Real Bass electric bass guitar

A bass fretboard on your phone

Real Bass turns an Android phone or tablet into an on-screen electric bass. Tap or pluck the strings to practise lines, try out ideas, or play along with music without needing a physical instrument beside you. It suits beginners learning where notes sit, as well as bass players who want a portable way to experiment between sessions.

Room to practise

The app includes a 22-fret scale, with four- and five-string layouts and an adjustable fretboard size. You can choose from a range of bass sounds, then use the lessons to work through playing basics. Loops offer backing parts to play along with, so practice can feel more like keeping time with a band than repeating notes in isolation.

Useful for ideas and play-alongs

Recording mode lets you capture a performance and share it, while MIDI support gives players with compatible gear another way to control the app. These tools make Real Bass useful beyond lessons: sketch out a bass part, test a melody, or spend a few minutes playing when a full-size instrument is out of reach. The touch interface is still different from fretting real strings, so it works best as a practice aid and musical sandbox rather than a substitute for building hands-on technique.

Established and well rated

Kolb Apps’ Music app has more than 10 million installs and a 4.4-star rating from about 84,700 ratings. That suggests a broad audience has found a reason to keep it around. Its mix of lessons, adjustable layouts and play-along loops gives beginners several ways to get started, while the recording and MIDI options add more for experienced players to explore.