Can I use Qactus for a Mini Guitar?
Qactus is designed to be compatible with acoustic guitars (other than Gut strings), so basically it should be usable. However, with a "Mini Guitar", you can not determine what the guitar is like, so it can not be determined until you actually install Qactus. Although it says "mini", there are various kinds of guitars such as medium scale, short scale, etc. There shouldn't be a problem using guitars of that kind, but guitars such as "Guitalele(by YAMAHA)" and other small guitars are not compatible with Qactus. It is best to use "Standard Acoustic Guitars".
Can I use Qactus for an Electric Guitar?
Qactus is used exclusively for Acoustic Guitar (it can not be used for gut string guitars) as stated in the instruction manual. The reason for that is because electric guitars do not actively use open strings like acoustic guitars.The acoustic guitar's strings are much thicker than the electric guitar's. Also, it's quite a burden for beginners. That is why Qactus is a necessary tool in assisting many beginners.
Installing Qactus on a guitar is really hard and takes a lot of time. I'd like to know if there are ways to make it easier.
As stated in the instruction manual, you can easily install Qactus with the groove side down, (marked with ▲) from the 6th string and the 2nd fret of the guitar by "slowly plugging it into the gap between the string and the fingerboard". Install it at the correct position. No need to lift the string and to push it with full force.
I think it seems that the strings become a bit harder if I put Qactus on it. I wonder if it happens only on my guitar.
Since a total of 50 to 70 kg of force is applied to the stretched, metal strings on an acoustic guitar, the strings will be a bit harder than usual. Do not be alarmed. No need to adjust the stretched metal strings. Actually, this is good practice for beginners. Simply push a little a harder with your fingers.
Qactus has a mechanism in which the strings are slightly harder to push in order for users to learn how strong they need to push strings for playing the guitar properly. This is the same logic used for training with baseball bat . It is heavier than ordinary one. If you do not put the proper pressure on the strings firmly in the form of using only 1 or 2 fingers while using Qactus, you will definitely give up at the next stage when you try to improve without Qactus.
Qactus is not a "toy that makes the guitar easier", but a "tool to make all beginners move to the next stage" so please continue practicing with fun and feel the stress necessary for your progress.
Are these chords used in QactusCore completely different from the chords when not using Qactus? Even though I remember it a bit, I feel wasteful that I cannot use Qactus when I move to the next stage.
Of course not. In order to avoid creating frustrated people in the early stages of the guitar, they are arranged to play music with a very simple holding method. However, in order to prevent beginners from getting confused during the second stage of graduating from Qactus, these chord forms used in QactusCore must always be "in a state of just removing some positions against normal chord forms", that is not a completely different position. It is completely designed for all Qactus users that are going to learn normal chord forms for the next stage.
In short, Qactus is an open tuning, isn't it?
Some people misunderstand that the state at the time of mounting Qactus is open tuning (an anomaly setting tuned so as to harmonize with a specific chord only by opening string), but it is different. Because open tuning collapses the position of regular tuning, even professional musicians often get confused. Qactus is "to bring all beginners safely to the next stage" and sticks to reducing the work burden without collapsing the original form position.
QactusCore is hard to see because English and Japanese are mixed together. Isn't there a better way to see it?
Since Qactus has demand not only in an English-speaking country but all over the world, and there are many users in Japan so far, due to that, Qactus is made in Japan. That is why we use such notation. Also, in order to maintain the Qactus starter's kit's current price and provide QactusCore permanently without charging fee, such as monthly fee after purchase, we have been offering this kind of service.
It is certainly hard to see in the current style which displays two languages at the same time. However, even if two languages are displayed at the same time, QactusCore is refined so that it will function if you read only one of them, namely English. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but if you get used to it, you can use it stress-free so please try.
Incidentally, it is currently under consideration to supplement this part as English version QactusCore in books and other publications. For people who feel that "QactusCore is hard to see", this is a good news so please wait for it.
Sometimes some chords sound weird. But I think that the way I hold it is right though.
In the chords used in QactusCore, frequent sound that produce dissonance often appear.
This is a thorough analysis of the various setbacks and trends that the "Q-sai@ Music Camp" at the site of many years had gained, and focused on "saving 80% of frustrated beginners".
In other words, "It is a training method specialized in the early stage that 80% of beginners who are frustrated, if they leave, can continue without failing and can grasp the tips of the fingers unexpectedly", so sometimes the pitch which can become a dissonance is also positively incorporated to reduce work burden more than anything. Therefore, there are certain people who can feel uncomfortable with harmony, and some people do not notice as well.
As the fingering progresses through Qactus and improves, beginner's ears are also improved at the same time, so the dangerous chords that sometimes come out while playing with Qactus will start to worry. And that is the time of Qactus graduation. From here it is time to finish the first stage, further improve with your own power on the next stage. To play guitar without Qactus will be much harder, but since the dangerous sounds are drifting away to that time, it will be cleared up and you will be able to overcome the next stage with the pleasure of that.
In the 5th guitar history, the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" is a level that I can play normally. When I tried Qactus' version, I felt much cooler than the normal version as Beatles' sounds, but what is different?
Although human ears have a habit of following a top note in a chord, Qactus' arrangement of the song gives ethnic atmosphere because the two sounds on the top (the highest pitch) are stayed at harmonic intervals. The arrangement of the Beatles' is recorded with an Indian instrument called Sitar, but since Qactus is a voicing state reproducing with a single guitar, the sound has become more Beatles beyond the Beatles I think. It is due to the effect like the so-called "drone strings". Sorry to be a little intelligible for beginners.
I am frustrated reading the QactusCore-Method. I think it is difficult for beginners. But since I'm interested in music theory I want to try someday.
As you said, the QactusCore-Method is difficult for beginners. As a precaution, this method is not a knowledge necessary for using Qactus, it is a "knowledge for people who want to make QactusCore and want to contribute", so even if you cannot understand the QactusCore-Method as an inexperienced person or a beginner, there is no problem. Someday you have improved and you want to help someone by making QactusCore, please try to read it.
I play guitar happily everyday. I often play for a long time because it is fun, but due to the vibration of the strings, the surface of Qactus got a little worn out. Am I not good at playing?
In order to shift to the next stage (Qactus graduation), the guitar frustration which is said to be 80% of beginners, Qactus dared not to positively heighten durability. Because Qactus' purpose is not to "make the guitar easier", but "bring all beginners to the next stage".
Qactus' mission is to reliably push all beginners to the next step, not to depend on Qactus for decades. If Qactus wears out, please recognize that it is time for the second phase to come and believe in your power and graduate from Qactus. It was probably practiced to worn out, so surely the second stage could be overcome boldly.
I thought it was metal because it was gold but it is plastic. Personally I want it to be metal.
Qactus employs polycarbonate material which is the most suitable material to satisfy its function. Of course, it may look cheap compared to metal. But if it is metal, it can damage the fingerboard or strings, the balance of the sound of the 1st and 2st strings and the 3rd to 5th strings becomes unnatural, respectively, of course it costs innocently. There are various inconveniences, such as rising.
For Qactus, and for all beginners, polycarbonate is the best choice. Of course not only the material but also Qactus is designed based on a lot of functions" which has been fully studied up to every detail.
I think that it is too expensive with this small plastic. It seems that you can sell it all over the world, isn't it reasonable to make a profit? If so, wouldn't it be half price at least?
Qactus starter's kit price includes not only Qactus body manufacturing and development costs. As Qactus is not a toy but an instrument, of course, the development and manufacturing costs associated with the main body are more than apparent.
However, as with the main body, as you already know, it is the information necessary for playing, that is "QactusCore" and it is frequently updated and maintained on the website, it constantly requires a huge running cost.
Besides that, we are collecting distribution costs, package costs, printed materials, advertisement expenditure, and others, and we are selling it as a total profit margin with a very low setting.
If the price is lower further, QactusCore essential for Qactus will not function sufficiently, Qactus' goal, "to bring all beginners to the next stage" cannot be fulfilled. Please understand that the price of Qactus is not the main body price itself but the price for "all the elements necessary for all beginners who were going to give up".
If you imagine the reality that you buy a doctor's book, a video, a number of musical scores etc. After all, give up the reality that more than half of the frustrated people are giving up, at least this price has all the necessary materials. Qactus is never expensive. You can see that it is not something.