CHEGheads Blog

My Guitar Hero Problem

Posted by Marc Check - 11/20/09 at 04:11 pm

It’s not that I play too much, quite the contrary. The Guitar Hero game I’ve had at home since last Christmas is still wrapped in cellophane. I just can’t bring myself to buy the guitar controller required to play the game. Guitar Hero Control

My reluctance is not a reflection of the game, which is by all measures popular, fun, and imaginative. Guitar Hero is more than a game actually. It’s a pop culture and gaming milestone that has opened doors for an entire genre of new-age musical video games. No, my reluctance is a reflection of my own personal issues and biases.

It’s like this. I’ve been a performing musician for years, and I have first-hand appreciation of the hard work and practice it takes to play an instrument. In fact, after 30-plus years of playing, I still consider myself an amateur. I relish the thought of younger generations learning to play real guitars and other instruments, but I’m afraid that kids who could be learning to play real instruments will instead spend their time learning to tap buttons on fake instruments. My musician friends, others in the blogosphere, and the pop-culture media are voicing a similar concern.

South Park Guitar Hero Recently, the adult cartoon South Park aired an episode that illustrates this issue in characteristically irreverent but poignant ways. Plus, the 2009 New York Times article, “While My Guitar Gently Beeps”, has explored the contempt for music video games in great detail and provided some psychological insight into attitudes resembling my own. So, even though I know I’m not alone in my trepid attitude towards Guitar Hero, I’m still a bit embarrassed by feeling this way.

As a result, I’ve taken the first step—admitting that I have a problem. And now I want to recognize and give credit to the good cultural points of Guitar Hero and other music video games. So, consider these points:

1) Guitar Hero teaches basic rhythmical concepts. I realized this when I first played the game in our NCHEG arcade (just because I don’t own a Wii guitar doesn’t mean I’ve never played the game—after all, this is my job). The best technique isn’t just a matter of simply following the colored indicators; it also requires timing the button pushes to the beat of the song.

2) Guitar Hero World Tour (originally referred to as Guitar Hero IV and the latest game in the series) teaches cooperation through the introduction of drum and microphone controllers, which is certainly a skill required in successful real bands. Groups of otherwise momentous talent have ultimately failed because they lack this skill.

3) Guitar Hero, and most video games in general, teach success through perseverance, a quality most musicians know intimately.

4) Not entirely unlike reading sheet music, players of Guitar Hero are required to follow displayed patterns with corresponding finger movements. Being able to read ahead and anticipate the next note makes for a more successful performance.

5) Guitar Hero fosters musical appreciation. Rather than shuffling through the music of their older family members, young Guitar Hero players are introduced to some of the greatest music of previous generations. There may even be a new generation of classic rock fans being cultured on Guitar Hero and similar music video games.

I don’t accept other supposedly positive qualities sometimes attributed to Guitar Hero, such as the claim that the game inspires kids to pursue real life musical training and careers in the music industry. Although I’m sure this is true in some cases, I doubt that this is any more common than players of Madden NFL pursuing football careers, or players of Call of Duty enlisting in the military. Claims have also been made that Guitar Hero helps kids deal with stage fright and performance anxiety, but this remains unverifiable.

Despite the positive qualties I see in Guitar Hero, I remain disappointed. Guitar Hero doesn’t teach us more transferrable music skills.Then again, why should I expect it to? It is, after all, a game. And perhaps it and similar music video games will open the door for more serious games, eventually teaching music to future generations of rock stars.

I guess it couldn’t hurt to ask for a guitar controller this Christmas.

November 20, 2009 | View Comments

5 Comments »

I appreciate your take on music games, because it’s not so elitist. Compare that to people like Prince, who talk down to anyone who would ever want to play Guitar Hero, and make them feel inferior.

However, I differ with you and others on the point of whether these games discourage people from playing real instruments. I think people that want to learn the real thing will, and when they do, they’ll probably stop playing the games, because they’re so different from the real instrument.

I have been a percusionist for over 20 years. Piano, drumset, orchestral instruments – all of it. I don’t really want to learn to play the guitar. I spend so many hours practicing the instruments that I already play. I don’t want to try to squeeze in more hours to practice another instrument. I just want to pick up a pretend guitar and pretend. If people try to learn to play every instrument available, they’ll never be good at any of them. There’s only so much time.

I think sometimes all of the researchers get lost in proving value in everything, and forget that sometimes it’s about having fun, value or no. Sometimes it’s just about the play

Comment by Aaron Sanders — November 24, 2009 #
Guitar Hero games are among my favorite video games. I love music, and even though I would love be able to play a real guitar, I realized long ago that it is not possible.

Obviously not everybody can be a musician. It is true that many kids can settle for not even trying to play a musical instrument because of this new alternatives, but it is also true that many would never try to learn anyway or would give up because of frustration. Like many other game, is about having fun and playing a role. Games allow us to do (and even be good at something) that in real life we would never do.

A musician will never look at the game the same way a non-musician does, and this could apply to many games: a soldier that has been in war would not enjoy Modern Warfare like a teen does, for example.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band are games that encourages one to be active and play with friends and family instead of laying on a couch alone, and like you said, teach us a sense of rhythm too.

Every game has negative elements, some more than others, and musical video games probably have more positive than negative elements in general.

Comment by Anain Roibal — November 24, 2009 #
They’re running out of time to release it in 2009, but it’s an interesting concept: http://www.guitarrising.com/

Comment by Will — November 24, 2009 #
I like it, its fun to play with the kids. But I make sure to limit the time, and we all play and practice real instruments as well. Its family time for us, you are allowed to rock out during family time. I also make sure that the kids know that this is not real, they really aren’t guitar heroes just because they can press some buttons in time with the music, and that getting a good score will not earn respect or praise from anyone. It does help with rhythm and it is a lot of fun, and I will be buying GH5 for Christmas.

Comment by bigtoddy — December 1, 2009 #
My kids used to play it a bunch. Best thing about it was it turned them on to some kick ass music. I personally tried it a few times and while it was slightly fun and entertaining, I wasn’t a huge fan of the visual aspect with the TV screen, etc. Now I just play it acoustically, completely unplugged. I’ve gotten pretty good actually. I’m thinking of trying to get some gigs, you know like a happy hour type of thing, mellow, acoustic.

Comment by JARdale — December 1, 2009 #