“A blinking guitar?” When Qwowi.com first approached me with the idea of reviewing Optek’s Fretlight guitar system for my first publication on these esteemed pages, I was intrigued but skeptical. That the Fretlight system is a completely fresh take on learning the most popular musical instrument of the past 60 years is certainly innovative. But can guitar education really be boiled down to just learning where to place your fingers, like a fretboard version of Twister (the game, not the Helen Hunt flick)? Aren’t tone, phrasing, dynamics and rhythm also relevant? After spending a few weeks with a Fretlight system, I can testify that it isn’t just the guitar equivalent of SIMON. It’s a holistic approach to guitar education that offers almost as many different ways to learn the instrument as there are ways to play it.

Fretlight FG-400 Series Guitar, FG-421

The Fretlight concept itself is surprisingly simple. The Fretlight guitar, through a set of 132 LEDs embedded in the neck and some clever bits of software, shows the aspiring axe-god where to place his/her fingers on the fretboard when working up new scales, chords or licks. Instead of presenting the fingerings in standard notation or tablature, the Fretlight guitar puts that information right on the guitar for you in real time. It works with standard, alternate and dropped tunings and can be configured to display for right or left-handed orientation. It is clever – one of those “shouldn’t someone have thought of this sooner?” ideas. But the real power in the Fretlight system is the music education software driving the Fretlight guitar. This suite of six applications takes the player though an impressive array of scale and chord vocabulary building, improvisation, tune learning and music theory exercises. We’ll touch a bit on each of those applications later.

My review system was the FG-421 Standard Electric package. The FG-421 is modeled on the venerable Stratocaster design – 3 single coil-sized pickups, 5 way pickup selector switch, 1 volume, 2 tone controls, fixed bridge with adjustable saddles, 21 frets, strat-contoured body. Fretlight guitars are Chinese-built, apparently alongside guitars from some of the big name foreign builders. All Fretlight guitars feature Optek’s molded Polymer fretboard. To compensate for the loss in stability caused by 132 drilled holes, Optek developed a synthetic fretboard material which, according to the company, “increases sustain and makes Fretlight guitars less susceptible to weather-induced problems such as bowing.” The LEDs embedded in the neck aren’t visible when the guitar isn’t ‘powered on’ so its sometimes easy to forget that the Fretlight is more than just a regular guitar. To my surprise, the material didn’t require much getting used to. It actually had the feel of a new ebony fretboard – silky and fast. The guitar itself did live up to the stability hype. It held tune extremely well during the month I had it (March in Buffalo, NY – no small feat). The only other physical feature of the Fretlight guitar that differs from a standard instrument is the 8-pin DIN jack on the body of the guitar. This port connects the Fretlight guitar via a proprietary 8 pin-to-USB cable to a Mac or Windows computer. Other than that, the Fretlight guitar looks, plays and can be serviced like any standard solid-body electric guitar. From a build-quality and playability perspective, a common response from Fretlight reviewers (I admit it – I read them all before writing mine) is that the Fretlight guitars are solid but not exciting. For a $500 guitar, I’d say you’re getting your money’s worth and then some. The build quality on my Renegade Red FG-421 review guitar was rock solid, to be sure. The guitar was well set-up, frets were level, machine heads twisted smoothly and the control cavity was well-shielded. The satin neck was extremely playable and even unplugged, the guitar had ‘ring’ to it. The pickups initially sounded a bit two-dimensional, but I found they got more interesting when I plugged the guitar into a living, breathing amp rather than into one of those ubiquitous red kidney-shaped guitar processors. In the end, I had found some great SRV tones in the neck pickup and a pretty convincing Clapton sound in the fourth position (middle-bridge). Even without the blinking and the software, the Fretlight guitar is certainly competitive with other instruments in its $499 MSRP price range.

If you’re like me, your first experience with a new gadget doesn’t involve opening a manual or watching a video. It’s all about tearing off the packaging, plugging the thing in and figuring it out. Having tried it, I wouldn’t advise taking this approach with the Fretlight software suite. The Fretlight’s diminutive manual (13 pages front to back) covers the basics of set-up, connection and has a few tips for guitar techs and that’s it. Therefore, let me whole-heartedly recommend the companion ‘Getting Started’ DVD. The DVD functions essentially as a media-rich user’s manual. It quickly lays out the basics of connecting the Fretlight system, installing the software (Windows only – Mac users are left to our own devices) and then gets into an overview of what’s possible in each application. Optek Director of Music Education, Nate Comp, provides the informative (if not a little dry) tour through six applications, providing a succinct overview and a few demonstrations per app – just enough to get you started. For those Fretlight owners wanting to get a little deeper into the system, Optek hosts a blog, knowledge base and video clinics on the Fretlight web site (www.fretlight.com).

The software suite is, in the loosest sense of the phrase, “dual platform,” meaning that some but not all applications are available for both Windows and Mac operating systems. Of the six apps available for the Fretlight guitar, only Lesson Player, M-Player and Improviser are cross-platform (the rumor of an ’09 Mac release of Video Player is still just that). It’s also worth mentioning that the review system did not include installers for the Mac, but this might not be true for purchases through Optek. In any case, installers for the Mac and PC can be found on the Fretlight web site. These installers, with the exception of Lesson Player, provide the user with a demo version that can be upgraded later for a cost. The demo versions are fully functioning and give you 15 days to audition the software.

Lesson Player is the implicit hub of the Fretlight software suite and it is the only full-version program included with the Fretlight guitar. It works as the engine for the Fretlight Lesson Paks, which are collections of interactive music lessons, exercises and music reference materials. Lessons contain interactive pictures, audio instructions and play-along MIDI tracks targeting an impressive range of abilities – every level from complete newbie to advanced player. Cursoring over the interactive pictures not only displays the correct technique and finger placement but will similarly light up the fretboard of the Fretlight guitar. Windows users need at least Windows Media Player 9 for the interactive elements. Lesson Pak I (the Beginner Pak) is included with every Fretlight system. The 30 lessons of Lesson Pak I are really for those who have never played and have never had a music lesson. Starting with a lesson on holding the guitar, Lesson Pak 1 progresses through the foundational subjects of tuning, basic music vocabulary, holding the pick, reading music, etc. Each lesson pak contains companion music theory lessons, a glossary of music terms and definitions (both of which get updated with new material every time a new lesson pak is installed) and a small Help section. There are additional lesson paks available on the Fretlight web site, each tagged at $19.95, including the “Advanced Chord and Scale Library.” With its linked sound byte files and animated GIFs, Lesson Player feels a bit like a 1997 web site, but the lesson material is thorough and professionally presented.

Much of the hype about the Fretlight’s “interactive learning experience” is on display in the Video Player application. Think of Video Player as the 2005 answer to Lesson Player. Rather than employing static text and sound bytes, Video Player presents lesson material through a video interface which also has transport control (Play, Pause, Stop, etc.) and the ability to set loop points. Video Player also makes use of Optek’s Intellitempo technology, which can scale the tempo of the audio and video playback without affecting the pitch, allowing the player to slow down certain lesson material until it’s mastered. Video Player also displays the lesson material right on the neck of the Fretlight guitar: as the virtual guitar instructor plays a lick, his fingering appears right on your Fretlight guitar. Much of the same material from the Lesson Player lesson paks is also covered in the Video Player lessons, giving the student options on how to best practice the material. Additional Video Player lessons are available at fretlight.com for the low low price of $14.95 – at press time just over 20 video lessons are available.

If Lesson Player and Video Player are Optek’s answer to the traditional guitar lesson book, the M-Player app is the “Rock’s Greatest Hits” tab book. M-Player will play back standard MIDI file arrangements of some of rock’s most enduring tunes, specially marked up to display fingering on the Fretlight guitar for the player to follow. These song files have embedded arrangement tags to allow the player to work on specific parts of the tune but there is also the option to create custom markers. Optek bundles a sampling of M-Player files with every Fretlight system and there is an ever-growing library of classic and modern rock staples available on the Fretlight web site, each available for $1.99. As an Allman Brothers Band uberfan, I jumped at the chance to see how M-Player would teach me their 1973 classic, “Jessica.” As with most M-player files, you can choose between lead parts, rhythm parts and what Optek calls “EZ Chords” (what we called cowboy chords in my day), an open-chord arrangement of the tune’s chord changes. Since M-Player makes use of the same transport interface, looping functionality and Intellitempo tempo-scaling technology as Video Player, setting up loop points and slowing down the track made it breeze to get Dickie Betts’ sprawling melodic lead lines under my hands in a short time. The tempo-scaling allowed me to not only work up to the actual tempo but also gave me a chance to really focus on imitating the phrasing subtleties in Betts’ playing. All M-Player files are guaranteed to be 100% accurate, so there’s no time wasted making sure the notes are right.

One of the most difficult leaps for the developing guitarist is learning how to create interesting lead lines while not getting locked into a particular scale form. With Improviser, the player can choose the key, tempo and style he or she wants to work in, and Improviser will “suggest” scales and positions that would be appropriate and light them up on the Fretlight guitar. Improviser also provides backing tracks in a variety of styles to accompany your new scale wizardry. To help develop the creative side of your playing, Improviser displays all of the note possibilities over the entire fretboard and leaves it to the player to discover how to connect them. After playing through a few examples, I was immediately struck by the possibilities suggested by each set of chord changes. As a result, I felt free to explore ways of connecting phrases and creating new lines that were outside my usual comfort zone. Improviser utilizes the same arrangement tag marking and tempo-scaling functionality as M-Player and has a similar look and feel. Additionally, it is the only app in the suite that gives the player the option of working in styles other than rock ‘n roll. I spent some time with some jazz and latin grooves and found myself creating convincing lines in styles I love and admire but have never really studied. Obviously, there is no software in existence that would turn Joe Strummer into Joe Pass (or vise versa), but Improviser will open up stylistic doors for the Fretlight player moved to explore them.

The Windows-only apps AxMaster and Guitarz! offer still more practice options for the Fretlight owner. AxMaster is an interactive chord and scale diagram builder and fretboard literacy tool. Its various functions display single notes, scale patterns and chord shapes across the entire fretboard, allowing the player to create custom diagrams. Accessing the intervals function through a series of drop-down menus, the player can choose a root note and interval and see all them displayed across the range of the Fretlight guitar. The menu-driven interface elements felt a little less-than-slick to me, but considering importance of learning note names and practicing intervals for the developing guitarist, Optek ultimately scores points from me for including a method of studying them. Guitarz! is essentially an interactive music reference guide loaded with countless spellings of chords, scales and arpeggios. On the surface, this app looks like it overlaps heavily with AxMaster, but in truth, it provides a much different way of practicing this material. The “Play” page allows the player to drop chords into a blank lead sheet, displaying each of the possible voicings on the Fretlite guitar. The chord dictionary contains an exhaustive list of chord types from the basic to the esoteric. To select the chord, jump through two menus, hit the “show chords” button, right click a voicing to send it to the play page, drop it on the leadsheet, move onto the next chord. Again, it’s not the slickest of interfaces but it gets the job done. The “Tab” page is clever idea but unfortunately suffers from poor documentation. In this window, you can import ASCII formatted tablature files from the web or your own collection and have them played and displayed in real time right on the fretboard. In theory, you can then edit these files to correct rhythm or note inaccuracies in the original file (tab files on the web are notoriously inaccurate) but I wasn’t able to figure out how. My hope is that Optek fleshes out the documentation on this app because it has some very cool features.

Possibly as a token gesture to its somewhat neglected Mac-using customer base, Optek developed a plug-in to use with the popular sequencing/recording program, Garage Band. The plug-in allows players to create their own cycle of chords or scales in any key. Players can then use this cycle to play along with their Garage Band sequence. Simply create a new track in the sequence and add the Fretlight guitar from the instrument list. Unfortunately the Fretlight footswitch is almost required to progress through the chord cycle (It’s possible to click through the chord cycle with the mouse, but with two hands on the guitar, you might have to click with your toes.). If there were a way to enter chord changes into the Fretlight Guitar track rather than having to click through the sequence with a footswitch, that would be slick. Maybe in the next version? But in its 1.0 version, the Garage Band plug-in is a smart idea with a somewhat awkward implementation.

If you’re still reading this review, you are wondering whether the Fretlight system makes sense for you or if your money would be better spent on a few months of lessons. Let me say this: there is no substitute for a great teacher. Software and flashing lights can never the replicate years of experience a master teacher brings to the table. That being said, the Fretlight system, with its years’ worth of lesson material and engaging way to practice, will help you develop your playing in ways traditional lesson books and videos won’t. The Fretlight is one of those rare products in music education that is both good and good for you. And those blinking lights might just lead you somewhere unexpected.