Play guitar on your iPhone

Star Guitar provides access to 144 chords from a single screen.
Star Guitar provides access to 144 chords from a single screen.

Playing guitar on your iPhone or iPod touch might sound implausible to say the least, but thanks to Amidio Inc, you now have a way of doing it.

The company's new Star Guitar app is a miniaturised virtual player that's based on a one-screen interface. This provides instant access to 144 chords, and these can either be strummed manually, using the SmartStrumming technology, or automatically.

There are 20 guitar rhythm patterns to choose from (including pop, reggae, jazz and ballad) and you can pick from three guitars (Acoustic Silver, Mellow Jazz, Electro Chorused).

As a bonus, you can record yourself singing along to your Star Guitar parts and then export the resulting song as a WAV file. There's also direct export to Intua's Beatmaker app.

Amidio reckons that you can play just about any song with between ten and 20 screen taps, and to prove it, it's put together the demo video you can watch below. Decide for yourself if the quality is acceptable (or if all the chords are right).

Star Guitar costs $3.99/£2.39 and is available now from the App Store.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.