8 Resources For Anime Chords, Tabs & Fingerstyle Tutorials

The age old question (not really). When you just picked up guitar, you’re so eager to play the theme songs you like, but where do you find them? You’re not interested in the Beatles, Metallica or Ed Sherran. You want to play Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Nico Touches The Wall, Scandal, LiSA, Mrs. Green Apple, and so on. Where do you look?

Fear no more! Below, I listed some sites and blogs/channels that have a variety of anime tabs, chords, and fingerstyle tutorials. If you don’t find the song you want on one, be sure to check out the others. Anime tabs are usually created and submitted by one or two individuals, so they may provide on one site but not another. There are also sites where the owner creates all their own tabs, so be sure to look around.

If you’re looking for tabs for songs to play, please check out 25 Easy Anime Songs For Guitar, 50 Power Chord Anime Songs, 25 Anime Songs With Epic Riffs & Licks, 20 Fun & Funky Anime Songs for Rhythm Guitar, 10 Easy Anime Songs To Practice Fingerpicking, and 15 Intermediate Anime Songs To Practice Barre Chords.

If you love Japanese music and would like to learn and understand it more, please check out My Japanese Music Resources Page. And if you’d like to learn to create Japanese inspired music, check out my course, The Complete Music Theory Course!

Songsterr

Once I came across this site over 5 years ago, it has been my favourite. The tabs are usually detailed and accurate, and you can actually play it to see how it sounds! Learn about the Benefits of Songsterr here!

You’ll definitely find a lot of popular songs here, and you may be surprised about the occasional older hit. Some are meant to match the original while some refer to covers. My only tip would be, make sure you try various names when looking up a song. Some will use it’s official Japanese name, while other’s may show up under the anime title.

Ultimate Guitar

The OG honestly. This site has been around for so long. These are fan made and depending on the person who created them, they may or may not be accurate, they may not include strumming patterns and so on, but it’s a good place to start. Chords are easier to find on here then tabs, but you may find a few pro tabs that you can play with like Songsterr.

Anime Chords

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxRtub1HPiRXSlpnZzxoBfQ

This is both a Youtube channel and a blog. On the channel, the creator usually provides fingerstyle riffs along with chords and the strumming pattern and video of them playing in the same tutorial. You can find everything typed out on their blog, and it even has options for you to transpose the song to the key of your choice. Feel free to recommend some songs in the comments and he may just transcribe it in the future!

vvxoFingerstyle Tab

https://www.youtube.com/c/vvxoid/videos

Similar to Anime Chords, this is a blog and channel, mostly a Youtube channel And unlike anime chords, this is mostly focused on fingerstyle arrangements. The layout is nice and clear and you can see him play it above the tabs.

GameTabs

The name is quite deceiving eh? But you’d be surprised how many anime titles are on here with tabs available. It is a hit or miss, but it’s still a place to check if you couldn’t find the tabs you wanted elsewhere.

FeFe/Tron544

I came across this channel so long ago as I’m a huge Digimon fan and he covered songs from frontier, but he’s still making songs and has finally gotten up on rankings on Youtube. He usually has two guitar parts, the rhythm and lead for the songs, which makes it wonderful resource for a duo. You can check his channel or his blog where he writes out the tabs.

Nippon Tab

NipponTab refers to themselves as the biggest database of Jpop, Jrock, Jmetal tabs, and with over 1800 guitar and bass videos, I wouldn’t argue with them. They upload quite frequently, so if there’s a popular song or theme you like, be sure to check here for a video tutorial.

Guitar Tabs YT

Despite the name, this channel is very focused anime themes and video game covers. Their videos are mostly fingerstyle, and they are easy enough for the late beginner. I appreciate that they include the score for those who are interested to know what notes they are playing.

Why Not Try Fiverr?

Still can’t find the tabs or chords you want? Because tabs are usually fan made, it can be hard to find tabs for lesser known songs or older hits. If that’s the case, why not try Fiverr? There are many sellers on there who can transcribe tabs for you. If you just need chords, you can get decent ones for under $10. For lead and fingerstyle, it may cost a bit more, but it’s well worth it to play the song you like. I know as I’ve used it a few times for Digimon and FLiP songs in the past. It’s a wonderful resource for musicians! I’ve been using Fiverr for years, so I’ve become an affiliate as I think it’s a wonderful resource for musicians.

Conclusion

You may feel like the anime song and Jrock genre isn’t that big, but you’d be surprised how many chords and tabs are available if you dig a bit. I hope you found a site or two that you can refer to for your favourite songs 🙂