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The most popular song to learn on Fender Play is exactly what you think
“The tipping point for someone to commit to the instrument is whether they can complete a full song,” says Fender’s CEO Andy Mooney
Guitarist playing the Fender Palomino Vintage (All images: Fender)
Fender CEO Andy Mooney has revealed the song that is most popular for beginners to learn on the Fender Play platform, and it probably won’t surprise you.
Fender Play launched in the summer of 2017, offering a guided online programme for beginners and intermediate players to learn guitar through bitesize video lessons, exercises and more.
- READ MORE: “The holy grail!”: Watch Måneskin’s Thomas Raggi play one of the first ever Fender Strats
Back in 2018, Fender published findings from a study into guitar playing across the UK and US. Its data revealed that 45 percent of the guitars it sells go to first-time players, of which half are female. It also uncovered that 90 percent of first-time players abandon the instrument in the first year.
Speaking to Morning Brew, Mooney has now shared which song is most popularly learned on Fender Play by first-time guitarists, and why he thinks this is so.
His personal beginner track of choice, though, is not one widely first tackled: “I like House of the Rising Sun, but unfortunately it has an F chord, so that would be a problem. Interestingly, we have about 250,000 people in our Fender Play community, our online learning product, and you could probably guess what the No. 1 song is,” he says.
The interviewer then asks if it is Oasis’ Wonderwall – a song now often teased for its popularity with campfire guitarists. “It is,” confirms Mooney. “And the reason is that the chords in it are some of the easiest to play. And we found that the tipping point for someone to commit to the instrument is whether they can complete a full song.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Mooney also explains why he believes that Fender has such a versatile yet loyal customer base: “Fender caters to so many genres. The reason that Leo Fender’s designs have stood the test of time is because he listened to the feedback he got from working musicians. He designed the platforms to cater to their needs on the road. So they have very versatile instruments that you can play in any genre,” he states.
Find out more about Fender Play.