Guitar sales soared during lockdown, with online instrument retailer Gear4music announcing an 80% increase in UK sales between April and June 2020. As a result of this growth, guitar learning apps have seen a surge in users. Fender’s online learning app, Fender Play, has grown its user base from 150,000 to 930,000 subscribers since April 2020.
This statistic alone highlights how popular guitar learning apps are right now – and when you look at some of the amazing models on the market, it’s clear to see why.
We’ve created a list of the best 10 guitar learning apps you need to download in 2021. Let's get into it.
Table of contents
1. Fender Play
2. Yousician
3. Guitar Lessons by GuitarTricks
4. Guitar Lessons by JamPlay
5. Songsterr: Guitar Tabs & Chords
6. Chordify
7. Justin Guitar
8. ArtistWorks Guitar
9. Ultimate Guitar: Chord & Tabs
10. Orange Learn: Guitar
1. Fender Play
Cost: £15.99 a month with fees included with upgrades
As explained in the introduction, Fender Play has exploded in popularity. It teaches you the basics of learning to play through bite-sized lessons, video tutorials and host of free learning tools.
What’s more, its curriculum was created by educational advisors from such prestigious music programmes as the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Musicians Institute in Hollywood. Therefore, you know you’re learning from the best.
With its easy-to-follow content based on intensive research and user testing, Fender Play is arguably the best guitar learning app around. It’s available for a reasonable price, too, given its capabilities.
However, the reviews suggest this app is more suited to beginners with no previous playing experience than intermediate players.
2. Yousician
Cost: Free to download with a subscription service of £9.99
Yousician offers guitarists a fast, fun way to learn the guitar. This award-winning app is described as like having a music teacher inside your computer!
With over 1,500 exercises to complete for beginners and intermediate players, Yousician gives you detailed feedback on your performance, like what you’d receive when participating in a real-life session.
The app is free to download and has exercises you can complete without paying into the subscription. This option is perfect if you want to test Yousician before you commit to paying for it.
To access features like feedback, tabs and chords – and skip the advertisements – you’ll need to pay for a subscription. But considering its positive reviews, and how nicely packaged and user-friendly it is, Yousician is well worth the investment.
3. Guitar Lessons by Guitar Tricks
Cost: £59.00 for three months, £99.00 for six months, £179 for one year
Guitar Lessons is an app for every guitarist, whether you’re an absolute beginner or advanced player looking to refine your technique.
It comes with a comprehensive library containing more than 11,000 lessons and 1,000 songs. Unlike other guitar learning apps, it allows players to learn hit songs from the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, rather than step-by-step beginner’s material.
This app’s main aim is to build your confidence and help you create your own music from the start.
With an award-winning curriculum delivered by expert instructors from around the world and an array of high-quality tools, it’s well-placed to help you in your guitar playing journey.
4. Guitar Lessons by JamPlay
Cost: Free to download for £14.74* a month
Guitar Lessons by JamPlay is not only perfect for players at all levels, but it also gives you a huge choice of instructors.
When you download this app, you’ll have 100 music instructors to choose from, rather than one pre-recorded teacher. This feature allows you to find the best instructor who’s best suited for your learning style.
Guitar Lessons by JamPlay is best suited to beginners – it contains easy to follow beginners curriculum – but that’s not to say immediate or advanced players can’t use it.
If you fall into the latter category, there are several guest courses you can enrol on if you want to hone your skills.
*Price correct based on conversion rates in January 2021.
5. Songsterr Guitar Tabs & Chords
Cost: £4.99 a month
The Songsterr app has been around for a while and has gained a solid reputation.
This app offers a simple design and great user experience through its impressive interface and range of useful features, including multi-speed playback.
Its other standout features include a count-in, the ability to solo instruments and loop selected measures and a library of more than 500,000 tab tracks and chords.
The pros far outweigh the cons with this app judging by the reviews on IOS and Android app stores.
6. Chordify
Cost: £4.99 a month
The programme has over eight million songs to choose from. Yes, you read that right. Eight million.
It integrates seamlessly with YouTube if there is a specific song you want to learn and automatically recognises a song’s chords and audio signal and synchronises them with the music in a simple and innovative music player – which is a pretty cool feature.
This app’s value for money is another thing to take note of – it’s one of the cheaper options compared to others on the market.
However, based on reviews, Chordify is best suited to beginners who are comfortable with chords and have a basic understanding of sheet music.
This app can also be a great tool when composing your own music if you’re into that.
Overall, it offers something for all kinds of guitarists.
7. Justin Guitar
Cost: £8.49 a month
If you’ve ever searched 'guitar lessons' on YouTube, you'll have surely come across Australian guitarist Justin Sandercoe.
His YouTube channel JustinGuitar has more than one million subscribers, which shows what a big name he is worldwide.
Having enjoyed a successful career on YouTube, Justin has placed all his lessons in an app that can be downloaded and played anywhere.
The cleverly constructed app helps you learn how to play the guitar from the ground up and is the perfect refresher for those looking to revisit their favourite pastime.
As a testament to the quality of Justin’s videos, over one million people have now downloaded the app. This proves that loyalty to Justin pays off.
8. ArtistWorks Guitar
Cost: £35.99 a month for a three-month package
ArtistWorks Guitar offers a wide variety of lessons hosted by some incredible instructors.
With the likes of Paul Gilbert and Keith Wyatt teaching users electric rock and electric blues, it's difficult to turn your head away from such opportunities.
Ultimately, the app is a video exchange learning platform that connects learners with teachers to create personalised feedback.
As such, ArtistWorks provides a sociable online learning experience that can only be beneficial in the long run, as it makes your lessons enjoyable.
9. Ultimate Guitar: Chord & Tabs
Cost: Free with premium paid options available at varying prices
Everyone who’s picked up a guitar has almost certainly heard of Ultimate Guitar. It’s one of the world’s most popular sources for guitar tabs, so its app guarantees the best in class in terms of information and user experience.
Ultimate Guitar’s website currently houses almost two million tabs, and developers have further evolved the brand by an app that helps people learn along the way.
The ‘professional’ version offers videos and interactive tabs, transposition and an auto-scroll function. The latter function means you don’t have to scroll through a tab and play at the same time, which is a godsend.
Thanks to Ultimate Guitar’s extensive library, you can easily find sheet music to your favourite songs at the drop of a hat. So, if you want to impress people with specific songs, this app is for you.
10. Orange Learn: Guitar
Cost: £7.99 a month for grades one to eight with a one-month free trial*
Orange Amplification has launched Orange Learn for Guitar. The courses are the first of their kind as it offers UK and EU accredited courses up to grade 8 with options to play electric guitar, acoustic and many more.
The courses are split into three stages to make it easier to understand - foundation, intermediate and advanced levels. All three can be taken solo, or with a tutor.
In addition to this, the course resources include various backing tracks and tests developed by a team of teachers and guitarists, designed for students of any skill level.
No other app on the market offers an official accreditation. So, if you want a certificate to prove you have learned a new trick, then this is worth downloading.
*Users can buy official accredited courses from grade debut to eight for £79. Monthly subscriptions have access to courses, not official grading.
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