8 ms·

GTar: The First Guitar That Anybody Can Play

192 points by yurisagalov 14y ago

JackWebbHeller 14y ago
As cool as this looks - and don't get me wrong, it looks like great fun - what happens when the iPhone 5 is too big to fit in the guitar dock?
- christiangenco 14y ago
  Announcing GTar S with support for the iPhone 5
- bergerj 14y ago
  Looking at the 2nd pic on the kickstarter page, it looks like the iPhone dock is modular.
zoidb 14y ago
I feel like this could be a great thing but the way it's presented doesn't convince me that it is. Is the gtar an instrument for making music or is it something to help you learn to play a real guitar. If it's the latter then how does it compare with other learning methods, what are the advantages etc. If it's the former then it would be nice to hear how it sounds and what it can do. Other than the last few seconds of the video I have no idea about what the thing sounds like.
smountcastle 14y ago
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 money to lose than a ~$20 video game.
- Afal 14y ago
  The money isn't taken out of your account until the project is successfully funded so even if you contribute $350 that $350 doesn't get taken out if the project fails to reach its goal (at least this is what happens with other kickstarter projects)
  - smountcastle 14y ago
    Yes, but even after funding the project could still fail and at that point Kickstarter won't refund your money.
- nknight 14y ago
  While more money is at stake, I'd say the risk is actually substantially lower unless they're lying about everything (I have no reason to believe they are). These guys aren't totally green, they have multiple working prototypes/pilots, the software is done, manufacturing is ready. This isn't really much different from any other pre-order. They're saying "The product is tested and ready, give us money to buy a bunch of parts and put them together."
- chaostheory 14y ago
  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 and that runs from $99 - $299.
  - nkassis 14y ago
    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.)
pfraze 14y ago
I'm 50% excited by the idea of an assistive guitar. And I'm 50% excited by having LEDs all over my guitar neck.
- steve-howard 14y ago
  I'm sure it could be done in a regular guitar, though you'd destroy the tone.
  - FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
    You can get natty little LED kits that replace the fret markers, but I've not seen anything more than that.
  - mckilljoy 14y ago
    You can get one of those LED kit to put on your guitar, which would work if you don't want any of the other functionality.
    - YmMot 14y ago
      Not only that, but the idea of a guitar that "teaches" you with lights in the neck has been done before (see fretlight guitars, etc). The only new thing here is the iphone.
rauljara 14y ago
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 learning, so that even those who don't want to put any effort in can learn how to play. But it will still take effort to learn. Lots. It's not just having to learn where to put your fingers. It's learning how to make your fingers move the way they should. It's learning to keep going even though your fingers just refuse to do what you tell them to do when you first start out. It's also learning rhythm, and musicality, and a whole host of things. I'm sure this tool would make it somewhat easier to learn how to play. But you'd still have to actually learn how to play before you could play.
- powrtoch 14y ago
  This was my first reaction, then I realized that for people who are trying to teach themselves guitar, this would be way easier than learning to read tablature, and even easier than watching youtube videos (since the mirror effect can be tricky at first). On the other hand, you risk becoming a guitarist who struggles to read tablature or learn by watching other guitarists, so the trade off is arguably high. At the very least, one should learn these things after getting off the ground with gTar. Of course, you're right that there's more to guitar than putting your fingers in the right place, but at the very least I think we can say that for learning individual songs, this would be a big improvement on tabs.
  - chrisguitarguy 14y ago
    For learning individual songs, learning to read real music would be an improvement over tabs. The problem with arguing that the GTar is easy for learning songs (and it is) is how much information is lost. Sheet music contains a ridiculous amount of information. Tablature does not. Lights on a wooden stick contain even less. At what point are you doing a disservice to the aspiring guitarist by taking away information?
powrtoch 14y ago
A few issues: First, if you don't tune it (the write up strongly suggests that tuning is optional), the strings will still make a sound, and that sound will be awful. I think the optional-tuning should be kept on the down-low, since taking advantage of it is sort of a bad idea. Second, I don't think muting wrong notes is actually helpful, since you lose auditory feedback. Knowing whether the note you just hit was too high or too low is a valuable thing for a guitarist to be able to hear instantly. Lastly, does it do string bends? Video isn't working for me and it's not mentioned in the write up. If not, somewhat serious limitation.
jdalgetty 14y ago
I think they should relocate where the iphone goes.
- bergerj 14y ago
  To where?
  - jdalgetty 14y ago
    It just looks like it should be at the top rather than the bottom. With this setup you always have to look over your hand to see the iphone screen.
    - nknight 14y ago
      But why would you be looking at the iPhone screen other than when interacting with it using said hand?
  - kirillzubovsky 14y ago
    Might not look cool, but if the iPhone dock was on the top part of the body (on the thin surface, rather than on the body surface), then you would be able to look at the iPhone as you're playing. Currently, you can either look at the strings or on the iPhone, where you almost have to look backwards to look at the iPhone. As a beginner guitar player, learning would be easier if I could see the tabs and my strings at the same time. my 2c.
kvnn 14y ago
Also see: http://chordbuddy.com/ 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.
- dmayle 14y ago
  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...
  - jeffbcross 14y ago
    If it's any consolation, Chord Buddy was my first thought :).
51Cards 14y ago
The thing that gets me about a lot of these products being built around the iPhone, iPod, etc... is what happens if the next generation changes the physical form factor? It may mean getting a new iPhone also means having to replace 10 other gadgets you have come to enjoy. Edit: looking closer this one does seem to have a module the phone sits in so it may be future upgradable however... you still require the upgrade, and it seems the module isn't much wider than the iPhone4... not much room to adapt if the phone gets bigger.
- nknight 14y ago
  At least on the prototypes they're showing, that whole panel appears to easily unscrew. I could see it possibly being practical to replace with a more accommodating piece for a few tens of dollars.
  - ShirtlessRod 14y ago
    Seems like a more extensible/future-proof approach would be to have some sort of built-in storage that was accessible via USB. I'm not sure precisely what part of the iPhone is required to make this work, but it seems far easier to not tie it so directly (i.e., the physical enclosure). Plus then you have the benefit of not limiting the product to only those people who have an iPhone. :)
    - nknight 14y ago
      It seems like they're using the iPhone for pretty much all intelligence, which makes sense. Custom embedded systems are non-trivial to design, manufacture, and bootstrap software for (I've been involved in some capacity with several). You'd save significant effort and trivially enable many more features by relying on something as powerful and mature as an iPhone.
- idanb 14y ago
  We literally got buried by all of the outreach and attention due to layering the Disrupt / Kickstarter launch, so sorry about the crazy delay... The dock is removable, you can pop it out using a flat head screw driver pretty quickly. There's a cavity in the body and we're actually making a small change to the design of how the electronics are integrated into the dock itself instead of the underlying assembly so that if the 30 pin changes we can adapt to it. Another benefit is that through a generic expansion port we could also support other phones / devices. The ability to dock the phone into the body was a really awesome experience, which is why we did it even with the risk of making people concerned with the form factor dependency. However, the gTar has a USB port so you can hook it up to any device that supports USB hosting. This is possible with most iOS devices with the aid of a camera adapter kit. We might eventually be able to produce such a special cable allowing you to hook it up directly to an iOS device. The gTar tech was not originally intended to be for iPhone, that was a bit of an unintentional pivot we made when we met with a particular iOS app company we had a lot of respect for and wanted to impress them. Long story short, they weren't impressed but our next investor meeting went much better than those before it.
njharman 14y ago
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.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  > "some peoples fingers are just too short" This is a classic excuse and complete BS. My hands are much smaller than average and I adapted. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) lost the tips of 2 of his fingers in an accident and still manages to play! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi
- rednum 14y ago
  > Also some peoples fingers are just too short I don't think it is true, I believe it's a matter of stretch - pros of my size who practiced for years can play more demanding stuff, I even met a girl who was way shorter than me, but could play bigger intervals on piano. > and/or they lack musical "sense" (hearing, rhythm, whatever it is that makes me suck at anything musical) which I doubt this setup helps. I don't think it's true either. Hearing, rhythm can be improved by exercises. Probably some people are born with better hearing/feel, but practice makes a huge difference. Professional musicians usually do ear training for years (ie most schools incorporate this kind of class); you can also use some software for that - I'm pretty sure I wasn't born with any sort of talent/sense, but did lots and lots of training and got to reasonable level where I can improvise and play by ear. Many musicians that didn't have formal training claim that they listened to radio and just tried to play what was there - this is also some sort of ear training, though it is rather painful, I think. Some ear training software I used are GNU Solfege (free, works with linux) and EarMaster (paid, windows).
- dhugiaskmak 14y ago
  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-zero-gary-marcus/ http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/15/guitar-zer...
bradleyland 14y ago
This is relevant for me because I just started trying to teach myself to play guitar at the beginning of 2012. For me, the hardest part was definitely not figuring out where to put my fingers, but putting them there without touching other strings. Even if your finger is just a little bit too close to another string, it can push a note flat or sharp, making the chord sound bad. Learning the mechanics of finger placement is more difficult than learning the basic locations. The other difficult thing is developing the muscle memory to move quickly between chords. At this point, I can play simple passages from songs, but complicated chord movements are what's most difficult, not figuring out what finger placement is required. This means sitting down and playing the same passage over, and over, and over, and over... You get the idea. Having played instruments all through school, this isn't a surprise to me, but for a lot of folks it is. Playing an instrument is a skill just like many sports, or even video games. Think of how much better you are on hour 30 of playing a FPS game than you were in hour 1. The gTar seems to solve the most rudimentary of the challenges, but I can't see where it gets you to "playing songs" (in a real way) much faster.
- aiscott 14y ago
  Yes, I agree, physical dexterity is a large task to surmount when learning. Possibly the largest, although this will vary from person to person. I can see some neat applications for GTar, like illuminating different modes for a key. As it is, gTar seems to me to be the hackertyper.net of guitars.
marquis 14y ago
For $500 you could have a great guitar teacher for almost a year's worth of lessons (maybe more in some areas). As someone who learnt music in the old-fashioned laborious way and know how fortunate I am to be able to sight-read on several instruments, I would hesitate to give this to a child rather than some actual lessons on a real instrument. For a teenager or adult, I'm sure it's great to give you that satisfied achievement feeling but maybe I just think too much of kids and their ability to stick through a few lessons. I've seen how in awe they are when they start to make music just 'happen' through their own musical ability.
dwynings 14y ago
Heh, nice little cameo of Drew Houston at the end of the video
naner 14y ago
Cool gadget, dumb sales pitch.
ahnunahki 14y ago
It's simple, if you cannot endure the frustration and sometimes physical discomfort that is required to learn the guitar then you never will. These toys that make you sound great from the start, never miss a note, and play like a rock start from day one will never truly prepare you for learning the guitar. It cannot replace hours of monotonous practice. Or replace playing bad notes which can force you to clean up your playing. Or replace the feeling of connecting with the strings and fretboard, which help define your personal sound. Lots of people would like to play the guitar but the truth is there are no shortcuts and many people don't have the patience for it. It takes dedication and no cool toy can bypass the very kind of effort it takes to learn the guitar or any instrument. That tenacity to learn despite the frustration is what separates those who'd like to learn to play and those who have. gTar is just a toy.
k-mcgrady 14y ago
I think the price could be a problem. I know lots of people who 'wanted to learn to play guitar', bought the equipment, and gave up within a month or two. They didn't really lose out as you can get a second hand guitar and amp for under $100. This is around $450 (not to mention the cost of the iPhone) - not really in the price range of someone who wants to learn guitar. You can get some nice 'real' guitars for that price.
- bergerj 14y ago
  I can see upper middle-class parents getting this for their kids who think they want to learn to play guitar.
elektronaut 14y ago
Reminds me a bit of the Eigenharp: http://www.eigenlabs.com/ http://www.eigenlabs.com/ I'm curious how playable and hackable it will be. The Kickstarter page says it's MIDI compliant, but MIDI is a terribly restrictive protocol not really suited to the range of expression you have on a guitar.
sidmitra 14y ago
Related: http://www.fretlight.com/ http://www.fretlight.com/
aero142 14y ago
I want to take this seriously, but I just can't stop laughing at the picture of the stereotypical college guy trying to impress girls. If this thing gets made, I want to hear from the first guy who gets laid with his gTar on easy mode.
FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
I'm well up for more people learning to play an instrument. I am a musician myself (though less proficient with a guitar than with my drum kit), and inspiring others to learn is a good thing. That being said, you also want to encourage people to play and write your own music. If all this does is teach you how to play your favourite songs (by other artists), that is all you'll learn. I notice it has a 'free-play' mode, where it turns into what looks like a Kaoss pad. This is also good, but I'd hope it'd have some sort of learning mode where you're taught chords, and basic chord progressions, and barre chords. I'd see more value in that than the Guitar Hero, 'mash out epic rock and roll guitar solos' style of game it shows at the start. Edit: I suppose the form of this will make parents a lot happier than they would be if they bought their kid a Strat and a 300W guitar amp.
ThomPete 14y ago
The second anybody can play it it looses it's score factor. Playing the guitar is "valuable" because not everyone can do it.
Matt_Cutts 14y ago
The Fretlight guitar already does this: http://www.fretlight.com/ http://www.fretlight.com/ Last time I checked, Fretlight didn't have an open API that anyone can use, but reverse engineering the protocol and providing open tools would cost way less than $100K.
- comex 14y ago
  Ditto Rock Band "Pro" guitar controllers, including one that is also a "real" electric guitar and can be used as such. Playing Rock Band with one probably comes out to about the same as this, but with more functionality (though less portability).
shreyas-satish 14y ago
Paused the video when it showed the iPhone being docked into the guitar and a certain interesting use cases came to mind. Imagine having beats as you play your guitar along, or maybe a strumming pattern to pick a lead on or to be even more ambitious, you could even think of sampling music live, a la Zoë Keating. From a beginner's perspective, I could see some immediate wins, a built-in metronome, an auto-tuned guitar, an intimate yet digital "teacher" etc. These are things I'd definitely have loved when I started out learning. Its great, the barriers to entry into creative fields are being lowered. Its happening well with programming and this could really encourage people to get into music. Even if it does not churn out professional musicians, just the joy of playing your own music is worth it. PS: Been playing/learning on my humble acoustic guitar since 5 years.
madhadron 14y ago
This is probably a good tool for a few aspects of getting someone started on the guitar, but honestly I think it's the minority. Hitting the right string while holding down the right fret isn't that hard. The problem is doing it in such a way that you can raise your speed or start hitting multiple strings at once with different fingers. And doing that isn't that hard, but it requires good instruction and a daily investment of a small amount of careful practice by the student (about 10 minutes to start, 20 or 30 minutes a day later -- once the technique clean, then you can begin the long ramp up to being the kind of monster that can play 8 hours a day). I taught someone the equivalent for violin in 6 months (and the initial learning curve on violin is absurdly long compared to guitar). That wasn't the limiting factor, though. The limiting factor was the music: timing, ear training, articulation, dynamics, how to shape a melody, how to read music, how to write music, a body of carefully studied examples to be able to work on...
gearoidoc 14y ago
Would have been a good idea to give more examples of how the guitar actually sounds. The vid at the end makes it sound like a $10 synth...
ssp 14y ago
How does it work more precisely? For example, can it correctly detect strumming and flageolets?
noonespecial 14y ago
Also: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewdeagon/neckfx-do-it-with-the-lights-on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewdeagon/neckfx-do-i... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/conversationmedia/tabber-led-guitar-light-sleeve http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/conversationmedia/tabber... http://www.musicalight.com/ http://www.musicalight.com/
nextstep 14y ago
This looks really cool. What if you strum too vigorously and scratch the iPhone's screen?
trotsky 14y ago
Is it true that kickstarter changed their slogan from "fund & follow creativity" to "accessories for your iphone"?
YmMot 14y ago
This is a cool idea, but I'm skeptical about it being worthwhile for the majority of people. There's absolutely no new ideas here, or anything that hasn't been done before. It's just a slightly novel combination of them. The "lights on the fretboard that show you what to play" thing has been done; and while it generally gets good reviews I don't think it's revolutionizing learning guitar or anything. Likewise plugging into an iPhone for effects, etc. The hardest part of starting guitar is simply building up your hand/finger muscles and muscle memory. Having lights on the fretboard makes it nominally easier to place your fingers, but reading tabs isn't hard to begin with (this is essentially just tabs on the fretboard anyway) and learning to look at a tab (or sheet music) on paper/a screen and translate that to finger positions is an important skill to develop as a musician. This will encourage beginners to look at the fretboard when they play, which is a bad habit to get into. I also have concerns about this feeling and responding like a real guitar. This doesn't operate like a normal guitar, so there will probably be a lot of little areas where it differs so someone who's played this may pick up a real guitar and find that they are making all sorts of horrible squeaking and finger noise, aren't used to the action of a real guitar, etc etc. If it was a choice between this and a real guitar for a beginner, I would go with the real guitar no question. If you happen to have ~300-500$ that you can just blow on cool gizmos, sure it'd be fun to play with. If you've never touched a guitar before, this might get you from 0 to "Smells like Teen Spirit" slightly faster than otherwise, but I doubt by much. I think the returns will diminish over time, and this might even ultimately hurt you. The main neat thing is using it as a midi controller/ to make cool sounds but there are plenty of other options in that area already.
- louis058 14y ago
  I agree. Leaning over and looking at the fretboard puts you in a really bad position.
stephenhandley 14y ago
psssst.... there's already "a guitar that anybody can play". it's called the guitar. also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23i8BzhxCy8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23i8BzhxCy8
LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago
Just another roudnabout way of supporting Chinese sweat shops. Enjoy the 'fruits' of your labor.
robomartin 14y ago
Neat idea for that initial feel-good phase. I can see this being an interesting toy to take on a camping trip or similar. Pass it around and people can have some fun. I get it. On the other hand, I echo some of the sentiments expressed by others who have experience actually playing guitar. I play classical guitar and have been teaching my kid the same. Once you get past what I call single-note-at-a-time pieces progress into more interesting music requires real work. On the guitar, just like the piano, fingering is of paramount importance. Without developing an understanding for this you'll twist your hand into a pretzel and simply will not be able to advance. Then there's proper right hand technique, which is different between and electric with a pick and classical or finger-style. The guitar has weird and difficult simultaneous left hand finger motion that one must drill and learn. I suppose they could include such drills in the app. My favorite source of pain for both left and right hand training is "Pumping Nylon" by Scott Tennant. Most who know the subject would probably agree. Reading written music is, in my opinion, very important and --I'll venture that far-- the only way to go. Tab is cool, but why go there if reading actual musical notation isn't that hard at all. As someone mentioned, there's a ton of information in a score. Scores written for guitar, particularly at the beginner level, include right and left hand fingering as well as all sorts of other notations. All of my sheet music has copious notes on pencil as I learn the pieces. A neck full of LEDs just can't take you very far at all. I'm sure I could be fun, but there's a real brick wall that'll make the fun stop pretty quickly. That said, if something like this inspires the player to move up and learn the right way then I am all for it. I might actually get one just because I'm a sucker for gadgets, but it will be just that: a fun gadget to bring out, show off and possibly take camping. I believe that because of this, they have a good chance of becoming the next million-dollar-plus Kickstarter project.
mparlane 14y ago
They need to tilt the iPhone holder more towards the user, being flat against the guitar face seems like a horrible viewing angle to me.
gtani 14y ago
I dunno, I wish them well, cause i used to drag my guitar to Dolores and Duboce parks just like him. But they don't get my $. This looks like it'll teach one critical skill, fretboard knowledge, and then... folks will try to play real guitars. I don't think playing guitar is that hard, but i was one of those kids that got signed up for 14 years of music lessons, band and orchestra, on at least 4 instruments, so it's hard for me to say what's hard. As analogy, if somebody learn to play keys on a cheap unweighted MIDI controller /digital piano(M-audio, yamaha, casio, one of those), and then tries to play acoustic piano, they have a devil of a time trying to play with feel. As another analogy, Yamaha used to make MIDI controllers that looked like soprano saxes, except you didn't have to develop an embouchure, you just blew into them any way and they played.
user23409 14y ago
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 that will end up in a landfill and be obsolete in 3 years. It's tied to the most recent IPhone. Isn't that a huge red flag for other people? Unless the connector is modular, this thing will be useless when the next IPhone comes out. People aren't going to want to hear you practice on it. Luckily your iphone can't get loud enough to annoy your neighbors, but the small speakers and digital sounds aren't going to be pleasing to your friends. --- That all being said, I think more people should learn to play music and really any attempt to simplify, or encourage the process is a net benefit to society. To me the GTar just doesn't like it would be as fun or rewarding as buying a real guitar.
- user23409 14y ago
  Whoever down-voted my lengthy, thought-out comment without explanation can thank him/herself for contributing to the discussion.
danbmil99 14y ago
How about a video where we hear the actual result of playing the GTar, instead of some terrible clip-audio crapola?
klodolph 14y ago
From the pictures, it looks like each fret is separated into six pieces, one for each string. Presumably, this is how it tells which note you are playing. Pressing a string to the fret completes an electrical circuit. At first I thought the bridge had optical pickups based on the way it looked, but according to the description, the thing has no pickups. There are some serious flaws with this design. 1) It looks like you can't bend strings, because the frets are divided into six segments. The string would get caught between the segments. If there's some kind of non-conductive bridge between the segments (unlikely), then it will probably wear differently. If you can't do a whole-step bend, then there's an enormous volume of music you can't play. 2) It's going to sound like trash. Without pickups, it has to synthesize the sound. I've gotten usable sampled guitar tracks before, but I did that by recording samples specifically for the song and manually tweaking each note. 3) It's unnecessary. You could basically take a stock Stratocaster, add a hex pickup and a LED neck, and you're done. The LED neck isn't easy, and of course it won't sound like a normal neck, but whatever. The guitar will still be a normal usable guitar. If you want to divide guitar players into rhythm/lead and acoustic/electric, it becomes clear that this is a usable instrument in none of these four categories. Electric rhythm guitar strongly relies on palm-muting technique which you won't be able to learn without regular pickups. For electric lead, you need the whole-note bend and left-hand vibrato technique. The bend is impossible and the vibrato can't be taught without the pickup. Acoustic players want to be able to play and hang out with friends but the synth is just going to get in the way. You see the picture of that guy at the park with three friends (of course the two sitting next to him are girls)? He would probably be happier with an acoustic. Furthermore, if you learn on this guitar you'll be fairly hopeless on an acoustic since the strings are heavier (if you play electric and switch to acoustic, your left hand will give out fairly quick). Incidentally, I paid about $330 for my first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, plus amp. It's more like $400 with inflation since 2003. Never had lessons but it sure ain't hard to figure out "Smoke on the Water" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
LukaD 14y ago
"All you have to do is dock your iPhone..." Stopped reading there.
babarock 14y ago
I really don't like it at all! Don't get me wrong, as an engineer I think it's a very exciting project. But as a guitarist, who spends a lot of time teaching others how to play, I could not think of a more misguided idea of what the instrument is about. gTar works on the assumption that playing the guitar consists of putting your finger on the right fret at the right time. Imho this is as wrong as assuming that programming consists of pressing the correct keys in the right order. (million dollar idea: Teach you programming by putting LEDs on your keyboard! $599 only). There's a common misconception that learning to play the guitar consists of learning where to press; after all, isn't this what tablatures are all about? I tend to put much more emphasis and practice on right-hand techniques. Other comments in this thread speak of 'early reward' or fast gratification; stubbornly trying to bend your left hand in unintuitive positions while your right hand cannot cope is NOT the answer. Side-note for beginners wanting to learn the guitar: Learn a few chords you don't need a lot of them, then practice right-handed techniques (you can find plenty of examples off Youtube) religiously. Early mastery of this would rapidly give you comfort around the body. You can then get your gTar, read your tabs, or do things correctly by watching videos of your favorite artists and learn slowly to reproduce their songs. Again, the engineer in me thinks this is an amazing project. However I would never recommend it as a guitar teaching tool.

192 points by yurisagalov 14y ago

As cool as this looks - and don't get me wrong, it looks like great fun - what happens when the iPhone 5 is too big to fit in the guitar dock?

christiangenco 14y ago
Announcing GTar S with support for the iPhone 5
bergerj 14y ago
Looking at the 2nd pic on the kickstarter page, it looks like the iPhone dock is modular.

zoidb 14y ago

I feel like this could be a great thing but the way it's presented doesn't convince me that it is. Is the gtar an instrument for making music or is it something to help you learn to play a real guitar. If it's the latter then how does it compare with other learning methods, what are the advantages etc. If it's the former then it would be nice to hear how it sounds and what it can do. Other than the last few seconds of the video I have no idea about what the thing sounds like.

smountcastle 14y ago

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 money to lose than a ~$20 video game.

Afal 14y ago
The money isn't taken out of your account until the project is successfully funded so even if you contribute $350 that $350 doesn't get taken out if the project fails to reach its goal (at least this is what happens with other kickstarter projects)
- smountcastle 14y ago
  Yes, but even after funding the project could still fail and at that point Kickstarter won't refund your money.
nknight 14y ago
While more money is at stake, I'd say the risk is actually substantially lower unless they're lying about everything (I have no reason to believe they are). These guys aren't totally green, they have multiple working prototypes/pilots, the software is done, manufacturing is ready. This isn't really much different from any other pre-order. They're saying "The product is tested and ready, give us money to buy a bunch of parts and put them together."
chaostheory 14y ago
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 and that runs from $99 - $299.
- nkassis 14y ago
  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.)

pfraze 14y ago

I'm 50% excited by the idea of an assistive guitar. And I'm 50% excited by having LEDs all over my guitar neck.

steve-howard 14y ago
I'm sure it could be done in a regular guitar, though you'd destroy the tone.
- FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
  You can get natty little LED kits that replace the fret markers, but I've not seen anything more than that.
- mckilljoy 14y ago
  You can get one of those LED kit to put on your guitar, which would work if you don't want any of the other functionality.
  - YmMot 14y ago
    Not only that, but the idea of a guitar that "teaches" you with lights in the neck has been done before (see fretlight guitars, etc). The only new thing here is the iphone.

rauljara 14y ago

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 learning, so that even those who don't want to put any effort in can learn how to play. But it will still take effort to learn. Lots. It's not just having to learn where to put your fingers. It's learning how to make your fingers move the way they should. It's learning to keep going even though your fingers just refuse to do what you tell them to do when you first start out. It's also learning rhythm, and musicality, and a whole host of things. I'm sure this tool would make it somewhat easier to learn how to play. But you'd still have to actually learn how to play before you could play.

powrtoch 14y ago
This was my first reaction, then I realized that for people who are trying to teach themselves guitar, this would be way easier than learning to read tablature, and even easier than watching youtube videos (since the mirror effect can be tricky at first). On the other hand, you risk becoming a guitarist who struggles to read tablature or learn by watching other guitarists, so the trade off is arguably high. At the very least, one should learn these things after getting off the ground with gTar. Of course, you're right that there's more to guitar than putting your fingers in the right place, but at the very least I think we can say that for learning individual songs, this would be a big improvement on tabs.
- chrisguitarguy 14y ago
  For learning individual songs, learning to read real music would be an improvement over tabs. The problem with arguing that the GTar is easy for learning songs (and it is) is how much information is lost. Sheet music contains a ridiculous amount of information. Tablature does not. Lights on a wooden stick contain even less. At what point are you doing a disservice to the aspiring guitarist by taking away information?

powrtoch 14y ago

A few issues: First, if you don't tune it (the write up strongly suggests that tuning is optional), the strings will still make a sound, and that sound will be awful. I think the optional-tuning should be kept on the down-low, since taking advantage of it is sort of a bad idea. Second, I don't think muting wrong notes is actually helpful, since you lose auditory feedback. Knowing whether the note you just hit was too high or too low is a valuable thing for a guitarist to be able to hear instantly. Lastly, does it do string bends? Video isn't working for me and it's not mentioned in the write up. If not, somewhat serious limitation.

jdalgetty 14y ago

I think they should relocate where the iphone goes.

bergerj 14y ago
To where?
- jdalgetty 14y ago
  It just looks like it should be at the top rather than the bottom. With this setup you always have to look over your hand to see the iphone screen.
  - nknight 14y ago
    But why would you be looking at the iPhone screen other than when interacting with it using said hand?
- kirillzubovsky 14y ago
  Might not look cool, but if the iPhone dock was on the top part of the body (on the thin surface, rather than on the body surface), then you would be able to look at the iPhone as you're playing. Currently, you can either look at the strings or on the iPhone, where you almost have to look backwards to look at the iPhone. As a beginner guitar player, learning would be easier if I could see the tabs and my strings at the same time. my 2c.

kvnn 14y ago

Also see: http://chordbuddy.com/ 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.

dmayle 14y ago
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...
- jeffbcross 14y ago
  If it's any consolation, Chord Buddy was my first thought :).

51Cards 14y ago

The thing that gets me about a lot of these products being built around the iPhone, iPod, etc... is what happens if the next generation changes the physical form factor? It may mean getting a new iPhone also means having to replace 10 other gadgets you have come to enjoy. Edit: looking closer this one does seem to have a module the phone sits in so it may be future upgradable however... you still require the upgrade, and it seems the module isn't much wider than the iPhone4... not much room to adapt if the phone gets bigger.

nknight 14y ago
At least on the prototypes they're showing, that whole panel appears to easily unscrew. I could see it possibly being practical to replace with a more accommodating piece for a few tens of dollars.
- ShirtlessRod 14y ago
  Seems like a more extensible/future-proof approach would be to have some sort of built-in storage that was accessible via USB. I'm not sure precisely what part of the iPhone is required to make this work, but it seems far easier to not tie it so directly (i.e., the physical enclosure). Plus then you have the benefit of not limiting the product to only those people who have an iPhone. :)
  - nknight 14y ago
    It seems like they're using the iPhone for pretty much all intelligence, which makes sense. Custom embedded systems are non-trivial to design, manufacture, and bootstrap software for (I've been involved in some capacity with several). You'd save significant effort and trivially enable many more features by relying on something as powerful and mature as an iPhone.
idanb 14y ago
We literally got buried by all of the outreach and attention due to layering the Disrupt / Kickstarter launch, so sorry about the crazy delay... The dock is removable, you can pop it out using a flat head screw driver pretty quickly. There's a cavity in the body and we're actually making a small change to the design of how the electronics are integrated into the dock itself instead of the underlying assembly so that if the 30 pin changes we can adapt to it. Another benefit is that through a generic expansion port we could also support other phones / devices. The ability to dock the phone into the body was a really awesome experience, which is why we did it even with the risk of making people concerned with the form factor dependency. However, the gTar has a USB port so you can hook it up to any device that supports USB hosting. This is possible with most iOS devices with the aid of a camera adapter kit. We might eventually be able to produce such a special cable allowing you to hook it up directly to an iOS device. The gTar tech was not originally intended to be for iPhone, that was a bit of an unintentional pivot we made when we met with a particular iOS app company we had a lot of respect for and wanted to impress them. Long story short, they weren't impressed but our next investor meeting went much better than those before it.

njharman 14y ago

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.

k-mcgrady 14y ago
> "some peoples fingers are just too short" This is a classic excuse and complete BS. My hands are much smaller than average and I adapted. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) lost the tips of 2 of his fingers in an accident and still manages to play! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi
rednum 14y ago
> Also some peoples fingers are just too short I don't think it is true, I believe it's a matter of stretch - pros of my size who practiced for years can play more demanding stuff, I even met a girl who was way shorter than me, but could play bigger intervals on piano. > and/or they lack musical "sense" (hearing, rhythm, whatever it is that makes me suck at anything musical) which I doubt this setup helps. I don't think it's true either. Hearing, rhythm can be improved by exercises. Probably some people are born with better hearing/feel, but practice makes a huge difference. Professional musicians usually do ear training for years (ie most schools incorporate this kind of class); you can also use some software for that - I'm pretty sure I wasn't born with any sort of talent/sense, but did lots and lots of training and got to reasonable level where I can improvise and play by ear. Many musicians that didn't have formal training claim that they listened to radio and just tried to play what was there - this is also some sort of ear training, though it is rather painful, I think. Some ear training software I used are GNU Solfege (free, works with linux) and EarMaster (paid, windows).
dhugiaskmak 14y ago
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-zero-gary-marcus/ http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/15/guitar-zer...

bradleyland 14y ago

This is relevant for me because I just started trying to teach myself to play guitar at the beginning of 2012. For me, the hardest part was definitely not figuring out where to put my fingers, but putting them there without touching other strings. Even if your finger is just a little bit too close to another string, it can push a note flat or sharp, making the chord sound bad. Learning the mechanics of finger placement is more difficult than learning the basic locations. The other difficult thing is developing the muscle memory to move quickly between chords. At this point, I can play simple passages from songs, but complicated chord movements are what's most difficult, not figuring out what finger placement is required. This means sitting down and playing the same passage over, and over, and over, and over... You get the idea. Having played instruments all through school, this isn't a surprise to me, but for a lot of folks it is. Playing an instrument is a skill just like many sports, or even video games. Think of how much better you are on hour 30 of playing a FPS game than you were in hour 1. The gTar seems to solve the most rudimentary of the challenges, but I can't see where it gets you to "playing songs" (in a real way) much faster.

aiscott 14y ago
Yes, I agree, physical dexterity is a large task to surmount when learning. Possibly the largest, although this will vary from person to person. I can see some neat applications for GTar, like illuminating different modes for a key. As it is, gTar seems to me to be the hackertyper.net of guitars.

marquis 14y ago

For $500 you could have a great guitar teacher for almost a year's worth of lessons (maybe more in some areas). As someone who learnt music in the old-fashioned laborious way and know how fortunate I am to be able to sight-read on several instruments, I would hesitate to give this to a child rather than some actual lessons on a real instrument. For a teenager or adult, I'm sure it's great to give you that satisfied achievement feeling but maybe I just think too much of kids and their ability to stick through a few lessons. I've seen how in awe they are when they start to make music just 'happen' through their own musical ability.

dwynings 14y ago

Heh, nice little cameo of Drew Houston at the end of the video

naner 14y ago

Cool gadget, dumb sales pitch.

ahnunahki 14y ago

It's simple, if you cannot endure the frustration and sometimes physical discomfort that is required to learn the guitar then you never will. These toys that make you sound great from the start, never miss a note, and play like a rock start from day one will never truly prepare you for learning the guitar. It cannot replace hours of monotonous practice. Or replace playing bad notes which can force you to clean up your playing. Or replace the feeling of connecting with the strings and fretboard, which help define your personal sound. Lots of people would like to play the guitar but the truth is there are no shortcuts and many people don't have the patience for it. It takes dedication and no cool toy can bypass the very kind of effort it takes to learn the guitar or any instrument. That tenacity to learn despite the frustration is what separates those who'd like to learn to play and those who have. gTar is just a toy.

k-mcgrady 14y ago

I think the price could be a problem. I know lots of people who 'wanted to learn to play guitar', bought the equipment, and gave up within a month or two. They didn't really lose out as you can get a second hand guitar and amp for under $100. This is around $450 (not to mention the cost of the iPhone) - not really in the price range of someone who wants to learn guitar. You can get some nice 'real' guitars for that price.

bergerj 14y ago
I can see upper middle-class parents getting this for their kids who think they want to learn to play guitar.

elektronaut 14y ago

Reminds me a bit of the Eigenharp: http://www.eigenlabs.com/ http://www.eigenlabs.com/ I'm curious how playable and hackable it will be. The Kickstarter page says it's MIDI compliant, but MIDI is a terribly restrictive protocol not really suited to the range of expression you have on a guitar.

sidmitra 14y ago

Related: http://www.fretlight.com/ http://www.fretlight.com/

aero142 14y ago

I want to take this seriously, but I just can't stop laughing at the picture of the stereotypical college guy trying to impress girls. If this thing gets made, I want to hear from the first guy who gets laid with his gTar on easy mode.

FuzzyDunlop 14y ago

I'm well up for more people learning to play an instrument. I am a musician myself (though less proficient with a guitar than with my drum kit), and inspiring others to learn is a good thing. That being said, you also want to encourage people to play and write your own music. If all this does is teach you how to play your favourite songs (by other artists), that is all you'll learn. I notice it has a 'free-play' mode, where it turns into what looks like a Kaoss pad. This is also good, but I'd hope it'd have some sort of learning mode where you're taught chords, and basic chord progressions, and barre chords. I'd see more value in that than the Guitar Hero, 'mash out epic rock and roll guitar solos' style of game it shows at the start. Edit: I suppose the form of this will make parents a lot happier than they would be if they bought their kid a Strat and a 300W guitar amp.

ThomPete 14y ago

The second anybody can play it it looses it's score factor. Playing the guitar is "valuable" because not everyone can do it.

Matt_Cutts 14y ago

The Fretlight guitar already does this: http://www.fretlight.com/ http://www.fretlight.com/ Last time I checked, Fretlight didn't have an open API that anyone can use, but reverse engineering the protocol and providing open tools would cost way less than $100K.

comex 14y ago
Ditto Rock Band "Pro" guitar controllers, including one that is also a "real" electric guitar and can be used as such. Playing Rock Band with one probably comes out to about the same as this, but with more functionality (though less portability).

shreyas-satish 14y ago

Paused the video when it showed the iPhone being docked into the guitar and a certain interesting use cases came to mind. Imagine having beats as you play your guitar along, or maybe a strumming pattern to pick a lead on or to be even more ambitious, you could even think of sampling music live, a la Zoë Keating. From a beginner's perspective, I could see some immediate wins, a built-in metronome, an auto-tuned guitar, an intimate yet digital "teacher" etc. These are things I'd definitely have loved when I started out learning. Its great, the barriers to entry into creative fields are being lowered. Its happening well with programming and this could really encourage people to get into music. Even if it does not churn out professional musicians, just the joy of playing your own music is worth it. PS: Been playing/learning on my humble acoustic guitar since 5 years.

madhadron 14y ago

This is probably a good tool for a few aspects of getting someone started on the guitar, but honestly I think it's the minority. Hitting the right string while holding down the right fret isn't that hard. The problem is doing it in such a way that you can raise your speed or start hitting multiple strings at once with different fingers. And doing that isn't that hard, but it requires good instruction and a daily investment of a small amount of careful practice by the student (about 10 minutes to start, 20 or 30 minutes a day later -- once the technique clean, then you can begin the long ramp up to being the kind of monster that can play 8 hours a day). I taught someone the equivalent for violin in 6 months (and the initial learning curve on violin is absurdly long compared to guitar). That wasn't the limiting factor, though. The limiting factor was the music: timing, ear training, articulation, dynamics, how to shape a melody, how to read music, how to write music, a body of carefully studied examples to be able to work on...

gearoidoc 14y ago

Would have been a good idea to give more examples of how the guitar actually sounds. The vid at the end makes it sound like a $10 synth...

ssp 14y ago

How does it work more precisely? For example, can it correctly detect strumming and flageolets?

noonespecial 14y ago

Also: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewdeagon/neckfx-do-it-with-the-lights-on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewdeagon/neckfx-do-i... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/conversationmedia/tabber-led-guitar-light-sleeve http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/conversationmedia/tabber... http://www.musicalight.com/ http://www.musicalight.com/

nextstep 14y ago

This looks really cool. What if you strum too vigorously and scratch the iPhone's screen?

trotsky 14y ago

Is it true that kickstarter changed their slogan from "fund & follow creativity" to "accessories for your iphone"?

YmMot 14y ago

This is a cool idea, but I'm skeptical about it being worthwhile for the majority of people. There's absolutely no new ideas here, or anything that hasn't been done before. It's just a slightly novel combination of them. The "lights on the fretboard that show you what to play" thing has been done; and while it generally gets good reviews I don't think it's revolutionizing learning guitar or anything. Likewise plugging into an iPhone for effects, etc. The hardest part of starting guitar is simply building up your hand/finger muscles and muscle memory. Having lights on the fretboard makes it nominally easier to place your fingers, but reading tabs isn't hard to begin with (this is essentially just tabs on the fretboard anyway) and learning to look at a tab (or sheet music) on paper/a screen and translate that to finger positions is an important skill to develop as a musician. This will encourage beginners to look at the fretboard when they play, which is a bad habit to get into. I also have concerns about this feeling and responding like a real guitar. This doesn't operate like a normal guitar, so there will probably be a lot of little areas where it differs so someone who's played this may pick up a real guitar and find that they are making all sorts of horrible squeaking and finger noise, aren't used to the action of a real guitar, etc etc. If it was a choice between this and a real guitar for a beginner, I would go with the real guitar no question. If you happen to have ~300-500$ that you can just blow on cool gizmos, sure it'd be fun to play with. If you've never touched a guitar before, this might get you from 0 to "Smells like Teen Spirit" slightly faster than otherwise, but I doubt by much. I think the returns will diminish over time, and this might even ultimately hurt you. The main neat thing is using it as a midi controller/ to make cool sounds but there are plenty of other options in that area already.

louis058 14y ago
I agree. Leaning over and looking at the fretboard puts you in a really bad position.

stephenhandley 14y ago

psssst.... there's already "a guitar that anybody can play". it's called the guitar. also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23i8BzhxCy8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23i8BzhxCy8

LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago

Just another roudnabout way of supporting Chinese sweat shops. Enjoy the 'fruits' of your labor.

robomartin 14y ago

Neat idea for that initial feel-good phase. I can see this being an interesting toy to take on a camping trip or similar. Pass it around and people can have some fun. I get it. On the other hand, I echo some of the sentiments expressed by others who have experience actually playing guitar. I play classical guitar and have been teaching my kid the same. Once you get past what I call single-note-at-a-time pieces progress into more interesting music requires real work. On the guitar, just like the piano, fingering is of paramount importance. Without developing an understanding for this you'll twist your hand into a pretzel and simply will not be able to advance. Then there's proper right hand technique, which is different between and electric with a pick and classical or finger-style. The guitar has weird and difficult simultaneous left hand finger motion that one must drill and learn. I suppose they could include such drills in the app. My favorite source of pain for both left and right hand training is "Pumping Nylon" by Scott Tennant. Most who know the subject would probably agree. Reading written music is, in my opinion, very important and --I'll venture that far-- the only way to go. Tab is cool, but why go there if reading actual musical notation isn't that hard at all. As someone mentioned, there's a ton of information in a score. Scores written for guitar, particularly at the beginner level, include right and left hand fingering as well as all sorts of other notations. All of my sheet music has copious notes on pencil as I learn the pieces. A neck full of LEDs just can't take you very far at all. I'm sure I could be fun, but there's a real brick wall that'll make the fun stop pretty quickly. That said, if something like this inspires the player to move up and learn the right way then I am all for it. I might actually get one just because I'm a sucker for gadgets, but it will be just that: a fun gadget to bring out, show off and possibly take camping. I believe that because of this, they have a good chance of becoming the next million-dollar-plus Kickstarter project.

mparlane 14y ago

They need to tilt the iPhone holder more towards the user, being flat against the guitar face seems like a horrible viewing angle to me.

gtani 14y ago

I dunno, I wish them well, cause i used to drag my guitar to Dolores and Duboce parks just like him. But they don't get my $. This looks like it'll teach one critical skill, fretboard knowledge, and then... folks will try to play real guitars. I don't think playing guitar is that hard, but i was one of those kids that got signed up for 14 years of music lessons, band and orchestra, on at least 4 instruments, so it's hard for me to say what's hard. As analogy, if somebody learn to play keys on a cheap unweighted MIDI controller /digital piano(M-audio, yamaha, casio, one of those), and then tries to play acoustic piano, they have a devil of a time trying to play with feel. As another analogy, Yamaha used to make MIDI controllers that looked like soprano saxes, except you didn't have to develop an embouchure, you just blew into them any way and they played.

user23409 14y ago

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 that will end up in a landfill and be obsolete in 3 years. It's tied to the most recent IPhone. Isn't that a huge red flag for other people? Unless the connector is modular, this thing will be useless when the next IPhone comes out. People aren't going to want to hear you practice on it. Luckily your iphone can't get loud enough to annoy your neighbors, but the small speakers and digital sounds aren't going to be pleasing to your friends. --- That all being said, I think more people should learn to play music and really any attempt to simplify, or encourage the process is a net benefit to society. To me the GTar just doesn't like it would be as fun or rewarding as buying a real guitar.

user23409 14y ago
Whoever down-voted my lengthy, thought-out comment without explanation can thank him/herself for contributing to the discussion.

danbmil99 14y ago

How about a video where we hear the actual result of playing the GTar, instead of some terrible clip-audio crapola?

klodolph 14y ago

From the pictures, it looks like each fret is separated into six pieces, one for each string. Presumably, this is how it tells which note you are playing. Pressing a string to the fret completes an electrical circuit. At first I thought the bridge had optical pickups based on the way it looked, but according to the description, the thing has no pickups. There are some serious flaws with this design. 1) It looks like you can't bend strings, because the frets are divided into six segments. The string would get caught between the segments. If there's some kind of non-conductive bridge between the segments (unlikely), then it will probably wear differently. If you can't do a whole-step bend, then there's an enormous volume of music you can't play. 2) It's going to sound like trash. Without pickups, it has to synthesize the sound. I've gotten usable sampled guitar tracks before, but I did that by recording samples specifically for the song and manually tweaking each note. 3) It's unnecessary. You could basically take a stock Stratocaster, add a hex pickup and a LED neck, and you're done. The LED neck isn't easy, and of course it won't sound like a normal neck, but whatever. The guitar will still be a normal usable guitar. If you want to divide guitar players into rhythm/lead and acoustic/electric, it becomes clear that this is a usable instrument in none of these four categories. Electric rhythm guitar strongly relies on palm-muting technique which you won't be able to learn without regular pickups. For electric lead, you need the whole-note bend and left-hand vibrato technique. The bend is impossible and the vibrato can't be taught without the pickup. Acoustic players want to be able to play and hang out with friends but the synth is just going to get in the way. You see the picture of that guy at the park with three friends (of course the two sitting next to him are girls)? He would probably be happier with an acoustic. Furthermore, if you learn on this guitar you'll be fairly hopeless on an acoustic since the strings are heavier (if you play electric and switch to acoustic, your left hand will give out fairly quick). Incidentally, I paid about $330 for my first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster, plus amp. It's more like $400 with inflation since 2003. Never had lessons but it sure ain't hard to figure out "Smoke on the Water" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

LukaD 14y ago

"All you have to do is dock your iPhone..." Stopped reading there.

babarock 14y ago

I really don't like it at all! Don't get me wrong, as an engineer I think it's a very exciting project. But as a guitarist, who spends a lot of time teaching others how to play, I could not think of a more misguided idea of what the instrument is about. gTar works on the assumption that playing the guitar consists of putting your finger on the right fret at the right time. Imho this is as wrong as assuming that programming consists of pressing the correct keys in the right order. (million dollar idea: Teach you programming by putting LEDs on your keyboard! $599 only). There's a common misconception that learning to play the guitar consists of learning where to press; after all, isn't this what tablatures are all about? I tend to put much more emphasis and practice on right-hand techniques. Other comments in this thread speak of 'early reward' or fast gratification; stubbornly trying to bend your left hand in unintuitive positions while your right hand cannot cope is NOT the answer. Side-note for beginners wanting to learn the guitar: Learn a few chords you don't need a lot of them, then practice right-handed techniques (you can find plenty of examples off Youtube) religiously. Early mastery of this would rapidly give you comfort around the body. You can then get your gTar, read your tabs, or do things correctly by watching videos of your favorite artists and learn slowly to reproduce their songs. Again, the engineer in me thinks this is an amazing project. However I would never recommend it as a guitar teaching tool.