Hey Product Hunt! I've been playing guitar for years, and I've always struggled with the massive gap between expensive 1-on-1 lessons and trying to learn on my own through static YouTube videos.
That frustration led me to build SoundGate Guitar - an AI music tutor that listens to your playing and gives immediate, real-time feedback. While building it, I've thought a lot about the future of creative learning. AI is incredible at detecting mistakes, analyzing technique, and providing instant guidance, but music is also deeply personal and emotional.
I m curious to hear your take: Do you think AI tools will eventually replace traditional tutors for creative skills like music and art, or will they strictly serve as practice companions between human lessons? Let me know your thoughts!
SoundGate Guitar
Hey Product Hunt! 👋
We're the team behind SoundGate Guitar - a practice companion that actually hears you play and responds in real time.
Most guitar apps follow the same formula: watch a video, try to play along, get a pass/fail score. That's not how you learn guitar. You learn by playing, making mistakes, and getting feedback in the moment - the way a real teacher would.
So we built SoundGate to be that practice companion:
It hears every note. Play any note or chord and the interactive fretboard lights up instantly - real-time detection, not a 2-second delay. You can actually see what you're playing as you play it.
Interactive fretboard, tabs, scales, exercises - all interactive. It's not just detection. There's a full exercise library with scoring based on your actual playing. Chords, strumming, fingerpicking, scales - from beginner to advanced.
Ask it anything. Stuck on a barre chord? Wondering what scale works over a progression? The built-in AI coach gives you specific, personalized answers - not generic YouTube links.
Real native app. SwiftUI on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Plug in a USB audio interface on your Mac and it just works. No Electron, no web views.
It's 100% free. Not freemium-free. Actually free. Every feature unlocked. We're in early access - we want feedback from real guitarists, not credit card numbers.
Whether you picked up a guitar yesterday or you've been playing for 20 years, we built this for you.
Would love to hear what you think - drop any questions below! 🎸
@aren_barseghyan Love the concept! 🔥Are you planning to expand SoundGate to support other instruments in the future?
SoundGate Guitar
@karine_martirosyan_ thanks so much! Right now, we're hyper-focused on making the guitar experience as perfect as possible and gathering feedback during this early access phase. Once we nail this we definitely want to explore other instruments. Is there a specific instrument you'd love to see us support?
@aren_barseghyan Loving the concept. My biggest gripe when learning the guitar was the apps only showed my how to play but never verified if i was playing correctly. I guess it's time to pick the guitar again
SoundGate Guitar
@virentanti Thanks Viren! That was exactly our biggest gripe too. Watching a video is great but without that real-time verification, it's so easy to second-guess yourself. Dust off that guitar and let SoundGate do the listening this time!
@aren_barseghyan Congrats on the launch. Real-time note detection is the feature that would make this feel different from most guitar apps, especially if the fretboard reacts fast enough to use while practicing instead of after the fact.
I also like that it covers chords, strumming, fingerpicking, and scales rather than only single-note exercises. For guitar, feedback has to work across messy real playing, not just clean app-friendly drills.
SoundGate Guitar
@vahid_davoudi Thanks Vahid! You completely get what we're going for. Real-time means real-time - zero delays on the fretboard so you can actually adjust while you practice. And yes, handling the messy reality of chords and fingerpicking was a non-negotiable for us. Would love for you to put it to the test!
PicWish
@aren_barseghyan does it work with pakistani desi music like dhol?
SoundGate Guitar
@mohsinproduct we love the energy of desi music, but our AI would probably short-circuit trying to find chords on a dhol🥁 It's strictly 6-string guitars for now.
Flowtica Scribe
Music might be the most beautiful language we have...
Time to switch from code to strings for a while 🎸!
SoundGate Guitar
Love that! Time to give those typing fingers a different kind of workout. Thanks for being such an awesome partner for this launch @zaczuo
SoundGate Guitar
Thanks for hunting us, Zac! As SoundGate’s CTO, I spend a lot of time teaching code to listen to strings. Maybe it’s time I played them too 🎸 Really appreciate your support @zaczuo !
SoundGate Guitar
@ridhwikvinod Hi Ridhwik! Persistent progress tracking was a non-negotiable for us. The AI remembers your past sessions and tracks your weaknesses over time so you never start fresh. It uses all that history to shape your lessons, exactly like a real teacher tracking your growth!
Does the app support 4-string bass or ukulele, or is the engine currently tuned strictly for 6-string guitar? Congrats on the launch.. after seeking a product like SoundGate for a long time that's truly based on music, this is really great @aren_barseghyan 🙌
SoundGate Guitar
@priya_kushwaha1 thank you so much, Priya! Currently, we're all-in on the 6-string guitar to make sure the real-time engine is absolutely perfect. Once we nail that bass and uke are next in line! 🚀
@aren_barseghyan That's awesome, all the best 🙌
SoundGate Guitar
@aren_barseghyan @priya_kushwaha1 Thanks so much, Priya! We built the foundation with expansion in mind, and feedback like yours helps us prioritize what comes next. Which would you want us to support first: bass or ukulele? 🙌
@aren_barseghyan @vahe_barseghyan2 I'd love to see bass support first, Any plans for Android? When can we expect it..
The real-time fretboard feedback is the part I would actually use - finally something that listens instead of making me watch a video and guess if I am doing it right. The thing I would want to know before making it a daily habit: does it save any record of what I have practiced or how I have improved over time, or is each session fresh? Knowing I can look back at what I was struggling with two weeks ago would make the practice habit much easier to stick to.
SoundGate Guitar
@leo404 that guessing game with videos is exactly why we built the real-time fretboard. And you are going to love this: not only does the AI remember your entire session history, but we actually have beautiful charts showing your progress over time! You can visually look back, see exactly what you were struggling with two weeks ago, and watch those metrics improve.
BrickSolvr
Congrats on the launch! 👏 Just dropping by to say hi as a fellow guitarist.
I’ve tried a few similar products before (e.g. Yousician), so I’m curious what makes SoundGate stand out in such a competitive space.
In particular, is your differentiation around areas like:
Polyphonic (multiple-note) detection?
Expression/technique detection (e.g. bends, vibrato, slides, palm muting)?
Those have always seemed like some of the hardest technical challenges for AI guitar coaches, so I’d love to hear what you’ve improved.
SoundGate Guitar
@shuaibird hey! Great to connect with a fellow guitarist here. 👋 You nailed the exact hard problems! While we are incredibly proud of our zero-lag polyphonic detection (strum a chord and the fretboard lights up instantly without delay), one of our biggest differentiator from gamified apps is actually our built-in AI Tutor. Instead of just playing along to a scrolling highway and getting a score, SoundGate acts like a real teacher. You can actually converse with the AI coach, ask why a chord transition sounds muddy, and get personalized routines. As for expression detection (bends, slides, etc.), we are actively working on perfecting those models next! 🎸"
SoundGate Guitar
@shuaibird Great question! Some of the advanced techniques and musical analysis you mentioned are still on our roadmap, so the app may feel a bit limited in those areas today. We’re shipping updates frequently, and our goal is to gradually integrate all major guitar techniques into the learning experience. Thanks for the thoughtful question! 🎸
the use case i'd actually want is playing along with a real song, not just isolated exercises. if a backing track or the original recording is playing through my speakers at the same time as my guitar, does the detection still isolate my playing cleanly, or does it need near silence in the room to work? that's the difference between a practice tool and something i'd actually use to learn songs i care about.
SoundGate Guitar
@galdayan We are not building around what simply feels like a good learning experience. We study the most effective learning methods and turn them into a practice experience that works.
The foundation is simple: produce a clean tone, play slowly, and build accuracy from the beginning. Repeating mistakes only makes those mistakes harder to unlearn.
Playing popular songs adds excitement to the journey, and we will introduce that very soon. For now, we recommend staying consistent with your daily practice. We want to make that practice motivating, so when you are ready, you can pick up your favorite songs quickly and play them with confidence.
@vahe_barseghyan2 fair, and I like the clean-tone-first philosophy. to be clear my question wasn't about song content, it was about the audio itself - when a backing track is playing out loud in the same room as my amp, does the detection engine still separate my guitar from that other sound source, or does the room need to be quiet for it to track accurately? that's a signal processing question more than a curriculum one, and it'll matter the moment you do add songs.
SoundGate Guitar
@galdayan Ah, I see. I misunderstood your question. Yes, we are working on that. For now, SoundGate uses drum and bass backing tracks, so you can jam and practice playing in time. A quiet room is still best for accurate detection, although background sounds are less of an issue when their notes do not overlap with what you are playing. We'll be building a full jam experience that can handle overlapping notes from other instrument sounds in the room.