React-Guitar ·

A beautiful and accessible guitar component for React.

See https://react-guitar.com for a live demo.

Projects using React-Guitar

• Workland (GIF) - A metaverse for tech teams.

Usage

npm i react-guitar

import React from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import Guitar from 'react-guitar'

render(
  <Guitar strings={[0, 1, 2, 2, 0, -1]} />,
  document.getElementById('root')
)

Check out the storybook for more advanced examples.

Props

Name	Description
id	An optional id in case several guitars are on the screen at the same time. This is used to generate the radio button names used internally which must be unique. If not specified an autoincremented id will be generated.
className	A CSS class string to apply to the container element.
strings	An array where each number represents the fret the string is pressed on (0 means open string and -1 muted). [0, 1, 2, 2, 0, -1] is an A minor in a standard guitar and [3, 0, 0, 0] is a C major in a ukelele.
frets	An object with the shape { from: number amount: number } to configure the frets of the guitar ({ from: 0, amount: 22 } by default). It can start on any fret which is useful for displaying just a chord instead of the whole guitar.
lefty	A boolean to configure the guitar for left handed people like me.
center	A boolean to indicate if the current fretting should be centered. If set to true the guitar horizontal scroll will be set so that the middle fret is centered.
renderFinger	A function (string: number, fret: number) => JSX.Element that will be used to render the content of the white bubble used for the fingers. This can be used to render the note name.
theme	A theme object to customise the guitar look and feel. See Theming.
playOnHover	A boolean to indicate if hovering with the mouse should trigger play events.
onChange	A function (strings: number[]) => void that will be called when a string is press/unpressed. If not present the guitar will be read only.
onPlay	A function (string: number) => void that will be called each time the user plays a string (hovering with the mouse). This can be used to play the sound of the string.

Hooks

useSound

In order to enable sound playing react-guitar offers the useSound hook:

npm i react-guitar react-guitar-sound react-guitar-tunings

import React, { useMemo } from 'react'
import { render } from 'react-dom'
import Guitar from 'react-guitar'
import { standard } from 'react-guitar-tunings'
import useSound from 'react-guitar-sound'

function SampleGuitarWithSound() {
  const strings = useMemo(() => [0, 1, 2, 2, 0, -1], [])
  const { play, strum } = useSound({ fretting: strings, tuning: standard })

  return <Guitar strings={strings} onPlay={play} />
}

render(<SampleGuitarWithSound />, document.getElementById('root'))

It receives an object with the following properties:

Name	Description
fretting	The same value passed as the strings prop to the <Guitar /> component with the current fretting.
tuning	An array of midi values for each string. See react-guitar-tunings for a list of the most common ones.
instrument	Optionally the instrument to use, an acousting nylon guitar by default.

And will return an object containing:

Name	Description
play	A function that receives a string number and plays its current sound.
strum	A function that will strum all the strings of the guitar.

There are 2 ways to create a custom instrument:

1. Using withSoundFont:

   import React, { useMemo } from 'react'
   import { render } from 'react-dom'
   import Guitar from 'react-guitar'
   import { standard } from 'react-guitar-tunings'
   import useSound, { withSoundFont } from 'react-guitar-sound'
   
   const electricGuitar = withSoundFont('electric_guitar_clean')
   
   function SampleGuitarWithSound() {
     const strings = useMemo(() => [0, 1, 2, 2, 0, -1], [])
     const { play, strum } = useSound({
       instrument: electricGuitar,
       fretting: strings,
       tuning: standard,
     })
   
     return <Guitar strings={strings} onPlay={play} />
   }
   
   render(<SampleGuitarWithSound />, document.getElementById('root'))

   It uses danigb/soundfont-player under the hood so all these instrument names are available.

2. Using withSamples:

   import React, { useMemo } from 'react'
   import { render } from 'react-dom'
   import Guitar from 'react-guitar'
   import { standard } from 'react-guitar-tunings'
   import useSound, { withSamples } from 'react-guitar-sound'
   
   const flamencoGuitar = withSamples({
     E2: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/E2.mp3',
     D3: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/D3.mp3',
     G3: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/G3.mp3',
     E4: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/E4.mp3',
   })
   
   function SampleGuitarWithSound() {
     const strings = useMemo(() => [0, 1, 2, 2, 0, -1], [])
     const { play, strum } = useSound({
       instrument: flamencoGuitar,
       fretting: strings,
       tuning: standard,
     })
   
     return <Guitar strings={strings} onPlay={play} />
   }
   
   render(<SampleGuitarWithSound />, document.getElementById('root'))

Theming

react-guitar look and feel can be customised by passing the theme prop. A theme is an object describing the customisable properties of the guitar:

{
  description: string // for screen readers
  color: string
  nut: { color: string }
  fret: {
    color: string
    separator: {
      color: string
      radius?: boolean
      shadow?: boolean
      width?: 'sm' | 'md'
    }
    marker?: (fret: number) => JSX.Element | null
    counter: { color: string }
  }
  string: { color: (string: number) => string }
  finger: { text: { color: string }; color: string }
}

See https://react-guitar.com/storybook/?path=/story/guitar--theming for an interactive example.

By default the guitar is styled as a Spanish guitar but some other themes are available:

• react-guitar-theme-dark: A dark theme.
• react-guitar-theme-coco: A theme for the guitar from the Coco film.

Upgrading from 0.x

If you were using useSound like this:

useSound(
  {
    E2: '...E2.mp3',
    D3: '...D3.mp3',
    G3: '...G3.mp3',
    E4: '...E4.mp3',
  },
  strings,
  tuning
)

You need to change it to:

import useSound, { withSamples } from 'react-guitar-sound'

// outside the render function
const instrument = withSamples({
  E2: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/E2.mp3',
  D3: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/D3.mp3',
  G3: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/G3.mp3',
  E4: 'https://react-guitar.com/samples/E4.mp3',
})

// inside the render function
useSound({
  instrument,
  fretting: strings,
  tuning,
})

Developing

• yarn build will build the component and the site, this is mandatory the first time you clone the repo.
• yarn start will spin up the storybook and the site and all the packages in watch mode.