Chord Buddy

[KeMe]

My very elderly mother wants to learn to play (strum) the guitar but she has some problems putting her fingers on the right strings with enough pressure to sound clear.
Have any of you had any experience with the Chord Buddy or know anything about them? It looks like it might be something that work for her. They run about $45. so I really don't want to just get one without knowing anything about it.

Chord Buddy.jpg

Kay

[oski79]

I looked at the website. I don't get it. It takes two months to teach you how to play one chord?

I must be missing something...

[Pierre330]

I just checked it out as well.

Not sure that it would really teach you much. However, Kay, if your mom just wants to strum and have fun looks like this might facilitate that. Though $45 seems high for it.

Cheater chords - press a button play a G! Wonder if they have one that lets me press a button and play Bach!

[Erik Zurcher]

Buying your mother low-tension strings seems a lot cheaper solution. Don't forget, if she plays regularly, the muscles in her hands become stronger and more agile.

[randalljazz]

get her an autoharp.

[dirkjot]

Honstely, I do not think that this product will be of much use (and this is the polite version of what I really think). If you want to have music by pressing buttons, buy a radio

I find it wonderful that your mother wants to start out making music, but when she has problems with her hand, why not choose an instrument that will probably not put her into problems (flutes, piano, accordion) or simply give it a try with low tension strings (as suggested above) or a short scale guitar where tension will be lower when using standard strings and standard tuning?

Hope you'll find a solution.

Cheers,
Dirk

[lagartija]

Buying your mother low-tension strings seems a lot cheaper solution. Don't forget, if she plays regularly, the muscles in her hands become stronger and more agile.

I think this is the way to go. Even if you can't get all of the notes cleanly at the beginning, you are playing a real instrument and training on the correct device. It is restful and therapeutic to hold an instrument in your hands and make nice sounds. No electronic trainer gives you that aural feedback. I would recommend that you not get hung up on what she can or can't do.... but help her make music that she finds satisfying.
Just the sound of open strings can be beautiful and there are many beginning pieces that take into account the unstretched fingers, untrained hands of the beginner. Surely you can find her a smaller scale guitar with low tension strings.
Stay away from the gimmicks that supposedly build strength. Give her the real thing. ($.02)

[btb]

I saw this on tv, on the show Dragons Den. The guy who came up with it was trying to get them to invest in it. It's the same idea as an autoharp. On the show he played some chords and it seemed to work ok. Just push a button and you have the chord. i guess it would be fine for someone who wanted only to strum simple chords, but it's not much more than a gimmick for anyone else.

[JQ.]

KeMe, I went to the Chord Buddy site and found this:

The ChordBuddy currently does not work on left-handed guitars, nor does it work on Classical or half-sized (Children's) guitars.

As soon as the ChordBuddy is properly attached to your acoustic or electrical guitar, you will be able to make music.

I'll agree that lower tension/shorter scale would be a better solution, and that's why I originally suggested an ukulele in another of your threads. Ukes fit the bill on both counts, plus they have four strings instead of six, which should make it easier for her to learn on.

I say get two ukes and you can learn with her/teach her and have some fun playing together. I'm sure she'd get a kick out of that.

[KeMe]

I think that probably an autoharp would be a great suggestion. But, she has it in her mind that she's going to learn to play that guitar. She already has the guitar that she got for Christmas.

I have to be a bit careful here, just because she's way up in years doesn't mean that she doesn't have flash of fire in her eyes and the ability to set me straight if she thinks that I'm suggesting that maybe her hands aren't as agile as they once were.
Seriously, I don't know.....
Okay, okay... I've got an idea! Why don't I tune her guitar so that the strings make a chord when it's strummed with open strings. Then I could get her one of those bottle slides things like the ones that I've seen in the music store. Then she can slide it up and down the fretboard and not have to put her fingers on any of the strings. Something like FACFAC??
It sure would be cheaper than a Chord Buddy.
Hmmmmmm

Kay

[JQ.]

I think that probably an autoharp would be a great suggestion. But, she has it in her mind that she's going to learn to play that guitar. She already has the guitar that she got for Christmas.

Just curious, what guitar did she get for Christmas?

[KeMe]

I think that probably an autoharp would be a great suggestion. But, she has it in her mind that she's going to learn to play that guitar. She already has the guitar that she got for Christmas.

Just curious, what guitar did she get for Christmas?

A Yamaha C40

Kay

[lagartija]

Kay.... you teach people to play guitar. Just let her play!!!! Give her time to build up strength and agility in her fingers. Motion is the lotion.... using them to the best of her ability is good enough.
Maybe she is looking for some quality time with you? Since you teach guitar... if she gets a guitar, you will come over to visit to teach her to play.
No one is too old. We know that from the stories of people who have posted here. Why do you worry about what she can or can't do at the moment? Are you afraid she will hurt herself?

[Kent]

I saw this on tv, on the show Dragons Den. The guy who came up with it was trying to get them to invest in it. It's the same idea as an autoharp. On the show he played some chords and it seemed to work ok. Just push a button and you have the chord. i guess it would be fine for someone who wanted only to strum simple chords, but it's not much more than a gimmick for anyone else.

Here in the USA, the show is called "Shark Tank". Love the show.
I think this would be fine for a person up in their years. It makes music, and that's the most important thing.
I would buy it for my Granny if she was still around.

[simonm]

When I started to play classical the first thing I was shown was some finger stretching exercises. We didn't even touch a guitar in the first lesson. Those exercises were part of the programme for quite a while. They would probably still be useful if I took the time to do them.

Simon