If you learn how to play the guitar you will automatically feel great about yourself.
Whether you’re entertaining thoughts about a career in music, fulfilling a childhood rockstar fantasy, hoping to play backyard barbecues or simply achieving a personal goal, learning how to play will make you feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment.
And, with so many available options for online lessons, those goals, achievements and fantasies are all that more attainable, as well as being affordable.
- Incredible library of content, new items added daily
- Innovative process, excellent for visual learners
- Gamified app makes practicing even more fun
- Instant feedback on your playing
- Dodgy refund policy
- Some options cost more than market average
- Missing that “human touch” you get with standard video lessons
- Incredible library of content, new items added daily
- Innovative process, excellent for visual learners
- Gamified app makes practicing even more fun
- Instant feedback on your playing
- Dodgy refund policy
- Some options cost more than market average
- Missing that “human touch” you get with standard video lessons
Yousician offers thousands of guitar lessons covering several different styles and instruments. But what sets Yousician apart is that it’s more like a game for the user to play, rather than having to follow along to a series of instructional videos.
Yousician is an app that you can download to your phone, tablet or PC, and they offer a seven-day free trial for their two different paid memberships, as well a free version with limited access.
What's Here
YouTube Video Review of Yousician
Why You Should Trust This Review
I’ve been playing guitar and making music for approximately 35 years, mostly based out of Los Angeles, CA. I’ve played in several bands, been involved with several recording projects and played countless shows all over the world.
As a band member I have been a leader, a follower and a team player, primarily playing punk and alternative styles of music. I’ve never taken a formal guitar lesson but I have learned a lot from other musicians by simply playing along with them, asking questions and picking up tips and tricks here and there.
I continue to enjoy the experiences I get from playing and touring, and a big part of that is because I’m still able to learn so much from other guitar players.
How I Tested It
I spent a few days exploring the Yousician app on my iPhone and I thought it was a well-developed app despite its lack of compatibility for many devices. (There was no available app for my Chromebook or my Fire Tablet, and my MacBook’s operating system wasn’t current enough.)
Yousician is available for Mac OS 10.12 or later, iOS 10 or later, Windows 8.1 or later, and Android 4.4 or later. Again, it’s an app that you have to download and you can’t use it on a web browser, so you might want to check that before you create an account.
Yousician offers lessons for guitar (electric and acoustic), bass, piano, ukulele and singing. How many instruments you want to learn and how many lessons you want to access will determine which membership you select.
When you create an account, Yousician asks which instrument or instruments interest you, and then you will be directed to the appropriate learning path. For the sake of this review, I opted for the guitar lessons.
The interface encourages you jump right in, and you can select your level of experience to help you determine where to get started. If you’ve never played before, Yousician gives you tutorial lessons about guitar basics, such as how to properly hold a guitar, the name of the different strings and how to tune. But if you’re a more experienced player you aren’t forced to sit through these lessons.
The Lessons and Video Player
The lessons are formatted to be more like games for you to play rather than what you would expect from traditional online guitar lessons, with 12 different styles of music available to learn, along with tutorials on how to read tablature. The Yousician app accesses the internal microphone on your device, which allows you to play along with the lessons, and it let’s you know whether or not you’re hitting the correct notes in real time.
The lessons (which are all pretty short in length) have you play along with pre-recorded music tracks, and they gradually increase in difficulty as you go along. You start with the very basics like playing single open strings, then playing a single note on a fret, and then playing combinations of single notes. The lessons are very forgiving and the song will automatically pause wait to continue until you hit the correct note.
Once you complete a lesson (and hopefully pass it) it automatically cues up the next lesson for you, or you can replay a lesson if you’re not ready to advance. Also, if you feel like the lessons are too easy or if its something you already know, you can skip ahead to something more challenging by taking and passing a skills test.
There are also full songs that you can play along with and learn that cover 12 different genres; including rock, blues, country, pop and metal. These lessons have added functionality that allow you to slow down the tempo, add a metronome and also mute the entire song if you want. Plus, you can along with the tablature or standard notation if you want.
Also, there are additional lessons called “Workouts,” which are a series of skill-building exercises, such as learning scales, standard notation and playing by ear. Also, there is a large library of video lessons that teach you valuable fundamentals, such as how to play different types of chords, fretting positions and strumming techniques.
What It Offers & Signing Up
Yousician offers a seven-day free trial for either their Premium or Premium Plus memberships, both of which give you access to thousands of guitar and song lessons. The Premium membership is $9.99 per month or $119.99 per year, which gives you the opportunity to learn one instrument of your choice. As for the song lessons, you only get access to Yousician original songs and public domain songs, and not access to songs written by popular artists.
The Premium Plus membership is $14.99 per month or $179.99 per year, and you can access the lessons for all of their available instruments (guitar, bass, piano, ukulele and singing) as well as full access to their entire song library. The full song library contains the Yousician original songs along with several popular songs by various artists, which is updated weekly.
There is also a free version of the app that you can download and try out, but it gives you limited access to the number of lessons you can take, and you are only allowed to use it for 15 minutes per day. The free version is basically a way for you to try it out to see if you want to sign up for a membership or use the seven-day free trial option. It’s important to note that you must provide a credit or debit card number to sign up for the a free trial, and if you don’t cancel before the trial period ends you will get billed for an entire year’s membership.
- Free seven-day trial
- $9.99 per month or $119.99 per year for Premium membership
- $14.99 per month or $179.99 per year for Premium Plus membership
- Free version with limited access
- App is free to download
Free Downloadable Apps
As I mentioned, Yousician is an app that you have to download, and the app itself is free. However, it was a little frustrating for me to find a compatible device to use it. Their website isn’t very clear about which devices can and can’t be used and, on their home page, it simply says, “Yousician works on nearly every device,” which I discovered isn’t true.
But, after a quick search on their support page, I was able to find the system requirements. In addition to listing which devices are supported, it also states that the app may have performance issues on devices with less than 1GB of RAM, which I think is another important thing to mention if you’re considering trying it out.
- More like a game than traditional online lessons
- Thousands of lessons available
- Additional skill-building exercises
- Library of fundamental video lessons
- Tablature and chord charts available
- Lessons for learning songs
What I Liked
I thought Yousician was really fun to use and it definitely feels like you’re playing an addictive game rather than taking lessons.
Once you sign up you get to start playing right away and, if you’re a beginner, the tutorial videos at the start of each lesson seemed very helpful. I also liked that it offers a large selection of video lessons for fundamental things like strumming and picking techniques, as well learning chords and chord changes.
Also, the skill-building exercises would be very useful for beginner and intermediate players, and the large selection of song lessons cover a lot of different genres of music. Plus, I appreciated that Yousician is able to automatically use the internal microphone on your devices so you’re not required to use any unnecessary cables. Lastly, the digital tuner (and the helpful video on how to tune) was very handy.
As for the song lesson player, the graphics and functionality were great. I liked that you can slow down the tempo, add a metronome, mute the entire backing track, and also choose to play along with the accompanying tablature or standard notation.
- Thousands of lessons available
- Several different styles to learn
- Additional video lessons and exercises
- Tablature and chord charts available
- High-quality lesson player
What I Didn’t Like
Again, as mentioned, finding a compatible device was a little frustrating, so I don’t know if I would have had a different experience with Yousician if I wasn’t forced to use my iPhone. Also, as great as it is to have access to so many video tutorials in additional to the actual lessons, the videos only give one, continuous shot of the instructor. There are no close-ups or different angles of the instructors hands so, on my iPhone, it was a little hard to see what he was doing.
Plus, even though Yousician claims to be for all skill levels, I found that it seemed more geared toward beginners and low-to-intermediate players. This is great if you’re just starting out or only play a little bit, but if you’re a more advanced player you might be a little disappointed. Also, a seven-day free trial seems a tiny bit short, but there is also the limited-access free version that you can try out to help you decide if it’s something you want to pay for.
- Device compatibility issues
- Mediocre video lessons
- More for beginners
- Short free trial period
Final Thoughts
The cost for Yousician seems very reasonable for everything it offers. Considering all of the different lessons and the large song lesson library, the price for a Premium membership seems very fair.
As for the Premium Plus membership, for a few dollars more per month you get access to all of their instrument and vocal lessons, along with the library popular song lessons, which I think is extremely fair.
And, even though the trial period might seem a little short, using the free version should give you a decent opportunity to see if it’s something you want to continue using. Either way, I think it’s worth trying out simply because it’s so fun to play!