The Future Of Guitar Teaching? Options

[El Fortinero]

I´ve seen this style on keyboards, but it seems they are implementing it on guitars too, check;

[Todd Simpson]

This is a fretlight guitar and I"ve got one and it's very handy Here is a short video I did using the fretlight.

[thefireball]

Yup, I can see the potential in this.

[Cosmin Lupu]

All sorts of weird gizmos

[Todd Simpson]

Yup, I can see the potential in this.

I really wish this thing was around when I was first learning guitar. Some people are seriously against it an idea. I've had some serious hate mail responses on my youtube channel about this particular bit of gear. To each his own, but in my book, anything that helps you learn, any tool at all, can be a really good thing.

This guitar is not meant to replace practice, or learning, or anything else so grand. It's just a learning tool to help you visually as you learn scales, finger positions, etc. You still have to practice your brains out


But for those who do have one, I've gotten enormously positive emails about learning with it. Some people learn better visually, and this can be a great help. As an instructor, I support anything that helps students learn and this certainly applies here.


As a bonus, the lights are pretty spiff too You can set them just to chase back and forth for visual impact like I have going in this vid.

[SpaseMoonkey]

I think it would help quite a bit making something easier to see. After watching your video Todd, I think it would be cool if they could put color changing lights in the spot where the fret markers would be. It would help students spot out the frets a lot easier.

[Gabriel Leopardi]

this is cool. I think that this could help but at the same time it could be confusing...

[Qenzoz]

Not a fan of these kinds of things, same goes for tabs, and video games that tries you to learn things such as Rock Band 3 pro and Rocksmith, just too many bad habits, imo, can be useful for time to time. But I prefer learning out from a video without any tabs, seems like the most effective way for me

[Michael AC]

So are those lights actually embedded in the neck? Would be neat if it had the note names on it...

I like Rocksmith as another "aid" in practicing. I am not a huge fan of tabs. I like the music notation better, but whatever helps you with your practice time I think is a good idea. Everyone learns differently.

[Sinisa Cekic]

Means - we teachers lose our jobs ?!? I hope that some of my students don't read this topic !

[Todd Simpson]

Means - we teachers lose our jobs ?!? I hope that some of my students don't read this topic !

The fretlight guitar doesn't replace the need for instruction of course It can just help some folks get better quicker

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Nov 6 2011, 04:42 AM

[Cosmin Lupu]

What happens when they switch to a guitar which has no lights? I think it's better to get used to a normal neck from the very beginning and not confront yourself with the idea of having to 'lose your map' in uncharted territory. I think that the more you explore things by yourself with a normal guitar, the better you will have those notions inside your system and the more natural they shall feel afterwards.

Maybe I'm wrong but, this is how I see things. Technology isn't always on the side of knowledge building usually, marketing people create gizmos which can fool people into thinking they can jump their learning curve

[Ivan Milenkovic]

This can be very interesting for learning, I remember learning keyboard songs on the same principle when I was a kid. Would love to have it for quick learning some songs on a guitar and something like that.

Not sure how good is the software side on the PC (very important to keep it transparent and not let it compromise your concentration and time during practice). Software needs to be perfect in order for this product to function well. Lots of players did it without it, so it's not crucial, but interesting thing to use, I hope it's not expensive..

[Alex Feather]

I can imagine an old saloon that instead of a player piano they have one of these guitars.