If you’ve ever picked up an instrument or studied music in general, you know that there’s a bunch of theory involved in it, such as what notes are flat or sharp within a particular scale, what kind of chord progressions work best, what kind of chord should follow another chord, how to resolve a melody, and so on.
It can be rather complicated and in some instances even put people off from trying to dive deeper into their chosen instrument, when all they want to do is play music. This is what guitar maker Fender is trying to avoid with the launch of its new digital lesson platform called “Fender Play”.
In a report from Engadget, Fender’s chief product officer Ethan Kaplan revealed that Fender Play’s goal is to keep the younger generation of guitarists interested and coming back to the instrument, and this is accomplished by teaching them how to play songs instead of focusing too much on theory. There will be some bare essential topics covered, but once that’s done, players will be able to dive right into full songs from the likes of the Rolling Stones, Sean Mendes, Bon Iver, and so on.
There will be technique and theory included within each track, but the idea is to just get players playing. Guitarists will be able to pick the genre they want to focus on, the type of guitar they’re using (acoustic or electric), and so on, with their choices leading to different instructional videos. Fender Play will be a subscription-based platform at $20 a month, but there will be a one-month free trial for those who are curious.