Guitar hero(in training)

Hello, Cody here, learning how to play guitar has been on my bucket list forever. It’s weird because typically I dive head-first into learning new skills. Anyway, this is not supposed to be about that, this is about the first app that I tried, it’s called Simply Guitar.

The Good Parts of the App

The app worked really well. It listened to me play and helped me tune my guitar. When I would play a string or a chord, it would tell me if I was doing so correctly. There was also a Guitar Hero(oddly enough I have never played) style game at the end of each lesson where you had to strum in rhythm with these bars going across the screen. Since I am not even

My sore finger tips

remotely a gamer, I have NO idea if Guitar Hero is relevant anymore, however, it was wildly successful, and so the formula of hitting strings with a moving bar was fun. I think this is where apps will be strong, your third cousin removed who has played guitar for a million years and is trying to teach you will not be as fun as Guitar Hero. I’m sure a musical purist will say something like “You should learn for the love of music”, yeah bud cool, cool-cool-cool. I love music, I spent all of my 20’s going to festivals and building a near audiophile stereo, but, if it isn’t fun the buy in is difficult.

The Bad Parts of the App

I straight up did not like the guy that was teaching, he seemed lame to me. I don’t know why, that is just personal preference, but it is how I felt. The guitar tuning software built into the app was not near as good as the real tuner I have, this may be to many factors that i do not understand. My BIGGEST beef with the app was the inevitable pay wall, I knew it was coming, but did not know how much it was going to be. This always bothers me, I was in sales and marketing for years, and I never shy away from sharing cost right away. If your product is strong enough and good enough, cost will not be a deterring factor. I see it as a sign of weakness if they can’t share this info right off the hop. For a 3 month minimum subscription it is $18, I personally think they should offer a one month option.

What I Learned

Me attempting Em chord

Well I learned how to play the 1st string on frets with 3 of my fingers and open fret as well. The app then taught me the e-minor chord. It was difficult, but after about 10 minutes I was doing it. This was a great feeling, like in my soul, not in my fingers. They are still kind of tingling numb. This would have been better when I was a welder and all my fingers were callused from doing heavy manual labor. Now they are soft(the most strenuous thing I do is type on a keyboard). Never the less, I have never let a little bit of discomfort get in my way. Stay tuned as I try the next app called Yousician.