Have you been seeing ads for an app called Yousician popping up everywhere?
I have!
The Yousician ads looked pretty interesting. Guitar Hero mixed with a real guitar on your phone.
So being a curious guitar teacher, I wanted to see how Yousician teaches guitar.
Here is what I found.
What is Yousician?
Yousician is an instrument teaching app for your phone or tablet, so you need to download it from Google Play or the Apple App Store.
You can also download a Mac or PC progam to display the app on your computer monitor as well.
By the way, it used to be called GuitarBots a while back, but they rebranded into Yousician.
After you install the app:
- You will be asked which instrument (Guitar, Piano, Ukulele, Bass, Voice) you want to learn. I chose the guitar.
- How well you play it already.
- You'll be shown a 3 part video on how to use the Yousician app.
After this, you can start learning with Yousician.
Yousician method of teaching guitar
Yousician teaches the instrument in a structured format, which is nice to see.
It spreads its lesson tree into 3 main parts:
- Lead - All sorts of techniques needed for playing lead guitar, including alternate plucking, slides, bends, etc.
- Knowledge - Ear training, musical alphabet, keys, notes on the fretboard
- Rhythm - The skills you need to play rhythm guitar, so mainly chords and strumming. Fingerpicking is taught here as well.
The main premise of Yousician is that it teaches guitar through gamification.
It picks up the sound you make with your instrument.
The display runs in tablature format, which is good (I remember having tried Rock Smith, it had a Guitar Hero style "music sheet" running which is weird for a real guitar player).
You are essentially sight-reading guitar tabs while listening to the backing track of the song. You are shown what to pluck/strum.
The app lets you know whether you played in-time and on-pitch. If you hit the correct notes, you collect points and pass the level.
With each lesson, you need to play through the material at an ever-increasing speed.
So in essence, Yousician is a metronome with ears that gives you kudos if you're good. Music gamification.
What I liked about Yousician
In theory, Yousician could be a good thing:
- Gamification is trendy, so collecting points for playing well is nice. It hits those dopamine triggers with people who love gaming.
- The software is accurate, it picks up your instrument's sound well.
- It only lets you advance if you hit the mark.
- The competitive aspect probably helps in keeping you on the app, as you can see how many points other people score and try to beat it.
But for me, it got boring quickly.
What I did not like about Yousician
Other than the billing department (see below), there are several things I miss from Yousician:
- Even though the lessons are structured, they don't do a good job of really getting the student deeply involved. The lessons touch on a topic, then move on never to revisit it again. The correct way would be to have more exercises/songs on a skill, so the student gets ample practice time.
- They don't have enough lessons. I don't think a beginner could learn guitar with this app without having huge holes in his/her knowledge, so I think this app can only be a supplemental practice method to go alongside a primary guitar lesson source.
- The songs you play don't sound good. They are like exercises, not songs.
- I missed the personal aspect. There is no teacher to look up to, as with video lessons.
- The app focuses on the correct notes, but there is so much more to playing guitar than just hitting a note. Vibratos, slurs, etc., so the feeling of grooving is not something Yousician can teach.
- The basic monthly subscription is not enough, you need to pay extra to play popular songs with the Premium+ plan.
Perhaps, with time, Yousician will become better. This review of Yousician was updated in 2024, so right now, these are my issues.
Is Yousician for free?
You can test Yousician for free, but you only get limited access to its lessons for 15 minutes a day. Basically, the free version of the app is there so you can try it out and see whether you like the idea of learning an instrument with it.
There is no free way of learning any instruments with Yousician in the long run, not if you are serious about learning the instrument. 15 minutes per day is not enough to learn the guitar.
You will need to purchase a monthly or yearly subscription to unlock the lessons/songs in the app.
Yousician pricing - monthly, yearly subscription and Premium+
Let me break down the price of Yousician for you:
Premium pricing for 1 instrument
With the normal pricing package, you get access to lessons on 1 instrument, and not all songs:
- $14.99 per month or
- $89.99 per year
Premium+ pricing
With premium+, you get access to lessons on popular songs, and all instruments. This package is not available in all countries. I'm guessing it's because of song copyrights.
- $19.99 per month or
- $139.99 per year
Premium+ Family pricing
This gets you the same things as the Premium + plan, but on 4 accounts. In case everybody in your family plays guitar š
- $29.99 per month or
- $209.99 per year
Have a look at Yousician's Trustpilot reviews before signing up as well.
I tried the 7-day free trial with Paypal and canceled before the 7 days were up, so I was not at risk of auto-rebill.
Yousician alternatives
After trying Yousician for a few days, I feel there are better ways to spend your money if you want to pay for guitar lessons.
For a lower price, or even for free, you can get more thorough lessons that will do more to advance your guitar knowledge. Learning the guitar is not just about learning the correct notes, but also the stylistic elements, the feel, and the groove of the guitar.
Check out this list of the best guitar sites and youtube guitar channels.
For example, GuitarTricks and Jamplay are great sites with countless lessons and tools to help you learn guitar, plus they cost less than Yousician.
To practice and learn songs, you can get GuitarPro, download the tabs to any song ever written, and play along with it at any BPM you set. As Yousician does, you start out with a lower BPM, and work your way up from there.
Yousician vs GuitarTricks vs JustinGuitar vs Truefire
The difference between Yousician and traditional online guitar lesson sites is obvious.
First of all, GuitarTricks, Truefire, and JustinGuitar are video guitar lesson websites. They've been around for many years, and have loads of video tutorials on everything guitar-related.
GuitarTricks and Truefire (ex Jamplay) are paid-for sites while JustinGuitar is free, so they obviously have way more lessons/tools than JustinGuitar. But the premise behind these sites is similar.
With video guitar lesson sites, you choose a course to follow, choose a teacher, and you learn. You get the personal experience of the teacher, along with the tabs and backing tracks to help you progress. There are many courses for beginners, then you can advance to blues, rock, funk, country, etc.
With Yousician premium, you end up paying more but get less. You get the basic lessons, which are not explained in a way a guitar teacher would explain them to you. You don't get deeper explanations, or a chance to learn the essence of playing with feeling. Why would you? Yousician is a metronome with ears.
Final opinion
The gamified aspect of practicing guitar regularly is nice, if it can get people playing the guitar daily. But don't think Yousician will teach you guitar by itself.
If you are thinking about paying for a Yousician membership, I would recommend you have a look at these guitar sites first and decide afterward.
I’ve always been curious about these modern ways of learning instruments through apps. Tom’s review is interesting, but does Yousician approach music theory in any meaningful way? Just wondering whether it balances out the practical side with decent theory lessons.
Really enjoyed the deep dive in the Yousician review. As a guitar tutor, I’ve seen a lot of my students use it, and they’ve had mixed feelings. Some thrive on the gamification aspect, but others find it less engaging than traditional learning methods. It’s definitely a paradigm shift in music education.
This application @ I love it, I have learnt more now than a year taking lessons, I love the challenges , I started to meet other players and we like to have challenges competitions every weekend. I recommend it for beginners and intermediate.
S***ty customer service didn’t even know I had an active subscription, which they can see I never used, and they refuse to refund me or at least give me an actual year to start using it for the money they charged me. Too many other piano learning software out there to deal with a company like that. Greed kills
Yousician to me is the best way if you want to learn to play guitar on your own. I have been using Yousician for about 1.5 years now and every day it gives me a kick. You can play along with music in a fun way from day 1. It never gets boring. Without Yousician I would never have lasted this long. I once took piano lessons for 4 years. So I know the difference between taking lessons and playing Yousician. I choose Yousician 100%. It’s the perfect app for people who want to have fun making music at home. That’s my honest review from a regular giatrist.
Heads up! Yousician is a scammer. Months ago, while we were in lockdown I ordered guitar lessons for my grandson. We cancelled those lessons at least four times! They continued charging my account so I called my credit card company and had them block further charges. Wellā¦Yousician simply continued charging me under another name. I attempted to contact yousician customer service and was only given the opportunity to PAY for the ability to talk with them! Do I look stupid??? If they are already charging me for services I do not have or use, why in he** would I offer them another opportunity to scam me? RUN fast and far if you consider contacting them!
Good review, Iām brand new and been using it for a month, itās got me playing and practicing every day and adding new skills. As a mum, Iāve limited time to get to lessons, but Iām able to slot 1/2 into my day somewhere. I always felt I need actual lessons, but hoping that getting started and practicing might give me a more solid foundation to start. Iām concerned about its applicability in being able to teach me to read and follow sheet music. But I am enjoying and practicing every day so hopefully, thatās a start. Thanks for the review.
I took virtual piano lessons for a little over a year until Covid-19 struck last year so I subscribed to Yousician last year in March or April. I was just at the point of learning chords when I started this course. While I have gained some experience in learning chords, there are several songs that I have been playing for months and can not get 100% accuracy and I practice everyday. There needs to be some sort of hands on instruction rather than having a ānote correctorā (for a lack of a better word.) Besides, the tutorial songs are not familiar and the instructions are too vague. I will not subscribe again once my subscription is over in June. Iāve expressed my concerns to customer service and the only reply I received was to the question of how to stop my subscription. I hope others are having better success than I am.
UNETHICAL SCAM ~ Yousician is an absolute SCAM! Beware of it. After the free trial period it automatically charges you for a full year! It states everywhere that it will cost you $14 a month, what it doesnāt highlight that once you go premium you MUST stay on it for at least a whole year. So even if you cancel after a couple of weeks, it will continue to deduct the money monthly from your account until the end of the subscription year. Misleading advertising, bad practice, dishonest company. SCAM.
That’s how every free trial works. Don’t be mad at the company that you forgot to cancel your free trial.
Be careful with yousician I had a subscription for several months. I cancelled the subscription due to lack of time to play with work and they still charged my account for the subscription just dont want anyone else to have them RIP them off
I want to stop Yousician but it doesn’t stop taking money out. Does anyone know how to stop it? I have tried everything except canceling my card.
Umm. I’ve been for several months struggling to get online lessons. I purchased several courses on websites. A tutor gives you some basics and then leaves you to practice alone. Give you a technique for strumming or fingerpicking and then you practice by yourself. Boring. I purchased Yousician a few weeks ago. I agree that theory wise and teaching wise is not that much, but it definitely pushes your practice to an unprecedented level. And if you ask somebody simple like me, how to learn an instrument, I will say practice, practice, practice. Yes, there is some talent, some dexterity, memory, knowledge..etc. But the big issue is practice. The reality is that it is very exciting to practice with Yousician. Every day I practice at least one and a half hours. One day was a continuous 3 and a half hours. You feel the achievement coming. Maybe it is not everything but you can’t under estimate its’ role in making someone practice. I personally think it’s a great and different app. By the way, I am not linked to the developers by anyway š
Well stated, I’ve progressed leagues in skill with just over 30 hrs of practice. The missions and exercises teach in a simple way.
While I appreciate you pointing out other tools that you can use for free, Yousician has been far more effective than those other tools for me because it tells you if youāre getting it right or not. Iāve attempted learning guitar with some of the other tools youāve listed, and itās been difficult to build momentum or feel confident that Iām doing it correctly. Iāve had lots of lightbulb moments with Yousician that helped me realize what I was getting wrong previously. Also, as a beginner guitar player it can feel like youāre entering uncharted territory with no map- youāre just guessing what might make a good song to learn as a beginner only to find the video difficult to follow, the strumming patterns left unexplained. The built-in step by step path you take with Yousician has been indispensable to me. Iāve really grown using it, while before I had made several attempts to learn the guitar and it never stuck.
However, I appreciate this review because itās cautioned me that Iāll need to pursue other tools as well for rounding out the knowledge/musical theory components of guitar so as not to have the āgaps in knowledgeā that you mention.
Fair and pretty accurate review, I think. I was given a guitar as a Christmas present a couple of months ago, and decided to pay for Yousician for a few months to get me going. I am enjoying it- I know that at the level I am I sound terrible, so it’s fun at this stage to have the backing tracks to play along to. I’ve struggled through to level 3, but I am becoming aware that I still don’t know how to ‘play’ guitar. I feel like I am learning how to play a video game really well, but I think it’s time to enlist a teacher. I don’t think I’ll stop using Yousician though – it’s fun to play along, and have the library of songs on call, but I want to be able to pick up a sheet of music and play without the crutch of the app one day.
This was a good critical review of the app. Just what i was looking for. Thanks. Convinced me not to go with it.
It seems my review of Yousician has caught the attention of the company, and they have time to leave comments here and on my Trustpilot page. First off, Yousician is not my competitor, I am not bashing my competitors. TheGuitarLesson.com is a tiny site, while Yousician is a huge company. Second, a few things in the review were a bit harshly worded, which I have revised. Nevertheless, I stand by my underlying opinion. The app, as is, can’t provide a thorough knowledge of the guitar. Granted, you can use it as a supplementary practice tool… but why would you pay this much to practice? If you only have X amount of dollars to spend on your guitar education, there are alternatives to consider.
I have been using Yousician for 2 years, starting from absolute begginer level, and I think it is highly enjoyable. I am currently in level 8, almost 9, in both rythm and lead with aprox 150-200h per year. And I think that I will need at least another year and a half, maybe 2, to complete the whole 10 levels with 3 gray stars in every song. For all gold stars in every song, errr … well … that’s another story. So I think it provides a really nice amount of practice time, and it offers you great variety of styles and techniques to pratice. It is not true that you never revisit techniques once you have finished the specific exercises for that techinque, as higher level songs includes all the techniques you have been practising in previous levels.
I don’t think that Yousician should be used as the only learning method, as it is true that if you only play Yousician, you won’t be able to play anything if Yousician is not telling you what notes to play. Besides, theory is not its strongest point. I am currently mixing it with Justin Guitar and also YouTube tutorials for songs that I like. But Yousician is great to force you to practise every day, as it is fun and a frakking challenge to go past level 7. I needed a month of practice to be able to pass certain songs, sometimes it is frustrating, but in the end it is very rewarding.
Some negative points in the review are true, but as a whole, I find Yousician really useful, it has definitely helped me with guitar. In Black Friday you can get it at half price. You can also use it for free, it is not as restrictive as it may seem: you can practice one song for unlimited time, and you can change song 4 times. So you can practice for hours in one session, provided you don’t get tired of those 4 exercises. I have used it that way for one and a half year and it wasn’t really painful, but yeah, the 60ā¬ I paid in Black Friday are definitely worthy š
60 EUR isn’t that bad actually. Of course, you can get Guitar Pro for that much, use it for life and learn any song you like.
I think you’re completely missing the point. Yousician’s unique feature is precisely that it is a ‘metronome with ears’ – why would they duplicate all the other stuff you can get in multiple other places already? Sure, go to Jamplay or JustinGuitar to learn legato, and then come to Yousician to practice it with something that can tell you if you’re getting it right.
You really don’t get it.
It’s motivational and addictive. I have been a member of YS for 2 years now and my tutor says I am a good intermediate level. No-one says use it in it’s own but it’s a tool to encourage and motivate you to practice. I spent hrs on it. Totally love it.
So you evaluated Yousician after playing it for 2 minutes, as so many people have noticed from your profile’s public statistics? You must have made a record on how fast one can get bored on an app.
The review was conducted on a different user account Sherlock. I created the TomFontana account to get some unique screenshots for this post.
I donāt think thatās a very fair review of Yousician.Ive been using it for a few years and I think itās the best app out there for learning guitar,bass,piano or ukulele and I think Iāve tried nearly all of them.
I donāt know how you could get bored with this app.I play for hours sometimes and I donāt think I would do that without the app.
I envy you time and musical skills “Rachel” š
I have taught myself a modicum of guitar in lockdown via YouTube lessons from Justin and others and thought I’d try Yousician as a possible means of giving more structure to my learning. I’m not sure about
1. The early emphasis on power chords on the “rhythm path” ..these don’t seem to be very applicable to learning acoustic guitar..are they ?
2. Should I pursue both “lead” and “rhythm” learning paths at the same time ?..this seems very confusing.
Overall I agree with he comment that it’s like playing a computer game as opposed to playing music. I have passed exercises where I might as well have been shooting down aliens or enemy soldiers in a computer/arcade game as opposed to feeling more musically competent afterwards.
Hi, it’s better to follow a single style, work at that, and move on to another style later when you feel like it. Power chords are not used with traditional acoustic guitar music, but you should know them regardless.