Learning to play the guitar is a goal that many musically-inspired people strive towards. Whether you want to emulate your favorite guitar gods like Steve Vai or Stevie Ray Vaughn or gain the ability to play classical masterpieces by Francisco Tárrega and Isaac Albeniz, it all comes down to the crucial beginning steps.

Fortunately, in our day and age, you don’t necessarily have to travel to far-off places to receive expensive guitar instructions from a tutor. You can use a host of apps right on your handheld devices, such as your Android phone or tablet.

Here are some picks for the best app to learn guitar for beginners, Android devices, to help you get the ball rolling with learning guitar!

Yousician

Yousician is an easy-to-use, play-along app that allows you to learn over 1,500 popular songs, chords, scales, and rhythm. The app uses the in-device microphone to listen to your guitar in real-time. As you play along to the tablature on the screen, the app tracks your rhythm and melody and even shows when you make a mistake.

It has lessons and exercises for various genres of music and claims to take you from beginner all the way to advanced level. Though it might be impossible to become advanced purely through the app without any nuanced video lessons, the app is still a great tool for beginners to get their hand running on the fretboard.

Download (Free; in-app purchases)

Ultimate Guitar: Chords & Tabs

Ultimate Guitar is a massive, online resource that even veteran guitarists can claim to have used at least once. With a catalog of over 800,000 songs (and counting) for guitar, bass, and ukulele chords and tabs, Ultimate Guitar is a great way to source your favorite songs.

One thing to note is that all of the features, such as transposing songs (changing pitch), metronome, tuning, or multiple chord diagrams, are only available with the paid version of the app.

Download (Free; Pro upgrade available at various prices)

Justin Guitar Beginner Lessons: Play Real Songs

JustinGuitar.com has been one of the most popular guitar-learning channels on YouTube for over a decade. Friendly and personable, Justin Sandercoe gives a wide variety of beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons.

Interactive, step-by-step beginner lessons are available through an Android app.

Download (Free; in-app purchases)

Guitar 3D – Basic Chords

The guitar can be a difficult instrument because a lot relies on your hand dexterity and strength. Chords can be especially difficult for beginners who have yet to develop those callouses and muscle memory.

With Guitar 3D, learners can get a better idea of how to hold a chord. The app features a 3D animation of a person playing the guitar. You can zoom in and rotate your view to see what’s going on with both fretting and plucking hands.

Download (Free)

smartChords & Tools

smartChords & Tools is the Swiss army knife for guitarists. It contains millions of chord types in almost all keys and almost all fingerings. It also has all the basic tools like tuner, metronome, and scales.

Additionally, there are also rarer tools like the Circle of Fifths, transposer, and fingerpicking trainer, though these might only be available through in-app purchases.

Download (Free; in-app purchases)

Songsterr

When it comes to premium quality tabs with play-along capability, Songsterr is great! You can play with the tab as it scrolls along or pauses wherever you like.

However, features, like slow down, loop, solo mode, and playing-along mode, are only available through in-app purchases. Nonetheless, with more than 500,000 tabs and chords, it is great for someone looking for higher-quality tablature.

Download (Free; in-app purchases)

GuitarTricks.com

Despite all the resources given above, the truth is that it can still be difficult for beginners and even intermediate guitarists to juggle between all the different apps. This is where GuitarTricks.com comes in handy. Launched in 1998, GuitarTricks.com has become the most comprehensive guitar tutorial sites out there.

Because of its streamlined guitar learning methods, which have been perfected over two decades, beginner guitarists will find it an invaluable resource. No wonder it is so highly-rated and well-respected; it is the ultimate one-stop solution for beginner guitarists.

It is a bit pricier than other options, but once you factor in the in-app purchases with the other apps, GuitarTricks.com still provides comparatively more bang for your buck.

You can access many lessons for free. However, to get the full experience, you can make a monthly subscription of $19.95 or pay $179.99 once in a year (which is cheaper in the long term). With the GuitarTricks app, you can access the website’s plethora of lessons from a vast selection of instructors right on your Android device.

Download (Free; subscription options)

Learning the guitar can be daunting, but with the right lessons and tools, you will be rocking out in no time. These are some of the candidates for the best app to learn guitar for beginners, Android devices. So, what are you waiting for? Get those callouses developing, and start your rewarding guitar journey!