the fretlight guitar
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Posted on Jun 30, 2007 01:33 pm
fortymile
Member Since: Jan 18, 2003
fretlight.com/
the new thing that i want. i need to become a capable player. this seems like perhaps the perfect tool for really learning the guitar. i've got no money, but i hope to get one this year. anyone ever play with one of these?
my other idea for learning the guitar is new; it occurred to me last night. my main problem has always been that i can't 'see' the fretboard like i can see a piano keyboard. this is because a guitar is like 6 piano keyboards in one--and each of these 'keyboards' lacks black key markers. i've always thought i'd need to memorize every note, but i've always had my doubts about that. so now i'm wondering if, since i'm a good ear player, i should instead try to devise a system whereby i teach myself some shorthand rules for reaching for intervals on adjacent strings. this way i'd never have to know particular notes. i could play intervals as i hear them. if i had a few marker intervals memorized (minor third, fourth, fifth, and flat seven, perhaps) i could always find my way around on adjacent strings. the challenge, though, would be finding a way to do it across more than one string. for example, hitting an a on the fifth string and knowing where to reach for a d on the second string.
anyway, i want a fretlight also.
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Jun 30, 2007 04:19 pm yeah, i can't really 'see' the fingerboard all too well either....them pattern's are hard to memorize (not that my memory is easy to get into)....check out a book called "The Guitar Grimoire" i've got the bass version and it's one of the best scale books out there...really visually orented...
as for intervals on adjacent strings, you prolly know more than you think....a power chord (say low E string 3rd fret and A string 5th fret) is a perfect fifth....one string over two frets up...a fouth is next string over same fret (we're not gonna get into the B string here)
major third is one string over and down one fret, make it minor by goin' down two frets (kinda like a reverse down power chord.
Jun 30, 2007 09:20 pm yeah i know those intervals already, but that won't get me very far. i need to be able to find intervals all over the place, on strings that are far apart in particular.
i had one of the grimoire books. my friend, an accomplished guitarist, always called it 'the alien book.' he picked it up once and leafed through it and developed this serious aversion to it. there was just too much info in the grimoire books! for me, anyway.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 01, 2007 04:56 pm Not sure that fretlight thing is really worth that kind of money myself. But I guess I can see how ti would come in handy for some peeps. forty, I'm an ear player as well. I can sight read some, but tab was never my best suit either so I'm kinda stuck in the middle somewhere as well.
Jul 01, 2007 05:25 pm I will admit, I have seen this before, and thought it was a great idea, and wouldn't mind scoring one myself...I am a bass player, and pretty decent at rhythm guitar, but my leads have always been sub-standard on the best day, but the price is what kept me from it. Unless I can actually play one and see what kind of guitar it is without the lights, I can't do it.
Much like the Variax, the fretlight has a nitch, and the lower end model of the Variax is still a good modeler, but it's a lousy guitar, the upper end models are also great guitars. I suspect much the same from the Fretlight, the low end is probably just for the lights, the guitar itself being just a cheapo mexican made lousy guitar.
But I might be wrong there.
I also hate that stupid-*** talking person in the corner on their site...what a f-in annoying thing THAT is.
Jul 11, 2007 07:37 am they say it's a pro guitar, well-made. i have some ideas for your test, when you get one, if you wanna hear 'em. just basic ideas, really...
i suggest programming in a scale you don't know well. since i know no scales well on the guitar (though i do know how to build any common scale on the piano) i'd probbably choose the harmonic minor, because it sounds great. if you chose that one ,you should program like 'a harmonic minor' in there and then play it over an a minor/e major vamp. do that for a while, then again the next day, after doing whatever else you're gonna do. before you send the thing back, try doing that scale again with the lights turned off, and see how much 'stuck' without you really trying too hard.
also you should see if you can program the thing to harmonize the scale, to 'spawn its chords.' the chords generated by minor harmonic wouldbe different from those of the major or minor keys, so it'd be cool if there were an easy way to get it to display them in sequence. i bet you have to use the software to generate and store them (or even add them manually). i wonder how many custom chords the fretlight can hold in its memory. you probably have to use like a song template in the software and in that template just have it be whatever chords you want to be in that file.
to me these would be the two greatest uses of a fretlight for an intermediate player. would help you learn scales as well as which kinds of progressions they work over.
Jul 11, 2007 07:37 am yeah that talking person made me very mad yesterday. didn't know my speakers were turned on
Jul 11, 2007 07:52 am Forcing unrequested multimedia on a user is just f-in wrong...in so many ways it's quite stunning any company would do that...but I digress.
Before planning my testing, I gotta get it, walk around the yard on a nice day playing it, see how it plays and feels...thats judgement number one, whether or not it can stand on it's own as an instrument.
Then see what it's capable of from there...try scales, pick a tune, see if I can jam along with it with the given scale, try some mods on the scale, see if/how you can program custom scales/patterns.
I pretty much understand what it's capable of, more of it is a matter of how easy it is to do and how it sounds and feels.
I let the product dictate tests...and my own natural curiosity during the process.
I hope it comes today, I'm really wanting to get playin with it.
Jul 11, 2007 04:21 pm did you request the acoustic or electric one?
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Jul 12, 2007 12:26 am Looks rather gimmicky to me, I certainly wouldn't spend the bucks for one. I remember when I was learning the guitar though I bought this set of stick on labels that went on the fretboard that gave all the note names for every position, I think it did help me a bit but still if some one hollered hit a C# 3rd string I'd have to sit there and figure out which fret it was. <G>
Dan
Jul 12, 2007 02:03 am awww man...it looks amazing to me. you know the fretboard already, olddog...
Jul 12, 2007 07:42 am Yeah, I agree it is a gimmick, but I don't think it's a bad one...I wish mine would friggin get here, they must have sent it via sled dog or something...
Jul 12, 2007 01:39 pm Just talked to my wife...it came!
w00t, toy to play with!
I am looking forward to it, even if it's only me and forty that see the potential, hell with the rest of you fret burners...
Jul 12, 2007 04:22 pm *excited*
maybe give some early feedback in this here thread?
olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Jul 13, 2007 12:06 am Quote:
you know the fretboard already, olddog...
Actually I don't. :) I mean I can figure out what note is what on the fb given enough time, but all the solo's I play are figured out, ie: I can't improvise I work out my solo until all the notes fit and I can play it. ;) That and I know a few patterns.
I can see where the fretlight might be useful much as the labels were for me for awhile, but I have my doubts that you couldn't learn just as easily from a book as having the fretboard light up for a whole lot less money. Basically it's going to show you patterns and those can only be learned with a ton of practice & memory. Now if the guitar is a great guitar in it's own right then no real loss, but if the guitar suffers for the electronic's that's where I think the money is better spent on a good Gibson, Fender, Ibanez or what have you.
Dan
Jul 13, 2007 12:52 am i dunno man. you can make it light up any scale in any key--no more thinking. seems like you could get the scale into your fingers (which is where it needs to be in order to be free with it) pretty easily this way. all you'd have to do is look and start getting quick. books involve looking first at the book then at the neck, etc. so you can play a scale along with music for a while, then switch to another scale like that *snap* (so ya don't get bored). it looks to me like it would make learning fun. it does cost some money, but i do like me some gadgets.
Jul 13, 2007 02:36 am do you think about how to tie your shoes? it gets easier when it becomes habit....that's why so many guitar players get stuck in pentatonic.
Jul 13, 2007 04:55 am not sure what you're sayin' wyd...
Jul 13, 2007 07:04 am So I am stuck in pentatonic cause I learned to tie my shoes? :-)
Actually, I have some books, tried lots of modes, scales and crap, and like forty said, it never stuck cuz I spent more time in the book...and one thing I do remember, I did not get stuck in pentatonic, I chose it...it's a rock scale.
Jul 13, 2007 07:22 am so when can we expect a review? :)
Jul 13, 2007 07:58 am within a week or two.
I like the guitar, can't light it up yet tho, they didn't include the DVD that is supposed to come with it. (-1 on the review score). The guitar itself I jammed on for a couple hours yesterday afternoon...
Jul 13, 2007 10:50 am sorry, i was drunk and it made sense to me at the time....
like, you don't have to consciously think of 'how to tie' your shoes anymore because you already know the sequence of movements that it involves. same with playin' in key, after you get the pattern's 'set' in your mind (and hands) you don't have to say to yourself 'ok next i'm gonna go up a 6th'...it just comes out. like jazz!
pentatonic scales are used ALOT in modern blues and rock and are a really easy 'no-brainer' scale to solo in...
Jul 13, 2007 06:01 pm db is playin it close to the vest
Jul 13, 2007 10:39 pm Wow this really made me think, because I'm an ear player too, I know I'm stuck in pentatonic, and I'm sure it shows in my playing. but then again I play mainly blues, and rock. Al DiMeola is in no danger from me. Perhaps I'll spend a little time practicing a few scales and see if I can get to the shoe string stage. Man if I could just get as enthusiastic about practice as I was at 16......ohh so long ago. Fretlight looks pretty cool though.
Jul 13, 2007 11:42 pm blues, if you know the pentatonic well (i wish i did--i know just one position) you could be in a good position to just create new scales from it on the fly. the scale steps of pentatonic are 1, flat3, 4, 5, flat7. to make that mixolydian mode, for instance, you would just raise the third, making it a major third instead of a minor third. then you could add in the rest of the scale steps. the 2 and the 6, and that'd be a full mixolydian scale that you can dive into instantly whenever you want. that's just one example. you can build any scale just by starting with the pentatonic and knowing the scale degrees. then you could just move individual scale degrees to make a new scale. this is what i would do if i knew the pentatonic all over the fretboard, for sure
Jul 14, 2007 05:00 am Quote:
. the scale steps of pentatonic are 1, flat3, 4, 5, flat7. to make that mixolydian mode,
ok that's minor, i'm not familiar with pentatonic at all (i'm a bass player) but that in itself is limiting...is the pentatonic all minor,? i thought it would be more versitle than that? like i said, i'm a complete idiot when it comes to scales.
after re-reading forty's post, it seems he knows more than i do on this subject! rock on forty! dude you know more than you think, it's just gettin' your fingers to behave...
Jul 14, 2007 03:57 pm the pentatonic scale is both minor and major for the same reason that the key of a minor uses all the notes in c major. you can play those five pentatonic scale notes in a different place and context on the neck and they will be 1 3 4 5 7 (no flats). they'll be in a different order, though. like, the root will be in a different part of the pattern. i can't explain this well because i only know the one pentatonic position :(
Jul 15, 2007 04:10 am did you get an acoustic or electric to review? i might buy something next month, cant tell which'd be better
Jul 15, 2007 07:10 am I got the Telecaster lookin one.
Dec 15, 2007 01:27 pm I have a chance to get one of these this weekend, with the foot pedal and software. I use a mac mostly but have access to windows XP. Is there any follow up on this guitar good or bad.
