Thursday, March 11th, 2010
This week we had the pleasure of test driving one of TouchChord’s newest iPhone apps - the TouchChord’s Songbook Rolling Stones. TouchChords has built a new way to learn music and practice guitar using your iPhone. They’ve built a suite of iPhone apps and have recently released a set of “songbooks” that include music from The Rolling Stones, The Police, Cat Stevens and James Taylor among others.
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Gibson has decided to get into the mobile app game and released their first effort with the “Gibson Guitar App“. The app features a tuner that can handle chromatic as well as open tunings, a metronome with tap tempo, chord charts and video lessons. After playing around with the app for a little while we’ve found it’s best feature to be it’s price - free.
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Paul Reed Smith has released a new iPhone app that combines a guitar amp simulator, an accurate tuner, and a song practice tool which lets you upload your original ideas, jam along to hits, and slow down riffs and solos for easier learning. The new iPhone app is called the PRS Jam Amp and is on sale now in the iTunes store for $9.99.
Before you buy make sure you’ve read this review. There are some considerations to think about before buying the app.
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Here at Fretbase, we are regular users of Guitar Toolkit - one of the best-selling iPhone apps for the guitar. So when we heard that Agile Partners was releasing Tab Toolkit - an iPhone application for guitar tablature - we had to try it. We were given special access to take Tab Toolkit on a test drive and we’re glad we did.
Simply stated, Tab Toolkit is intended to allow you to take your guitar tablature with you and access it on the iPhone or iPod touch. For anybody who has ever been caught without a key piece of tablature at home or tried to read tablature on a Kindle, the need for a piece of software like this can’t be over-stated.
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
We had the opportunity to get to test out another iPhone app geared for guitar players. The iStroboSoft from Peterson Tuners is a visual tuner that features their classic “rolling LEDs” that slow and stop as you get closer to being in tune. It’s a great feature that’s become a distinguishing feature on Peterson Tuners and makes tuning a simple visual process.
The iStroboSoft (opens iTunes) is the best iPhone guitar tuner we’ve see to date. The iStroboSoft provides the best tuning accuracy we’ve seen and comes with a couple extra features that really make this app stand out among guitar tuners on the iPhone. Highly recommended iPhone app. Full story…
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
We were just given a chance to preview a new iPhone app for guitar players called FretBoard. FretBoard is similar to many other guitar iPhone apps in some respects but also has some neat features that separate it from the pack. It’s big differentiation from others is the fact that it supports many stringed instruments including the guitar, banjo, bouzouki, bass, mandolin, violin, viola, cello, lute, viola da gamba, ukulele, dulcimer, all Chapman Sticks and Warr guitars. Extra points if you even know those last two instruments.
We’ve added the app to our iPhone Apps For Guitar Player’s page. Read the Full story…
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Last summer, after the launch of the iPhone App Store, we did a story about on 5 Great iPhone Apps for Guitar Players that listed some of the best guitar related apps we’d seen to date. Well it’s been more than six months since and we decided to revisit the iPhone App Store and see what else had been developed for guitar players.
Overall we’ve seen a lot of upgrades to existing iPhone guitar apps, making for some really powerful applications. But we’ve also seen some pretty shoddy excuses for applications too. So to help you sort it all out here’s an updated list of the some of the best iPhone Apps for guitar players.
iPhone Apps for Guitar Players
Clicking on the links below will launch your iTunes application.
| App Name | Icon | Description | iTunes Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tab Toolkit |  |
Tab Toolkit allows you to take your guitar tabs on your iPhone and iPod Touch. In addition to the twenty tabs that come with Tab Toolkit, the application is also enabled to allow you to upload tabs in Power Tab, Guitar Pro, text and PDF. When it comes to guitar tablature, you *can* take it with you. |  |
| PocketGuitar |  |
The PocketGuitar turns your iPhone into a guitar neck and lets you finger chords and play the string via touch screen. It's got some pretty cool features like different guitar types like an acoustic-electric, classical guitar, electric bass and even a ukulele. You can also add effects like chorus and delay (all configurable) and use alternate tunings. But the PocketGuitar isn't without it's drawbacks. It's biggest is the difficulty in actually playing it. The touch sensitive screen isn't always accurate and sometime there are lags with the sound. | |
| 7 Chords |  |
Another popular IPhone app for guitarists is 7 Chords - a library of guitar chords displayed in chord diagrams. It's a pretty comprehensive library and has all the chord positions up and down the neck and with a lot chord varieties like sus2, sus4, augmented, diminished, 13, 7+5, m6 to name a few. 7 Chords will even sound the chord for you too. It's a pretty basic app, but a useful tool for guitar players. | |
| GuitarToolKit |  |
This is one my personal favorites. The Guitar Took Kit app has been out for a while now and was in our first line up IPhone Apps for guitar players story. GuitarToolKit manages to back in a tuner (along with 40+ alternate tunings), a fretboard that displays scales up and down the neck (with sound), a metronome with tapping feature so you can set your own tempo. It also has chord diagrams and can be set up for use with a 6 and 12 string guitar as well as bass guitars. | |
| RIFF |  |
RIFF uses a unique interface of colored boxes to let you play lead guitar along with included instrumental tracks or from music from your own library. RIFF gives you three sets of controls that let you play a pentatonic scale with either muted notes, harmonics or just regulars style. But the really cool feature is bending notes by sliding your finger up the scale or creating vibrato by shaking your finger on the button. It might take some getting used to the controls but we think this is a pretty cool app if you can master it. | |
| TouchChords |  |
TouchChords helps to teach you chords and a whole lot more but turning you iPhone into a virtual guitar tutorial. The application will display chord grips on a guitar neck and you have to properly finger the chord in order for the chord to play. It's a great tool for beginner guitar players (and they even have some advanced stuff too) to help train on remembering chord voicing. They've also added "songbooks" to give you fully licensed chord progressions to popular music from the likes of the Rolling Stones to Boys Like Girls. |  |
| Guitarist |  |
Similar to PocketGuitar this app is mini guitar rig in your IPhone. Guitarist gives you a 21 fret guitar that display up 10 frets on the screen and let's you even record and save what you play. The idea is to give guitarists a guitar whenever inspiration hits. One of the coolest features is the Wah-wah and Whammy effect. The Guitarist app makes use of the IPhone's motion sensor and you can activate these effect by tilting the IPhone back and forth. But the Guitarist app has some of the same drawbacks as the PocketGuitar - it's a bit difficult to play. | |
| FourTrack |  |
FourTrack turns your IPhone into a mini 4-track recorder. The app records at 16 bit, 44.1 kHz and includes a built in metronome. It also has some great recording features like panning, faders and compression. You can save your recordings and export them through a simple interface. FourTrack comes from Sonoma Wire Works the makers of RiffWorks - a well known name in this space. However it looks like FourTrack has some problems with IPhone OS 2.2 - so beware. | |
| iStroboSoft |  |
One of our personal favorites. Peterson Tuners has offered tuning solutions for over 60 years and in keeping up with the latest and greatest, they've built an iPhone app called the iStroboSoft that uses an exclusive strobe display to allow you to achieve a very accurate tuning. They're also planning an adapter that can plug directly into the iPhone/iPod Touch for an even better performance. | |
| Guitar Rock Tour |  |
Think Guitar Hero or RockBand for the IPhone. More guitar oriented than it's famous cousin Tap-Tap Revenge, Guitar Rock Tour displays a guitar fretboard and challenges you to tap the notes in time. Will it help you become a better guitar player? Probably not. Will it be a lot of fun? Hell ya! It includes songs like Message In A Bottle and Smoke On The Water. | |
| Guitar |  |
Guitar is a simplified version of apps like PocketGuitar and solves one of the major problems with PocketGuitar - it's playable. Instead of trying to fret string you press pre-set buttons that represent chords and then just strum. It's got a built in library of over 1900 chords and ability to enter and save your own chords too. It also has guitar scales as well if you want to do leads. Easy peasy! | |
| Visual Metronome |  |
Visual Metronome is a dead simple metronome that displays a large number for the beat count. They've also included 8 different sounds for the beat and a reference pitch too. Also a key feature includes a tap tempo so you can tap in your own beat and it automatically reads your tempo and sets the metronome. | |
| iGuitarChords |  |
Don't let the bad icon fool you. iGuitarChords is a cheap and easy to use chord diagram app. It features a nice clean interface that allows you to easily dial in most of the standard chords up and down the neck of the guitar. It could stand to be a little more comprehensive but overall it does a decent job, especially for the price. It's also available in Italian. | |
| FretBoard |  |
FretBoard is a reference tool for players of the stringed instruments supporting Guitar, Banjo, Bouzouki, Bass (4, 5 and 6 string), Mandolin, Violin, Viola, Cello, Lute, Viola da gamba, Ukulele, Dulcimer, all Chapman Sticks, Warr guitars | |
| Pocket Tabs |  |
Pocket Tabs allows you to download tablature directly to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Once a tab has been saved to your device it can viewed with or without an internet connection - handy for Touch users. The tabs available for download are listed on Pocket Tab's website. We've found the tab selection limited when compared to other major tab sites but users are adding new tabs all the time. Other features include auto-scrolling with speed settings, font sizes can be adjusted for better viewing and you can email tabs to a friend. | |
| Chordmaster |  |
Planet Waves, a division of D'Addario, has released "Chordmaster", a guitar chord library of 7800 various chords in all shapes and sizes. It's got a great, simple layout and it's pretty easy to navigate up the neck to view other inversions of the selected chord. You can even strum the chord and hear how it sounds. It even has a "Lefty" mode for all you communists out there ;-) | |
| MySongBook |  |
It had to happen eventually - an app for guitar tabs. MySongBook displays the chords and sometimes lyrics to songs in a nice, convenient format for the iPhone and even includes auto-scrolling. They've integrated with Chordie.com as well. One big concern we have with apps like this is copyright law. Publishers who own the right to publish the music may shut apps like MySongBook down. That said, we've had tab websites for quiet awhile, so it might be around for the long haul. | |
| iPractice |  |
iPractice turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a mini guitar tutor. The app is geared towards beginner and intermediate players providing a set of 170 individual guitar lessons to help you work on fundamentals and rhythm playing. iPractice provides the backing track and drummer so you can practice with a beat - an important part of any practice session. Priced at $2.99 it's cheaper than any book you'll buy at the store and much more interactive. This app is Fretbase recommended. | |
| Fret Surfer Guitar Trainer |  |
The idea behind this app is to help you learn all the notes on your guitar. The app has two game modes - finding the right fret given a note and a string and naming the note based on a fret. The games are customizable so you can focus on particular strings, sharps or flats. You can even play the games in alternate tunings. | |
| Chord Cards |  |
Chord Cards provides 25 different chord diagrams in shapes that can be moved up and down the neck. The best part about Chord Cards is the eye candy. Musicroom.com has built a very nice looking, easy to read fretboard and included photos and videos of the chord being played. This app is definitely for the beginner guitar players and good practice tool when you're on the couch. | |
| Scale Cards |  |
Scale Cards, like it's sister app Chord Cards, provides a easy to read interface with over 50 essential guitar scales. Scales are displayed in neck diagrams or with guitar tablature. Also included are photos and videos of the scales being played. | |
| PRS Jam Amp |  |
The PRS Jam Amp is an app that combines three applications in one. It's a guitar amp simulator, an accurate tuner and practice tool that lets you upload tracks (MP3, ACC and AIIF) and jam along with the music. You can even slow down and loop sections of the song for practice. Requires a PRS Guitarbud. | |
Monday, January 12th, 2009
We have been fans of the iPhone as a platform for guitar based applications since shortly after Apple launched its App Store. Our favorite guitar-based application for the device is chord lookup because let’s be honest, sometimes it isn’t easy to remember the fingering for a D# maj9 on the fly. While we often use the 7 Chords application, we must admit that Chordbook is even more robust. Today, the developer of Chordbook released version 1.2 of the application. The new version has many improvements including:
* a new menu for quicker navigation
* quick lookup of 2,448 guitar chords
* “what’s this chord?” reverse chord lookup
* a new more comprehensive help menu
* guitar, bass and keyboard views
If you have an iphone and don’t have 2,448 guitar chords loaded into it, this one is worth a shot.
Monday, September 15th, 2008
A neat application has been released for the iPhone that turns your phone in a multi-track recorder. A company called LittleCodeShop.com has released a 4 track recorder application called 4 Tracks Lite.
4 Tracks Lite works by using the built-in iPhone microphone, the same one you use to talk on the phone, to record sound. The software allows for up to 4 different tracks to be recorded and played back simultaneously. While still in it’s early stages, the application looks pretty promising and it’s a great way for musicians to leverage their iPhone when inspiration hits.
One of the major drawbacks is the inability to save the recorded file, making the application more of a practice tool or a quick way to jot down an idea that might be re-recorded elsewhere. But for $5.99 it does the job.
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Here at Fretbase we’re big into guitars (you may have already realized this), but we also are big fans of technology. Sure, it is nice to sit back with a small bodied acoustic and try to figure out a blues tune. But we don’t have time for that now. Apple has launched an iPhone App Store!
Combining two of our passions, we are providing here a list of new iPhone apps that we’d expect to be of particular appeal to the iPhone owning guitarist (e.g., Brian and me).
Update: Many new applications added. See the new list at iPhone Apps for Guitar Players.
