Top 10 Best Guitar Apps in the UK 2021 (Ultimate Guitar, Fender Play and More)

Let’s jump right into the fundamentals of finding the best guitar app for you. It's important to align your goals with the types of apps available and the different features each app has to offer. In this guide, we go over all of these considerations and more, as well as discussing the technicalities such as marketplace availability and costs. 

When it comes to finding the right app, you'll need to identify what exactly it is you want from your app. There are generally three different options, learning, recording or simulation. Here, we’ll take a look at what each type of app has to offer musicians. 

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 skill set, 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. 

Next up, we have recording apps, sometimes referred to as DAW’s (digital audio workstations). Yes folks, you no longer have to muck about with old-school 8-tracks to create you and your band's demos. Although, they do provide a unique sound, so we wouldn’t completely dismiss them just yet.

 
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 tones. The more complex the apps become, the more features they’ll have. But, they’ll also become much more complicated and challenging to use, so you’ll want to consider how much experience you have first.

Further, recording apps will require you to have compatible equipment, mainly a way of connecting your phone to your device. This is unless you use the devices' in-built microphone, although the quality will likely suffer. 

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 focussed on creating your ideal tone, rather than learning a few new chords. When it comes to 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. 

You’ll want to consider the different features the app offers. The specific features will differ depending on the style of app. Nonetheless, if you've got any prior experience using a DAW or other learning application, you’ll know the options are endless. In this section, we’ll be focussing on basic features that we’d want any app to have. 

First and foremost, 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. When it comes to tuners within applications (whether learning or recording) you have one of two options. 

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. The only downside is you’ll need silence to use it. So not great if you have friends or band members over. 

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. 

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 into the tone zone.  

While these are technically two different features, they can both be lumped in together as they essentially work towards the same goal, to keep your playing in time. 

Play along functions are found on learning applications, as you’ve probably guessed, these 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 this allows you to build up your speed and quality without becoming demoralised. 

Metronomes, on the other hand, are for playing along and keeping in time when it comes to 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. 

Stepping away from the musical side of things, we have some technical aspects to consider. Not all apps are universally available on the different app market places, so you’ll want to check that it's compatible with your device before getting your hopes up. 

Apple's iOS app store tends to have more options available than Google Play. This is worth knowing especially if you run both iOS and Android on separate devices, as you’ll likely be better off using the Apple device for downloading your apps. This isn’t to say there are no options for Android devices, just not as many.

When it comes to apps, you’ll have one of three payment options. First, and by far our favourite, is the free app. These will have no initial cost and allow you to explore the complete app without costing you a penny. Kerching!

After this, you have in-app purchases. These apps are often free initially, but will withhold some of the better content from users. You will be required to pay extra to access to these features. In-app purchasing is a decent way of dealing, as you can get a feel for the app before you spend your hard-earned cash.

Lastly, up-front payment. When it comes to this type of transaction, you’ll want to check if it is a one-off or a monthly subscription. While £15 upfront might seem expensive, it's a much better deal than £15 per month.

Now that we’ve delved into the differences, and hopefully helped you determine which applications will be right for you, let’s take a look at the top 10 ranking guitar apps in the UK. From popular platforms, to basic app to grow your knowledge, there's something here for every musician! 

Brushing up on your guitar strumming skills always feels fun and rewarding, regardless of whether you've been playing for 10 year, or 10 minutes. Check out the links below for more articles on the best gear for guitars in the UK!

If you consider everything we discussed in the buying guide and apply them to your goals as a musician, you'll no doubt find the perfect app, or apps, for you. Soon, you'll be one step closer to replicating your favourite songs or even creating your own. Here's to embracing those shredding skills! 

Author: Lewis Clark