I'm sure that on more than one occasion some of our readers have "tried to pass as a guitarist" just to cause pain in the neighbor's ears, and I say that because I have belonged to both groups. The guitar demands an enormous amount of patience, and a tactile skill that not all of us manage to develop, but the device called Chordelia seeks to compensate for this last detail by becoming an "assistant" that identifies and plays the strings for us.
One of the most striking examples in which we saw someone "pretend" to play the guitar was "Crossroads", a 1986 film with Ralph Macchio, the unforgettable "Daniel-san" from the Karate Kid saga. The film's soundtrack was handled by Ry Cooder and Steve Vai, and the guitars we hear during the film were the responsibility of both. These small details give us an idea of how complicated it can be to learn to play the guitar.
Reaching an acceptable level with this instrument requires entire years of passion, practice, and patience, three things that most people end up exhausting before reaching that "ideal point". The average design of the classic "current" guitar has been with us for hundreds of years, and during all that time no one thought of redesigning the guitar to make it easier to learn. What alternatives exist? Well, why don't we take a look at Chordelia?
Playing the Guitar Without Knowing
Basically, what Chordelia does is replace the user's left hand and take care of applying pressure on the strings. Instead of playing each string directly, the user lowers a lever and lets the device do the dirty work. Chordelia works on five of the six strings on a modern guitar, and although losing access to one string affects the number of songs we can play, both the official Chordelia website and the rest of the web offer a wide number of pieces to practice. Chordelia combines wood, metal, and what look like security seals. It's not the most robust we've seen, but even in the worst case it should be easy to repair.
Now, Chordelia presents several limitations. In addition to the aforementioned restriction to five strings, Chordelia cannot be installed on just any guitar (the measurements are on the official page), and as far as we have been able to verify, it also does not allow inverted installation to serve left-handed users. Finally, we reach the price: 225 euros are not for just anyone, but if there is some special condition (arthritis or similar), Chordelia could be of use.
