5 Best Guitar Learning Apps for Android and iOS
Many have heard of the 10,000-hour theory, but with the latest apps and digital learning tools, you can turn your workout time into something enjoyable and rewarding. It’s never too late to pick up a guitar and start plucking its strings. Do you want to learn to play guitar, here we have picked some of the best apps to learn guitar on your Android and iOS iPhone.
Just like British alternative rockers, hailed back in 1993, anyone can play the guitar. While this is perfectly true in our opinion, getting started can be tricky. There are hundreds of apps and services out there that promise to help you move from Jimmy Riddle to Jimi Hendrix in no time, but we’ve taken the time to sort through everything to bring you our list of the very best Android and iOS apps and services.
Free or paid apps and services?
Learning to play the guitar through one-to-one instructor training can be expensive, but there are many ways to learn to play the guitar yourself without paying anyone a dollar. However, you usually get what you pay for in this world, and some of the apps on this list require a subscription to be able to access all of the content and features of the lesson.
1. Fender play
Unlike Gibson, which was struggling with bankruptcy amid falling sales, Fender moved in the opposite direction. The legendary guitar brand has revamped its line with high quality, yet affordable instruments. The second part of this strategy for getting more people to play guitar is Fender Play, its own online learning tool, and app.
Fender Play is the most compelling product in terms of getting digital guitar lessons on your smartphone or tablet. Lessons are taught by Fender professionals and the level of instruction is top-notch. The system is song-based, so you can skip all the boring repetitions and scales that often appear in traditional guitar courses. You also get tablature (a simple and easy-to-read guitar version of sheet music) to make your life a little easier. The song library is already impressive and growing.
The only downside to the Fender Play app is that because it is clearly aimed at first-time guitar players, there are few relevant lessons for intermediate to advanced learners. Fender Play won’t take your skills to the next level if you’ve already mastered tab reading and learned your favorite songs, but for anyone who hasn’t reached that level yet, it’s a great service.
Fender Play costs $9.99 a month or $89.99 for a one-year subscription. There is also a three-month free trial. Fender is actively promoting its Play service, so you can get six months of free training when you buy a new instrument directly from the manufacturer. When you become a Fender Play subscriber, you also get a 10% discount on guitars, amps, and equipment, so you can save a few dollars if you decide to add amp or effects to your setup over time.
2. Yousician
If you’ve ever tried googling online guitar learning tools, Yousician was probably at the top of your search. Yousician takes a slightly different approach than Fender, plus it’s much more playful. The concept is similar to those that have been around for a long time. However, unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Band, you will be using a real guitar as an “input device” with Yousician.
Imagine an app-based version of Rocksmith and you get the idea right. Quick note: Rocksmith is also an excellent guitar learning game for PS4, but we left it on this list as it requires a game console and TV, as well as an electric guitar. However, I recommend the Riff Repeater YouTube account, which uploads full songs that you can follow at home if you want to learn songs for Rocksmith.
Yousician’s interface resembles the aforementioned video games, but the app uses a microphone built into a smartphone or tablet to track notes and chords played. There is also a score-based system that encourages you to practice songs for greater precision and better score.
Everything is color-coded to help beginners figure out where to place their fingers on certain chords – something you don’t get from tablature, and a tuner is included as well. Yousician costs $ 9.99 per month if you accept an annual subscription, or $ 19.99 per month if you wish to cancel your subscription at any time. There is also a 30-day free trial.
3. Amped
Amped, like Yousician, is an in-game guitar learning app. What makes this service unique is that it uses augmented reality to transform what you play in real-time and play music through your headphones. This means you can test out a variety of amps and effects without having to own thousands of dollars worth of equipment.
You can do this through the audio interface on your PC or Mac, but it takes a little more technical knowledge to set up and get the sounds you want and allows you to play along with songs filled with reverb, distortion, or delay, and your guitar sounds similar to the song you’re trying. reproduce.
Amped’s interface, while not as nice and professional as that of Yousician or Fender Play, is for bedroom players who want to play with headphones, or those who are learning to play acoustic and want to feel like they are playing electricity with effects. Amped is a completely viable option. The annual subscription costs $ 87.99, or you can pay $ 14.99 monthly.
You can download Amped from the official site. The app is currently not available on the Google Play store, but an Android version is under development and will be released shortly. We will keep you informed.
4. JustinGuitar
Justin Sanderko is one of the famous guitar teachers on YouTube. The Tasmanian-born professional musician now lives in the UK and has been teaching guitar online since 2001. Sanderko offers a wide variety of guitar teaching materials, from printed books to online lessons. Now, under its JustinGuitar brand, Sanderko has several apps for the Android and iOS ecosystems.
What you really get when you choose JustinGuitar is the experience and knowledge of a pro-teacher. Unlike Fender Play, which employs many teachers, JustinGuitar gives you a more personalized learning experience. Having one teacher with a common teaching philosophy can be beneficial and, depending on your learning style, will be more effective over time than switching between multiple instructors.
A JustinGuitar beginner app is a great option for anyone looking to grab a guitar and start playing music right away. It is designed to complement Sanderko’s Starter Course, but you can download it and learn a couple of songs without having to take the full course. Justin also has tons of YouTube content that you can get for free.
5. Fret trainer
For the final app on this list, we would like to direct you to a learning tool that is slightly different from the others. While building muscle memory and dexterity for fret and playing notes and chords is probably the biggest challenge when you first start learning guitar, it is extremely important not to forget the theoretical side of playing a musical instrument. Many learners can learn songs and play them accurately, but after months they will completely forget them unless they are constantly amplified. One of the reasons for this is that they didn’t know what they were playing when they found out about it.
Fret Trainer is an app that helps you learn every note on your guitar fretboard. This knowledge will not only help you move forward when you start playing solos and improvise the lead lines and need to stay in the key of the song, but it can also help you identify chords by discovering the root note. This is not a beginner’s knowledge anyway, but the earlier you learn in playing the guitar, the easier you will find many other aspects of mastering the instrument.
Fret Trainer is essentially a game. This app will show you the sounding string on the guitar and you have to determine which note it is. There are several different formats and inversions in this game, such as defining the target note from multiple selections of three notes, but the premise is essentially the same for each game mode. The emphasis here is on speed.
Master this game and you can quickly and easily identify any note on any string of your guitar. The free version of the app is great for beginners, but it only lets you take risks on the fretboard. To unlock the entire tool, you’ll have to fork out for the full version.