Fender Play
An easy way to master the guitar
Free (IAPs) From Fender Digital, fender.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch Needs iOS 9.0 or later
There are lots of guitar apps out there — tuners, chord tutorials and such — but Fender Play is an all–in–one designed to help you play the guitar, no matter your level of experience.
The app’s welcoming layout makes it easy to start playing straight away and a nice touch is the ability to choose your style of music (such as rock or blues) as well as the type of guitar you want to play on — acoustic, electric; even ukulele. In doing so, the app’s video tutorials are then customized to your tastes, so you learn what you like. You can, handily, change your path at any time, if need be.
Depending on your skill level, you can start right at the beginning or skip to more advanced tutorials. The videos are clear and easy to follow, with the camera cropping in on parts of the guitar for better comprehension, and the tutors never skimp on the detail. You even get to learn famous songs along the way; neatly, the songs tab allows you to learn specific tracks from a wide array of genres and famous artists.
We’ve got some minor gripes though. For one, the tutorials don’t always tally with your chosen presets — presumably there’s not enough footage to fill in the gaps. If you’re on an acoustic, you can’t choose to learn by finger picking either — you’re made to use a plectrum — so you need to work around this. It’d be nice if the Fender tuning app was baked in too.
At $9.99 a month, this isn’t a cheap way to learn, but it sure is effective.
the bottom line. Pricey, but powerful guitar tutor.