Guitar Hero has a lot to answer for. It convinced a generation of gamers that learning an instrument is easy. Yousician is an app that tried to make that a reality. Now, those two have something in common. Both of them have a Metallica partnership.
Unlike Guitar Hero‘s unconvincing fake Metallica tracks, though, this new partnership will see players shred like James Hetfield or Kirk Hammet. Provided they put in the hours, of course.
Enter Yousician
You might accuse the metal band of having sold out by partnering with the Finnish music app. If that’s so, you obviously have forgotten which band we’re talking about. Still, there’s a fair amount to look forward to here. The band/app collaboration includes three new courses, one each focused on riffs, rhythm, and lead sections from classic songs.
There are ten tracks players can learn, none of them older than 1996. That would be Mama Said, from the band’s Load album. Nothing Else Matters, Enter Sandman, and The Unforgiven from the Black album are present. Fade to Black and For Whom the Bell Tolls from Ride the Lightning, One from …And Justice for All, and Battery, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Master of Puppets from Master of Puppets round out the track listing. That’s… actually, that’s a pretty badass list of songs.
Yousician is a free app (with limits if you’re not paying a subscription). Available on Android and iOS, the app guides users on how to play using an onscreen UI that offers feedback on their playing. Free users get a single lesson a day. Paid users? They can play for however long their fingers hold out. If they’re trying to keep up with Metallica, that’s… probably not as long as you’d like.