Yousician

Appealing, feedback-rich tool helps kids build core musical skills

Learning rating

Community rating

Based on 1 review

Privacy rating

Expert evaluation by Common Sense

Grades

3–12

Subjects & Skills

Arts, Character & SEL

Price: Free to try
Platforms: Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac

Pros: A great mix of videos, hands-on playing, and game-based hooks makes this an appealing fit for a wide range of ages and abilities.

Cons: Requires a pricey subscription, and there's no educational plan.

Bottom Line: Paired with great in-person instruction, this is a fabulous tool to boost musical skills.

Teachers can enroll as a music teacher on Yousician and receive email instructions on how to best integrate the app into their teaching practice. Once you enroll, you'll enable an Edu tab in the app, which lets you create a class and interact with students by creating assignments and tracking progress. The YousicianEdu page on the app's website has tons of helpful ideas for private lessons, small-group instruction, and large classes. There are recommendations for games you can play with the app and ways to use its missions as an alternative tool for assessment and tracking progress. Plus, the website lists mentor teachers you can connect with for ideas and guidance. In general, think about how you might use this tool to help your music students structure their practice time and how you might use it to augment your in-class activities. The videos and lessons within this app are stellar, but they're probably best used with the additional context and feedback that only an in-person teacher can offer. 

Yousician is a music practice app for iOS, Android, and PCs that helps students learn to play the piano, guitar, bass, and ukulele. First, students select their experience level, and then a video plays, introducing them to their in-app teacher, a real person whose voice guides the quests and songs they'll encounter next. Students can choose to read notes either in standard musical notation or in the app's own notation format, and students drill and practice different skills (such as rhythm and articulation) in each song they try. The app keeps track of their practice time along with their performance in different songs, and students can work to improve their performance during a single practice session or over time. Students can learn some beginning techniques for both pop and classical music, from basic fingering technique to scales to chords. Also, students can learn some basic musical notation. Whether they can read music or not, they can learn basic skills for reading a score and matching pitches and rhythm to what's shown on-screen.

An in-app progress tracker rewards students for practicing and completing new missions, so students can learn persistence and dedication if they use Yousician to stick to their practice goals. Special features for educators let teachers create assignments for their students and track their progress. Yousician's features are free for a limited time, and then it'll require a monthly or annual subscription fee. Keep an eye out in your preferences to make sure the app subscription doesn't auto-renew or charge unless you want it to. 

Yousician does a remarkably good job of offering instant feedback and encouraging students to keep growing their skills. The in-app mentor guides students along the way, telling them what quests or songs they should explore and coaching them through their very first song. It's especially impressive just how quickly you get to start playing; even if you're a beginner, this app gets right to the part where you get to start playing songs, which makes for an especially rewarding experience. There's also a nice mix of direct instruction and practice: The videos introduce new skills in approachable, straightforward language, and the "missions" help users instantly apply what they've learned and track their progress. The progress tracking page is a nice touch too; it tracks both practice time and how well you complete the skills on each mission. There's a nice mix of rewarding both accuracy and persistence, and it's great that you can share this information with parents and teachers. 

Overall, the main challenge with this app is its price tag, which some teachers and families might find expensive. If you're willing to spend the money, this app could add some serious value to a student's real-life music lessons. If you and your students are willing to dive into the data and explore it, and if you can afford the price, using this app could be rich and rewarding.

Learning Rating

Overall Rating
Engagement

It's empowering and fun to get instant feedback as you play, and it's exciting that even beginners can start playing right away.

Pedagogy

There's a great mix of video instruction and hands-on practice, and it's nice that the app rewards students for time on task, improvement, and accuracy. 

Support

In-app feedback is great, and the online teacher community offers tips for integrating the tool into in-person practice. The teacher dashboard helps with managing classrooms.

Common Sense reviewer

Community Rating

Great App for Beginner Instrumentalist

I do like this app. It's great for beginners. It helps to promote good practice skills and habits. It shows you the mistakes so that you can go back and fix what you got wrong. One of my critiques would be to add concert band and string instruments to the app as well.

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Privacy Rating

Data Safety How safe is this product?

  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Personal information can be displayed publicly.
  • User-created content is not filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.

Data Rights What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.

Ads & Tracking Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Unclear whether this product displays traditional or contextual advertisements.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.

Continue reading about this tool's privacy practices, including data collection, sharing, and security.

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