Fender research says guitars could help you stay young as you age

Guitarists can enter a
meditative state.
Fender

• Fender
  partnered with a research consultancy and a neuroscientist to
  learn about guitar players.
• The results of that research suggest that playing
  guitar could contribute to well-being.
• A surprising number of new guitar players have no
  rock-star ambitions whatsoever.
• Fender has also gathered interesting data from its
  Fender Play online learning system, which launched last
  year.

When it comes to guitars, and electric guitars in particular, no
company is bigger than Fender. The 72-year-old company has a 47%
market share and is legendary for its axes and amplifiers, which
are used by pop, rock, jazz, blues, and country royalty.

Jimi Hendrix played a Fender Stratocaster. Eric Clapton still
plays one. And with instruments ranging in price from $100 to
many thousands (for special orders from the company’s custom
shop), a lot of aspiring and established musicians start out with
Fender gear and later use it to make a living.

But as musical tastes evolve, questions have arisen about the
future of rock-n-roll and the destiny of the guitar as a symbol
of creativity. 

To investigate the contemporary guitar zeitgeist,
Fender recently joined forces with research consultancy Egg
Strategy and McGill University neuroscientist and
author Daniel Levitin. The research
covered 500 individuals in the US and UK, and the results were
published in a report titled “Illuminating the State
of Today’s Guitar Players.”

Some of the findings confirmed what many people already
knew: playing guitar can be good for you. But for Fender and its
business, there were also some surprises.

The company already understood that a relatively small
number of guitarists harbored rock-star ambitions. That isn’t a
concern for Fender, given that many current and future rock stars
do make use of its gear. But
the report also
revealed that 72% of players took up the instrument to improve
themselves, and 50% of guitarists in the United Kingdom play for
themselves, rather than aiming to entertain an
audience. 
Guitar players might also be looking
to improve their well-being.

Wandering through music might increase productivity

Fender

Fender sought the help of Levitin, whose 2007 book, “This Is Your
Brain on Music: The Science of a Human
Obsession,” delves in the role music has played in
human evolution. 

“Letting your mind wander is the key to reducing anxiety,”
Levitin said in a statement. “We get our minds to wander by
walking in nature or playing music — that’s what hits the reset
button on the brain. Even just 15 minutes of ‘wandering’ and
playing an instrument can increase productivity.”

That’s a good thing to keep in mind for any aspiring guitarist
who thinks they have to practice for hours a day and achieve
mastery in order to justify buying an instrument. 

According to Fender CEO Andy Mooney, the company has also learned
some intriguing things about its customers since last year’s
launch of Fender Play, an online guitar-instruction system. 

“We have 67,000 users in Fender Play,” Mooney told Business
Insider. “Our assumption was that it would be mostly young people
picking up the guitar for the first time. But a much larger
percentage is at the upper end of age spectrum. They see it as
way to self-develop, as a meditative investment in themselves.”

Beneficially, those older players have both money and time, so
they can commit to more learning at a slower place — and purchase
more of Fender’s pricier equipment. But younger players haven’t
disappeared. And Fender learned that 50% of new players are
women.

To a large extent, this pattern is an early sign that Fender Play
is achieving key goals: bringing new players into the fold,
decreasing the rate of attrition, and growing the overall market.
It’s a well-known fact that most new players abandon the guitar
after a short period of time and never return to it. Mooney
reasoned that if the abandonment rate could be lowered by just
10%, Fender Play could assist in giving music-industry sales a
huge boost.

He said that this would logically raise all boats — including
those of Fender’s competitors — but that Fender would reap
considerable returns, given that it controls nearly half of the
market. Sales have been improving, and for Fender, the needle has
been moving up on prices across the company’s entire range. In
September, it shipped more equipment than any previous month in
its long history, and its factories are running at capacity.

Rumors of the guitar’s demise, it seems, have been
exaggerated. 

Fender Play has signed up 67,000 users. Many are older
than Fender anticipated.
Fender

Challenges remain, however

“Nearly half of beginners stated they quit learning an instrument
due to time constraints, and 33% of beginners shared they were
not growing skills fast enough or as fast as they thought they
would,” Fender said in a statement about the Egg Strategy
research. “The reality is that it’s much easier for a person to
binge-watch a Netflix series in their free time than learn
guitar, but the rise of digital technology also has an upside,
especially for specific types of learners.”

Mooney said that Fender has observed Play users dividing into two
groups: one that wants quick results; and another that’s more
patient. The resource is designed to address the needs of each
contingent; it can be used on desktop and laptop computers, as
well as iOS and Android mobile devices.

The company has also unveiled a new incentive to spur people to
commit to Play for the long haul. On Tuesday, Fender started
offering an $89.99 yearly subscription that comes with a 10%
discount on Fender equipment purchased through the company’s
e-commerce channel or at participating retailers. That 10%
savings on  an
$825 Classic Player Jazzmaster guitar, for example, would
return almost your entire Play annual subscription. 

Previously, the Play service was only offered at a $9.99 monthly
fee, following a 30-day free trail. (With that option, users can
cancel whenever they want.)

I’ve
tested Play and found it to be an excellent way to learn
guitar and improve one’s skills. 

According to Levitin, developing your musical side also appears
to be a great way to stave off the negative effects of aging —
and to enhance your cognitive talents early in life. He has
explored this in his own research,
going back two decades.

“After 60, playing an instrument can help you retrain and remap
neural circuits that are inclined to atrophy, which helps you
stay mentally young,” Levitin said. “Learning an instrument can
also help develop your brain when you are a kid.”