GuitarGames.net is a collection of online games and webapps that range from walking guitars that teach key signatures to fish that help students learn music notation to an online practice schedule complete with metronome. Their latest release, Super Scale Trainer, is a serious webapp aimed at teaching music theory on the guitar. “Our goal is to develop a lineup of games and apps that meets students at every age and ability level,” states GuitarGames.net founder William Wilson. “The Super Scale Trainer is aimed at a fairly serious music student, it includes over 6000 possible scales and arpeggios. And yet even the first year student could stand to learn a basic C Scale.”
GuitarGames.net designed Super Scale Trainer to be played along with the guitar, making it unique among webapps. “Many of our games are basically simply flash cards with fancy graphics,” says Wilson. “With this release we see a shift towards a computerized coach if you will; a program that will have guitarists playing along with their computer in order to learn how to improvise and play faster.”
William Wilson started GuitarGames.net in 2006 in order to revitalize guitar instruction. Its goal was to take the necessary repetition of learning the guitar and make it into a game. “How do you make the fundamentals of learning guitar fun?” asks guitar instructor Peter Pupping owner of GuitarSounds Studios in Encinitas, CA. “As GuitarGames.net first appears, because of the cartoon format, one may say ‘looks fun for kids.’ The truth is all of us have kid in us. So don’t let the light-hearted humor and colorful animations fool you. Behind this light heartedness is an amazing collection of very effective teaching tools.”