The School of Feedback Guitar Blog

My good friend Gary hipped me to an application called Capo about a month ago. This app is nothing short of incredible. Capo is the most intuitive guitar transcription tool I have ever seen.

Transcription is the best process that guitarists have to learn how to solo. Basically, a person learns to play a solo by figuring it out by ear. Jazz and rock guitarists before taps were limited because they had to literally drop the needle on the record over and over again in order to figure out melodies. That process was cumbersome. Tapes made transcription easier, and cd's even more so. Digital recording made it very possible for a certain song to be recorded and looped, but it meant one had to learn how to operate the software (not easy).

Then, Capo came and made the entire process dead simple and fun. Basically, any song that you have in your iTunes library can be uploaded into Capo. From there, Capo allows you to slow down the song, loop it, and figure it out by ear. Naturally, you can adjust the speed of playback. When you feel you have the song at one tempo, you can readjust the tempo so that you can practice it faster. Eventually, you'll be able to play the song at full speed.

Like I mentioned above, the technology has been around for a long time. It's very possible to use Pro Tools to do the same exact thing, or you can use Capo. It's more intuitive, and it's far more affordable anyways.

Test Time!

I put Capo to the ultimate first test. How about the introduction to Cliffs of Dover?

Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson is possibly one of the most difficult guitar solos in the repertoire of guitar hero-esque songs. It has always bothered me that I couldn't totally figure out what he was playing in the opening cadenza of the song. It's too fast! I was almost ready to buy some sheet music. Unless Eric Johnson himself edited both the tablature and the notes on the staff, I wasn't going to buy it.

Instead, I just imported Cliffs of Dover into Capo, slowed down the beginning cadenza to ¼ speed, and then figured it out note-for-note. Then, I gradually upped the speed until I was playing along. I couldn't believe it. I finally had it. Now all I need to do is just play it about 100,000 more times, and I think I'll have it for good.

All in all, this program is amazing! If you like to play solos, Capo will be a great friend.

Where To Get It

Want to learn more? Here's their site! http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/

This post is all about the new app-making service called Rodeo. I think it deserves more recognition. Before I get started however, I want to make a note of full disclosure: I know the developers of Rodeo personally. We are friends. This post, however, was written by my own choice. The developers of Rodeo never asked me to write about their service, and I certainly wasn't paid to either!

I must also admit that I am completely biased. Rodeo is pretty awesome because it has made my work-life so much more effective. It has also made browsing more enjoyable. I have nothing but rosy things to say about it. If you are okay with my bias, then read on!

Download The Custom Guitar Application.

In the app I created, I included a button to this blog (I can't help it, I'm shameless), juststrings.com, zzounds.com, the TapeOp message board, and also the Heartwood Guitar blog. Strings, reviews, creative recording, great guitar advice. Basically, I rounded up all this content, and then created my own application with them. After I built the app, I clicked the link to share it.

This took about five minutes to create. 

What are the benefits of Rodeo?

For starters, you can get work done fast. When I am at home for example, the last thing I want to do is work. I would rather spend my time listening to music, creating, cooking, eating, or reading. I hate checking my email at home. If I do have to work, I want it to be done, fast.

To accomplish this, I first created an application called “The School of Feedback Guitar.” I included my email, my calendar, BookFresh, my site, my blog, Google Docs, and finally my e-newsletter service. None of these sites have their own application by themselves. Even if they did, they wouldn't be a custom application made specifically for my workflow needs. Rodeo basically rounded up all these webpages I regularly access from home and stuck them into one application, preloaded each of them for me using their lightning fast Rackspace Cloud server, and helped me get my work done in a fraction of the time it usually does.

Can your browser do that for you? No. Nor can your browser preload every bookmark you have.

Did each of these sites I mention have their own application I can download instead of just using a browser to access them? Nope. Many businesses don't have their own app. They are satisfied with webpages. But it's easy for you to create your own app for your own workflow needs.

Does your browser give you a simple way to share a bundle of content you have curated? No. Rodeo gives you a link to share your application with friends.

I like to make apps for specific moods and needs, too.

Another great benefit to using Rodeo is that it can help you customize an application to a specific mood. If you are anything like me, you like weird, fun stuff every once in awhile. Why not create an application of content that appeal to my weird, fun side? Let's add Lolcats, Pinterests, the National Geographic picture of the day, a weekly web comic, and someone's Flickr stream. Okay... Go!

Download my Fun, Silly Application

This took me, well, six minutes to create.

Let's try another example. What if I have a burning need to check four different pages of some favorite artists I like? Why not have it wrapped up in one small application for fast viewing? No problem. Here's an application that I created to check out the creative projects of some pretty talented people I admire:

The Talented People

This took me four minutes. Do you get it now? Create applications out of sites that have no applications, customize your app according to your preferences, needs, or moods, and then share it with whomever you like.

You can also get jiggy with your apps.

Want to upload a custom icon? Yup.

Want to add it to your dock without any extra steps? Yup.

Are updates easy? Yup. Painless too. I just did that a couple of minutes ago.

Want your own App Store? Yup. Here's mine: http://rodeocloud.com/appmaker/dlwirth/zip/index.html

Custom browsing experience, brutally fast workflow. Oh, and it's pretty cheap if you like it and want to keep on using it. If you want to try it out and see what happens first, they have a free trial. To download it, click here.

Rodeo: way fun, and way addicting.