We’re a ways into 2018, but it’s worth taking a moment to see what guitar apps have been popular in 2017.  There’s some old standards and couple newbies.  And, most importantly, these apps are continuing to be popular and well-reviewed in 2018!

How Did We Choose?

The latest updates to the App store make it harder to search by popularity (Apple’s latest trend word is “discoverability”, not sure what that means…).

Thankfully, they provide an API so that third party sites like fnd.io and theappstore.org can make some cool tools for power searching by popularity, ranking, latest updates, and more.

In addition to these parameters, we applied our old-fashioned ‘thinking caps’ and sorted the results to provide a balanced ranking, separated by “free” and “paid”.

Top 2017 Guitar Apps for iOS

 

FREE

 

GarageBand

The perennial favorite. It’s hard to beat for sheer breadth of functionality, ease of use, and integration with Apple devices (of course).

 

Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs

Another long-time favorite.  Ultimate Guitar’s tab site is massive, with an enthusiastic user base. Their app extends this experience in a powerful way for your phone.

 

GuitarTuna: Guitar, Bass Tuner

GuitarTuna feels like an awful Dad pun… and, yet, is a hugely popular free guitar tuner app.

 

Guitar – Chords, Tabs & Games

A fun way to learn guitar.  Gamified in the general way of Guitar Hero or some of those classic guitar video games. It shows you where to put your fingers, what the chords look like, and is a great first step for newbies.

 

 

Pro Metronome – Tempo, Beat, Subdivision, Polyrhythm

This is a powerful metronome for setting up complete songs, complex rhythms, or just practicing some scales ; )

 

 

PAID

 

Total Energy Tuner & Metronome

A new app with a lot of raving fans. The app has such a depth of features and tweakability that it’s a popular tuner for all types of musicians – from guitars to clarinets.

 

 

Ultimate Circle of Fifths

A fun, new app that I’m looking forward to playing with. This app will teach you some theory and help you write some happenin’ music.

 

 

iReal Pro

A backing trap app with lead sheets looking like classic Real Book pages.

 

 

Cleartune

I’ve recommended this app in the past – it’s a great, straighforward tuner.  Easy to read, accurate, can’t go wrong.

 

 

Tunable Tuner & Metronome

A beautifully designed tuner and metronome with recording features and multiple display settings.

 

 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

 

Tempo – Metronome with Setlist

Again, I’ve recommended this app before as a powerful metronome app and it seems to be holding it’s own in the long-term app rankings.

 

Guitar Toolkit – tuner, metronome, chords & scales

A full-featured app with almost everything you need for practicing.

 

 

Conclusion

There’s some interesting newcomers to the scene and, of course, some long-standing favorites.  The good news, though, is that there are so many high quality apps to help you with your practicing, writing, and performing that it’s hard to go wrong.

If you’re looking to take a deep dive into some of the specific categories, make sure to check out these posts about the best Metronome Apps, Tuner Apps, and Backing Track Apps.