The seven best iPhone or iPad apps for learning to play the guitar

Posted:
in iPhone edited March 2018
Whether you're just learning, trying to get better, or looking to upgrade your equipment, the App Store offers a wide variety of apps geared towards guitarists, and after playing with a bunch of them, AppleInsider gives your our seven favorites.




Learning how to play guitar, and getting better at it, used to require in-person lessons, not to mention regular purchase of guitar magazines. I started playing more than 25 years ago, and that's how I learned to play- a few lessons, learning all the classic rock hits from my friends, the tablatures in each issue of Guitar World magazine and lots and lots of practice.

My eight-year-old son recently took up the guitar, taking lessons and practicing at home, and I've been revisiting the old habit along with him. And I'm in awe of the resources that modern technology has made available for the guitarists of today. These days, just about everything you need to play guitar is right there in your iPhone or iPad- whether it's learning chords, tuning your instrument or learning how to play just about every song that's ever been written.

Here are the most essential apps for guitarists, whether you're a beginner, or you're a seasoned pro looking to shred on your new favorite song.

Ultimate Guitar: Chords and Tabs




This app is the kind of thing that anyone who's been playing since the pre-Internet days likely wishes had been around back when they started. It offers chord and tablatures for over 1 million songs- it's extremely rare to look up a song of any significance and not find it in the database. The chords and tabs are user-uploaded and rated, giving the user lots of choices for which version of the song to use.

The song database is the bread-and-butter, and will remind older enthusiasts of the OLGA (Online Guitar Archive), a website from the mid-1990s that was ultimately shut down due to a record industry dispute that was a forerunner of the Napster Wars. But Ultimate Guitar offers much else, including the ability to read the chords while a song plays on your device, including a chord library, two tuners, and Top 100 lists for both today and all time- for some reason, Ed Sheeran seems to always take the top spot on the former list.

Ultimate Guitar requires iOS 9.3 or later, 71MB of storage space and is free, although the Tab Pro version unlocks various tablatures, as well as other features.

The Guitar With Songs




This one features pictures of a guitar and the fingerers necessary to play chords; it also offers a sizable database of over 1,000 songs while demonstrating to play them. Users can even choose what color and style of guitar they want to play.

The Guitar With Songs requires iOS 8.0 or later and 115MB of storage space and is free, although various upgrade options are available as in-app purchases.

Guitar!




This one works as a companion app to Sing! Karaoke, allowing users to play along with various popular titles. It also lets you pick the guitar and style that you want.

Guitar! requires iOS 7.0 or later and 88.7MB of storage space and is free, with some premium features available as in-app purchases.

Guitar Center




The official app for North America's leading guitar retail chain offers a whole lot: Direct purchase of guitars and other equipment, deals and setup of lessons. The app provides a fine overview of just about everything you need to play guitar, or at least how to buy equipment.

Guitar Center requires iOS 8.0 or later, 130.5MB of storage space and is free.

Yousician




This one isn't just for guitarists, with guitar just one of many instruments for which is offers tutorials, including piano and ukulele. But it does offer step-by-step tutorials, as well as listening to the user play while offering feedback.

Yousician requires iOS 9.0 or later and 205.7 MB of storage space. The download is free but a variety of premium plans are offered through in-app purchases.

Guitar Tuna




The name from the makers of Yousician may not be the greatest pun in the world, but this tuner gets the job done, providing the right sounds for each guitar note, while also offering a cool interface to let you just how flat or sharp you are before getting it right. Guitar tuners, like GPS devices and so many other things, used to require a standalone device, but now it's just an app.

Other features include nonstandard tuning, as well as games, via Yousician.

Guitar Tuna requires iOS 8.0 or later and 127.2 MB of storage space and is free, with in-app purchases available.

ChordBank




If you're a guitar beginner and want to learn chords, ChordBank is the one for you. It offers a nifty interface featuring the fingerings for each major, minor, 7th and diminished chord, and a lot more. Other apps on this list offer versions of this, but ChordBank provides the best and most essential one.

Other features include video lessons and a reverse chord finder.

ChordBank requires iOS 9.0 or later and 66.9 MB and is free, with a premium version that's available as an in-app purchase.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    Hey thanks for the list...very helpful! :) 
  • Reply 2 of 20
    Great! Can you please do a piece on piano learning?

    thnk you!
  • Reply 3 of 20
    I invested 9.99 on the Dave Mustaine app. Didn't spend as much time with it as I hoped; opened it a year or two later and discovered the developer of sorts didn't update it. Poof! That burned my buns something fierce.
  • Reply 4 of 20
    mavemufcmavemufc Posts: 326member
    Yousician is the best one I used.
  • Reply 5 of 20
    BluntBlunt Posts: 224member
    The best app was 'on the path'. It's a shame they went out of business because it was a brillant concept.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    Maybe GarageBand from Apple might be sufficient enough?
  • Reply 7 of 20
    Guitar Tuna reminded me of an oldie but goodie album,"You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish" by REO Speedwagon.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    I'm holding out for a Matrix type download of Eddie Van Halen directly to my brain.
  • Reply 9 of 20

    Thanks for the list. I had downloaded Ultimate Guitar. It was pretty good.

    I'm actually keen to try out Fender's online lessons that they started a while back.

  • Reply 10 of 20
    Elon MuscleElon Muscle Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    The BackingTracks and JazzCreator Apps are very useful for those who want to practice improvising.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    gameofgoblinsgameofgoblins Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    Thanks for the list. But for me Guitar 3D is the most innovative guitar app on the App Store. It's really incredible and awesome.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    If you want to learn guitar I suggest getting on Claud Johnson’s email list ( [email protected] ). Jes say’n...
  • Reply 13 of 20
    I couldn't live without AnyTune (backing track slowdowner - Pro version really worth the money) and GuitarPro.
  • Reply 14 of 20
    Amped guitar is the best I've found
  • Reply 15 of 20
    IreneWIreneW Posts: 303member
    UltimateGuitar and FakebookPro (for reading music) are my go-to apps, not necessarily for learning but when playing live.
  • Reply 16 of 20
    I'm using Drum Pad Machine on my Ipad to create tracks for our crew training 
  • Reply 17 of 20
    Id like to add Amped guitar to that list. App size is a bit big but besides that its 100% pure greatness!
  • Reply 18 of 20
    liafontanillaliafontanilla Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    I like Ultimate Guitar, found that app also listed here https://play-guitars.com/best-apps-for-learning-guitar/
  • Reply 19 of 20
    Hi, I’ve been playing guitar a long time but l never get the chance to focus on working out leads. Are there any Apps that show leads on the fret board and which can be slowed down to whatever speed the guitarist is comfortable at? I guess that if there is such an App, it would be difficult to indicate hammer ons, bending, harmonics, etc., but maybe I’m underestimating the ability of App creators.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    I don't play guitar but this article comment section filled up with many first poster. It's very nice to see who has been lurking around :smile: 

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