I have enjoyed playing guitar as a hobby since my junior high days. Although the instrument itself remains unchanged, the resources I use to enhance my playing have evolved—at least to some extent. Alongside the built-in GarageBand app, here are two essential apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that I rely on for casual guitar playing.
Back in 2005, a Korg guitar tuner and printed tabs from the school library were my main tools to navigate my guitar.
Fast forward twenty years, and I can now visualize guitar tablature in mixed reality with the Apple Vision Pro while learning new tunes.
However, you don’t need the AVP to enjoy your guitar sessions. There are two apps that have consistently made it into my iPhone and iPad toolkit for casual guitar enjoyment.
Tuning Your Guitar
First on the list is GuitarTuna, which I instinctively use to keep my guitar perfectly tuned. The name is catchy enough that it has become a memorable part of my guitar routine. Typing “tuna” into Spotlight to locate the app is simply my ritual. If it’s absent from your routine, it definitely should be! The app is free for both iPhone and iPad and is extremely user-friendly. While it does tempt you with a subscription offering and lessons for songs, I typically just swipe those away. My primary purpose is tuning my guitar and quickly exiting the app.
Finding Playable Songs
Next up is Ultimate Guitar Tabs & Chords, which serves as the mobile counterpart to the site I used to explore back in school. (Although it includes a tuning feature, it’s not as straightforward as GuitarTuna.) The excitement with Ultimate Guitar, whether on the website or the app, lies in discovering your favorite songs to learn in either tab or chord format. In the early 2000s, I was all about finding the most popular version of a Green Day or blink-182 song after seeing it on MTV, then printing it out to memorize. Nowadays, I mostly turn to my iPhone and Apple Music.
While there are countless other music-related apps that simplify learning and playing the guitar and other instruments compared to two decades ago, these two remain my top essentials on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Do you have your own favorites? Share them in the comments!
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