Eddie Van Halen News

Fretlight: Learn to play guitar 10 times faster

Author Malcolm Gladwell said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a creative genius, but who has the time for that?

Rusty Shaffer has a guitar and a digital tool kit that can turn you into the next Eddie Van Halen in a fraction of the time. Last week, Shaffer, the founder of Fretlight Guitar , visited CNET's office to show us how his FG-421 guitar worked.

A laptop with Guitar Pro 6 software preinstalled translated songs that had been downloaded from tablature, a site well-known in the music world for displaying songs in the form of instrument fingering rather than notes on a sheet. The song data is then feed into the guitar's built-in microprocessor via a USB connection. The LED lights on the fretboard change positions to show aspiring musicians where to put their fingers.

Before Fretlight Guitar added this feature, the guitar was limited to displaying different scales. That must have been boring, especially when it had to compete with options such as ( now-defunct ) Guitar Hero, which was, of course, a game not a learning tool.

Fretlight won't pick up where Guitar Hero left off, but I can see it as a useful practice tool. When looking on the computer screen, you can zoom into a certain section of the music and set it on a loop, and slow it down when necessary.

I understand the frustration of practicing for hours to learn a song. After all, I spent four years playing the clarinet while I was in high school. For full disclosure, I am an inexperienced guitar player. Shaffer recommended I try to play the song "Smoke on the Water," a perfect tune for a beginner. It took me a couple of minutes to get a hang of reading the faint red LED lights on the guitar. It felt awkward, like singing "Like a Virgin" during a karaoke party--without a shot of tequila to loosen up.

Stephen Beacham, a CNET producer and an experienced guitarist, played "Thunderstruck." Like me, it took Beacham a few minutes to adjust to the lights on the finger board. But when he did get the hang of it, he played the song from memory. No red lights needed.

In the future, Shaffer hopes that the next version of Fretlight's guitars can hook up wirelessly, to encourage remote teaching. For example, imagine if a music teacher can be in California but control a student's guitar in Mississippi. However, any guitar won't do. You'd have to buy a custom-made guitar from Fretlight for $429, which includes the actual instrument, a USB cable, an owner's manual, Fretlight Studio software, and free video lessons.

Smithsonian's Q & A with Eddie Van Halen | Van Halen News Desk

Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” is a stand out for me. Quincy Jones called me up and asked me to play on it. When I got there it took me 15 minutes to rearrange the song and I played 2 solos and told them they could pick the one they liked best. Then Michael walked in and said wow! I really like that high fast stuff you do. It was a lot of fun to do. Its crazy that something could take such a short amount of time and can grow into something beyond anything you could ever imagine.

You patented a “musical instrument support.” What is that? That patent came out of a technique I used when playing the guitar’s fingerboard: laying it flat, using both of my hands at the same time. To do this I needed the fingerboard to face upward like the keyboard of a piano. The device I patented enabled me to do that. It also comes in very handy for lap steel players.

You donated Frankenstein 2 to the Smithsonian, but tell us about the original Frankenstein. The original Frankenstein was a result of me tinkering and experimenting with different elements of electric guitars that I liked. The thing was that some guitars had elements that I liked, but at the same time had certain elements that I didn’t care for either. If I could combine those elements into one guitar, then I could have an instrument that enabled me to create and play what I heard in my head without any restrictions.

You’ve said that you hated “store-bought, off-the-rack” guitars, because they would not do what you wanted them to do. What did you want from your guitar? I retired it from regular use. It took so much abuse from endless touring and recording; I wanted to pay some respect to it and let it survive and not let it get destroyed completely. At the same time it became something so well known beyond my wildest dreams that it’s value made it a target for theft and I wanted to protect it. I still play it every now and then. It’s priceless to me.

What did you think of Frankenstein 2, the first time you played it?

Inspired by Ed’s Frankenstrat (that’s what they used to call it back in the 80s), I built a guitar out of scraps from other guitars. I didn’t know a whole lot about guitar building at the time, just the basics. At my father’s auto restoration shop, I painted it flawlessly in black with red stripes (similar to the guitar on VH II). To this day, it is still my favorite guitar to play. It’s the nicest piece of junk I own, and I wouldn’t part with it for anything. I guess I’ve grown attached to it over the past 28 years. So, I can relate to Ed’s comment about a guitar being priceless. It’s good to see such an iconic guitar get recognized by such an iconic national museum.

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