Free Online Player
Guitar Theme
Guitar Theme is a guitar played softly and recorded close enough that string and fret noise sits right alongside the notes. It is the brightest of the melodic loops on these pages, brighter than either flute and far brighter than the piano. Notes are left to ring rather than picked hard, and the loop runs 32 seconds.
Ready to play
Stack this under rain or a fire, keep the blend, and play it with your screen off. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
What the loop contains
There is weight from the low strings and body in the middle, but the top end is what defines it. A third of the sound sits above where the flutes here stop, and that is what makes it read as close rather than across the room. The stereo image is moderately wide.
Only about three attacks in the whole loop are sharp enough to notice, yet the level swings a long way, further than in the flutes. The playing is soft and the notes ring on, so the peaks come from sustain piling up rather than from hard picking.
Set it quieter than you think
Bright content behaves differently in a room. High frequencies are directional and they carry, so a level that feels gentle on headphones can be the loudest thing in an open-plan office, and small laptop speakers push exactly that band forward. Start low and raise it only if you lose the sound.
The same brightness makes it a poor masking layer. Treble does not cover the low rumble of traffic or a washing machine, and the gaps between notes leave the room audible. For masking, brown noise does the job this cannot.
Other melodic material here
Moonlight Lullaby is a bright mono music-box figure in a similar spirit, and Mystic Flute a single sustained line with far less top end. Both are on the sound library index with the rest of the catalogue.
A guitar line has a tune, and a tune is harder to ignore than noise; some people simply cannot write or read with one playing. If you want it as atmosphere rather than as music, sink it under something continuous with the Guitar Theme and gentle rain blend in the free sound mixer.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Guitar Theme sound so bright?
A third of its sound sits above the range where the flutes here stop, and much of that is string and fret noise. It is what makes the recording feel close.
How loud should I set it?
Lower than a pad. High-frequency content carries across a room and small speakers emphasise it, so a level that feels quiet on headphones can be intrusive in a shared space.
Will it mask background noise?
Not well. It has gaps between notes and little steady weight underneath, so rumble and speech come through. Broadband noise is the better choice for masking.
How long is the loop?
Thirty-two seconds, repeating until you stop it or the sleep timer does.