Review: The #1 Guitar App available (and runner-up)
I’ll try to keep this relatively short and sweet, although that is definitely something I’m not so good at.
I’ve spent a lot of time and money in increments of $0.99/$1.99/$2.99+ trying out apps online. Tbh, a lot of that was a waste. But thanks to that, I’ve had the joy and handiness of two apps that were totally worth the cash, and even the wait(s) to find them.
The first one is as handy as a guitar app can possibly be. Despite being one of the most expensive apps I’ve ever bought, it’s still well worth it’s price. The app is the Ultimate-Guitar app. I even recommend getting all of it’s additional packages/add-ons. This app has access to the entire tab database of UG, assuming you have some sort of way to connect to the internet. That’s the very tip of the iceberg in terms of the useful capabilities of this app. The tabs (as well as everything else on it) are formatted specially for phone/tablet use. For instance, the tabs are just the right size for the size of your screen. If you buy access to their Power Tabs, you can also turn on auto-scroll -- a featuring allowing the user to automatically scroll (shocker!)l through tabs at virtually any consistent rate at the click of a button (specifically one click, I mean).This enables you to set down the phone and play a song while it automatically scrolls for you through the tab.
The app allows you to save favorite tabs, print straight off your phone, post new tabs, and has a multitude of features and abilities. For instance, there is a tuner capability within the app, and it comes in a chromatic and manual varieties (chromatic tuners generally have a microphone that picks up what you’re playing and tells you what note it is and whether to tune it higher or lower; a manual tuner has a speaker that plays the note each string ought to be, and you/the user must listen to the difference between it’s pitch and your guitar’s pitch and figure out how to make the two tunes match). There is also a small set of lessons for beginners with practice tabs, and software that tracks how long and on what you’ve practiced and mastered.
I use the UG app just about every time I’m playing guitar, without any hyperbole. It’s the single handiest app I’ve got on my phone. If I were using a star rating system, I’d give it five out of five stars.
And the runner up? It is the Yousician App. (I’ll be sure to be much more brief this time -- I swear.) This app is the last in a long stream of projects trying to bring music education the users from the internet, and make it fun at that. This app is available on most modern-day devices that bring you internet and that have a webcam or microphone hooked up to them. In a almost game-like series of lessons, the user is guided through useful and on-point practices that build to a small test-like portion meant to recap what was learned.
Yousician is useful for students of all ages and levels of any one of a number of instruments who have interest in bettering their knowledge base. To be honest, they accomplish everything they set out to do, and they do it really, really well. I highly recommend this FREE (for about just one lesson a week)(I think? It’s been a bit since I used it) app for, well, everyone.
These two are my favorite apps for guitarists, and they farrrr surpass every other app I’ve tried. I totally recommend them!
