I’m about to say something that’s going to make me feel very old, but learning guitar isn’t what it used to be.
Gone are the days of tracking down a local guitar teacher and doing homework in a theory book. Today you can learn pretty much anything, from basic guitar notes to specific skills or techniques, with an app.
This might sound like a complaint, but really I think that the more methods that exist for teaching people guitar, the better!
But since there’s a huge variety out there, I’ve gone ahead and put together a list of some of the best guitar-learning apps.
In this article, we’ll have a look at the pros and cons of learning by app, some of the best app options out there, and some alternatives to mobile apps.
So if you’re ready to take your guitar journey to your smartphone, let’s dive in!
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Yes, I Want the FREE Download!The Pros and Cons of Learning by App
There’s no doubt that using an app to learn how to play the acoustic guitar is extremely handy. But as with many things in guitar, there are a number of pros and cons to consider.
Let’s take a look at the pros:
- Flexibility and convenience: you can’t quite beat online learning. Apps allow you to set your own schedule and learn guitar at your own pace, making it easier for you to carve out time for guitar regardless of your professional or personal situation.
- Endless ways to learn: Learning with an app also opens up how you learn, meaning that you can choose the structure and the style of the app that best suits you. Some love the gamification of the guitar journey, while others need deep dives into specific techniques.
Now let’s talk about the cons:
- Screen burnout: We spend a lot of life glued to screens, and playing guitar is meant to be a little respite from that. But using an app to learn means you’re still staring at your phone or tablet.
- Quality issues: It’s hard to differentiate between the quality of apps without actually using them first.
- It’s tough to stay motivated: An app can’t motivate you to continue playing if you hit a slump at some point during your journey.
Alright, so there are plenty of good and bad things about apps – deciding to use them basically comes down to whether or not they are helping you improve.
What you don’t want is to spend a bunch of money on your guitar, gear, and app subscriptions, only to be frustrated a year later because you’re not improving (or worse, like 90% of people, not even playing anymore at all!).
In fact, this problem is precisely why I created Tony’s Acoustic Challenge – to make learning fun and fast, so you’ll play guitar consistently. It’s just as convenient as an app, but will keep you motivated to carry on playing day after day as you see consistent, meaningful progress.
So as you’re exploring the best options to learn online, just remember that learning guitar can and should be fun. Watch this free guitar class to find out the three secrets that will accelerate your learning!
Now, let’s look at the most prominent players in the world of guitar apps.
The Best Acoustic Guitar Apps for iPhones and Android
For both iPhones and Android, there are countless apps available. We’ve sorted the best guitar learning apps into categories so you can save some time by looking through the options on Google Play or the App Store.
The Best Guitar Learning Apps for Beginners
For beginners, there are certain features in apps that are particularly important, such as clear and simple instructions, experienced teachers, songs to play along to, and the foundations of guitar theory.
Let’s take a look at some of the best beginner apps:
1. Yousician
Yousician is a fun option for beginners looking to learn guitar. Some apps have a gamified approach to learning, but Yousician’s platform is actually closer to a game like Guitar Hero, but using your real instrument.
You play along with songs in real time while a little white ball guides you through the notes or chords you have to play. This works for both exercises and learning to play new songs.
The platform has a wide variety of content divided into three main categories: lead, rhythm, and knowledge.
While Yousician is a fun app to give you an intro to many core elements of learning guitar, especially for video game fans, it’s not ideal for learning beyond the basics.
At some point, you’ll want to go deeper into some of those elements and get comfortable playing music on your own – not just practicing along with the app.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: There are three different types of membership plans depending on your needs, starting at $19.99 per month.
Pros:
- Gamified experience is really engaging
- Platform displays your accuracy and speed in real-time
- Great selection of songs to play along with
Cons:
- A very pricey subscription
- Gamified approach is not for everyone
- Intermediate to advanced guitar players won’t benefit
Read our Yousician vs Simply Guitar review.
2. Fender Play
Fender Play is probably one of the most well-known apps for beginners. While part of this popularity is due to its affiliation with one of the world’s leading guitar companies, it’s also because it’s a solid app.
Fender Play focuses on getting you to play songs quickly, as you watch video lessons taught by guitar instructors. Its structured curriculum and interactive features make it a good tool for anyone looking to learn how to play the guitar at a beginner level.
However, if you’re a more advanced guitarist, you might find it lacking in more specialized and advanced techniques.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: There are three different types of membership plans depending on your needs starting at $9.99 per month.
Pros:
- Attached to a big brand with plenty of experience
- Good range of beginner lessons
- High quality videos
Cons:
- Not suitable for intermediate or advanced players
Interested in Fender Play? Read our reviews:
3. The Gibson App
Gibson is another heavy-hitter in the guitar world and the learning app certainly reflects that with its many features and expert input.
The Gibson app provides an impressive array of features, from interactive lessons and chord libraries to an intuitive tuner and metronome. Its user-friendly interface and access to Gibson’s iconic guitar models make it really useful for both beginners and experienced players.
It uses interactive real-time feedback combined with video lessons featuring the likes of Richie Faulkner and many more. It also has a bunch of cool features like being able to book with a guitar tech to troubleshoot a specific issue.
While the Gibson App offers a free version, it’s very limited. And while the paid version has a lot of cool content, it’s definitely geared towards beginners who haven’t picked up a guitar yet. If you know your way around chords, scales, and some theory, then you’re going to want some more comprehensive instruction.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: There are three different types of membership plans depending on your needs, starting at $14.99 per month.
Pros:
- One-on-one video consultation with a Gibson guitar tech included
- Comprehensive range of lessons for beginners
- Easy to navigate and intuitive
Cons:
- One of the priciest options for beginners
- Not particularly suited to advanced players
Best Apps for Guitar Tabs and Chords
Learning guitar tabs requires quite a specific approach to app design and many apps disregard tabs altogether.
Here are a couple of examples that are ideal for players who want to track down song tabs or finesse their understanding of tabs:
1. mySongBook
You’ve likely heard of Guitar Pro – the tablature software – but maybe haven’t heard of their tab library, mySongBook.
It contains a huge number of user-contributed guitar tabs and sheet music, covering a wide range of musical genres and skill levels. This extensive collection ensures that guitarists of all backgrounds can find suitable material to practice and play.
All the tabs are accurately transcribed and peer-reviewed, so they’re extremely high quality. Many tabs also contain audio tracks, which means you can hear the other instruments in the song as you’re playing along on your guitar.
Platforms: Available as a web browser subscription.
Cost: $5.00 per month
Pros:
- Advanced tab features
- Thousands of tabs available
- Audio Tracks
- Integrates with Guitar Pro
- Constantly evolving and updating
Cons:
- Not super easy for beginners to follow
2. Songsterr
The Songsterr free app is a very useful tool that allows you to view and play back all the tabs, but any additional features come at a monthly cost.
The playback feature is a fun way to try and play along with the songs you’re learning. It allows you to quickly find the spots you need to work on, without losing your place in the music. You can follow along with a green band that moves in real-time along your sheet music.
The app’s tabs are also properly formatted using time signatures, technique symbols, and note duration indicators.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The Plus account costs $9.90 per month.
Pros:
- Big song library
- MIDI playback feature
- Helpful visual representation of timing and rhythm
Cons:
- User-generated content which can vary in quality
- Expensive Plus account
3. Chordify
Chordify helps you learn songs from YouTube by streaming them and presenting the matching chords in real time with the song.
So instead of presenting tabs, it just shows you chords and chord sheets. Similarly to Songsterr, Chordify allows you to see where you are on the chord sheet.
As a whole, the free version of Chordify is a great supplement to your guitar learning journey – especially if you want to try using the chords you already know to play along with new songs.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The premium version costs $6.99 per month
Pros:
- Excellent chord library
- Works great with YouTube
- Free version is very strong
Cons:
- A lot of learning features are in the premium subscription
4. Ultimate Guitar
Ultimate Guitar offers a vast collection of chords and tabs and is particularly useful for learning the chord progressions of songs.
Not only does the song database have a huge selection, but it’s great for beginner to intermediate players.
However, because so many of the free tabs are user-generated, a lot of them are inaccurate. If you’re signed up to the pro version (for an eye-watering $24.99 per month), you get access to the pro tabs which are really accurate and have extra features for playing along.
You can still find a lot of good tabs on the free version – you’ll just have to do some digging. On top of that, the free version of the app means you’ll be dealing with video ads, which can be very annoying.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The pro version costs $24.99 per month.
Pros:
- Huge library of tabs available to Pro users
- Great user-generated content
- Good song selection for beginner players
Cons:
- Free version is limited in songs
- Pro version is expensive
5. SmartChord
SmartChord is a simple yet robust app for beginners and advanced players alike that is particularly well suited to mastering chords.
The app allows you to see all chord variations, scales, chord notes, and chord shapes for any given chord.
If you fancy going down a chord learning wormhole, I fully recommend this app!
However, keep in mind that when I say basic, I mean basic. If you’re looking for something with advanced features and a killer UI, this isn’t the app.
Platforms: Available on Google Play.
Cost: The app is free to download.
Pros:
- All-in-one app with lots of features
- Easy to use
Cons:
- A basic user interface compared to other apps
- Not available on the App Store
Best Guitar Tuning Apps
One of the best uses for apps with a guitar is of course tuning your guitar. So don’t fret – you’ll never have to be out of tune again with this selection!
1. Guitar Tuna
GuitarTuna is one of the most popular tuning apps out there, and for good reason! The app is part of the Yousician family (see above), which means there’s a smart team of guitar pros behind it.
Navigating the app is a breeze, and its tuning precision is spot-on. The UI is user-friendly, and the app supports a wide range of alternate tuning, which is fantastic for different playing styles and genres.
However, to access the heavy-hitting features, you’ll need a subscription. Once subscribed, you unlock a number of tuning capabilities, including alternate tunings and the chromatic mode.
But what truly sets it apart is the AI-driven Smart Scroll feature. Using your phone’s microphone, it listens to play and scrolls the chord charts to your tempo, making it a truly enchanting experience.
While the app is pretty comprehensive, some users reported occasional issues with the app’s microphone sensitivity, which can lead to tuning inaccuracies. The free version is also limited, which means you have to get the subscription to enjoy the best features.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The app is free to download with in-app purchases.
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- Suitable for 15 different instruments
- Accurate tuning
- Real-time visual feedback
Cons:
- Extra features available with in-app purchases
2. Fender Tune
Fender Tune is a comprehensive tuning app with lots of additional features and it’s particularly well suited to beginner players.
As the name suggests, this app is indeed connected to the Fender Play app above. If you have a Fender Play account, some of the other sections in the Fender Tune app will be unlocked for you, such as the song selection.
One of the nice things about the Fender Tune app is that you can choose to tune automatically or manually. Sometimes manuals are great just to get a reference pitch so you can tune the rest yourself.
On the other hand, auto-tune is extremely handy. All you have to do is play a string and the app will let you know if it’s in tune or not.
In terms of downsides, some users did note that it was sensitive to background noise, which could result in inaccurate tunings.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The app is free to download.
Pros:
- Simple interface
- Backed by the renowned Fender brand
- Known for its accuracy
Cons:
- Sensitive to background noise
3. Pano Tuner
Pano Tuner is another great tuning app with a unique visual display, making it stand out from its competitors.
It’s displayed in an antique-looking wooden interface that’s clear and easy to understand.
It’s a chromatic tuner, which allows you to tune to every note in the chromatic scale, and it can follow any pitch you make on your guitar.
Keep in mind that this app is extremely basic and doesn’t come packed with additional features.
Platforms: Available on both Google Play and App Store.
Cost: The app is free to download.
Pros:
- Accurate detection system
- Simple and clean
- Wide range of pitch sensor
Cons:
- Not so many additional features
Apps Are Good. TAC Is Better.
If you’re tempted by any of the above apps, I highly recommend trying a couple out and seeing if they’re for you.
My advice for learning methods is to strike the right balance between apps, YouTube videos, live teachers, and online classes as best you can. What’s lacking in one format will be made up for in the next.
Live teachers are great for personal feedback, motivation, and honing techniques, whereas YouTube can provide excellent inspiration and tutorials.
But the most important thing I can tell you is to keep playing – that’s how you’ll keep making progress! Whether you’re brand new to guitar, or feeling rusty after a long break, playing guitar just a little bit every day will transform your playing.
If that sounds good to you, watch this FREE guitar class for three secrets to learn guitar faster in just 10 minutes a day.
