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Road Test: Aeroband PocketGuitar

Great news for bone-idle musos! With this virtual guitar pick, “You can play like a pro without the painstaking practising phase.”

Smart: it connects remotely to the PocketGuitar app; the sound comes out your phone
Smart: it connects remotely to the PocketGuitar app; the sound comes out your phone

What is it? A device that’ll take your air-guitar playing to the next level, with actual sounds.

How? It’s a virtual plectrum – a guitar pick – that connects via Bluetooth to the PocketGuitar app. One hand “strums” while the other hand selects the chords (displayed as buttons) on the phone screen. The rest of you is presumably gazing in the mirror wondering if you could pull off a Neil Young fedora (short answer: no).

Is it just basic chords? No, you can customise the phone screen with all sorts of esoteric stuff – D minor 6th, anyone? B flat augmented? – and even hit a button to play arpeggios.

It sounds a bit cheaty. I know, you vowed to learn guitar in lockdown, but honestly, who has the time? With this thing, Aeroband says, “You can dive right into playing like a pro without the painstaking practising phase”. Malcolm Gladwell can take his 10,000-hour rule and shove it!

$55.99, aeroband.net

Ross Bilton
Ross BiltonThe Weekend Australian Magazine

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/weekend-australian-magazine/road-test-aeroband-pocketguitar/news-story/dee819807e755f71cc0fe09f48946114