I walked into my office early this morning to be pleasantly surprised with the Peavey Chord Buddy Guitar Learning System. I ordered the Chord Buddy on Feb. 3 and got it in 7 days. Not too bad considering when I ordered it, the Chord Buddy was being featured on Shark Tank (see the video below) and you could definitely tell the Chord Buddy site was having troubles with all the traffic it was receiving. I was a bit worried something may happen to the order in the chaos, but 7 days later I had the Chord Buddy in my hand and a big smile on my face.

So what did I think of Travis Perry‘s invention, the Peavey Chord Buddy Guitar Learning System? From a scale to 1 – 10, I’d give it a 8. One small complaint I had (and not sure if you can really blame the inventor on this one), was you had to really press down on a chord or two to ensure you hit all the notes right. Only had a problem with about two strings, but after fiddling with it for about 30 mins., I managed to get it in the perfect position to hit about 98% of the chords I strummed correctly. Not too bad for a gadget that only requires you to push 4 different buttons to play hundreds of songs… easily.

The other complaint I had about the Chord Buddy was it takes a little time for your fingers to get used to the fret board again once you took the Chord Buddy off. I think the only people that might experience this are others in my situation where I’ve picked up the guitar a couple of times in the past so already know a little about chords and where my fingers should be. Might just be me though on this on… I’m not anything close to being good at the guitar and definitely consider myself a beginner.

Lastly, and this is just my own personal preference… the Chord Buddy kinda looks like a child’s toy instead of a musicians gadget or learning tool. I realize it’s probably easier to learn and understand with color coded tabs and a see-through base, but think there has to be something they can do to mature it up a little.

So what did I like about the Peavey Chord Buddy Guitar Learning System? Mainly, it does what it says it’ll do. Once I got the Chord Buddy on my Fender electric-acoustic guitar, I was playing songs. It’s really that easy. You don’t need to know a thing about reading music or have any music experience in the past to start playing many songs right off the bat. Of course you do need a little since of rhythm to strum, but if you can tap your foot… you have rhythm. If you’re a beginner on the guitar looking for a learning tool that will give you an edge and help a lot with the learning curve, the Peavey Chord Buddy Guitar Learning System is perfect for you.