Even if you were born with perfect pitch, nimble fingers, and rock-hard calluses, getting good at guitar takes a long time. There’s no easy way to solidify scales and positions into your muscle memory, but FRETX significantly speeds up the process of learning fundamental patterns. This clever teaching tool attaches to your guitar neck, and uses colorful LEDs to mark where your fingers are supposed to go on the fretboard itself. Right now you can get one in the Boing Boing Store for $69.99.
The FRETX device fits any size guitar neck, no matter if you have a baseball-bat acoustic or a speedy electric guitar. Installation is easy — just line up the LEDs with your strings, and wrap the excess material around. Everything sticks on with semi-permanent adhesive strips, so you won’t have to worry about ruining your guitar’s finish. Once you’re all set up, you can start learning essential chords right away with their free mobile app.
In the FRETX app, budding guitarists will find a variety of useful resources, including chord diagrams and a tuner. Built-in song lessons make use of the device’s LED indicators to display chord voicings and melodies in real time. Since the app can listen to you play with your phone’s built-in mic, you get fully dynamic feedback to help you practice more effectively. It lets you know if you hit a wrong note immediately, and keeps track of your progress over time. Songs can be played at whatever speed feels most comfortable, and you can even loop specific phrases to get them down perfectly.
After you graduate from the beginner material, your teacher can program new songs and chord exercises. FRETX’s open platform makes sharing instructional content easy, and opens the doors for future 3rd-party app integration. If you want to start learning how to strum and shred as quickly as possible, you can grab a FRETX Smart Guitar Learning Device here for $69.99.
