5 Music Apps That Teach You How to Play

5 Music Apps That Teach You How to Play

Most of us have dreamed of playing a musical instrument, however, after the initial costs of purchasing your instrument of choice and any accessories you may need, it can be hard to have money left over for private or even group lessons. Thankfully now more than ever it is easier (and cheaper) for anyone to learn to play thanks to apps that you can download straight to your phone that will teach you everything you need to learn. Whatever the genre, almost everyone in the world loves music and learning an instrument can bring you even closer to it allowing you to learn your favorite songs, create your own pieces, and it's even proven to engage your brain in new ways making you smarter. Let's take a look at the top 5 musical apps that will effectively teach you how to play an instrument.

1. Strum the Strings: Using a strat-style body the Fretlight FG-621 has a translucent polymer fretboard that shows your fingers where to hold down guitar strings to learn and form chords. Apps that are compatible with smartphones include Guitar Tunes and MyJam send signals to the lights on the fretboard to show you different fingerings, chords, and scales of your choice to practice. This app allows you to customize the speed to better assist your learning abilities.

2. Slap the Skins: Yamaha’s DTX 400 electric drum set-up is a beginning percussionists dream as learning on a real set can be extremely loud and cause problems with neighbors (or even your own ears).

These rubber drums allow you to control the volume, so you can increase the noise level as you become better acquainted with the instrument. It has a built-in training mode that plays the most common patterns and rhythms a beginner needs to learn. The kit has every drum that you would need in a real drum set and you can play along with the samples increasing the speed until you are ready to start incorporating your own fills and style.

3. Tickle the Keys: The Casio LK-260 has 61 keys and is common to most musical classrooms. It can teach you tunes on its own as the keys light up guiding your fingers into place. With this set-up, you are able to listen, watch, and then play along to the speed of your choice.

4. Music Tutor Sight Read: If you are looking for an easy way to learn music theory- this app is for you. Music Tutor Sight Read is a quiz game app created for students looking to read and write music. There are tests, games, and study options for you to choose from to keep things challenging and interesting.

5. Riffstation: The Riffstation app transforms the old notion of learning chords straight from a music book into a real-time learning experience as you learn the chords to your favorite songs. You can adjust the tempo of songs, add a metronome, and use it to learn guitar, ukulele, or piano.

Josh Gruss is the Chairman, CEO and founder of Round Hill Music. Prior to founding Round Hill Music, from 2002 to 2009, Mr. Gruss worked at Gruss Asset Management where he held various positions of increasing responsibility.