Five quiet tools, built around how you actually practice.
Nothing tracks you. Nothing nags you. Everything stays on your device.
Songs
Your library, on vinyl.
Pull songs from anywhere. Add lyrics, chords, and your own takes. The library remembers everything you've sat with — quietly, in order of how recently it mattered.
Ideas
Catch the riff before it fades.
Hum it. Play it. Write it down. Tag it. Find it later.
Jam
A backing band, on tap.
Set a key. Pick a feel. Drums, bass, keys lock in behind you. Loop it, change it, record yourself over the top.
Tuner
Sharp ear. Soft display.
Standard, drop, open, and dozens of alternate tunings — plus custom and a sweetened mode for players who want it just-so.
Practice
Chords, scales, drills.
Chord diagrams, scale grids, finger drills, common progressions, play-along loops, and a metronome. A quiet shelf of fundamentals.
95 screens, hand-built
Designed for the in-between moments.
The kitchen-stool half-hour. The hotel-room ten minutes. The morning before anyone else is up.
10:15
Your Songs
Songs
Search songs, artists…
All
Recent
Favorites
Little Wing
Jimi Hendrix
Learning0 takes
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd
Learning0 takes
Black
Pearl Jam
Learning0 takes
Horse With No Name
America
Learning1 take
Home
Songs
Ideas
Jam
Tuner
11:34
— HZ
Listening
−500+50
Tuner
Strings
E
A
D
G
B
E
♪Sweetened
i
Tuning
Standard
Mode
Auto
Reference
440 Hz
Home
Songs
Ideas
Jam
Tuner
11:34
Jam
Rock
Shuffle
Blues
Funk
Jazz
Hip-Hop
Sequence
Edit
1234
Kick
Snare
Hi-hat
Tap a step to toggle it.
96
BPM
Rock
+
−
TAP
Jam Key
Change key
C
D
E
F
G
A
B
A minor pentatonic
maj
min
Scale to practice
Minor
Pentatonic
Home
Songs
Ideas
Jam
Tuner
Beyond the phone
On your wrist. On your home screen.
The metronome comes with you, and the tools you reach for most are one tap from your home screen.
Apple Watch
A metronome on your wrist.
Spin the Digital Crown to set the tempo. Feel every beat in haptics — no need to look down.
Home-screen widget
One tap to the tools you reach for.
Tuner, metronome, and jam — straight from your home screen, no digging through the app.
Local-first by design
Nothing leaves your phone.
No accounts. No syncing to "the cloud." No data sold or shared. Your songs, your ideas, your takes — all yours, on your device.
No accounts, ever. Open the app and you're already in.
Analytics off by default. Optional and anonymous — on only if you switch them on, never the other way around.
No internet required. Works on a plane, in a basement, off-grid.
Your takes stay on your device. Export to share — never automatic.
Pricing
Free, with a tip jar.
Every feature, unlocked from day one. No subscription. No paywall. No ads tracking you between sessions.
$0Every feature · forever
if the app helps your practice, you can chip in
$0.99
Thanks!
$4.99
Supporter
$9.99
Keep it flowing
no pressure. no paywall. just optional.
Four palettes
Pick the room you're playing in.
The app ships with four themes. Try them right here — your selection follows you down the page.
From the beta
Notes from early players.
A few dozen guitarists have been living with the TestFlight build. Here's what they keep telling us.
★★★★★
Finally, an app that doesn't guilt me
Every guitar app turns practice into homework — streaks, XP, reminders shaming me at 9pm. Guitar Buddha just waits for me. I open it, it shows me what I've been working on, I play. I've played more this month than the whole past year.
PickupPlayer_Dave
★★★★★
The idea capture alone is worth it
I've lost so many riffs to voice memos I could never find again. Now I hum it, tag it, done. Found a riff from three weeks ago last night and built a whole song around it.
hmills_92
★★★★★
No account?? No subscription??
I expected the usual: free for 3 days, then $12.99/month for the "premium tuner." Nope. Everything's free, everything's on-device, it doesn't even ask for an email. Threw money in the tip jar immediately.
skeptical.luthier
★★★★★
A band that never complains
Set a key, pick a feel, and suddenly I have a band that's fine with practicing the same 12 bars for an hour. Recorded myself over a slow blues loop and actually heard myself improving week to week.
GarageBandDad
★★★★★
Beautiful, calm, almost perfect
The most beautiful music app I own — the vinyl library is a lovely touch and Sand & Linen is gorgeous. One star back because I play ukulele too and the chord library is guitar-only for now. It's on the roadmap, so I'll be back to edit this.
nylonstrings
★★★★★
Tuner with a sweetened mode!
40 years of playing and this is the first phone tuner I trust. Standard, drop, open tunings, plus a sweetened mode that makes my acoustic sound right up the neck, not just at the 12th fret. Soft display is easy on the eyes at 6am too. Quiet little masterpiece.
flattop_phil
★★★★★
Got me playing again after 10 years
My guitar sat in a closet for a decade because every time I picked it up, I felt behind. This app never makes me feel behind. No goals, no progress bars — just the songs I love and a gentle "what's it gonna be today?" Playing every evening now.
emily.k.taylor
★★★★★
Great for hotel-room practice
Works completely offline, which matters when you're in a venue basement with no signal. Tuner, jam tracks, my whole library — all there. Wish recordings synced between my phone and iPad, but I get why they don't do cloud. Export works fine as a workaround.
tour_van_kev
★★★★★
Good, but I miss the structure
Honestly — I like streaks and goals, and this app philosophically refuses to give me any. The tools are excellent, jam mode especially. If you're a calm-practice person you'll love it. If you need a drill sergeant, this isn't that, and it's proud of it.
metronome_max
★★★★★
The anti-app
No ads. No feed. No notifications begging me to come back. It opens fast, does exactly five things beautifully, and gets out of the way. Whoever made this actually plays guitar.
quietfingers
real notes from TestFlight — the App Store ones arrive this summer.
A note from the maker
I built Guitar Buddha for the version of me who picks up the guitar at 11pm, plays for forty minutes, and forgets what he was working on by Tuesday. It's a place to put the practice. Quietly. Without anyone counting.
— see you in there
Frequently asked
Questions, gently answered.
When will it ship?+
iOS first, sometime this fall. Android shortly after. Join the waitlist and you'll be among the first to know — we promise to write only once.
How much will it cost?+
Nothing — every feature is free, forever. See the Pricing section for details on the optional tip jar.
Does it work without an internet connection?+
Yes — completely. Everything runs on-device: no cloud, no streaming, no account. Songs come from a built-in catalog, anything you type in, or chord sheets you scan with the camera — all offline. The only thing that ever touches the network is optional, off-by-default analytics.
Why no streaks or goals?+
Because the moment practice becomes a game you can lose, you stop. Guitar Buddha is built around showing up, not winning. The library remembers what you've sat with — that's all the tracking you need.
Can I use it with other instruments?+
The tuner, jam tracks, and metronome work with anything. The chord library and Practice drills are guitar-specific. Ukulele and bass support are on the roadmap.
Is there an Apple Watch app or a widget?+
Both. A metronome lives on Apple Watch — spin the Digital Crown to set the tempo and feel the beat in haptics. And a home-screen widget puts the tuner, metronome, and jam one tap away.
Will my recordings sync between devices?+
Not automatically — that would mean a cloud. You can export any take as an audio file and move it however you like. iCloud Drive support is on the roadmap as opt-in.
Coming soon
Be one of the first to sit down.
One quiet email when the app is ready. No follow-ups. No newsletter.
