Guitar Notebook

What we love about Guitar Notebook

Guitar Notebook keeps things simple. It is a practice tool without complications, that is available both online and offline. The user has complete control over making, editing and saving their own guitar songs using notation, lyrics and their own recorded audio. This app is a purpose built music notebook that means that musical ideas are easily captured and will not get lost.

What skills does it improve?

Guitar Notebook develops songwriting and guitar notation skills using simple chord and tablature diagrams and audio capture. The FlexFrets system and Chord Diagrams are fully editable by the student/teacher and allows the user to strum back the notes that they have inputted to hear if it sounds as they intended.

What age is it appropriate for?

The app is most suitable for secondary school children/college, university students and adult learners. It is aimed at musicians that can read basic chord diagrams/guitar tablature who are looking to capture what they work on in their rehearsal sessions.

Is Guitar Notebook easy to use?

The concept of Guitar Notebook is very easy to understand once you have had a quick play around. The app’s accessibility is much like ‘Notes’ on Apple devices with the added benefit of being specifically designed for musical use, containing notation common to guitarists.

There is link access within the ‘support’ section of the app to the website with clear tutorials showing the learner how to use the app. ‘Guitar setup’ to customise tuning, and personalise the style of the notebook stage is easily accessible in the top right of the notebook. Recorded audio is instantly available within each song for easy playback.

How will students benefit?

The Guitar Notebook app is useful in helping provide students with a simple to use, interactive, song composition space where all of their ideas can be organised in one place. Unlike a paper notebook, the built-in sound, custom tuning, and capo make the app an interactive learning tool, helping students understand how notes go together, and how changes affect the tonality of chords. Students can also create their own progressions to share in a class setting.

How will teachers benefit?

Guitar Notebook allows teachers to see what students have been creating during their practice sessions. It can act as a diary of their work through the week and allows them to share recordings of their practice sessions and notations of music created. In lessons, the teacher or student can use the app to keep clear

notes/recordings on what they have worked on for later reference. The teacher can also use Guitar Notebook to create examples of chords, scales, arpeggios, or any pattern or progressions for students to refer to and practice with away from the lesson.

If iPads are used by teachers in a classroom setting, Guitar Notebook can really enhance the educational curriculum. It is flexible and enables every student to practice and learn in their own musical “sketchbook”.

How will parents benefit?

Guitar Notebook allows parents to see and hear the music that their child is creating either independently or with their teacher in lessons and makes them a part of the learning process. It takes away the need for expensive music tech solutions for creating songs, particularly in the initial stages of songwriting when all that is needed is a space to capture ideas.

We think Guitar Notebook could improve on:

It would be useful if the Chord Diagrams and FlexFrets ideas that are written in by the user could have a playback function so that they can hear if they have rhythmically notated their intended musical ideas correctly.

Screen recording is mentioned on the website but the ability to download and share these song ideas outside of the app once created would also be of use when collaborating with other musicians and teachers.

How much does Guitar Notebook cost?

Guitar Notebook is free to download and use. The free version of Guitar Notebook allows you to create five songs, 8 Chords/FlexFrets per page and record 1 minute of audio per page. For $19.99 you can gain access to all current and future Pro features including unlimited songs, 32 Chords/FlexFrets per page, capo, custom tuning and have the ability to record up to 10 minutes of Audio per page.

The developer also offers Educational Pricing for the Guitar Notebook Pro Upgrade as part of the Apple App Store ecosystem.

Is Guitar Notebook safe to use?

Yes. The user only needs an iCloud account with iCloud Drive turned on to use the app. Guitar Notebook does not request any personal data. The app's data protection compliance is explained on the website.

Overall rating of the app:

I would recommend this app as a support tool to student guitarists. It is simple but effective in allowing students to create and capture their musical ideas quickly and all in one place. These song ideas can then be developed with teachers in lessons and easily edited and refined. Guitar Notebook is a very useful musical “sketchbook” for students and educators.

You may also like:

Best Apps to Learn Music

Best Online Guitar Lessons

You can download Guitar Notebook on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.