs very easy on Guitar Pro, and it makes it very easy to retain anything you have written for your guitar electronically.

7. Female Socket (3.5mm) to Male Plug (6.35mm) Adaptor

Any form of this type of adaptor is crucial to college guitar players worldwide! I, as much as anyone, love to turn the volume up to 11 and play along to loud music. However, quiet hours (both mandated and for neighbor appreciation), are a very real thing in life. When you want to turn up the volume and jam without annoying anyone, just plug in a pair of higher-end headphones (to get rid of the lag) to the female end, plug the male end into your amp, and get to jamming without letting anyone else hear you!

8. Ultimate Guitar (Website & App)

Every guitar player likes to play songs they didn't write! Ultimate Guitar is the #1 place to get the music to play covers. Artists and fan bases alike come together and put chords and tabs to hundreds of thousands of songs on this platform. If you are looking for the exact guitar part, scroll through the tabs and get to jamming! If you want to adapt a song to fit your style, go to chords, find out what key the piece is in, and adapt away. No matter what song you want to play or adapt, Ultimate Guitar is the #1 website/app combo to turn to. Website access is 100% free, however, they do have a guitar pro add-on option which includes lessons and other perks. The app varies between $2.99-$4.99 to download usually and is definitely worth the money.

9. Apogee One (and other Apogee Products)

I got this interface for Christmas two years ago and have never looked back! Apogee One is a well designed audio interface that allows you to play and record guitar, keyboard, and vocals. When I play guitar, I plug into the instrument input and go crazy with the built in amps for Garageband (my favorite is Old School Punk). I do some recording and some playing for fun with some amazing sounding amps. Even if you don't want to record, it is a small and efficient interface for travel so you can have a to-go amp on your laptop if you want to. It is compatible with other music softwares, and using it only requires the free download of its control panel application. All cables and adaptors (except headphones) are included, and it is definitely an audio/instrument interface worth the price!

10. Rig rundown!

Rig Rundown is my favorite series of videos in history! If you go on YouTube and type in "Rig Rundown", you'll get tons of videos of band members going through their rig set-ups. Most of the time, they will show you all or most of their guitars, the pedals they use, what strings they use, what picks they use, and so much more! I love these videos because everyone has aspirations to be like certain guitarists. If you want to see what one of your favorite bands uses for strings, for example, or you want to mimic a tone similar to a different one of your favorite bands', usually you get enough information from these videos to make the necessary changes! The rig rundown pictured above is actually for Tony Perry of Pierce the Veil. Due to this video, I decided to try out Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy strings and they have since become my favorite strings ever! You can always get some good tips from this series and I definitely recommend it to all guitar players.