Yousician: Learn & Play Guitar

I got a guitar for Christmas, and I was super excited to start learning how to play. Along with the guitar, I downloaded the Yousician app because I heard it was great for beginners. After setting it up, I followed all the instructions and completed the introductory exercises they provided. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, and I was eager to dive into level one. However, once I reached level one, I noticed that almost everything was locked, and I couldn’t access any of the lessons or features. The app told me I needed to subscribe to the premium version to continue. At first, I thought maybe there was just a limit to how long I could use the app each day, so I decided to try again the next day, hoping things would reset or unlock. Unfortunately, when I opened the app the next day, it was the same situation. All the content I needed to progress was locked behind the premium subscription. It was really frustrating because I thought I’d be able to learn at least the basics without having to pay. It felt like the app gave me just enough to get started and excited, but then cut me off unless I signed up for premium. Now I’m left wondering if I should invest in the subscription or look for another way to learn guitar.

I’ve been using Yousician for a little over a year and it has helped my playing abilities a lot. The gamification provides motivation beyond what using books and manuals can. The interface is simple and easy to follow. My main complaints are on song selection. When i first signed on with their paid subscription I had access to the entire song library. About 7 or 8 months into my “journey” a lot of songs that I had added to my library and favorited became unavailable without any warning. Upon further investigation I discovered this was because they had introduced a new premium membership level. With several months remaining on my current membership, i was hoping for some kind of prorated upgrade. Nope. The only options were to either forego the remaining months on my current plan and pay for a full year of premium, or ride out my current membership and accept the more limited song library. I chose the latter. Once my normal membership expired I did upgrade thinking that i would once again have full library access. Similar to my original experience, I found some great songs and added them to my favorites, only to find some of them completely removed from the app a few weeks later. As someone trying to learn an instrument, it is extremely frustrating when you are trying to perfect a song only to have it vanish without warning. I will continue to use the app as it is very useful, but the only inconsistency of song selection is very frustrating.

I LOVE this app so far. I have tried learning guitar on my own multiple different times and always ended up giving up on it, mostly because I wasn't seeing the results I wanted and also because I just didn't know what to do. This system makes it fun and easy to learn, no matter what skill level you are. I really like that they make it like a game. I grew up playing guitar hero and the song layouts on here are a lot like it, so that makes it really fun as well as beneficial. I also like the skill progressions, as well as the certificates you can download. I personally like to physically see progress, so being able to see how many stars I have on each song, or if I perfected it and got gold stars really helps me to see just how far my skill level is actually progressing. I am saving every certificate each time I go up a skill level and can't wait to put them all together when I finish the program. I would HIGHLY recommend this program; especially as someone who has tried for years to learn the guitar and got very minimal results on my own. Plus it's cheaper than getting guitar lessons from an actual coach. If you are someone who is a visual learner and can coach/critique yourself as you go, this would be a great program for you. I haven't had this much fun learning something new in a very long time. 10/10