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GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

kickstarter.com

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Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#81

Post by fferen »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #58
gtani wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for There aren't other "real" instruments that can be mass produced like this in a few factories in China and Indonesia.

An oddity of guitar is the way a cheap guitar affects one's ability to learn. In most any endeavor, it's true that working on your skills is much more important than upgrading your equipment: practice is the way to improve, you can't buy your way into being better. But this is significantly less true at the bottom end of the guitar spectrum. Cheap guitars really are worse -- not just in the quality of their sound or…

I've only played acoustic and I'm still a beginner, but I believe I've encountered this with my (cheap) guitar - after trying a friend's higher-grade guitar I was shocked at how much easier it was to play. I've found that a capo mitigates most of the pain, as well as making it sound less "muddy", if that makes sense. Also, now I have giant finger callouses from pressing down so hard. :)

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#82

Post by nkassis »

chaostheory wrote: post #73
smountcastle wrote: post #4

This seems like an interesting concept and the LEDs should make it easier to see which strings need to be played. I'm curious how it compares to the Rocksmith video game which is played with a real guitar (which I haven't tried). There is considerably more risk with this project than many other Kickstarter projects as the lowest tier is $350 -- if the project fails and the GTar is never made that's quite a bit more m…

I own Rocksmith and I can say it's definitely good. The game started me playing real songs right away. The difference is that it limits what you play as well as the speed. As you progress, you get to play more and more of the song. There are some really fun mini-games as well. The game with guitar USB adapter runs for about $70, while I got my electric guitar for around $100. Of course, you need an Xbox 360 or PS3 an…

I'll just add my agreement to Rocksmith. I've found it to be a lot of fun aside from the learning aspect. It's a fun game albeit with a quirky interface.

The fact that it lets you plug in your real guitar is definitively nice. It handles bends, chords, slides etc... is super nice (not sure that the gTar supports these from the video).

I will say the tech isn't perfect it sometimes will let you get away with things it shouldn't but you can be your own police too.

If you already own a guitar it's a cheap investment I feel. If you don't I really don't but want to learn. I believe you'll be better served with this than gTar. You'll have a real guitar at a minimum. I can forsee a upgraded gTar with a 3/4 plug etc... I'd wait and see. Plus the iPhone requirement makes it's it non workable for many people.

(I don't think this should discourage the gTar folks, I'm sure they will have enough early adopters to improve the concept.)

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#83

Post by anthonyb »

dhugiaskmak wrote: post #54
njharman wrote: post #18

Neat. But hyperbole makes me an anti-customer. "Anybody (with an iPhone)" is a far smaller set than "Anybody". Also some peoples fingers are just too short which nothing can help and/or they lack musical "sense" (hearing, rhythm, whatever it is that makes me suck at anything musical) which I doubt this setup helps.

It's definitely possible to learn to be "musical" if you're willing to put in the effort. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/15/guitar-zer...

Also reminds me of Derek Sivers' classic on learning to sing:

http://sivers.org/15-years

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#84

Post by user23409 »

user23409 wrote: post #79

I really dig the idea, and probly like many people here came up with it independently years ago (though using a smart phone as the brain never occurred to me). But it kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth and heres why: A decent sounding fender acoustic or electric will only cost you about $250 brand new. And then you have a real guitar, that will get better and more valuable with age. The GTar is a hunk of plastic…

Whoever down-voted my lengthy, thought-out comment without explanation can thank him/herself for contributing to the discussion.

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#85

Post by drblast »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #58
gtani wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for There aren't other "real" instruments that can be mass produced like this in a few factories in China and Indonesia.

An oddity of guitar is the way a cheap guitar affects one's ability to learn. In most any endeavor, it's true that working on your skills is much more important than upgrading your equipment: practice is the way to improve, you can't buy your way into being better. But this is significantly less true at the bottom end of the guitar spectrum. Cheap guitars really are worse -- not just in the quality of their sound or…

This might have been true about five or ten years ago, but CNC machines have really revolutionized the cheap guitar industry. The cheapest Squire strats today are on par with what you would have paid over $600 for ten years ago.

I've owned a lot of cheap guitars, starting with a plywood no-name electric, and I wish the stuff that's available today had been there 25 years ago.

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#86

Post by dmayle »

kvnn wrote: post #13

Also see: http://chordbuddy.com/ . If I were to use one, I'd use Chord Buddy because there is an extremely objective learning process: take one chord-helper out at a time until you need none. Having a source for songs to learn might be cool for some people, but the drawback of having to learn by site rather than touch makes the gTar something I'm not interested in. Awesome project, though. Godspeed.

Given the audience, I'm surprised that this is the first mention of the Chord Buddy. I first saw it on Shark Tank (it's a helper on top of a real guitar that has you playing immediately, and removing the 'training wheels' one guitar string at a time).

I'd much rather something like this, which helps you learn how to play a real guitar...

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#88

Post by oblique63 »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #45
rauljara wrote: post #7

As a guitarist, I don't think this is a useless tool for people learning how to play, but "the first guitar that anybody can play" is a ridiculous title. Anyone with two working hands and no cognitive disabilities can learn how to play a guitar already. It takes effort, but if you keep at it, learning how to play is inevitable. What they are promising with the title is that this device will take all the effort out of…

But, this is exactly what learning programming is like. And, from what I've read, learning code and learning music is cognitively similar from a didactic standpoint. Programming tutorials force you to physically type examples in verbatim to get a specified result. The result is a compilable program. Put your hands in the right place on a GTar, and at the end you're that much closer to learning a song. This device see…

I agree, music and programming really aren't that different. Just for fun, consider this analogy:

Staff => C++

Tabs => Python

gTar => codeacademy

Staff, like C++, can be quite flexible/expressive, but is loaded with historical baggage and redundant nonsense, and is not easily portable (it was clearly designed with piano in mind). And it has been the defacto standard for a long time (ok, this is a bit might be slightly less analogous).

Tabs, like python, are clear, practical, concise and to-the-point, but lack some information and rigidity (dynamic typing), and need certain requirements in order to be useful (a python VM / fretted instrument)

meanwhile, the gTar looks to be more of a learning environment like codeacademy: it guides you through step-by-step and lets you pick up the basic idea of what it's like to play/program, while still giving you a slight sense of freedom. But of course, it is still just a specialized learning environment, and not a 'real' guitar/programming-environment.

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#89

Post by poissonpie »

polemic wrote: post #50
ChuckMcM wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe you are under estimating the 'early reward' effect. For those who don't know it, the theory behind early reward is that you create a teaching system which rewards early and often and gradually ramps and you can get more people taught. The thought is that lowering the threshold to success gets you more participants. Its used a lot in game play to draw you in. That being said, when Guitar Hero came out for th…

I think it's fair to say that one reason guitar is so popular is because of the early reward effect. For this sort of price a beginner can go buy a pretty decent electric guitar and amplifier with some built in effects. Give them an hour or two and they'll be belting out a recognizable Teen Spirit in a few hours. Seriously. Meanwhile: > "...detect exactly what you're playing in real-time and relay each note to your i…

I think it's also because guitars are relative cheap and portable. That and tablature - which basically takes away 1 pain point of learning an instrument - that of having to learn to read music at the same time as learning the physical skill.

Anyway, good luck to them.

Re: GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

#90

Post by jeffbcross »

dmayle wrote: post #86
kvnn wrote: post #13

Also see: http://chordbuddy.com/ . If I were to use one, I'd use Chord Buddy because there is an extremely objective learning process: take one chord-helper out at a time until you need none. Having a source for songs to learn might be cool for some people, but the drawback of having to learn by site rather than touch makes the gTar something I'm not interested in. Awesome project, though. Godspeed.

Given the audience, I'm surprised that this is the first mention of the Chord Buddy. I first saw it on Shark Tank (it's a helper on top of a real guitar that has you playing immediately, and removing the 'training wheels' one guitar string at a time). I'd much rather something like this, which helps you learn how to play a real guitar...

If it's any consolation, Chord Buddy was my first thought :).
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