Top 5 iPhone guitar tools

FretSurfer helps novice guitarists hone their note recognition skills. It's perfect for hacks like me, but it didn't make the cut for our top five list of iPhone guitar tools.

Guitarists are typically a pretty hesitant bunch when it comes to adopting new tech. In fact, most guitarists I know spend their time lusting after vintage guitars and vacuum tube amps--casting disdainful sneers at anything that looks as though it were invented after 1980.

That said, the majority of my musician friends are also iPhone owners. Their excuse for allowing a smartphone into their otherwise low-tech lifestyle is that they want to stay connected with their fans via e-mail, SMS, Twitter, or whatever app of the month might help them promote their music and their shows.

If you're a guitarist with an iPhone or iPod Touch, you may be interested to know that there's a handful of helpful apps out there made just for you. Useful tools such as chord finders, guitar tuners, multitrack recorders, and scale libraries, can all be had for just a few bucks.

To get a sense of some of the better iPhone apps on offer for guitar players, we've put together a roundup of five of our faves.