There are countless guitar apps out there that offer some great tools for musicians on the go. Gibson Learn & Master Guitar is one of those applications that include a tuner, metronome and guitar chart, all in one nice package. This one even includes a few free video guitar lessons taught by the man who produced the Learn & Master Guitar course. Even though it seems like a big advertisement for Gibson and the lesson series, it’s still a free and useful tool for all guitarists.
The tuner is actually pretty accurate and there are two ways in which to tune your guitar. You can use the chromatic tuner, which will have the microphone listen to the pitch you play, showing how sharp or flat the note is. Or, you can use the simple tuner, which will play each string’s pitch through the iPhone’s speaker, and allow you to tune by ear. What’s really nice about this feature is that the pitch will automatically play four times so you have a few chances to get it right.
The metronome is very basic, offering only a few simple meters. You can choose to have the sound on or off. If the sound is off, the metronome will flash a bright light for each beat, so you can visualize the tempo.
The chord chart is useful, yet a bit disappointing at the same time. It’s nice, and clearly shows you how to play each chord, but it doesn’t actually play the chord so you can hear what it sounds like. Being a free app, you can’t complain too much, but it would still be nice to have that feature added in a future update.
The part that makes this app unique is the collection of free video guitar lessons that are available. There are eight free lessons that you can view from right inside the app and they are actually pretty lengthy. The beginning guitar lesson is forty-five minutes long! They are great lessons that move at a nice pace, and really do get you going on the basics of guitar. There are also intermediate and advanced lessons available. The top of the video selection screen is a big advertisement for the Learn & Master Guitar instructional series. If you want more lessons, you can tap on the ad to go check out the website and make the purchase. The app also includes a navigation button to visit the Gibson website to check out news and special articles.
Overall, the application is a great, free tool that any guitarist would appreciate having. Even though it’s not feature rich, it’s still nice to have. The user interface is intuitive and the graphics are surprisingly nice, making it look and feel like a paid application. It’s absolutely worth a try.
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