# Guitar Buddy - Ear Training — Fretboard and Ear Training

> Interactive guitar fretboard and ear training app with structured lessons. (iPhone/iPad app by Thomas Sempf.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/guitar-buddy-ear-training/id6752997511 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Thomas Sempf](https://appshunter.io/developer/1842086212)
- Category: Music, Education
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 5.00/5 from 1 App Store ratings
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 18.0 · 76 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2025-12-16
- Data updated: 2026-08-23
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/guitar-buddy-ear-training/id6752997511/reviews.md

## What is Guitar Buddy?

Guitar Buddy
Master the Fretboard by Ear – Notes, Chords, Melodies & Real‑Time Pitch Detection

Unlock the guitar fretboard and train your musical ear with Guitar Buddy – a focused practice companion for guitarists who want to really know what they're playing, not just where to put their fingers.

Whether you're a beginner learning the notes on the neck or an experienced player sharpening your chord recognition, melodic ear, and intonation, Guitar Buddy guides you through structured, interactive training sessions.


KEY FEATURES

MELODY JOURNEY – PROGRESSIVE 165-LEVEL ADVENTURE:
Embark on a structured ear training path that takes you from beginner to expert.

• 165 carefully designed levels organized into 33 topic groups
• Progressive difficulty that builds upon previous skills
• Train with everything from simple intervals to complex chromatic melodies
• Track your progress with detailed statistics and completion percentages
• Unlock new topics as you master previous ones

Perfect for guitarists who want a clear roadmap to fretboard mastery, one level at a time.


FIVE FOCUSED TRAINING MODES

NOTES TRAINING:
Learn every note on the fretboard and finally make sense of the neck layout. Practice note recognition across the entire fretboard, with focus on specific fret ranges.

MELODIES TRAINING:
Train your ear to identify melodic sequences based on different scales. Choose from various difficulty levels and melody lengths.

CHORDS TRAINING:
Develop your chord vocabulary by ear and by shape. Train with a wide variety of chord types, enable inversions, and challenge yourself with "guess first" style sessions.

CHORD PROGRESSIONS TRAINING:
Listen to a chord progression and identify each chord in sequence. Three difficulty levels take you from common two-chord patterns to complex four-chord sequences.

INTERVAL SINGING:
Train your inner ear by singing intervals before you play them. Listen to a root note, sing the target interval, then verify your pitch against a chord. Three difficulty levels covering all 11 intervals. Choose ascending, descending, or mixed direction.


EXPLORE: SCALES, CHORDS & INTERVALS

Browse an interactive reference covering scales, chords, and intervals – all visualized on the fretboard.

• See every chord shape with correct note names and play it back directly
• Browse all intervals with visual highlights and famous reference melodies you can play
• Explore scale patterns across the full neck


INTERACTIVE FRETBOARD VIEW

A beautifully designed virtual fretboard shows you exactly where notes and chords appear on the neck. Optimized for portrait and landscape on iPhone, iPad and Mac.


BUILT-IN AUDIO ANALYZER

• Enable the microphone-based analyzer to detect what you play in real time
• See the detected note name and octave as you play on your own instrument
• Use it to check intonation, pitch accuracy, and ear-to-fretboard connection


FLEXIBLE PRACTICE SETTINGS

• Choose your training focus: Journey, Notes, Melodies, Chords, Chord Progressions, or Interval Singing
• Limit practice to specific fret ranges
• Select chord types to include, with optional inversion challenges
• Choose interval playback as melodic or harmonic, and set direction
• Adjust difficulty levels across all training modes


DESIGNED FOR REAL PROGRESS

Guitar Buddy is a focused training tool – not a game with distractions. It helps you:

• Internalize note locations across the entire fretboard
• Recognize chords by name and structure
• Develop your inner ear for intervals and melodies
• Build long-term fretboard fluency


IDEAL FOR

• Guitarists who know shapes but want to understand the actual notes
• Students preparing for music theory exams
• Self-taught players filling in fretboard and harmony gaps
• Musicians developing melodic ear and interval recognition


Take control of your fretboard knowledge and ear training.
Download Guitar Buddy and start turning guesswork into confidence – one note, one chord, and one melody at a time.

## Key features

- Melody Journey with 165 levels
- Notes, Melodies, Chords, and Progressions training
- Interval singing practice
- Interactive fretboard visualization
- Real-time audio analyzer
- Scale, chord, and interval reference

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tip me a mug of coffee | $2.99 | one-time |
| Tip me a espresso | $0.99 | one-time |
| Buy me a cookie and a cup of coffee | $9.99 | one-time |
| Buy me 2 cups of coffee | $4.99 | one-time |



## Frequently asked questions about Guitar Buddy

### What is Guitar-Buddy?

Guitar-Buddy is a music practice companion designed to help guitarists master the fretboard and train their ear. It offers structured lessons for notes, chords, melodies, and progressions.

### How many levels are in Guitar-Buddy's Melody Journey?

The Melody Journey in Guitar-Buddy features a progressive adventure with 165 carefully designed levels, organized into 33 topic groups.

### Can Guitar-Buddy help me identify chords by ear?

Yes, Guitar-Buddy includes a Chords Training mode that helps you develop your chord vocabulary by ear and by shape, with various difficulty levels and chord types.

### Does Guitar-Buddy have a feature to check my playing accuracy?

Guitar-Buddy includes a built-in audio analyzer that uses your microphone to detect what you play in real-time. This allows you to check your intonation and pitch accuracy.

### What devices does Guitar-Buddy support?

Guitar-Buddy is optimized for portrait and landscape use on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

### Is Guitar-Buddy free to use?

Guitar-Buddy is available for free. While the app itself is free, it does offer in-app purchases for additional content or features.

### How often is Guitar-Buddy updated?

The latest version of Guitar-Buddy is 1.3.0, and it was last updated on April 21, 2026. Updates typically bring new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements.

### What is the age rating for Guitar-Buddy?

Guitar-Buddy has an age rating of 4+, making it suitable for a wide range of users interested in learning music.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.4.0 — 2026-07-22

A FRESH NEW LOOK:
Guitar Buddy has been redesigned from the ground up. Every screen — from the Tuner and Metronome to Explore, the Journey, and Settings — now shares a clean, consistent visual style with unified typography, refined spacing, and a modern set of controls. The result is an app that feels calmer, clearer, and more polished to practice with, whatever you're working on.

MEET THE HOME TAB:
A brand-new Home tab greets you with your practice, at a glance. It's your personal starting point every time you open the app — see your streak, jump straight back into where you left off, and get a clear picture of how your ear training is coming along, all in one place.

PRACTICE STREAKS:
Guitar Buddy now tracks the days you practice and celebrates your streak. A little momentum goes a long way in ear training, and watching your streak grow is a satisfying nudge to keep showing up.

AI PRACTICE INSIGHTS:
A warm, personalized summary of how your practice is going, generated on-device with Apple Intelligence. It highlights what you're doing well, gently points out where you could focus next, and encourages you to pick things back up after a break — never a scold, always a coach.

SMART RECOMMENDATIONS:
Not sure what to work on today? The Home tab suggests your next exercise based on where you've been struggling, topics you haven't touched in a while, and training modes you haven't tried yet — so there's always a clear, worthwhile next step.

PRACTICE REMINDERS:
Set a friendly reminder to keep your practice consistent. Choose the time of day and exactly which days of the week you want a nudge, and Guitar Buddy will help you build the habit.

PROGRESS AT A GLANCE:
A new stats breakdown shows how you're doing across each type of ear training — notes, intervals, chords, and more — making it easy to see your strengths and spot the areas worth a little extra attention.

IPAD & MAC POLISH:
Ear-training sessions now keep a comfortable portrait layout on iPad, the Explore tab auto-selects a scale, chord, or interval so there's less tapping to get started, and macOS handling of window management and audio-device switching is more reliable than ever.

### 1.3.0 — 2026-04-21

JOURNEY GROWS TO 165 LEVELS:
The Melody Journey has been expanded from 100 to 165 levels across 33 topic groups. The revised curriculum introduces major/minor contrast and pentatonic scales earlier, giving you a more musical progression from the very first levels.

MELODIC DIRECTION:
A new challenge type in the Journey: listen to a short phrase and identify whether the melody is ascending, descending, or repeating. Builds the foundational listening skill behind all melodic ear training.

HARMONIC INTERVALS:
Train your ear on intervals played simultaneously — both notes at once — in addition to the sequential (melodic) intervals you already know. Choose between melodic and harmonic playback when starting an interval session.

CHORD PROGRESSIONS TRAINING:
A brand-new standalone training mode. Listen to a chord progression and identify the chords in sequence. Three difficulty levels help you go from common two-chord patterns to complex four-chord sequences.

CHORD INVERSIONS:
Both the Journey and standalone chord training now include inversion challenges. Toggle "Include Inversions" in chord settings to hear chords in root position or any inversion, with the answer revealing exactly which inversion was played.

SCALE DEGREES:
New Journey levels teach you to identify scale degree numbers (1, 2, 3 … 7) by ear — a key skill for understanding melody and harmony in any key.

INTERVAL DIRECTION CONTROL:
Choose ascending, descending, or mixed intervals when practising interval recognition or interval singing.

### 1.2.3 — 2026-03-09

Chord Note Display Fix:
Fixed an issue where chord notes in the Explore section could show incorrect sharps or flats. Minor-family chords now correctly use the minor scale convention for accidentals, so you'll always see the right note names for the chord you're looking at.

### 1.2.2 — 2026-03-06

Auto-Submit Option:
Speed up your practice sessions with the new auto-submit setting. When enabled, your answer is automatically confirmed as soon as you've identified the last note — no need to tap Submit. Perfect for when you're in the zone and want to keep the momentum going. A tip in the UI will guide you to the setting.

Interval Highlights in the Info Section:
The Interval section now visually highlights intervals in the reference melodies, making it easier to see relationships between notes at a glance.

Bug Fixes:
• Fixed an issue where certain late Journey levels involving chord-then-melody challenges could not be completed.
• Fixed interval generation in the Journey so the right intervals are played at every level.
• Various UI consistency improvements across the app.

Big thanks to all the feedback I got from the different forums, especially the Reddit community.

### 1.2.1 — 2026-02-22

Interval Recognition Mode:
A brand new way to train your ear — listen to two notes and identify the interval. Choose from multiple difficulty levels as you sharpen your ability to recognize intervals instantly.

Reference Melodies with Playback:
Each interval in the Explore section now comes with famous reference melodies you can play back directly. Hear the opening notes of songs like "Twinkle Twinkle" for a Perfect 5th or "Pink Panther" for a Minor 2nd.

Landscape Support for Interval Training:
Both Interval Singing and Interval Recognition sessions now feature optimized landscape layouts, giving you a comfortable training experience in any orientation.

Other things:
We also fixed those annoying bugs and added a new introduction to our melody journey. Enjoy!

## Related topics

[guitar relative pitch trainer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/guitar-relative-pitch-trainer)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-23.*
