Guitar Hero gives false hopes to people

While Guitar Hero is a simplified parallel to playing an actual guitar, I disagree with the characterization that it gives people false hope as well as with the insinuation that it has little value in preparing someone to play guitar. Conversely, I think Guitar Hero holds great promise for introducing many people to guitar and for improving their guitar-playing abilities. Further, I think we've only just begun to tap the potential for video game-based instruction with respect to musical instruments. Anecdotally, having played guitar for the past 12 years (and having musical experience before that, including playing piano and brass instruments), I was impressed the first time I picked up a Guitar Hero controller at how well it simulated the overall feeling of playing guitar. I will concede it lacks the nuance of aiming for a specific string, for playing chords more complex than power chords, as well as the challenge of aiming for more than five frets (though the game "Rock Band" has already begun to address that with a controller that features play on ten frets, and the "Fretlight" guitar slated to come out soon addresses all of these problems by replacing the controller with an actual guitar; all that's left is to marry the game to the hardware). I would argue that Guitar Hero prepares wannabe players in three critical areas: 1) Building up finger strength and flexibility (which is critical to learning how to play; many people are discouraged by the exercises needed to build up adequate hand strength to play - and a game like Guitar Hero makes that a fun, leisurely activity). 2) By teaching critical concepts like rhythm. 3) By allowing students to practice independent hand usage, another skill essential to learning to play the guitar. Many guitar instructors also see the value of Guitar Hero for promoting and enhancing education: "I've interviewed several guitar teachers about the game, and some speak of it as the most revolutionary thing to hit the world of guitar since Jack White learned his first scale. "Guitar Hero" is introducing millions of young people to the possibility of playing the instrument, and it's also teaching them important skills they'll need to play. And not only that: "Guitar Hero," perhaps more than any other piece of modern entertainment, is juicing kids' interest in guitar-heavy music." http://machinist.salon.com... In fact, the immense popularity of the hit Guitar Hero franchise--the third iteration of the game, Guitar Hero III, brought in $115 million during its first week on the market--may be the best thing that has happened to the instrument, to rock 'n' roll, and to guitar instructors, in a long time. "I have an overwhelming feeling that my business is safe for years to come when I see kids playing Guitar Hero," said Dan Emery, owner of New York City Guitar School. "These kids are really enjoying playing Guitar Hero, and they're really being turned on to old classic rock" via the game. Emery said he actually sees Guitar Hero as perhaps the best recruitment tool his school could have asked for. "I fully expect that (kids who play the game) will get into their twenties and they will have disposable income and they will decide to actually play guitar and they're going to call us up," he said." http://www.news.com... Though there have been anecdotal examples of some students who have shown up for guitar classes after playing Guitar Hero only to be discouraged by the additional challenges of learning to play guitar, I would argue that this phenomena should be discounted for two reasons. First, the traditional modes of teaching must (and will) evolve to account for the more dynamic experience of playing Guitar Hero. That is to say, it's arguable that many of the people turned off by the experience of learning to play an actual guitar are turned off because of the stodgy traditional modes of instruction. Second, there's no reason not to believe that for every student turned off by the translation from Guitar Hero to actual guitar, there isn't also another student who never thought they had the ability only to discover through Guitar Hero that it wasn't beyond their reach.