Jamstik Blog

We built the jamstik not only to be an amazing guitar learning tool, but also a high quality musical device capable of so much due to the portability and versatility.  We took it down to SXSW this year not only to show it off at the Music Gear Expo, trade shows, and meetings, but to bring it into real venues and onto the streets to get real people playing it. This is the story of our time in Austin, TX this March.

If you haven't heard, we decided to go to crowdfunding to launch our latest project, the jamstik+. We've seen an overwhelming amount of support so far, and are happy to have surpassed our goal by over 500% in just the first week.  

We've been privileged to receive a STAFF PICK by Kickstarter, so a big thanks to them for helping us increase the visibility of our project! Thanks so much to everyone who has pledged so far!  We wanted to provide a quick overview of the project, and tell why we're back utilizing crowdfunding to make it happen.

An awesome post from Guest author Troy Strand, Music instructor at MacPhail Center For Music in Minneapolis, MN. Troy shares his experience taking the jamstik into his classroom and reveals how every one of his beginning guitar students was able to play their first chord!   We love his use of a projector connected to his iPad to display JamTutor on the whiteboard!

Guest Author Destiny Henn, an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Music Therapy, has spent the last few months researching the viability of the Jamstik as a device used to benefit the field and people involved. Here she shares the story of her journey in the field, and the beginnings of her experiences with the Jamstik.  

The Jamstik is perfect for practicing while on the road. The fact that it has real guitar stings makes it ideal for working on technique exercises or warm-ups. The best part is that when it comes time to board the plane or bus, I can just shove it in my carry-on bag along with my other travel items and be on my way.

Sampling isn't about "hijacking nostalgia wholesale," says Mark Ronson. It's about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward.

Today we have a guest post from a music educator that has been using the jamstik in his classroom, through the music education organization, "Little Kids Rock" He comes to us from across the country in New York City.  

We’re thrilled to announce that Jamstik has just been named as an honoree for the 2015 CES Innovation Awards under the “Tech for a Better World” category. We share the honor with several other great companies who have developed excellent products.

Needless to say, we’re absolutely thrilled and sincerely appreciative to be honored by CES.

I tripped into this piece today in such accidental fashion that I can’t tell you how it happened, but I’m glad it did. It’s entitled, “Learning Guitar as An Adult, the 5 Obstacles You’ll Face (And How to Beat Them" by Josh Frets. The whole piece is pretty good, but the first point really resonated with me.

One of our product specialists, Jarod Hadaway, has been a music production teacher at a local music tech school for the past few years.  He had a chance to bring the Jamstik into class on a few occasions and document the experience showing the kids the portable MIDI guitar.

I stumbled onto this article entitled “The Technical Constraints That Made Abbey Road So Good” written by Justin Lancy of The Atlantic thanks to a friend sharing it on Facebook. Said friend is a busy, well-known audio engineer in NashVegas, so I tend to inspect his posts and mentions with a careful eye.

The acronym MIDI stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface.” In the simplest explanation, MIDI is a language (technically speaking, it’s a protocol) that allows digitally-controlled musical instrument devices to communicate to each other. MIDI has been around since the early 1980’s. It was primarily used with synthesizers and sequencers, but quickly got implemented on all kinds of musically-related gear (drum machines, mixers, drum pads, synchronization boxes, etc.)