Guitar Buddha: Practice & Jam
Tuner, Chords, Backing Tracks
Free · In-App Purchases
Every feature free, forever. Build progressions in any key, keep the chords on screen while you play, jam with a full band — no streaks, no goals, no accounts.
A quieter way to sit with your guitar.
Every feature free, forever — no subscription, no account, no streaks.
Learn songs, capture riffs before they fade, jam with a backing band. Everything stays on your device.
- `SONGS` — learn the songs you love: transpose, capo, auto-scroll, simplify.
- `IDEAS` — hum or play a riff; the chords and key are detected and kept.
- `JAM` — a backing band in your key, at your tempo — drums, bass, keys.
- `TUNER` — twenty tunings, standard to DADGAD, with a sweetened mode.
- `PRACTICE` — routines, drills, Scale Coach, half-speed looper.
- `ON YOUR WRIST` — metronome, tuner, and chords on Apple Watch, in haptics.
- `NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE` — no account, no cloud, no tracking.
- `FREE MEANS FREE` — every feature, unlocked, forever; the tip jar is there
if it helps you play more.
- `THE FAMILY` — Bass Buddha, Ukulele Buddha, and Drum Buddha are waiting
when you pick up something new.
more Somewhere to start, and switches that stay where you put them.
• Start here: Routines no longer opens empty — three ready-made sessions are waiting, from your first one to the next rung up. Run one as it is, or duplicate it and make it yours.
• It remembers where you left it: count-in, the tempo ramp, accent on beat one, naturals-only and simplified chords all stay set. The tuner opens in the tuning you saved, and "speed up gradually" takes effect the moment you tap it.
• The tip jar recovers: after a tip goes through — or doesn't — the jar opens normally again instead of staying stuck on the last attempt.
• A quiet note in Settings about the rest of the family: Bass, Ukulele and Drum Buddha.
1.9 9 Aug
The progression builder grows up.
• Progressions by the pack: thirty-two new bundled progressions — pop, blues, soul, dreamy, sad — each pre-wired with a groove and a suggested strum.
• Build in key: the builder now leads with the chords that live in your key, plus borrowed and secondary-dominant rows — labeled with their Roman numerals so you learn while you stack.
• Let a chord hang: any chord in a custom progression can hold for 2 or 4 bars — real songs breathe, and now your loops do too.
• Same chords, new feel: a groove picker on every progression — swing your ii–V–I, drop your campfire loop to half-time, or turn anything into a reggae one-drop.
• Keep the chords in view: a song's chord diagrams now pin to the bottom of the screen, so they stay in front of you while you scroll the lyrics — tap one to hear it, or tuck the bar away. And every song links straight to a guitar tutorial for it.
1.8 30 Jul
Tune all the way down — and a little polish all around.
Tuned for the low end — New Bass VI and baritone presets join the tuner, with pitch detection that reaches down into those low strings — so it stays locked on even when you tune way down.
Sharper, and up to date — A crisper app icon at every size, and a quiet nudge when a newer version is waiting for you in the App Store.
1.7 15 Jul
Tighter timing throughout Practice and Jam.
• The metronome, drum machine, and backing band now hold a steady clock — no more drift when you change tempo or restart a session.
• Fixed a walking-bass bug where two of every four beats played the wrong note.
• The strumming and fingerpicking trainer's count-in and loop are smoother and land right on the beat.
• Chord cards, the drum grid, and the beat counter in Jam now update exactly when the sound does, instead of slightly ahead.
• Small reliability fixes to drum and bass sounds.
1.6.1 9 Jul
The fretboard, from every angle — and a band that plays your changes.
• A home for the fretboard: the note trainer, the color-coded cheat sheet, and the new CAGED explorer together under one Practice card. Pick a key and watch the five shapes tile the neck.
• Every scale, whole neck: lock a position box, color notes by name or by interval, flip the board to any tuning — and a beta Scale Coach listens while you climb, lighting each note you land.
• Build your own progression: stack chords in any order and the band plays them — drums, bass, and keys. Song pages can call up the band too, with a groove matched to the genre.
• Woodshed any recording: bring an audio file into the Loop Trainer — loop the hard part, slow it down without changing pitch, even shift the key. Tab sheets and riff sketches now play out loud with a moving cursor.
• Strum and pick with intent: new strumming and fingerpicking trainers, plus a suggested strum on every song.
• Setlists, and songs you can play: line songs up for jam night, and tap the chords you know to see what's ready right now.
• The library remembers: heart any chord, scale, or progression; a quiet Recent row brings back what you sat with last; tension chords hint where they want to resolve.
• Sturdier all over: your first song arrives with its chords ready, deletes ask first, trashed takes survive a song's removal, chord names follow half- and whole-step-down tunings — and a fresh look, with a new icon and Obsidian as the default theme.
1.6 8 Jul
A handful of new ways to practice — and more room to play on iPad.
• Practice routines — String together a warm-up, a song, and a few drills, then run the whole session with a calm timer. Finished sessions land in a simple log. No streaks, no pressure.
• Learn the fretboard — A new trainer for the notes across the neck: find a note or name one, on a single string or all six. Flip to the color-coded cheat sheet whenever you want a reference.
• Loop it and slow it down — Loop a tricky passage from a recording or a song's chord section, ease it to half speed without shifting the pitch, and play it until it clicks.
• One-minute chord changes — The classic build-your-speed drill: pick two chords and count your changes against the clock.
• Made for iPad — Songs and Ideas open side by side on the big screen, and turning the iPad sideways drops Jam into a full performance view.
1.5 3 Jul
What's New in 1.4 -
1,000+ songs to learn
The Learn a Song library grew from 30 to over a thousand — each
with chords, key, and capo hints ready to go.
A real band behind your Jam
Pick a groove and the bass, feel, and chord changes instantly
match the genre — blues shuffles, jazz walks, and more.
Play progressions with a full band
Progressions now jam along with drums, bass, and keys — or flip
to a click track to practice the changes yourself.
Pick your look
Choose a color theme when you set up the app, and switch anytime
in Settings.
Plus the usual polish and fixes. Thanks for playing!
1.4 2 Jul
What's new in 1.3
Practice leveled up
• 27 new chords and 11 new scales — plus fixes to 15 scale shapes — with movable voicings in the Chord Coach and a bigger Ear Trainer.
• Drills overhauled: on-screen chord diagrams and fretboard guides, adjustable tempo, per-bar chord cycling, a scale picker, and beat-synced visuals.
Recordings, reimagined (takes, ideas, jams & loops)
• Trim on a waveform, scrub by dragging, and play back at 0.5×–2× speed.
• Edits are non-destructive — trimming or removing a section saves a new copy.
• Favorite your best recordings, duplicate them, and recover deleted ones for 30 days.
• Loops keep their own history, and every recording type now shares one clean, consistent layout.
Also new
• iPad landscape support — rotate freely.
• Apple Watch: set the metronome tempo with +/− buttons.
• Buttons across the app are easier to tap (full-area, not just the center).
• Cleaner slow-downs and a batch of stability fixes.
1.3 30 Jun
"What's New" (1.2)
Your practice room just leveled up.
• Transpose any song and add a capo — chord shapes update instantly
• Loop trainer: slow down the tricky parts, then bring them back up to speed
• Hands-free auto-scrolling chord sheets, plus one-tap "simplify"
• Ear trainer + "Jam in this key" to train your ear and play along
• Record an idea and we'll detect its chords and key automatically
• Riff scratchpad for quick tab ideas
• Export any song's chord sheet as a PDF
• Tune ukulele, mandolin, and fully custom tunings
• Now on Apple Watch: tuner + chord viewer
• Better on iPad
• Plus performance, reliability, and privacy improvements
Thanks for practicing with Guitar Buddha.
1.2 26 Jun
Guitar Buddha 1.1 — polished end to end:
• Cleaner, faster navigation
• Live Activities — metronome, recordings, practice, jams & drill timers on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
• Larger Text (Dynamic Type) support
• A fresh app icon
• Native iPad support
• Added Tuner & Chords to Apple Watch
• Plenty of bug fixes and polish
Every feature is still free, forever.
1.1 24 Jun
Somewhere to start, and switches that stay where you put them.
• Start here: Routines no longer opens empty — three ready-made sessions are waiting, from your first one to the next rung up. Run one as it is, or duplicate it and make it yours.
• It remembers where you left it: count-in, the tempo ramp, accent on beat one, naturals-only and simplified chords all stay set. The tuner opens in the tuning you saved, and "speed up gradually" takes effect the moment you tap it.
• The tip jar recovers: after a tip goes through — or doesn't — the jar opens normally again instead of staying stuck on the last attempt.
• A quiet note in Settings about the rest of the family: Bass, Ukulele and Drum Buddha.
more Version 1.9 9 Aug
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