MomGadget Mailbag: Aspiring Guitar Players Can Now Use Video Technology to Learn to Play Guitar

by Gayla Baer

Musical instrument manufacturer and software developer, Optek Music Systems (www.fretlight.com), today unveiled revolutionary video technology for quickly learning how to play the guitar or advancing one’s existing skills. The Fretlight Video Player for the PC enables the company’s Fretlight™ guitars, which have lighted fretboards, to be powered by video lessons. The Fretlight Video Player triggers the Fretlight guitar’s onboard-lighted learning system with interactive lessons and other music and video content. Every Fretlight guitar now ships with a selection of free beginner, intermediate and advanced video lessons specifically designed for the Fretlight Video Player.

With the Fretlight Video Player, guitar players will now get their very own teacher at their disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whatever the teacher plays on his guitar in the video instantly appears in real-time on the student’s Fretlight guitar. Optek’s patented Intellitempo™ technology allows the video instruction to be slowed down by the user without changing the pitch of the audio tracks.

“Most people today are visual learners,” said Rusty Shaffer, President & CEO of Optek. “There are thousands of guitar videos on YouTube and other web sites, not to mention video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band that people are trying to mimic. However, these videos and the toy instruments that come with the video games, do little to accelerate the learning process because finger placement is the biggest hurdle that individuals face when learning to play guitar. The Fretlight Video Player solves this problem because the teacher on the screen is literally triggering the guitar in your hands. It’s almost as if the teacher is reaching through the computer, grabbing your fingers and placing them in the right place. It’s truly a breakthrough for guitar education.”

Unlike Guitar Hero and Rockband, which utilizes plastic guitar-shaped toys, the Fretlight guitar is a real six-string wooden instrument that is played and sounds like any other electric or acoustic guitar. Optek sells a wide range of Fretlight guitar models at varying price points for beginner, intermediate and advanced level guitar players. With the ability to learn and create music at the individual’s pace, the Fretlight interactive guitar learning system represents a significant advancement in the guitar industry.

Optek sees the Fretlight Video Player technology as a tool that allows virtually anyone with a little desire to learn to play guitar. “Just as Guitar Hero and Rockband have inspired a generation of kids to pretend to play guitar, this technology represents a significant advancement for anyone wishing to learn to play a real guitar,” says Shaffer.

A 30-day free trial of the Fretlight Video Player for the PC, together with Optek’s Beginner 101 and Beginner 102 guitar courses and samples of intermediate and advanced guitar lessons, ships with every Fretlight guitar. After 30 days, the Fretlight Video Player can be purchased for $29.95 at www.fretlightstore.com. Optek’s entire library of Fretlight Ready™ interactive video lessons can also be found at www.fretlightstore.com. To download or for more information, visit http://fretlight.com/Software/fvp.html. The Fretlight Video Player for Mac will be released in early 2009.

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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

Guitar Teacher March 25, 2009 at 6:03 pm

hmmm, interesting concept, but i’m not sure whether its good in the long run, since you basically won’t be learning how to read tabs or music sheets because of the lights showing you.

violins March 27, 2009 at 10:39 am

what ever the occasion in any part of the world is, music is must. i love music and my favorite are violin and guitar.

cheapbassguitars April 10, 2009 at 6:10 am

I don’t quite like music relying too much on technology… I like music to be natural

Duta Business School April 13, 2009 at 10:04 am

Thanks, kiye good tenan

Duta Business School April 13, 2009 at 10:07 am

Hebat good

Kayla Tahzan April 13, 2009 at 10:09 am

Kulo pengen tenar

Mr.Jamorama April 23, 2009 at 1:21 pm

Hei… I read your information from begining to the end and I think that is interesting information. I think i will tell this information again to my friend and I hope this information will be usefull for them… oh yes I have similiar blog like you about Ultimate Guitar Tips and Guide and I hope you don’t mind to check my blog. I hope the article on my blog will be usefull for you… and we can share each other. thank you…
Mr. Jamorama

Raul October 18, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Interesting all the stuff that can be done with technology now.
.-= Raul´s last blog ..Beginning Guitar Lessons – How to Guide updated Sat Oct 17 2009 9:40 am CDT =-.

mr guitar player January 31, 2010 at 1:07 pm

This is a good catch. I never knew about this technology until I saw this article by accident. It lookds good. I shall have to tell my blog readers about it ;)

Guitar Lessons For Beginners June 22, 2010 at 4:29 pm

Hmmm… This is intresting. I think this might be a good idea at first? I’m not sure? I agree with “Guitar Teacher”. It’s very important to a least read music staves and chord diagrams to be able to play music. I’ll be watching to see where this goes. Intresting concept. :)

Alexa Stewart October 6, 2010 at 6:46 pm

the best video player that i use is none other than VLC Player, it is free and i think it is open source too::~

Laundry Sorter  October 20, 2010 at 9:51 pm

there are so many hardware and software video players on the market these days, sometimes it is hard to select,*~

learn to play guitar fast March 23, 2011 at 6:35 pm

I’m contemplating of getting an electric guitar but i don’t understand the size with fractions. Can anyone clarify guitar sizes to me?

eric lewis, violin master pro June 3, 2011 at 3:01 pm

It is a nice blog. Helpful for learning the play guitar.

The Guitar Videos July 31, 2011 at 11:28 am

Learning guitar from videos was the thing that helped the most to my guitar playing

SystemB Net September 6, 2011 at 5:03 pm

You are great. I wanna learn too, but just never found the time to do it

SystemB Net September 8, 2011 at 3:50 pm

so informative very helpful learn violin in future

violin master pro September 13, 2011 at 4:06 pm

Me, dreams of playing the piano too, but now no time to learn piano

Learn How To Play Guitar Lessons October 12, 2011 at 5:21 pm

i think learning through different forms of interactive multimedia is always important and could actually bridge the gap when it comes to one on one learning. instead of physical tutoring you could learn in your own time and at your own speed so i think that s the benefit of working with videos, pdfs and other types of media.

Rap Maker October 20, 2011 at 3:35 pm

This article is about making music beats.You can make your own music beats.Just keep here . Thank you very much

rick December 16, 2011 at 2:11 am

music is music whether it comes from a real intrument or a video game. african drums to tweeting birds. music is in the minds ear

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