Simply Guitar - Learn Guitar Reviews

by Jnic813

I’m beginning the learning process on guitar. In the beginning this was a blast, I even decided to pay the full year subscription to keep going seeing that I noticed significant progress. Then the cords lesson began. During the lesson E cord registered through without a problem, then I noticed SimplyGuitar would hear the E string on the 3rd and 2nd fret. I’d play them anyway not to cheat myself, but then it would lag in play and skip forward registering the E cord 3 times when I’d only strum it once. Once SimplyGuitar would catch up (I’m on home WiFi so cell service isn’t the issue) all sounds registered perfectly. Then the song would come into play, from the very 1st note, and not making any hand/finger changes SimplyGuitar would say I’m playing them wrong. I would go to other sites, even call a buddy to see if if he can here if I’m playing the cords right. So I’d go back to tuning, and cord lessons. They would register, go to the song, the E cord will not register. At this point the frustration of SimplyGuitar is more than I want, and I’ll go it alone. It would be a great app, but it doesn’t replace face to face learning.

by Actress #1

So I just recently got a guitar and I was so excited to learn how to play it. I saw an ad for simply guitar and I downloaded it. I learned a chord and tuned my guitar in just about 15 minutes! It was so great! Now i would give it more stars but then this happened... I finished one full lesson and was so proud. It took me only about 25 minutes. I tapped to continue to learn more guitar and then it said I couldn’t move on without getting a subscription. I looked how much money it was for a subscription for 3 months and it was $60?!?!!? I have an app on my phone and I have a subscription for $60 by for a year. And I got it for Christmas. Me and my mom got an account and it still wouldn’t let me move on. I am really disappointed in SimplyGuitar. But if you are rich and have $160 for a year than go ahead. Now if you have enough money to buy the subscription it teaches you amazingly. You get to learn fast and easy. If you don’t want to pay a billion dollars just to play the guitar then please don’t even waste your time. I am trying SimplyGuitar yousicion and it has been working perfectly. It is no money! I’m really disappointed in SimplyGuitar.😢 bye.❤️❤️

by Rose7256482552

I just recently started learning with SimplyGuitar and completed about 3-4 of your courses. Ukulele was my first instrument and I took a lot of time to practice my chords and get them to not mute. And for guitar it’s the same experience cuz I do take lessons and I’ve realized that. When I try to learn new chords I take my time to make sure all my fingers are in the right place and stuff and after 2 seconds then your app makes the chord appear red and it doesn’t count and makes me start over and then it happens over and over again. This is not very helpful for people with busy schedules, it wastes their time. For me I just try to quickly play the chord and it mutes and still appears red.
Also, when you give tab lessons. I JUST tuned my guitar before play and when I played the 5th and 6th string it just DOESN’T pick it up. I’ve tried pick and thumb, yet it just doesn’t work. Simply Guitar is allowing me to progress slowly in stuff I could master faster if you come up with a better method. PLEASE fix these errors so my precious time does not have to be wasted and so other users who want to feel comforted and take their time can do so. If you are worried about idle users why don’t you just make a pop-up that says “Are you still there?”

by EllieFloki27

It’s incredible that they charge the same for this as simply piano! I looove simply piano, so I had high hopes for SimplyGuitar. I took the week free trial, and I was quite disappointed. First of all the chord recognition is quite poor. Sometimes it wouldn’t recognize a chord which I knew I was playing right, and other times it would recognize it when I knew I was playing the wrong chord. For some songs you were literally playing the same chord over and over and over, I would be playing it correctly, but because they were close together on SimplyGuitar , it didn’t recognize it so it would send me back in the song and I would have to play that chord several additional times. My poor neighbors! Also, there are not nearly as many lessons on here as simply piano, so I can’t imagine doing it for a year, which is 120$, and the 3 month is half that price! I would consider buying the 3 month if the price were more reasonable. Paying half the price for a quarter of the time. Simply put, the product is not nearly as good as simply piano, so why would you have the audacity to charge the same price?!!

by CheckOutside

Such a great app I truly do enjoy using it to learn. This being said, there are 2 major problems which are the fact that I can’t control the speed of the levels. I’m not a prodigy so being able to slow the pace down to practice finger movements while being able to see the notes go by without constantly failing would be so nice - either let me set the tempo to what I’m comfortable with or make a practice mode. The other issue is that SimplyGuitar doesn’t really know when you hit the note or not. The registration is terrible and I stopped halfway through a song to see the next 4/7 notes pop up green even tho I’m not even playing. Other times the opposite happens and SimplyGuitar just refuses to acknowledge my notes, either because I’m too far forward or behind because SimplyGuitar doesn’t let me practice finger movements. This has so much potential but I have lost my mind at some points trying to use this which makes me wonder why I’m spending 9.99 a month when instead I could get free lessons online

by Radioactive A

I’m a new user. I’ve wanted to learn the guitar for a while and as I was playing I felt frustrated. Granted, I’ve never played before and I’m the furthest from an expert but while playing I became frustrated with the way the lessons run. It’s effective but once I approached an outsider who already knew how to play the guitar and showed me what I was doing wrong I continued only to run into more frustration. I’ll keep going but most likely with less help from SimplyGuitar . I’ve taken the case off my mobile devise, placed it really close, and more that I thought I could do with random incorrect marks but while (with help of previously mentioned guide) playing the correct notes in a semi-correct way for someone who’s not comfortable yet I still got counted as incorrect. I was on time for most beats and thought I was doing fine but I’ve become frustrated with SimplyGuitar. Maybe try and find new ways to guide such as options based on possibilities where the player could be struggling? I’m not exactly sure but I’m sure there should be some better way to fix these issues or guiding beginners. I do like SimplyGuitar though, it’s gotten me into guitar and maybe I’ll continue in the future. But for now, I’m frustrated.

by AlazyPotato

SimplyGuitar is nice! It really helps you learn chords, how to position your fingers, how to tune your guitar, and more! Thing is, there are a lot of flaws in SimplyGuitar , especially when it comes to receiving sounds. Sometimes when I try to tune the sound, it gives off different responses and I never know if my guitar is in tune or not! Not only that, but when strumming, it usually gets marked red and it keeps making me think I’m doing something wrong. Because of this, I try strumming louder, even if the phone is directly next to or in front of me. Because of me strumming louder, this caused blisters for me to form on my fingers, simply to just get all of the notes to blue and receive perfectly. Even I, a beginner guitarist, know that I should not be able to strum or hold my notes so hard to the point where I have blisters form all over my fingers only to get all of my notes blue. I’ve even asked my brother, a person who’s played guitar in the past, if it was normal to have blisters only for him to respond with, “No, you’ll only be causing unnecessary damage and pain to your fingers.”. Overall, SimplyGuitar is nice, and I’m happy I get to learn trending songs! I just hope you fix your sound system.

by Pi'dpiper

If this happens you will need to you, what fixed ours was deleting and adding it back. Then we had to start the process over of tuning but thankfully it wasn’t that much off. Not sure what caused the glitch but that is what we did. There are a few things I’d like to see improved. One being that you can go back to what you were learning. It doesn’t seem to want to all the time. I have to make sure all my background apps are closed before we start a lesson as well. Which that’s fine but the not being able to practice a lesson over again with ease is not awesome.

Old post: So we thought this would be cool. Read some reviews and the first day it worked really well. My son went back to redo the stuff he learned and it was glitchy. I’ve shut down other tabs, made sure it was the only one open, turned off all background sounds, shutdown the phone a few times. Closed the program down, reopened, tried to go over other programs on it and still it will not pickup the sound. The guitar was tuned to the apps specifications. I’m a little miffed. This was supposed to be a nice way for him to learn. He is upset. One star for frustrations.

by Bahamat

SimplyGuitar is ok. But it’s extremely unforgiving with the tuning of the guitar. I’ve used the tuner app (which is slightly off of my clip on tuner, but whatever), and it has a very hard time considering my 6th (E) string as in tune. Playing the thickest two strings on my guitar has a lot of variance, so it doesn’t hold the note on exactly the correct frequency. When I pluck it, it starts out high and gets lower as over time. Because of this, SimplyGuitar simply doesn’t acknowledge when I play certain notes. It *never* recognizes when I play open strings, which is pretty annoying.

This gets even worse as you play up the neck unless your intonation is PERFECT (which is nearly impossible), or you’re constantly adjusting the tuning in the middle of playing a song. I assure you, my guitar is in tune, and I’m playing the chords. SimplyGuitar just won’t let me progress and just play through a song. Really disappointing.

SimplyGuitar really needs to be much more forgiving about having perfect pitch on a guitar, especially for a beginner app. I’m simply not going to buy a $15,000 guitar and have it professionally tuned and intonated before every practice session.

by Cards86Fan

I love Simply Piano, and have renewed my love of the instrument. Simply Guitar, however has many more intonation issues. It rarely recognizes notes played correctly on the 6th string, and frequently has issues with the 5th string as well. Since many of the songs are playing the base line, it becomes quite frustrating. I now understanding rock guitarists smashing their guitars!
Seriously though, I have tried electric and acoustic guitars. I always tune before, and sometimes during the lesson, and the errors persist in the lower register.
I have found a solution to one of the chord issues. When I played the same chord in rapid sequence, it didn’t register the second one. If I deaden the strings between, it helps, but really interferes with the sound I want. It is also extremely difficult in situations with quarter- and eighth-note timing.
I’m sure developers are making improvements as time progresses, so I hope to revisit this review later with an improved score.
Despite the issues, it is still worth the money for both programs. Also, response time is quick and courteous when asking questions.

by Hurrrrrrraaaaayyyyyy

I selected electric guitar for me, it started out fine but soon it wasn’t registering anything I was doing no matter how hard or soft I strummed the string. I tried using a pick and then my finger, nothing. I tried re tuning it through SimplyGuitar , it picked that up just fine but when playing along, nothing again. I tried using SimplyGuitar both with and without headphones, I tried putting the phone on my lap then in my desk, I tried using an amp and not using one.... NOTHING. I can not explain the level of frustration and there are no helpful resources for troubleshooting this online that I could find. I had to switch to acoustic which was fine until I got to “using two strings at once” lesson. I’m playing just fine but SimplyGuitar is only picking up one string, I’m strumming both strings and it’s ringing out the way it should but SimplyGuitar is just failing to do its job..... on a final note I’m on iPhone 10, I turned off noise cancellation because I figured that may have been the issue but again not helpful. This is how customers are lost, you just can’t substitute a real life teacher unfortunately.

by Person With Bad Spelling

First of all it’s a good enough app if your a newbie and don’t have a experienced teacher but you made my tune my strings all wrong for more difficult songs you usually have to tune strings into different ways depending on your preferences my teacher does it much much deeper then you and yes. I already have. Gutair teacher who is much better then a app I just downloaded it it try it out I have been playing with her for more then 3 years but afte the first 2 I moved and when. Got back I almost forgot everything I could still play a lot so we basically started over I’m currently playing at book 2 and playing really good songs the best part is because of my adhd she listened to me better then. App and when. Had problems she listened and explained It to me if I missed some crucial detail it was in real time she was on a buggy zoom call and yet she showed me more in 30 minutes then SimplyGuitar showed me in 2 hours just get a Gutiar teacher if you don’t have the money then use SimplyGuitar but if you don’t have the time for one THE WHY DO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO PLAY A STUPID APP

by AllAmerican TAMU

SimplyGuitar is really well made. If you’ve read other reviews, you hear a lot about SimplyGuitar not reading cords correctly. While it’s true, sometimes it’s reading is off, it’s mainly because of the reverb. Your phone hears all the reverb after the note you play, and can read it as wrong. So it can be minimized by playing concise notes, and keeping your phone really close to your guitar. But SimplyGuitar is really well built, with well thought through courses and easy to understand videos. It makes learning interesting and let’s you enjoy the guitar even when you’re a beginner. Would highly recommend.
(The only request I have for SimplyGuitar makers is the tuner. I had to get my own tuner because the one in SimplyGuitar glitched around a lot. One minute it would read the string as tuned and the next it would say it’s too high/too low. Not a big problem as it’s not too difficult to find a good tuner, but just for feedback if you want to improve SimplyGuitar )

by Dj4party2

This is my FIRST review ever. I never thought I’d care enough to make a review, but here I am! I absolutely love(d) SimplyGuitar ❤️ but I’m stuck on ONE level for the past weeks or so… I’ve been playing it for DAYS, but any mistake I make, it unnecessary sends me back all the way to the beginning. When I need to play a few more notes, ONE mistake, and it sends me back 5+ notes than I need to. I’m not sure if it’s me, but I’ve been trying to get past this for so long. I eventually quit for a while, and decided to try it again, hoping it will get better, but it unfortunately didn’t. Plus, even though I’m exactly placing my fingers right, every single note is wrong. I tune it more, and it’s still wrong ;-; anyway, besides from that, I’ve been ADDICTED to SimplyGuitar honestly, but ever since that level I’ve been hesitating on touching my guitar again. SimplyGuitar deserves a lot of stars though, but I really hate when it happens, I LOVE and dislike you Simply Guitar!~

by Nerdy Old Guy

If you’re thinking about getting this and are looking at the reviews to see what the people say (as I often do) then you’ll want to read this: SimplyGuitar has a subscription that you have to pay to get all the lessons. It will teach you: how to tune your guitar, everything you need to know about frets, and the Em chord. Afterwards you need to pay a premium subscription for any more lessons. This is not me complaining about this as it makes perfect sense, I’m just informing anyone who was thinking about downloading SimplyGuitar about it so they know about it. I myself will not be paying the subscription because I’m an unemployed teenager with no money to spend and I’d feel bad asking my parents to pay for it. They’d say no anyway. I am rating it four stars because the little bit I could do for free was very useful and pretty entertaining. The videos were informative and humorous, but deep belly laughs level but they made me chuckle. So I bet that the rest of SimplyGuitar is great but, unfortunately, I will not get to experience it. Cool app, if u have the money or are willing to pay the subscription I fully recommend it 👍

by LexLor

This is a great app for beginners. I purchased the premium membership through a Christmas promotion and was using it consistently. I would have given it 5 stars but there are still improvements needed. For some strange reason SimplyGuitar has issues recognizing the 6th string and sometimes the 5th string. I have tried to trouble shoot per the directions in SimplyGuitar but the issue still persists. This issue makes it incredibly difficult/ pretty impossible to progress through the lessons. I am left rapidly/ frustratingly strumming the 6th string in hopes that it will be picked up by SimplyGuitar . I paid for the year subscription and its sad to think I may have wasted my money if I can’t progress through the lessons. Other than that SimplyGuitar has great potential and I can see if being the top app for guitar lessons. I just wish these issues would be addressed.

On another note. I would love to see some progress report on the user profile. Perhaps a calendar to show how many days / total time practiced. It would be nice to see.

by Billy Stumbliene

I decided fairly quickly to give SimplyGuitar a go above others to aid me in finally learning to play guitar and I’m so happy I did.
I was immediately draw in: it is fun, helpful, challenging but no so much so that I want to give up. I’ve been playing for a few weeks now and just got to the D chord section.
I love that with almost every lesson you get a song or two to practice either a chord or strumming pattern or what have you. It has a feature where it listens to you play and offers correction and here lies the flaw: it often seems to be incorrect in its detection of whether you’re playing a chord correctly or not. This can be amazingly frustrating. But as you see I’m still giving SimplyGuitar 5 stars as this isn’t a deterrent for me. Other people have mentioned the cost and no it’s not cheap! I splurged on SimplyGuitar because I think it’ll be worth it. My gf has played guitar for years and years and she’s impressed with SimplyGuitar and the progress I’ve made. I even asked if she thinks I should add in person lessons at some point and she said SimplyGuitar seems adequate! I don’t know how many more lessons are left but I’m hoping to learn as much as I can and so far, the cost of SimplyGuitar is cheaper than real guitar lessons and I’m very happy and having fun as I go. Recommended.

by Puppy1ove2

I have tried everything to learn the guitar but I just couldn’t get passed my E,Em and Am cords! When I heard about SimplyPiano and what it did for my friends I wished that I had one for my guitar. When I saw an ad for this app I downloaded it immediately. I was so happy that I could play for more than ten minutes a day and that it would actually listen to me. When I got to the E cord I was excited to finally get passed the E,Em and Am cords for the first time in years, but every time I played the E it would say I was wrong when I knew I was right because that was one of the few cords I could actually play! To be honest I was kinda frustrated with myself and thought it was something I was doing wrong or I was tone deaf. I decided to go back to my other app and play E. It said I did it perfectly. I love SimplyGuitar and I want to continue to use it but I can’t if I can’t get passed this lesson. Other than this detail I believe SimplyGuitar is amazing and is the best way of learning guitar that I have tried. You really have ability to change the game for so many more people than than the people that reach out to you. You guys are really amazing at what you do and I can’t wait for you to make more apps in the future.

by "Fxmpd"!

This guitar learning app is simply amazing. I am 62 years old and re-learning to play after a 36 year break! I remember nothing. It’s like I have never played before.
SimplyGuitar is actually fun. A very Small learning curve to get started. I am 62 not 42. 😎 but a highly responsive support team had me up and going in a very short time.(minutes)
It actually has me giggling inside when after learning One simple chord it has us “jamming” along with a pre-recorded song.
What a hoot!! I can see this being very motivating to kids and teenagers too but it’s fun also for senior citizens (me)
Every time I do something right SimplyGuitar makes a fun sound and gives me a check. I’d play for hours if my fingers did not start hurting.
Speaking of that…once I did not practice for several days (over my hurt fingers) and someone reached out to me to ask what was up??!!! Amazing!!
I explained I am waiting to switch to nylon strings…..but in the meantime it got me to pick up and at least do 5 minutes per day…..until I get my new strings.
I am only motivated to learn to play chords to a rhythm so I have a portable instrument to sing to. I play piano but it’s not very portable….even a “portable” one. 😎. Guitar is perfect for such portability. I feel confident with this learning app I’ll be able to learn to play to at least an advanced beginner level…which is my goal.
Very Well Thought Out! Kudos!!

by Miatitirhrgrest

So I knew I was getting a guitar so I need an app or something to learn how and I saw this and so like a smart person I read the reviews first then download. I saw that people were complaining about the subscription ( nothing in life is free, get over it) and I also saw people saying that SimplyGuitar couldn't hear them play, people are so quick to judge on an app like what if it’s your device that has the problem because I tried this on my iPhone and my iPad and SimplyGuitar seem to hear me just fine on both of my devices. All I have to do it purchase my subscription and that’s it, which I can afford if you can’t afford a subscription then maybe you shouldn’t have bought a guitar in the first place. So far it’s great app I have nothing to complain about just people need to make smarter decisions when purchasing apps look at the reviews before you purchase something thank you

by Gamerkicks78

Hi my name is David im 10 years old and I’m trying to learn guitar and the thing that’s is really makeing me mad is that the em cord dose not work I strum it and the thing will not pick up so I just throw my guitar in the corner there’s no videos that will help me so I’m going to give up in 2 months 😐 in less that I beat that stoopid em cord.

by KKrtn

I think this product is fantastic. We started with Simply Piano and I was interested in Simply Guitar. SimplyGuitar worked great for the first few chords / notes but now I can’t go any further and there’s no option for me to pay for a subscription to continue the service. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

by Actor._.Boi

This is a great app! It’s like musician, but a whole lot better. However, the tuning software is all jacked up. After tuning it prompts you to check the tuning, but it’s always out of tune the second time. In fact I spent so much time on tuning, my high E string snapped! I’d give it five stars if it weren’t for that. The rest of SimplyGuitar is great!

by Itsmee846382629463827

Usually I just give apps 3 stars just to get it out of my way but this is great

by FNCortez13

SimplyGuitar is amazing. I love it a lot. Yet I would like to know how soon new lessons are coming out.

by Izzyflores2007

Just started it and already feel
Like I’m making
Progress

by MorganHigdon

SimplyGuitar has made it an absolute treat to pick up the guitar again. I’m so happy to actually be learning!

by LeZorg

I was so excited to try this out! A sweet balance of tab exploration and chord development! Great songs too! Starting with Johnny B Goode, Another One Bites the Dust and Paint It Black... you’ll play with the pros, sound amazing and learn something too! Well done JoyTunes! AGAIN!

by Former Fan03

Begging you guys to release more! I would be happy to pay for additional lessons with this wonderful app

by Natcat367

I had never played guitar before. I found an old guitar in my attic and was extremely impressed with the quality of the lessons

by PizzaCamC

I knew completely nothing about the guitar. I had one just sitting in my room for about 6 years. When I found SimplyGuitar it completely helped me with the guitar. I love SimplyGuitar

by Dino_soup

I have ADHD and an auditory processing disorder, so learning something new is difficult, but the visuals on SimplyGuitar are amazing. SimplyGuitar
Makes everything so simple and I love it!

Update:
Just finished all the lessons. Best teaching guide I’ve come across, can’t wait for more!

by Jonnyr87

Edit: I had issues with SimplyGuitar at first but realized it’s best to use with headphones with a microphone.

It helps so much for beginner guitarists like myself. Just get yourself a good set of headphones with a microphone and boom your good to go. I’m so glad I found it and hope it helps everyone else trying to learn.

by MaCGaiver

I was excited for SimplyGuitar after trying simply piano and really wanting to learn to play the guitar. It exceeded my expectations. So far, it’s been super fun and entertaining. Video quality and content is top notch, and I really couldn’t ask for more. It’s like playing a video game, except you actually learn TO PLAY A FREAKIN GUITAR 🤗. It’s awesome.

by Rasmeyhawks

I like simple guitar because i like I he way it explains everything