How To Practice Guitar On The Go (Without A Guitar)

Pocket Strings

You’re not going to be the next Slash or Jimmy Hendrix or Nigel Tufnel, but that doesn’t mean you should abandon your dream of learning to play the guitar. To get decent, you have to practice. The trouble is, unless you live alone in a soundproof cave, practice causes noise. If you have deaf neighbors, you’re in the clear when you’re at home. But practicing on the go is a little trickier.

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That’s where PocketStrings ($24 and up @ Amazon.com) can come in handy. It’s a noiseless practice tool that allows you to work on chord progressions and establish finger dexterity whenever you have a few minutes. The 4-fret and 6-fret models feature real strings, real frets, and a raised plastic strum pad; each unit is also compact enough to fit into a backpack, messenger bag, or your back pocket. Just know that the practice tool doesn’t actually produce any music, so it’s only good for hand position, finger placement, and, dexterity exercises.

Our recommendation for next-gen models would be to add a locking mechanism to keep the device open. On more than one occasion our PocketString started to slide into the closed position after we accidentally pushed too hard with our fretting hand. Granted, that could be a result of our monstrous ogre-like limbs …

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Still, PocketStrings are priced to move and ideal for dudes who want to work their way up to rocking out to 11 …