Yousician has been a terrific resource for me thus far, teaching me how to play the most common “cowboy chords” in the space of a month. This is all the more impressive given that the app allows access to most of its lessons and activities for free, with one major caveat: the free version only allows songs and activities to be performed for 15 minutes each day. Alternatively, I have the choice of paying $24 a month for unlimited access to all the app’s features, including a large number of “premium” songs. This drops to $13 a month if a year’s subscription is purchased, and while this is immensely cheaper than any private lesson would be, it nevertheless represents a financial barrier for those trying to learn guitar (on top of the barrier of having to, you know, find a guitar).

The greatest strength of Yousician thus far is its scoring system.  Yousician provides real-time feedback on how you play, telling you whether a note was played early or late, or whether it was played correctly at all. At the end of each performance, your score is translated into a 0, 1, 2, or 3 (silver) star ranking, and when the song is played perfectly–by individual segment or all at once–3 gold stars are awarded. To move on to the next song, the previous song merely needs to be completed, not perfected, a terrific design choice that makes the app more accessible to those playing for free. After all, the scoring system appeals both to the gamer (wanting the highest score) and perfectionist (wanting all gold stars) in me, but it would feel incredibly punished to have to spend 10-30% of my daily playing time hitting that last perfect note before progressing. Yet I recognize that the scoring system passively encourages me to play each song several times, taking me through the repetition needed to ingrain what I’m learning and build real skill and muscle memory.

The other great strength of Yousician thus far is the ability to enter a “Practice” mode, giving the user the option of adjusting the speed at which the song is played, from 1-120%. In this mode, the user can also move between the different parts of a song freely, to allow quick repeated practice of one or two particularly troublesome sections. As I started moving into more complicated melodies, I found myself slowing songs down to 75% until I got the hang of them, then playing through at 90%, before doing the real thing at 100%. As the complexity of these songs grow, I may need to slow it even further, to the point that I may spend a day–or even multiple–on a single melody. This is where a recently, accidentally-discovered (and possibly accidentally implemented?) feature will be extremely helpful: if a user remains in the practice mode, and rewinds the song before it comes to an end, they can play it for an unlimited amount of time, allowing mastery of a specific song as long as one is careful not to leave the practice mode. Of course, once the user leaves the practice mode to perform it for real, the time limit will immediately prevent access to any other features.

All in all, I’m very excited to continue exploring the possibilities this app offers, and to see how far I can go on a shoestring budget. Towards the end of this project, I may invest in a month’s subscription to compare the services offered to free vs. paying users, but that remains to be seen. Thank you for joining me for this reflection, and I’ll see you next time!