Yousician
reviews and complaints

Let me first say that I am a HUGE fan of this app. I started using it for guitar, and then got a ukulele and have grown immensely as a player. I have no problem attributing a lot of that to Yousician, which is why I bought the annual subscription last November.

The other day, it came to my attention that there were now voice lessons, and I was very excited to see that add on— and more than willing to pay $5 more per month to access all instruments as a result. However, first I wanted to take advanced of the one week trial, to make sure it really was a good fit. Well the next morning I discovered to my dismay a charge of $180 on my bank account from Yousician (money I did NOT have). I reached out immediately and they got back to me the same day saying this wasn’t something for first level responders and that the issue had been escalated. Finally today I got an email, and it stated that I had “renewed my previous subscription” according to apple, and that any refunds would need to be taken up with apple.

Come on guys. I literally have nearly three months on my original subscription. Why in the world would I renew at full price for a year, no proration or anything? I’m using your site as a “struggling artist,” why would I throw away three months of service to start fresh? I believe even the FAQ mentions a proration of what you’ve already paid to upgrade to the next level, which is a very standard practice.

So now instead of 7 days to try to voice add on, I’m racking up insufficient fund fees (not to mention unable to “call apple” as suggested by Yousician because I could not pay my phone bill dealing with this).

Everybody has to make money and I definitely get that, but it shouldn’t be off the backs of people who so loyally stand by your service. The worst part is that I would STILL recommend you to all me my friends, because I truly love this app and the confidence it’s given me on string instruments. But this simply isn’t right, and it breaks my heart that after all this waiting and explaining the predicament I’ve been placed in, the only response I’ve gotten is “contact apple.” I clicked “free 7 day trial” inside the app, not in apple’s App Store. I’m putting this warning out there for anyone who loves music and this app but can’t afford this type of bank account risk. If this review is still active, Yousician has not done right by me in getting this corrected.

As I said, I’ve given them business just from the level of passion I talk about Yousician with my associates. And I stated in no uncertain terms that I WANT to sign up for the monthly all instruments payment plan. Please don’t throw away a loyal customer on red tape bureaucracy. This is your app, your glitch, and your problem— not apple. Please do something about it. Until then, everyone else beware :(

I'd been playing the Yousician app in free mode for over a month, when the server went down for a few hours one evening. I was so bereft that I realized I was really hooked, and payed for the one year plan the next morning.
I have a demanding career, and can't block out a consistent time for guitar lessons, so playing Yousician has allowed me to pursue learning the guitar when I otherwise couldn't or wouldn't have. I considered some of the other "Guitar Hero" type programs that scroll tablature, like GuitarSmith, but I prefer the side-scroll to the at-your-face scroll, plus I like the idea of playing songs I don't know (I have a good ear, and can pretty easily pick out a familiar tune, which meant I fake read while I learned piano as a kid). I like the songs in Yousician and have enjoyed playing them. I do have a few criticisms. I feel like important technique isn't explained well or fully enough, and I'm left to figure it out on my own (which usually means Googling). It is demonstrated in videos, but I almost always have questions. Once in a while, a piece will call for fingering that seems nearly impossible, and I can easily play the same thing without strain if I change the fingering to something more comfortable. I figure the app designers do that to prepare you for harder fingering later, but I don't feel prepared for that level of challenge. Also, you can't advance to the next lesson until you master the current one at full speed, and I almost always find that the song sounds fine at about 85% of speed. I work hard to get to 100% but sometimes feel like I'm barely hanging on. I can't help wonder if playing so fast creates bad habits. Lastly, you do need to play with headphones, which makes it harder to hear your own playing. At this stage, that's probably a good thing - muting is an advanced skill, and when I do hear myself play unplugged, I'm discouraged that I play with so much extraneous string noise. Despite my criticisms, I have a blast playing the songs, and I find using this app much more motivating than playing from lessons or from a book. It's quite a bit like a video game -- it even has boss battles (they're called Skill Tests, but it's kind of the same idea). It's particularly fun to play to the pre-recorded band -- it means that, as simple as the current tune you're playing may be, it sounds cool to your ears. And I feel like I'm advancing faster than I would be otherwise, because I've stayed motivated. Since starting the app, I haven't gone a day without playing (and it's been over 3 months). I figure I may sound pretty good after a year with this thing, and if I do have lessons at some point, I'll already be pretty good. I would definitely give this app a try, and it's free to do so for 15 minutes a day, which is what got me hooked in the first place.

Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pro, Yousician can help you tremendously. I began to use this app about a year and a half ago. Just playing occasionally (I have a full time job) has taken me from a know-nothing beginner to (almost-lol) level nine. I am super excited, because level ten is the professional level - at this rate, I will be there before the end of this year. Not bad for someone who was a complete hack two years ago! Here are the Pros: 1) App is very user friendly - Easy to navigate through all the tools. They have a “Learn” section, with lots of material - for levels 0-10. They have chord trainers, a section to learn scales, fingerpicking exercises, an arpeggio section, ear training and many tutorial videos. They break up guitar playing into basically five sections - chords, riffs, rhythm, fingerpicking and lead. Just the fact that it’s extremely easy to organize one’s practice time makes this experience worth it - What I did was break up my practice session’s into a five-day routine. I would work on nothing but chords for one day, then riffs the next day and so on. What that did for me was take me from a complete beginner to a relatively advanced player who now has the tools to take my guitar playing to the professional level. They have plenty of songs at every level, from chords and riffs to lead. With weekly challenges to see how you measure up against folks all over the world, you will never get bored. 2) Yousician gets you playing right away, even if you have never played before. I would, for this reason, strongly encourage beginners to join. There is no other guitar app like it - sure there is Songsterr, Chordify, TrueFire, JamPlay and Guitar Tricks (etc.). - all apps which are great and which I have used, by the way. But I have not progressed using those apps, like I have with Yousician. That’s because the Yousician app TELLS you when you hit a wrong note/chord - you will get a big red mark vs. green when you get it right. That feature sold me on Yousician - my chording skills (from simple cowboy chords to barre chords alike and everything in between) have never been sharper and come out ringing more clean. That’s from several months of using the chord trainers on the app, which I highly recommend all beginners to take full advantage of. 3) As you progress, they throw in complex hammer on/pull off exercises, to get your fingers moving. They also cover speed picking, double stops, hybrid picking, alternate picking, etc. - and there are enough fingerpicking exercises on Yousician to make you into the complete guitarist you have always dreamed of becoming, but never knew how. There really aren’t any cons, from my vantage point. Want to learn pop Justin Bieber stuff? Yousician has you covered. What about Chris Stapleton or Lynyrd Skynyrd? Yep. Iron Maiden or AC/DC? No problem. They have all the styles covered - and are always adding more new songs every week - I think this week, it was “Bark at the Moon,” by Ozzy Osbourne. It was “Hallowed Be Thy Name,” by Iron Maiden last week. They even have enough classical and jazz stuff to keep even the likes of Tommy Emmanuel happy for awhile. That last one’s obviously a joke, but I think you can see that there is really no reason to learn on any other app. My only request is that they add “Sweet Child of Mine,” by GNR - don’t believe that I have come across that one yet. Oh, well - give them some more time….. :-)

I used Yousician for my first 6 months of playing guitar and it’s not terrible... as a starting point. It’s a great tool to get you started playing guitar. It does a giving you a sense of achievement when you start playing and is a great tool for teaching beginner lead stuff like simple melodies, legatos, bends (honestly really great for teaching bends because it shows you if you are bending too high, too low, or just right.). It makes soloing very approachable which is not an easy thing to do. The thing that I hate though is that it doesn’t let you view tabs/chords for any of the songs. It forces you to slow down the song in a practice mode. Also doesn’t really teach scales with the lead part of the course.

It’s absolutely terrible at teaching rhythm and timing though. If the only way you want to play guitar is through strumming chords or fingerpicking DO NOT pay for this app.

It barely teaches strumming. They don’t tell you to keep a loose wrist, to always keep your strumming hand in motion (the reason for this being that if your hand is in a consistent and constant motion, you won’t have to worry about mistiming a strum or getting off rhythm. This is honestly the most important thing to learn about rhythm guitar it’s baffling that the app doesn’t teach this. It doesn’t matter how good you are at forming chords if you can’t strum correctly.), about onbeats/offbeats, and they don’t teach general timing and how it correlates with when an upstroke/downstroke is needed. The app just kinda expects you to be able to perfectly time upstrums and downstrums without explaining he way rhythm works.

Also the fingerpicking tutorial is a joke especially since they don’t give you viewable tabs, sheet music or chords (super frustrating when you’re trying to figure out what chords you need to pick through). Basically all they tell you is that your thumb hits bass notes and the index and middle hit the high notes. It fails to explain any of the basic patterns like Travis picking or how timing fits into it ON A RHYTHM COURSE.

In short the rhythm course is absolutely terrible. It doesn’t teach you much outside of how to form some basic chords. I would recommend that you actually learn about rhythm and strumming then use the app to learn some songs/test your skills (or just buy a premium subscription to a tabs app. Most of these apps give you official chords to millions of songs with backing tracks to play along with that can have a metronome added to them or be slowed down. The visual part of yousician is great until you realize the only way you can play is with it. Imagine having to break out your phone every time you want to play guitar.) It’s still frustrating to use though it almost seems like the app wants its user to be completely reliant on it to play anything on guitar.

Overall I think this is a great app to use for the first couple months of your guitar playing career, but after you learn all the cowboy chords/basic bending I would cut the subscription and actually learn how to learn to play the instrument (YouTube tutorials are a great way to do this! Again a premium subscription to a tabs/chords app is also a great resource to have.) The app does a great job of giving a complete beginner the ability to play and feel accomplished, but it does a terrible job of teaching you how to play the instrument fluently. The way it teaches guitar is kinda like someone teaching you a foreign language solely through reading/writing and not teaching you how to verbally communicate. It’s not entirely pointless, but it’s real world applications are extremely limited.

Also definitely wouldn’t use for 6 months. I just bought a year subscription (which I regret haven’t used it in a few months. There are much better ways to learn. The chords on the premium play songs vary in accuracy.). If you want to use the app do monthly subscriptions. You’ll be far past using the app to learn how to play after 4 months. Also for a side note at a couple months in I probably would have given this app 5 stars, but now that I know more about guitar this app is super flawed and definitely stunted my growth as a musician.

Actually teach good timing in your rhythm courses instead of throwing players into it expecting them to be naturally gifted at it.

LEt me just say, I already am fluent at piano and violin AND the trumpet. This app is great for beginners. Not for people who actually wanna get good at the instrument. Not sure if the makers are actually musicians and they just hired the guy in the videos. I said this because they apparently think telling someone to go ultra fast on a thing they learned like 10 minutes ago means they mastered it . HUR DUR FAST MEANS GOOD. Is a short explanation of what I think is happening here. By the way, good luck playing a song that has mostly e major. Yousician decides that even though you play the e major correctly, they say, screw you. Because I don't even move my hand or the way I strum and sometimes it's right, sometimes not. Most of the time it's not.
Edit: made my way to a certain part in the rhythm or whatever and it won't register the 5. this app litterly cannot register acoustic guitar on the g string. It even failed to register an open note on the g string. I turn the g string using their own tuning app also multiple times.

I enjoyed Yousician a lot before I tried upgrading my plan to Premium +. Customer service was responsive but not helpful at all. I still can’t believe they can’t upgrade my plan on their end with proof of purchase.
Here is detail for those wonder.
I purchased the plan, but I couldn’t access the contents from both desktop and iOS devices. I checked my subscription plan to reassure and my bank account to see if the purchase went through. I found no problem there. So I began emailing Yousician support with screenshots of my end, yet the response was same: we didn’t receive information from iTunes, we can’t upgrade your plan, and please contact Apple support although I contacted Apple support with that matter. Now they request me to do refund through Apple support. What I can’t understand is,

if they can’t help upgrading their service, and I have to go through Apple Support on everything for their plan, they shouldn’t call themselves support center. I needed support on something on their service, they couldn’t do it and I cannot use their service.

I’m so frustrated with this program right now. I bought it because I like it but it’s extremely difficult to get the program to read all of your notes. I’m a 20 year guitar veteran who is going through everything to try and get all the gold stars before I advanced to the higher stuff. I first started out using my phone but the sound coming out of the phone conflicted with the sound going in the phone and cost a bunch of problems. So I started using headphones. This works great when you’re playing bass, there are rarely issues. But when playing guitar I’ve had to go as far as using a USB interface on my computer plugging the guitar directly into it and using the amp sounds within the program. However it regularly grinds to a halt like the audio engine can’t support it, even though I’m running it on a really good system that I custom built. There’s one particular exercise were in a matter how many times I hit this one particular low email it won’t register it. A succession of two emails and it just won’t register the second one like two out of three times. Making it impossible for me to get gold stars and making me very frustrated. I’m so mad at this program right now

Fairly occasionally the app won’t recognize that the correct note was played, and might even say that you hit a string you didn’t touch. That was really rough when I didn’t know how any of it was supposed to sound, but could see that I was on the right string, with my finger on the right fret. It’s really discouraging when it happens in the beginning, and gets very frustrating once you’ve gotten better at playing the guitar, and know you did it right.

A feature that feels necessary after a year of using the app is the option to either turn off the color coding for what fingers goes where, or have the option to change the finger positioning on the tabs. Most of the time the color coding is pretty useful, but every once in a while it makes the song a lot harder to play than it really has to be. Typically I can ignore the color coding when I don’t agree with it, but it gets more difficult when the tempo for the song gets quicker, and I’m noticing the colors fly by that’s telling me that my pointer finger should be where my middle finger already is, even though doing so is more disorienting than helpful.

I’ve heard that there’s some place to request for Yousician to try to add certain songs, but it would be a lot better if there was a tab for suggestions on the actual app.

I know the guitar basics like frets picks how to hold it and that. Well the app assumes the basics include all the chords! Ok so I deleted it and chose that I knew nothing. While I was learning the basics this seemed like a very good app. I was about to write a great review about it. Around the first song I realized I was playing the write note but it said I was wrong. Sometimes I was but rarely. The times I was wrong I was around a fret off. Well according to the app I was four strings off. If you play guitar you know how diffract Hi E and low E sound so I don’t know how the app mixed those two up. So every time you finish a song it gives you a ad for the premium version of this game. It’s fine to advertise on your app but after every single thing you do is far past the breaking point! You also get only 10 minutes without premium! Imagine a guitar instructor comes to your house only for ten minutes a day. And like 24 hour day not just comes at 8 on day and 5 on the other. No it’s either 24 hours or more! Remember this is just constructive criticism. Please don’t get offended by this. Here is some advice to make the app better. First only focus on one instrument. You do a mediocre job on around 6 instruments. If you just teach one instrument then it’s mediocre X 6 which would make an amazing emphasis on amazing app so please follow my advice and again this is just constructive criticism so please don’t get offended

This app is great and all for “PROFESSIONALS.”
Sure it may help you learn instruments but I’m pretty good at piano and I can learn almost any songs in about a week but I can’t even do it correctly because it times you and that makes it super hard and you have to press the key at the exact time! If your a beginner it wouldn’t help cause it would go too fast and doesn’t even let you choose the tempo! How do you expect for a beginner to all of a sudden know all the notes and it goes fast at random moment unlike actual piano classes. Like a real piano class you can start off easy and slow even if it’s a hard song to play. This app just goes fast and puts in hard notes to play at like the first level of playing! LIKE WHAT THE HECK?! They obviously don’t care about like the beginners. If you a professional and can like read notes in a snap I would recommend it but if your a person who can’t read notes quickly I wouldn’t. I would suggest you go to like actual piano classes unlike an app that won’t even tell you how to sit, how to show expressions, doesn’t tell you how to make the sound louder and softer, and doesn’t even show you your hand position! I go to a real piano class which is five stars and the teacher shows me all the ways to make your song perfect. After I found this problem I immediately deleted it cause even if your good at piano like me but can’t read the notes INSTANTLY, I would say “ no no” to this app. Good luck on trying to find a actual GOOD pace to learn piano like me. Thanks for listening!