Learning a new instrument is hard. While guitar is one of the easiest instruments to play, getting started is difficult. How do you tune it? Where do you put your fingers? Why do they bleed?!
A new app-connected instrument, the Poputar, aims to make learning guitar easy with an array of LEDs in the guitar neck that tell you where to place your fingers. Can Poputar unlock your dreams of rock 'n' roll stardom?
- Type: Acoustic
- Length: 36 inches
- Strings: 6
- Electronic enhancements: Bluetooth, LEDs, pickup
- Brand: PopuMusic
Want to learn guitar? Maybe you've got one but found fingering, strumming, or both, too difficult. Various guitar tutorial solutions have been released in the past few years, from video games like Rocksmith to LED overlays that show you where to put your fingers.
Combining both ideas into one easy unit is the Poputar, an app-connected six-string acoustic guitar with LEDs embedded beneath the fretboard. The app teaches you to play, lighting the LEDs to guide you through the lesson.
Well, that's the idea. But can you actually learn guitar with Poputar?
What Is a Poputar?
Combining a guitar with an LED indicator system, Poputar is a system that teaches you to play better.
Aimed primarily at beginners, LEDs are embedded in the guitar neck. The instrument pairs with a mobile app over Bluetooth, with gamification tasks to teach and reward successful learning.
Poputar Kepma Edition
Several Poputar models are available. We're looking at the Kepma edition, a 36-inch (3/4 length) acoustic guitar that comes ready to play out of the box.
In the box, you'll find a machine-built six-string acoustic guitar, a soft case with backpack straps, and two AA batteries. There's also a hex (Allen) key for adjusting the truss rod (a metal rod that supports the guitar neck). This is a curious addition, as most beginners wouldn't attempt this.
Elsewhere inside this acoustic guitar is an Omega-II Piezo pickup, a 0.25-inch jack hidden inside the strap pin, and a slot for a 9v battery for the pickup. There's also a slot for the AA batteries to control Bluetooth connectivity and LED activity.
The Poputar doesn't ship with a strap.
We've all seen acoustic guitars in stores and catalogs aimed at beginners that are somehow completely unsuitable for most people to play. You'll find instruments with poor build quality, over-wide, strings with too heavy a gauge (thickness), and high action (the distance between the strings and the neck.
Kepma employs some of the most up-to-date manufacturing techniques, many of which are demonstrated in this instrument. Happily, it also meets the basics: it holds a note, is comfortable to hold, has a straight, narrow-ish neck, and a light tone.
Pairing the Poputar to Your Phone
To get the most out of the Poputar, you'll need to enable Bluetooth on your phone and pair the instrument. The two AA batteries slot into a holder next to the power button. Once powered up, you can press the button to see the LEDs illuminate the fretboard.
The PopuMusic app is available on iOS and Android. Once installed and loaded, follow the steps to pair the guitar. It's that simple.
Note that while Bluetooth oversees the LEDs, the app will use your phone or tablet's microphone. Lessons, tutorials, and challenges are included with the app, along with a wide selection of tunes. All of these are geared towards teaching guitar.
Exploring the Poputar App
In the PopuMusic app, you'll find a Course, Song Library, instrument selection screen, Music Tools (Bluetooth, chord chart, tuner, metronome, and some LED editors), and Daily Exercises. In fact, everything you need to get started with a guitar is here.
As long as the guitar is synced, all of the lessons and exercises will accurately record your progress. The app picks up the notes and chords as they're played, using the audio information to progress to the next note, chord, or part of the lesson. This is described in the documentation as "an intelligent sound recognition algorithm," and it certainly appears to work well.
Learning With Poputar
The PopuMusic app offers a smart plan to learning any song on the Poputar inside five minutes.
Choose a song, follow the LEDs observe the feedback, adjust the playing speed to match your ability, and use the interactive gamified lessons. These result in rewards, position in a league table, etc.
You can compare the approach here to Guitar Hero games or the more advanced Rocksmith 2014 (which utilizes a special USB to guitar jack). It's fun, provides enough of a challenge to drive you on, but the song choice is a little thin on the ground at this stage. More songs are needed in the song library, but it includes tracks by Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, the Beatles, Guns N' Roses, Billie Eilish, and a few others. The range is good—the depth not so much.
A Beginner Tries the Poputar
I've found the Poputar lessons useful, while what appears to be an LED gimmick is in fact a clever feature. But overall, I don't need to use the LEDs, and if I wanted to pick up a guitar, this wouldn't be my first choice.
But at 44 years old, 33 of them playing guitar, I'm certainly not a beginner.
To learn more about how good the Poputar and the companion PopuMusic app are at teaching guitar, I handed the instrument to my son, Bruce. He's 9, has a ukulele, and is keen to learn how to play the guitar.
With the app running, Bruce sat attentively during the basic setup and tuning sections.
Eager to make some noise, we tried him with a few basic chords, the PopuMusic app detecting the results and judging them appropriately. He focused carefully on the LEDs throughout and certainly learned a C and D chord.
But, and this is the big problem, the guitar is just too big for anyone under 10. I have long felt that electric guitars, with their lighter strings, more appealing aesthetic, and instantly satisfying sound, are more suitable for beginners. There is no crunch with an acoustic guitar. While the Poputar Kepma Edition is equipped with a pickup and volume/tone controls, that's a feature, not a solution.
The takeaway from this is clear: Poputar is aimed at teenagers and above who can handle the body shape and have the finger length to shape basic chords. Kids need not apply.
(Hopefully, Poputar has a half-length guitar in the works for children.)
Poputar: A Guitar Learning System That Almost Gets It Right
The Poputar Kepma Edition is not the best guitar I've ever held. It's also not the worst. The neck of the guitar doesn't suffer badly from having LEDs embedded within it.
But none of the other guitars I've tried have Bluetooth-controlled LEDs and a companion app to teach you how to play. The basics of guitar have been easily accessible for decades since the birth of the World Wide Web. Now they're available in a single app that basically speaks to your guitar. It's an automated, interactive learning system that demystifies guitar.
That's pretty awesome. It's far more convenient than switching between 45 and 33.3 RPM on a record player, or skipping back repeatedly with the CD remote until you hit all the right notes.
No, Poputar isn't ideal for younger kids, but this is a minor gripe that a smaller model (or its forthcoming sister ukulele) can deal with. For now, if you're looking for an app-linked Bluetooth-controlled guitar to learn on, the Poputar is the answer.
Can the Poputar Really Teach You How to Play Guitar? posted first on grassroutespage.blogspot.com
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