Recording - March 2012 - 60

BY FERNANDO CURIEL WITH ALLEN GOODMAN

Fretlight FG-421 Guitar
A guitar that helps you learn to play—and build charts, too
~ For the Mac, the free basic program is simply called Fretlight Software for Mac. It comes with M-Player, Chords and Scales, and Solo Improvisor. Compatibility is listed simply as “Mac OS X”. ~ The more advanced program, for both platforms, is called Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready. It allows you to create and share your own guitar tablature, as well as import TABs from other users. The Guitar Pro software is a popular tablature program from France, that has been made Fretlight-capable through a partnership with Optek, makers of the Fretlight guitars. You can learn more about the software at ww.guitar-pro.com. The basic-level software includes a video player, where you watch an instructor and play along in real-time; you can “flip” the view so you can see a true mirror image of how each selection is played. Songs are included with the software that ships, five songs for the PC and nine for the Mac, and more selections are available from the Fretlight online store. The software delivers its stated goal of being a helpful tool for learning guitar; however there is a different user interface for each module of the software (such as the video tutorials, chords/scales, “Improviser” etc.). The only unified user interface is the main menu; everything else has a very different look and feel from each other. It would be helpful if it all had a unified look, feel and navigation method across the entire suite. A great learning tool Allen: The concept of the Fretlight system works. It does make it easier and more intuitive to learn guitar than the traditional method of chord books and songbooks. Having lights on the fretboard to guide you is both simple and elegant, but at first it annoyed me to have to tilt the guitar each time to view finger placement. Then I realized that I used to have to do the same thing when using books. The more I used the Fretlight, the more I realized that, in fact, it was far easier to only have to look at the fretboard, instead of a book or computer monitor. My neck is grateful, too... The Player lets you slow down the playback without a pitch change, and you can loop segments and insert markers, and you can choose which instruments to play along with (“solo”). This, combined with the ability to import TABs (in the advanced version), is actually quite a motivator.You’re learning with today’s pop songs instead of antiquated folk songs from decades ago, as happens with some books and teaching methods. The system has an easy method of learning and practicing scales and chords—being able to see the entire scale of a particular key all at once really helps to memorize them, and along with the solo improviser, to create some really nice riffs that you might not have come up with on your own.

Few new guitars are memorable and innovative, two words that describe the Fretlight guitars. There are four models (with a range of colors for a total of 11 choices), and they all share the Fretlight feature that we explored on the FG-421 model we had for review. What is it? Why “Fretlight”? If you’ve every seen student keyboards with keys that light up, you will have a basic understanding of the concept that sets the Fretlight guitars apart: You connect the guitar to your computer and you run Fretlight software, and the fretboard reveals red backlit dots that indicate where to place your fingers. This should make learning and practising easier, right? But will it play and sound like a real guitar? Let’s hook it up and see. I am grateful to Allen Goodman for supplementing my Mac- and Windows-based tests with extra sessions on a Windows system and for adding his views of the software and guitar playability to my own. Connectivity and software For control, you attach the Fretlight guitar to your computer via an included 10’, 8-pin DIN cable which terminates in a Y connection with USB and a 1/4" jack for a footswitch connector. This connection doesn’t carry audio—for audio you still need a separate cable. The software is available for Windows and for Mac, and there are subtle differences. For both platforms there are two levels of software, the free basic program that comes with the guitar, and an optional, more advanced level. ~ For the PC the free basic program is called Fretlight Studio 5 for PC (5 stands for version 5.0). It comes with Video Lessons, Fretlight Player, Chords and Scales, and Solo Improvisor. It is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7.
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RECORDING MARCH 2012

http://www.guitar-pro.com

Recording - March 2012

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