7 Best Guitar Learning Apps of 2024

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These days, there's no shortage of ways to learn guitar.

Of course, on the one hand, you've got the tried-and-true old-school methods, like private lessons, group classes, and even sheet music. And these are great ways to learn to play guitar—they've worked for, well, centuries now, and they aren't going anywhere.

But there are a lot of reasons these guitar learning resources might not present the best option for some aspiring guitarists. Whether it's for financial reasons, matters of convenience, or lack of availability, learning guitar in person isn't always going to work for everyone.

Fortunately, there's a whole world of awesome guitar learning apps out there for Android and Apple devices, so you can get started learning guitar at your own pace and at a budget you can afford. There are amazing apps for learning guitar for everyone, from beginner guitarists to advanced players.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at some of these apps and help you find the right guitar learning app for you. Whether you're just starting out or you're an intermediate or advanced player who needs a way to expand your guitar skills, we've got some great recommendations that will get you on your way.

Let's get started finding the best guitar learning app for you.

Best Guitar Learning Apps

1. Best for Intermediate to Advanced Players – Guitar Tricks

SPECS

• Price: $19.95/month or $179 annually, limited free content
• Features: 11,000 lessons, high-quality videos with slo-mo and looping, wide range of genres, printable tabs, free content

Guitar Tricks is another longstanding online guitar lesson platform that offers a massive library of lessons, videos, scale and chord charts, and much, much more. What sets it apart for us, however, is its signature core learning system that's sure to set any player on a course to guitar-playing success.

Guitar Tricks has a huge array of high-quality content to cater to your musical preferences and goals. The platform boasts over 11,000 lessons, covering a wide range of musical styles, techniques, and music theory.

Guitar Tricks also features a user-friendly interface as well as some highly advanced learning tools. The platform offers an impressive set of interactive features, including slow-motion and looping functionalities, backing tracks, metronome tools, and printable tabs.

If you're looking for a platform that offers a massive library of content for intermediate to advanced players, including niche genres like surf and rockabilly, Guitar Tricks is the one for you.

And with their core learning system, you'll stay accountable and progressing on your guitar journey for as long as you keep playing.

There's some great limited free content that you can check out, and if you like what you see, you can sign up for a 14-day all-access free trial with an additional 25% off if you stick around for the annual membership. Sounds pretty good to us!

Click over to Guitar Tricks to take advantage of this amazing offer!

2. Best Guitar Learning App for Beginners – Simply Guitar

SPECS

• Price: $9.99/month or $119 annually
• Features: iOS and Android app, step-by-step tutorials, direct feedback, song lessons

For the beginner on a budget, Simply Guitar is here to save the day. This app-based platform uses a gamified approach to offer step-by-step lessons and teach essential skills, basic chords, and strumming patterns to help learners start playing songs quickly.

With a focus on simplicity and ease of use, Simply Guitar offers learners an opportunity to practice at their own pace.

The app's interactive features include real-time feedback, a really useful and innovative tool that guides you on finger placement as well as strumming techniques as you go along, helping build good habits from the start.

Simply Guitar uses bright graphics and animations to make the learning experience fun and easy. Video lessons are accompanied by clear visual cues, demonstrating finger placement, strumming patterns, and more.

While the gamey aspect may not be for everyone, it is sure to be a hit with kids and young beginners.

Plus, this fun and easy-to-use guitar instruction app comes at a great price. For just under $10 a month, you can learn guitar online with Simply Guitar's iOS or Android app at your own pace and have a ton of fun doing it.

But don't take our word for it—simply head to Simply Guitar and give their 14-day free trial a shot!

3. Best Video Lessons – Fender Play

SPECS

• Price: $19.99/month or $149.99 annually
• Features: Custom learning paths, digestible short lessons, wide array of songs, simple, intuitive UX

Fender Play is the wonderful new music education app from the good folks at Fender. This platform delivers the quality you would expect from one of the top names in guitar and amplifier manufacturing. Fender took a big swing on Play, and it's no surprise that they've knocked it out of the park.

From the start, this app applies an intuitive and simple method to help you get going. Select your instrument, experience level, and preferred genres, and Play will set a five-level path consisting of bite-sized video lessons, tabs, theory, and technique tips. Getting started playing guitar has never been easier.

The production value of the video lessons is a big part of what sets Fender Play apart. The videos use multiple camera angles, including over-the-shoulder, that you would never get from a real-life teacher (okay, maybe if you were really good friends). The instructions are clear and thorough without being repetitive.

As a self-paced system, it is ultimately up to the player to get the most out of Fender Play. But with the easily digestible content and fun, simple interface, beginners won't have any trouble getting hooked. Plus, at $19.99/month or $149.99 annually, you also won't have any trouble getting your money's worth.

Annual subscriptions include a 14-day free trial that you can cancel at any time. Head on over to Fender Play and give them a try!

4. Best Budget Guitar Learning App – Yousician

SPECS

• Price: Starts at $7.49/month or $89.99 annually
• Features: One-of-a-kind game approach featuring audio recognition and thousands of songs and lessons

Yousician is an app-based guitar lesson platform that brings a welcome approach to online guitar lessons: in lieu of the standard video lessons with a virtual instructor, it applies a game-like approach—very similar to guitar hero—that allows learners to play through their lessons in real-time and with instant feedback.

Building on the gaming aspect of the lessons themselves, the learning journey is motivated by challenges, achievements, and a level-up system, allowing learners to engage in a way that is very fun and stimulating, even borderline addictive. (If you're going to get addicted to something, why not make it learning guitar?)

There's definitely a learning curve here as far as getting the hang of how the "game" works, and this program is not necessarily recommended to older players without gaming experience. But we can't think of a better way to get younger beginners hooked on learning and playing guitar.

If you (or your kids) are of a certain generation, Yousician is sure to be a hit. It's like Duolingo for guitar lessons. If you're already addicted to the bright colors and flashing lights on your phone, you may as well harness that addiction and channel it into something productive, like learning guitar!

Yousician offers a premium 7-day free trial. It's shorter than most, but due to the addictive nature of their groundbreaking guitar program, they can get away with it. Head over to Yousician to get hooked today!

5. Most Comprehensive – Truefire

SPECS

• Price: $29/month or $149 annually
• Features: Thousands upon thousands of lessons, jam tracks, and tabs; interactive learning experience with real instructors

Truefire guitar lessons are based around their massive assemblage of high-quality video lessons, which cover a wide range of topics, including technique, theory, improvisation, song tutorials, and more.

What's really cool is that the courses are presented by some of the top names in guitar, so you're truly learning to play like a pro.

And not only do they offer 30+ years of video content—Truefire has embraced technology to evolve into one of the most unique online guitar learning experiences available.

In addition to a wide variety of video lessons, Truefire has interactive jam tracks, discussion forums, and many more resources to aid you in your learning process.

There are thousands of individual courses, ranging from beginner to advanced lessons, all of which encompass a diverse range of genres and styles.

In contrast to many of its competitors, Truefire offers intermediate and advanced students a way to take their learning into their own hands, granting them much more agency than the more beginner-oriented platforms.

If you're one of these more experienced guitar players, and private lessons just aren't within your budget, Truefire is likely to be a very compelling choice for online learning that will keep you advancing on your guitar journey.

6. Best Structured Content – Justin Guitar

SPECS

• Price: $89.99/Year (Billed annually), $9.99/Month (Billed monthly)
• Features: Video lessons, "Guitaraoke" play-along tracks with synced graphics, highly structured content

Online guitar instruction pioneer Justin "Guitar" Sandercoe has stepped up his game with the new Justin Guitar app. Now fans of Justin Guitar video lessons have a great learning app to continue their journey with the experienced guitar teacher/entrepreneur.

The Justin Guitar app centers around "Guitaraoke" play-along tracks that are great for training new players to keep time and hold their own on rhythm guitar.

The synced animated graphics actually show you the next chord shape you're going to be changing to, so you can gear up to change without missing a beat.

What also sets the Justin Guitar app apart is its content structure. Justin's content is structured in such a way as to be intuitive for learners to progress at a natural pace without skipping important steps.

If you're starting from scratch and want a comprehensive guitar education, you can't do much better than Justin.

Plus, you get all the same great video lessons that have made Justin Guitar one of the biggest names in online guitar education. If you want the experience of a real guitar teacher but the convenience of an app, you can't get any closer than the Justin Guitar app.

7. Best Overall – Ultimate Guitar

SPECS

• Price: UG Pro ($39.99/year), UG Courses ($39.99/year), Both for $59.99/Year + 7-Day free trial
• Features: So. Many. Tabs, synced notation, integrated mixable midi versions, tons of courses, integrated social content

Heading up our list of the best guitar learning apps is the Ultimate Guitar app, the killer guitar tabs and courses app from Ultimate Guitar.

One of the most trusted guitar tablature sites on the web for decades now, Ultimate Guitar has done a great job making an all-inclusive guitar learning app that features their signature tab library and much, much more.

A quick orientation allows you to customize your experience by selecting your experience level and top genres you'd like to explore. Then, it's off to the races. The "Tabs" tab is where you can access and save tabs and even create playlists of your favorite songs.

And, as you might have expected from UG, the tabs are where this app really shines. Each tab has an integrated YouTube video of the song, and they auto-scroll so you can play along to the song in real time.

Plus, Pro tabs allow you to create your own mix of a midi version of the song that you can jam along to with synced tabs.

What's more, Ultimate Guitar's Tonebridge app integrates so you can activate tones designed especially for the song you're learning.

Another great feature included with the Ultimate Guitar app is Shots, which is similar to TikTok or Instagram Reels, where users can upload and share their own performance videos. Shots even integrate with each individual tab lesson so you can see other learners playing along to the same song with you.

And Ultimate Guitar is ultimately not just about guitar—under the courses tab, there are all kinds of courses, from drums to singing and more. And, of course, the selection of guitar lessons does not disappoint, ranging from complete beginner to advanced jazz theory and more.

Sign up for UG Tabs and Courses today and get a 7-day free trial to see why Ultimate Guitar won the top slot on our list of the best guitar learning apps!

Best Guitar Learning App Buyer's Guide

We know that such a wide range of choices can be overwhelming. All these awesome guitar learning apps seem to offer the same promise—to teach you to play guitar—so how do you choose just one?

To answer this question, we've compiled a handy buyer's guide to walk you through some of the factors you might want to consider when shopping for online guitar lessons.

We've also included an FAQ section to help you further understand this process and make the best possible decision for your unique needs.

Content and Curriculum

The array of different apps for learning guitar tends to cover a wide range of content and curriculum. There are apps that specialize in teaching the basics to complete beginners, just as there are apps that focus more on content for intermediate and advanced players.

You would therefore do well to select an app for yourself that suits your needs as a player. If you're just starting out, make sure to pick an app that covers the basics—tuning, introductory guitar chords, etc.—trust us, you're going to need them.

Different apps' content may also have different focuses concerning the primary genres of song lessons. Most apps will be technologically compatible with either an electric guitar or acoustic guitar, but be sure the app you choose is going to teach the types of techniques you want to learn.

Whether your interest is rhythm guitar, soloing and improvisation, jazz guitar playing, or fingerstyle guitar, you get it—there are a lot of playing styles out there, and you should pick a course that covers the style you want to learn.

User Experience

The whole point of learning guitar online via an app is to have a seamless, easy, and comfortable learning experience—so you'd better make sure the app you choose can provide this!

Be sure that the user experience and interface of your app are up to snuff, or you're going to have a lot more to be confused about than just where to put your fingers on the fretboard.

There are tons of different kinds of apps. From ones like Ultimate Guitar and Guitar Tricks that focus more on tabs and videos to Yousician and Simply Guitar, which make learning guitar like playing a video game, there's no shortage of new ways these guitar apps can contrive for teaching the guitar.

Whether or not you enjoy your experience is one of the most important factors in learning guitar, so make sure you pick a guitar lesson app that gives you a user experience you enjoy and are comfortable navigating.

Quality of Lessons

Not only do you want to be sure that the quality of the app you're using meets your standards, but you, of course, should determine that the lessons themselves meet your quality standards as well.

Video lessons should be thorough, reasonably paced, and ideally provide multiple camera angles, so you can see what your instructor is doing. It doesn't hurt to appreciate your instructor's personality or sense of humor, either—anything that is going to keep you engaged.

Likewise, other types of lessons, like interactive games and other resources, should provide you with a learning experience that teaches you effectively and keeps you engaged.

If you find that you're not really learning anything or the lessons aren't sticking with you, that's a pretty good sign you should look elsewhere.

Interactivity

There are some really exciting new learning tools available on some of these online guitar courses. If just plain videos aren't enough to motivate you, it's definitely worth checking out a platform with some interactive learning tools to help you on your way.

From scrolling synced tabs and notation to backing tracks, progress tracking, and even a full-on guitar instruction game, there's no shortage of interactive tools to help you learn guitar faster and more effectively.

These tools can not only enhance your learning experience and help you stay motivated, but they can be really fun to work with, and fun is ultimately why we are here, isn't it?

Budget/Price Range

There's a pretty wide discrepancy in the prices for guitar lesson apps, ranging anywhere from free (trials, anyway) to considerably more commanding sums.

It is our opinion that any of our picks above will get you your money's worth; simply choose the course that appeals most to you, and you're sure not to regret it.

That being said, there are more affordable options, like Simply Guitar, as well as sliding scales like Yousician's, where the more you pay, the more content you have access to.

Even our top pick, Ultimate Guitar, offers a discounted rate that comes out to only $5 a month for access to both their tabs and course libraries.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Are guitar learning apps as effective as in-person lessons?

In-person lessons can be incredibly rewarding. But it can be so hard to find a good teacher nowadays. Plus, in-person lessons are REALLY pricey and can often leave you scratching your head once you've gone home with your notes—you can't just call your teacher up for a quick recap.

An online guitar course, in contrast, can really get you your money's worth, as you're often paying a flat rate for as much practice time as you want.

Videos can be replayed, slowed down, looped, and more. Plus, synced tabs are always going to be more useful than a sheet of paper like we had in the old days.

And with today's technology and features, you can even get feedback on your playing in real-time just like with a real teacher. Online guitar lessons can be at least as effective as in-person lessons, if not more so. Plus, the convenience and flexibility of online lessons just make a lot more sense these days.

Are guitar learning apps suitable for beginners?

Yes, many guitar learning apps offer beginner-friendly lessons and step-by-step guides, making them a great option for those who are just starting out on their guitar journey.

If you want to learn to play guitar but don't know where to start, you can't do much better than signing up for one of the more beginner-friendly apps like Simply Guitar, which will get your guitar skills started from the ground up.

Do guitar learning apps teach music theory?

Many guitar learning apps do include basic music theory lessons, such as scales, chords, and rhythm fundamentals. However, the depth of music theory instruction can vary depending on the app.

More intermediate- and advanced-oriented apps like Guitar Tricks and Truefire, which use video lessons taught by experienced professional musicians, can catch you up to speed on advanced techniques, theory, and other guitar concepts suited to players with a bit more experience under their belt.

Verdict

So there you have it, the best apps for learning guitar of 2024. We tried to present the best of what the guitar app market has to offer for players of all budgets and experience levels, so we hope you found something compelling on this list.

Our top pick for the best overall guitar learning app went to Guitar Tricks because their app truly has something for every player to progress on their guitar learning journey and have a lot of fun doing it.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that's the right app for you—do yourself a favor and check out some of the free trials these awesome apps have to offer. What better way to choose one than to experience them all for yourself?

Check Out Our In-depth Reviews as Well:

• Guitar Tricks Review
• Simply Guitar Review
• Truefire Review
• Fender Play Review

Embark on your guitar journey with the "Best Way to Learn Guitar" for a rewarding and effective musical experience.