It’s been one of my favorite secrets until now, so I’ll share it if you don’t already know of it. XXX SOUND is a Japanese site that offers 100% free chord transcriptions as well as some tabulature. Most of the songs transcribed on the site are by Japanese artists but they also have Western artists’ works as well. The former has me most excited obviously.

It seems that XXX SOUND features pretty much any modern mainstream or fairly popular Japanese music act I can think of. It’s great. The site’s operators even take requests for new transcriptions. XXX SOUND ranks the most seeked-after artists each week. This week (Feb. 17-24) has ELLEGARDEN, Mr. Children, スピッツ (Spitz), RADWIMPS, and BUMP OF CHICKEN at the top of the charts.

I usually am most interested in actual tabs or sheet music but since stumbling on to XXX SOUND, I have discovered the benefits of chord listings. Even if a song doesn’t use actual chord progression, this denotation allows the guitarist (you) to best perfom the song solo. It makes things sound more complete. Plus, if you’re like me and all you have is an acoustic guitar handy (I have electrics, just not with me), you can see the obvious benefit.

XXX SOUND has already helped me learn to play songs by Quruli, ACIDMAN, and most of all RADWIMPS. I hope to play more tracks by others artists soon too. So go ahead, check the site out, learn some chords, and let’s jam!

XXX SOUND link

more guitar chords for Japanese music