It seems that these days most musicians have tried out various apps to help guide and aid them when learning an instrument. A quick chord guide is a handy tool for any guitarist, maybe this is the reason why the ‘chord reference’ app has been done many, many times…has this one got it right?
Well, Quick Chords is most certainly quick, in just a few taps of the screen you flick between a chord selection page, the circle of fifths and a capo guide, all of which are very handy tools to a guitarist. I have no problem with the circle of fifths and the capo guide, they are simple indexes showing exactly what you want to see, it’s the chords page itself that I have trouble with.
After selecting a key you are presented with all the relevant chords and you have the ability to flick between Major, Minor, Dorian, Lydian and so on. This is all great but unlike most other chord apps you are unable to play the actual chord sounds, meaning those not so advance in guitar playing will find all these combinations a bit confusing if they can’t actually hear how they sound.
Pros: Very clear and simple to use, the capo guide is an excellent tool to add to an app like this.
Cons: The lack of sounds is what really lets this app down. Also the fun ‘random progression’ feature is hidden away and seeing as there are no instructions, some people might never know it’s there!
The developers say that Quick Chords is designed so that it only takes the user three taps to get anywhere they need within the app; although this is a handy trick, a bit more content would be fantastic.
