App Profile: Pickup Music: Guitar & Bass

Novice guitar learner

Rating: 5/5

I’ve been a dabbler for about 15 years. Never getting past the cowboy chords and strumming the same tunes over and over. I’ve been through a few guitar teachers in person - and - even some of the well-known guitar names online, but never found what I thought guitar lessons should be. That is…..until I found Pickup Music (pre-app). I started with the beginner lessons and can say they were just awesome. Finally, someone has put together online classes that are what I always thought they should be. And - I have to be honest - at first, I didn’t want to submit a recording of my playing through the site. But - when I finally decided to do one, the video feedback from one of the Pickup Music instructors just blew me away!!!! Now, I look forward to submitting (even when I think it’s not too good). The site was great when nearly a computer, but I really hoped it would become an app someday. When I saw it was available, I grabbed it and jumped in right away. So far, it’s everything I loved before - only better and even more convenient! Right now, it works best in portrait mode on my iPad (and I have it on my iPhone, but it’s not as much screen space to make it as useful as the iPad). The folks behind the app and site are very open to letting you know their roadmap, and they’ve already indicated that they have some planned updates to the app. As always, these folks are top notch! I’m so happy I found them and signed up!

Maturzinsteon

Rating: 5/5

I have picked up the guitar probably 12 times in my life, and never made any real progress. Pickup is so well structured and executed, that I was entertained enough to get through the boring foundational stuff, and now feel like I actually understand how the fretboard works. The lessons are digestible enough to do with 15-30 min per day, and they build very logically. All of the backing tracks and the jams really do bring even basic stuff like CAGED to life. The app itself is built with care, and mostly functions great, but does have some shortcomings. Sometimes it’s hard to know where you are in the lesson structure, and it takes a few seconds of tapping around to find your spot. Overall, I’ve been using it for almost 2 months, and feel like it’s more than worth the money. Highly recommend.

MUSCOBE

Rating: 5/5

This app is fantastic! I took lessons over twenty years ago and got to the point where I was comfortable and stopped. I’ve been messing around on the acoustic guitar ever since, but really just playing the same songs over and over (Blackbird being a favorite). Recently, I decided to get back into my guitar playing and wanted to find something with lessons that truly broke things down and allowed me to truly learn, understand, and progress. This app fits the bill perfectly. I tried a few other “gamified” apps, and while I had some fun, I wasn’t making progress in a way that allowed me to truly understand what to I was doing right, what I was doing wrong, and the theory behind the techniques and music. I started with some of the beginner lessons to “brush up” and while they were overly simplistic for my current level of play, it was a good exercise to skim through them. I even picked up a fee techniques that I either never learned, or had forgotten. So worth it. I feel like I am taking lessons with a live instructor, and it’s as close to that as you can get in an app. Great job to the developers. Looking forward to this journey!