10 Best Guitar Apps UK 2022 | Ultimate Guitar, Fender Play and More

For those after a quick look, here is our Top 5:

1. Apple - Garage Band for £0.00
2. Fender Play - Guitar Lessons for £9.99
3. JamUp - Pro for £17.99
4. Ultimate Guitar - Chords & Tabs for £0.00
5. Auto Chords - Chord Progression Generator for £0.00

For a more in-depth look at the comprehensive top 10 selection, make sure to read on to learn more about the different types of guitar apps available and understand how our ranking was determined.

This article's chosen EC site price listings are reflective of its publishing date.

1. Pick the Right Type of App for Your Goals: Learning, Recording or Simulator
2. Check for Good Features, Especially Essentials Like Tuners and Metronomes 

Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced musician, there is always something else to learn when it comes to playing an instrument. So, if you’re looking to take your skills to the next level, then finding an app with instructional videos, tabs or chord progressions will help propel your skills forward. 

The issue is finding the right app for your level. Unfortunately, there is no way of reliably categorising apps by difficulty. Instead, we would recommend being honest to yourself about your skillset, as acceptance is the only way forward when it comes to learning. 

Try a few different apps. Sure, some won’t work, but the great thing is many will not require an initial payment, so you can have a fiddle around with some of the basic principles before purchasing. Kind of like a try-before-you-buy digital guitar teacher, or a free first lesson. 

Just starting out? You'll need basics like a comfy strap and a suitable guitar amp

Next up, we have recording apps, sometimes referred to as DAW’s (digital audio workstations). Yes, you no longer have to deal with old-school 8-tracks to create your band's demos. These apps tend to have thousands of pre-sets with different tone simulations, allowing you to pick and choose from those already loaded, or create personalised ones. 

The more complex the apps become, the more features they’ll have. But, they’ll also become more challenging to use, so consider how much experience you have. Further, recording apps will require you to have compatible equipment, such as a way of connecting your phone to your device. This is unless you use the device's in-built microphone, although the quality will likely suffer. 

Check out our recording mic recommendations if you're building a home studio 

Simulator apps simply take the pre-set sounds and amplifier combinations of the recording apps but don’t record. Instead, they are used by budding guitarists to help identify the sounds that they like, or what their next physical purchase for their set-up will be. 

These are great if you already have experience playing the guitar and you’re more focused on creating your ideal tone, rather than learning a few new chords. For new players, we would recommend sticking to learning the different aspects of playing before you start to delve into the complex world of guitar sounds. 

Pedal fan? We've reviewed dozens of styles from fuzz to reverb

Whether you’re learning, recording or noodling about, you’re going to want your guitar to be in tune. Trust us, you won’t get very far without it. Some in-app tuners use the device's built-in speaker, which is handy as you won't require any extra equipment. You can just pluck away until you get a positive indication your string is in tune – but you’ll need silence to use it. 

Other applications will let you tune the guitar by plugging it in. These are likely to be more accurate but will require additional pieces of equipment to link your guitar to your device or computer. 

If you haven't got one yet, you might want to pick up a seperate guitar tuner 

Integrated tones and pre-set options will give you the ability to explore different tonal sounds, such as various amplification set-ups, pedals and other add-ons to help you find your ‘sound’. This isn’t so important for those just looking to learn guitar, but an essential for recorders and simulators.

Generally speaking, when it comes to tones, the more, the merrier. However, it’s important to be realistic as an app on an iPhone 7 isn’t going to have the same amount of space to store sounds as a fully expressive DAW such as Logic Pro. 

On average, guitar apps can have anywhere from 20 to over 100 different options, all of which can be personalised to create your own combinations. It’s just a case of how deep you want to dive in.

While these are technically two different features, they both work towards the same goal: to keep your playing in time. Play-along functions are found on learning apps and allow you to play along with the song that you’re trying to learn. Usually, they can be sped up and slowed down to your level, which is extremely useful as you can build up your speed and quality without becoming demoralised. 

Metronomes, on the other hand, are for playing along and keeping in time when you are recording. Therefore, there’ll be no-one to play along with. Instead, you set the tempo and create riffs and chord structures around this speed. 

This ranking has been compiled by the writing team at mybest UK via careful evaluation of the points made in the buying guide and thorough research of each product and comparing multiple verified customer reviews across the EC sites used.

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Written and researched by Lewis Clark