Guitar Hero - a harmless game or a dumbing down of our youth?
Posted by geoff.martyn on 14 July 2008 - 11:17pm.
Dear Word readers,
I think the rise in popularity of Guitar Hero is going to have a negative effect on the amount of time kids spend actually playing real guitars.
Yes, it's a fad. Yes, it's a bit of fun, but I can't help but think for every hour our future guitar heroes spend pushing multicoloured buttons in time to graphics appearing on a screen, it's another hour lost of serious guitar shredding along to (insert nostalgic record of choice here).
What does everyone else think? Do I have a valid point, should we march en-masse on the gates of Activision, axes aloft (see what I did there?) and dismantle their machines of anti-music?
What say ye?
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Guitar Hero...
...I spent the weekend with family and my 12 year old cousin is hooked on Guitar Hero. He spends hours learning the songs and the patterns he needs to play to get through. The thing is, he is actually a talented little musician as well, with a real ear for a tune. I taught him some riffs on Saturday morning and he'd pretty much mastered them by Sunday night and was using them in a new piece he'd made up. If he then took the time he spends on Guitar Hero and spent it on real guitar he'd be a real life guitar hero no question!
Me and his dad find it odd that he prefers the game to the real thing, even though he's really really good at the real thing. His dad actually made him turn off the console in the end and sent him to his room to play guitar!!!!!!
That might be taking it a little too far!
surely this is the last word on the subject
tennis rackets
If I hadn't wasted so much time playing the old dunlop in front of the mirror maybe I could play more than a wonky G chord on a real axe...
... but then we probably have enough guitarists already, don't we?
I understand from drummer mates
that the drums in rockband are a not bad introduction for the real things.
At least they're not hanging about street corners....
...drinking Buckfast!
My sons have had Guitar Hero for a while and 2 weeks ago they got Rockband.
In Scotland the schools finished a couple of weeks ago and my kids have hardly been off the games. Their friends come round almost every afternoon and evening to play.
My youngest already plays keyboards and sax but won't pick up a guitar. My eldest isn't interested in playing guitar either.
I had to laugh the other day when my sons were discussing how difficult it was to play "Pride And Joy" on the *hard* level. I told them it was MUCH more difficult on the real thing.
It's it (what is it?)
My friend reckons Cowboys From Hell (on GH1 I think) on expert is harder than playing it in real life. I guess that's assuming you can play guitar in the first place.
I hear Slash can't play Guitar Hero on any level about "medium", bless him.
Since buying Rock Band and attempting to live out my frontman fantasies I have discovered that some songs make you sound ridiculous (ie. Ballroom Blitz) some force you to do a stupid impression of the singer whether you want to or not (anything by Bowie), and most importantly, white men shouldn't rap (Epic)
Oh and I definitely don't have a future as a drummer
As someone who much prefers mindless dance music,
I think that when the Youth of Today play real guitars, it's a criminal waste of time they could be spending pushing multicoloured buttons in time to graphics appearing on a screen. What ARE things coming to?