Don't Give Up on the Guitar. Fender Is Begging You Each holiday season, thousands of teenagers tear gift wrap off shiny, new guitars. They giddily pluck at the detuned strings, thinking how cool they'll be once they're rock stars—even if almost all will give up before they ever get to jam out to "Sweet Child o' Mine." For them, it's no big deal to relegate the guitar to the back of the closet forever, in favor of the Playstation controller. But it is a big deal for Fender Musical Instruments Corp., the 70-year-old maker of rock 'n' roll's most iconic electric guitars. Every quitter hurts. "The industry's challenge—or opportunity—is getting people to commit for life," said Andy Mooney, Fender's chief executive officer. "A pretty big milestone for someone adopting any form of instrument is getting them through the first song." Beginning players, whether they're fickle teens or too-busy adults, have always quit the guitar at high rates. That means more apps, more connected devices, and a newfound focus on helping folks learn how to play their guitars. The hope is that players will get hooked early on cheap starter models, then upgrade to fancier guitars as they commit themselves to playing, with the most devoted among them evolving into collectors, their walls hung with high-end instruments. That all means more cash for Fender. Over the next few years, the company will be releasing a suite of digital products to help keep new guitar players strumming along. The first, a tuning app, teaches players how to change the pitch on their guitars, whereas most of the dozens of existing tuning apps assume some level of guitar proficiency. "When the kid plugs it in for the first time, it doesn't sound like a screaming cat when it comes out of an amp," said Mooney. "We want to help with a lot of the basic stuff." Fender is also looking to release a practice-room app that can teach someone to play any song in… http://bit.ly/2fQ3C7o
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