Evan Jones from Fender Guitars in Frank's Garage to discuss the health and wellness benefits of music education, the Fender Play app, and how Z105 listeners can win a free Fender Redondo acoustic guitar.
To support the communityduring social distancing, Fender continues to offer new users three months of complimentary lessons on Fender Play, the complete online learning app for guitar, bass and ukulele. After bringing these free lessons to everyone three weeks ago and an outpouring of support from over 150 artists like Jimmy Page, H.E.R., Brendon Urie, Ashley McBryde, Tash Sultana and Orville Peck, more than half a million people have signed up to access the app. To further share the power of music, Fender will now offer free lessons to the first 1 million users who sign up for the 3-month Fender Play giveaway.
“We’re blown away by the overwhelming response to our three months of free guitar, bass, and ukulele lessons on Fender Play,” said Fender CEO Andy Mooney. "We started by providing complimentary lessons to the first 100,000, but quickly surpassed that number in just three days.”
“With this new, current reality, it’s clear we need music now more than ever,” Mooney added. “Music has the power to connect us, create a sense of community, and most importantly, lift our spirits. We hope offering Fender Play to even more aspiring players allows them to explore their creativity and make some noise while we’re spending more time inside.”
Fender Play makes it easier than ever to learn how to play with multi-genre, instructor-guided video lessons to assist those embarking on their musical journey. Designed with bite-sized learning in mind, it gives beginners everything they need to get playing songs by their favorite artists in minutes. With that in mind, Fender consulted with Daniel Levitin, an award-winning neuroscientists, musician, record producer and artist. (You might have heard of Levitin from his best-selling book,This is Your Brain on Music.)
The purpose of the study was to dive deeper into the mental, physical and emotional benefits of playing an instrument, and some interesting findings came to light.
Let's start with the six key insights below:
- Women continue to define the emerging guitar market, accounting for 50 percent of all beginner and aspirational players
- 72 percent of respondents cited they picked up guitar for the first time to gain a life skill or as a means of self-betterment.
- Players in the U.S. and U.K. cited differences in where they play, with 50 percent of respondents in the U.K. listing "playing privately" as their preferred environment,18 percent more than U.S. players.
- Respondents had humble aspirations and weren't looking for rockstar status with 61 percent of guitar players simply wanting to learn songs to play by themselves or socially. In most cases, new players are looking to play favorite songs for their friends and family, with 46 percent wanting to make music with others.
- 42 percent said they viewed guitar as part of their identity.
- Beginning and aspirational guitar players ranked online, video-based tutorials as the "most-effective resource to learn guitar," even over private lessons.
Diversity:
The research found that the guitar players of today are more diverse than ever before. Women continue to define the emerging guitar market, accounting for 50 percent of all beginner and aspirational players - begging the question, is the future of guitar female? The growing diversity of players expands beyond gender, as well. Both African-American and Hispanic consumers now represent a significant and growing share of new players: African-Americans account for 19 percent of aspirational players, while Latin players make up 25 percent of beginners.
"Today's players have grown up in a different cultural context and popular music landscape, and rising artists like Mura Masa, Tash Sultana, Youngr, Daniel Caesar, Grimes and Ed Sheeran are changing the way guitar is being used," said Fender CEO Andy Mooney. "As a brand, we are committed to creating tools - both physical and digital - that this generation of creators needs for self-expression, now and in the future."
Whether people are getting back into guitar after a hiatus, interested in learning a new skill, or trying out guitar for the first time, Fender hopes this giveaway will reinforce the myriad benefits that learning to play has on the mind and body.