Guitar Buddy vs Hermit Jam
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Guitar Buddy
Master the guitar fretboard and train your musical ear with interactive lessons and real-time pitch detection. Learn notes, chords, and melodies through structured courses and practice modes designed for all skill levels.
- Fretboard note and chord recognition
- Melodic ear training
- Real-time pitch detection
- Structured courses for learning
- Practice streak tracking
- AI-powered practice summaries
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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 in a clean interface built to keep you focused. NEW – COURSES: NOTES ON THE FRETBOARD Learn to find any note on any string straight away, without counting frets, in a step-by-step guided course. • Learn one note at a time at a slow metronome tempo, so you remember positions instead of working them out • Short explanations with animated fretboard demos you can hear • Natural notes, then sharps and flats, the upper neck, and the whole neck • Graded Find It and Name It checkpoints • Advanced chapter: Octave Shapes and Fret Boxes • Play a Melody: play along with familiar tunes in their real rhythm • A three-minute Daily Mix, and Trouble Spots that target the notes you miss • Build Speed from 40 to 80 BPM, or set up your own practice session Try the course intro for free; the full course is an optional one-time in-app purchase. HOME: YOUR PRACTICE AT A GLANCE • Track your practice streak and keep it alive • Get a personalized AI practice summary of what's going well and what to work on next • Get smart recommendations based on weak spots and topics you haven't touched in a while • See a stats breakdown across every training mode • Set practice reminders for the days and times that suit you MELODY JOURNEY – 165 LEVELS A structured ear training path from beginner to expert: 165 levels in 33 topic groups, from simple intervals to chromatic melodies, melodic direction, scale degrees, and chord inversions. Track your progress and unlock new topics as you master the previous ones. FIVE FOCUSED TRAINING MODES • NOTES: Recognize notes across the whole fretboard or specific fret ranges • MELODIES: Identify melodic sequences based on different scales, at various lengths and difficulty levels • CHORDS: Build your chord vocabulary by ear and by shape, with optional inversions • CHORD PROGRESSIONS: Identify each chord in a progression, from two-chord patterns to four-chord sequences • INTERVALS: Recognize intervals played melodically or harmonically, or sing them and check your pitch – all 11 intervals, in any direction EXPLORE: SCALES, CHORDS & INTERVALS An interactive reference, all shown on the fretboard. See every chord shape with correct note names and play it back, browse intervals with famous reference melodies, and explore scale patterns across the full neck. INTERACTIVE FRETBOARD & AUDIO ANALYZER A beautifully designed virtual fretboard shows exactly where notes and chords sit on the neck. The microphone-based analyzer detects what you play in real time, showing the note name and octave so you can check intonation and pitch accuracy. Optimized for iPhone, iPad and Mac, in portrait and landscape, with layouts that adapt to iPad Split View, iPhone Duo and resizable Mac windows. Also includes a Tuner and a Metronome. DESIGNED FOR REAL PROGRESS Guitar Buddy is a focused training tool – not a game with distractions. It helps you: • Memorize every note on the neck • Recognize chords by name and structure • Develop your inner ear for intervals and melodies • Build a consistent habit with streaks, reminders, and personalized recommendations IDEAL FOR • Guitarists who know shapes but want to understand the actual notes • Self-taught players filling in fretboard and harmony gaps • Students preparing for music theory exams • Musicians developing melodic ear and interval recognition Take control of your fretboard knowledge and ear training.
Hermit Jam
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Hermit Jam is a music practice companion. Import your playlists, jam through songs, and drill individual sections with loop and speed control. How It Works: 1. Create a playlist in your music app with the songs you want to practice 2. Import the playlist into Hermit Jam 3. Tap Jam to play through songs in order — like a live set 4. Tap a song to practice — see sections, loop any part, change speed Practice Mode: Tap any song to see its sections (intro, verse, chorus, solo). The playhead tracks your position. Tap a section to jump to it. Hit the loop button to repeat just that section until you've got it down. Jam Mode: Hit play to jam through your entire setlist. Songs play start to finish, one after another. Just like playing along with the record. Speed Control: Slow down to 50% or 75% speed for learning difficult parts. Works with locally downloaded tracks — buy the music, and the speed picker activates. Edit in iCloud Drive: Section timestamps are stored as JSON files in iCloud Drive. Open them in any text editor to adjust timing or add sections. Changes sync back automatically. No account required. No subscription. No server. Your data lives in iCloud Drive.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Hermit Jam at none against Guitar Buddy's 5. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Guitar Buddy sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Hermit Jam asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Guitar Buddy | Hermit Jam |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 74 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thomas Sempf | Dave Stanton |
In-app purchases
Guitar Buddy
- Tip me a espresso$0.99
- Tip me a mug of coffee$2.99
- Buy me 2 cups of coffee$4.99
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- Notes on the Fretboard$5.99
- Buy me a cookie and a cup of coffee$9.99
Hermit Jam
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Guitar Buddy free?
Is Hermit Jam free?
Do Guitar Buddy or Hermit Jam have ads?
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