Products on The Metro Gnome

NAMM was an absolute spectacle - with thousands and thousands of products for us to see, touch, and hear. The trade show is exactly that - a place for sellers and buyers to get together to trade goods. With the January NAMM Show being the largest in the US, if not the world, a lot of the sellers launch new products at the show. There are 4 products I found in my NAMM adventure that want to tell you about in this issue.

* The SpinSlide®
* The Fender™ G-DEC®
* The Piano Wizard™
* L Benito Guitars

The SpinSlide

I like this idea so much that I want to bring it to Australia - and I very well might! The SpinSlide is a modified guitar slide. The big functional benefit is that with a simple movement you can move from slide playing to finger playing. There are a couple of slides like this on the market already, but I like the SpinSlide better. Why? Well, for one, the SpinSlide is as narrow as a typical ring when you are using finger side of the slide. That means that I can bend my fingers naturally when I place them for chords. Second, the SpinSlide has a soft padding inside the slide side which makes it easier to "grip" and much more comfortable to use. Third, because the slide is effectively only a half slide, my knuckle doesn’t hit the other side of the cylinder and, therefore, doesn't get bruised (it also gets air and doesn’t get as sweaty). And fourth, the SpinSlide comes with 4 different sized rings, so I could choose the size that fits my finger best. I always had wanted a smaller slide than the standard, but hadn't gone through the effort and expense of buying one.

So my pick of the slides is the SpinSlide. There's a demo online of how easy it can be (see www.spinslide.com), with a little bit of practice, to spin it around with one hand and without interrupting play. Have a look! If you want one - let me know.

The Fender G-DEC

Fender G-DEC

G-DEC stands for Guitar Digital Entertainment Center - but I call this little ditty "karaoke for the guitar." Now, before you get offended by that, read on.... When you play the electric guitar, you have to have an amplifier and speakers to hear it. And when you're learning the electric guitar, you're probably practicing alone in a bedroom or a garage. Well, this unit is a great upgrade from a standard amp, because it has inbuilt bass and drum sounds that you can play along with (you can turn one or both off if you want to). And, cooler than that, the unit also has effects built into it that modify the guitar sounds to match different styles of music. And, even cooler than that, you can isolate the standard effects, modify them, and save them as your own custom effects. But the pièce de résistance is that the G-DEC can take MIDI and MP3 inputs to bring real songs to life for guitarists.

Personally, I think the G-DEC will give people who are learning how to play the guitar more reason to practice (and more satisfaction when they do practice) as well as a greater understanding of how the guitar player fits in with an overall band. But even seasoned players can use the G-DEC to learn and practice new songs so that they come to rehearsal they can be ready to go! It's fantastic.

The Piano Wizard

The concept is simple - when you learn your native language, you start by hearing it, then you speak it, then you read it, and then you learn how to break it down into it's structure (nouns and verbs, sentence diagramming, etc.). And everyone knows the best time to learn a language is EARLY. You actually start learning it right from the beginning, because the sounds you are exposed to even before you can speak are really important in your development.

So why wait to learn a different language? And why change the natural path to learning a language? Well, we shouldn't!

And the language of music is no different to any other language. Here's the path. First, expose your child to music from the beginning. Some people start when the little tyke is still in the belly. Let them hear music. Then teach them to play music... and start early. And this is where I introduce you to The Piano Wizard.

The Piano Wizard is essentially software (included) that works with a midi keyboard (included if you need it) connected to your personal computer via a midi-USB cable (included). But don't let that technical description scare you - this looks and feels like a video game that can be played by anyone from about 3 years of age. You start by putting some removable colour strips onto the keys of the keyboard. Those colours match the colours shown on the keyboard shown across the top of the computer screen. When you start the game, coloured icons move up the screen toward the coloured note and the player hits the note when the icon crosses one line but before it crosses another. If the player plays the right note at the right time, s/he scores points. You can control the speed of the game (the tempo), the complexity of the song, and the precision of when the note needs to be played. Once the song is over, the game reveals the score and asks if the player wants to play again.

Once the player is ready, the game level advances so that the icons begin to travel from right to left across the screen to the keyboard. This begins to give the player exposure to reading music, by making them work out how changes in notes vertically (on screen) are interpreted horizontally (on the keyboard).

I cannot possibly give the game complete justice here. But I have a demo version of the game available to show to parents, schools, music teachers and, well, anyone who is passionate about getting kids to play music and like doing it. Consider this a teaser. Let me know if it's piqued your interest. (Oh, by the way, the piano is just the start!)

L.Benito Guitars

L.Benito Guitar

The wood is what drew me to these guitars. Meeting Lito Benito, the luthier, and the really friendly team of people at the L.Benito display kept me interested. Playing the guitar for 20 minutes in the soundproof booth was fantastic and gave me even more reason for hanging around. But, by far, the best thing about my NAMM experience with these guitars was listening to two exceptional guitar players just sitting down for a jam. I just couldn't leave until they took a break.

Great Wood - Great Design

L.Benito acoustic guitars are made in Chile. Although they make guitars in traditional woods, too, the wood that caught my eye (and the one they're most proud of) is from 3000 year old Chilean native trees: Alerce. The wood has a rich, deep colour and beautiful grain. The harvest L.Benito uses was cut in 1973, so it has strength and age that make the resonance absolutely beautiful. The trees are now protected and so the world supply for guitars is fixed - what L.Benito has is all there is. The quality of the guitars is further enhanced in the workshop; to give you an idea of the instrument quality we're talking about here, Lito honed his craft at none other than Taylor Guitars in California where he eventually worked his way up to head luthier - not too shabby. The quality of the wood combined with excellent design and craftsmanship makes this guitar an absolute stand out in the world of acoustic guitars. The uniqueness of owning one in Australia would just make me the envy of all guitar enthusiasts. I will continue my lessons so that I might one day deserve to own this guitar.

Unfortunately, we can't get any of the above products in Australia today, though rumour has it that 500 Fender G-DECs have been ordered and will be available later this year. But hey, if the SpinSlide or the Piano Wizard or the L.Benito guitars grabbed your attention - just let me know. I made connections with all of them, and I'm happy to introduce you to them.

Do you want any products that aren't available in Australia? Write to us and let us know your story. How did you hear about the product? Why do you want it? How have you tried to get it? We want to know.