November 28, 2007 4:00 AM PST
Is tomorrow's Clapton playing 'Guitar Hero'?
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November 7, 2007
In a recent South Park episode, we see two of the show's main characters, Stan and Kyle, rocking out to the video game Guitar Hero as a roomful of their friends watch, rapt.
Stan and Kyle entertain their friends
by playing Guitar Hero.
As they're playing, Stan's father walks in, asks, "You kids want to see something really cool?" and starts to play an electric guitar.
For a moment, the room is dead silent. Then, Stan asks, incredulously, "Dad, what are you doing?"
"I can actually play a lot of these songs on a real guitar," the father responds. "Want me to show you boys how?"
Stan spits back, "That's stupid, Dad."
Well, maybe not, say guitar teachers. 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.
Credit: South Park Studios
In the South Park episode "Queer-o," Stan and Kyle entertain their friends
by playing Guitar Hero.
"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.
Exact numbers of Guitar Hero-fueled converts to the real thing (kids or adults) are hard to come by. But something at work here clearly could be the most powerful advertisement for the guitar since the hit Richard Linklater movie School of Rock.
In that film, Jack Black plays a teacher who, through sheer passion for music, turns a class of rock-illiterate elementary school students into a head-bobbing rock band. After the movie came out, San Francisco guitar teacher Jay Skyler said his roster of young students exploded overnight.
"All of a sudden, I had 9-year-old students," Skyler said, "because all of a sudden, everyone wanted a guitar."
But now, with Guitar Hero turning into one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, Skyler said it's not just kids who seem interested in playing the real instrument.
While some of his new adult students may not be willing to admit that the game drove them to him, he did suggest a definite cause and effect.
"My adult students, they don't want to cop to it," Skyler said of being Guitar Hero fans, "but they're all, 'Have you played the game?'"
The immense popularity of Guitar Hero does worry some of Skyler's fellow guitar teachers, who fret that the game may deter kids from being interested in picking up the real instrument. But Skyler doesn't share that concern, instead feeling that the long-term outcome will be positive.
"Basically, it's getting more kids into guitar," Skyler said. "So if you're a guitar teacher, or a band, you have to love it. They'll play with the toy for a while, but after awhile, they'll want the real thing."
See more CNET content tagged:
Guitar Hero, teacher, instrument, kid, Activision Inc.
48 comments
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I think it's a stretch. Watching youngun's play the game, it's the competition factor that drives them. Being good enough to do it right. The fact that it's oriented to rock music and shaped like a guitar is just entertainment value.
Personally, I hate to see the talent required to play guitar reduced to something that you "decide" to pursue after mastering a console game. The REAL players know it's something much much more than that.
To illustrate, spend some time with Steve Morse or Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson or Ty Tabor. They do so much more than simply play the instrument...Their creative prowess manifests itself thru the guitar. And they're not the only ones.
But...then again, how many drivers on the road today cut their teeth on Mario Kart?
I think it's a stretch. Watching youngun's play the game, it's the competition factor that drives them. Being good enough to do it right. The fact that it's oriented to rock music and shaped like a guitar is just entertainment value.
Personally, I hate to see the talent required to play guitar reduced to something that you "decide" to pursue after mastering a console game. The REAL players know it's something much much more than that.
To illustrate, spend some time with Steve Morse or Joe Satriani or Eric Johnson or Ty Tabor. They do so much more than simply play the instrument...Their creative prowess manifests itself thru the guitar. And they're not the only ones.
But...then again, how many drivers on the road today cut their teeth on Mario Kart?
My husband bought me Guitar Hero II in August, and re-kindled my love for the guitar. I started taking lessons again to learn finger-picking styles (I still remember how to read music and do chords), and now, for Christmas, I told my hubby I want an electric guitar.
The console has also helped me in playing my real guitar--I have the weakest pinky in the world, and while playing my guitar I tend to tuck it in toward my hand instead of using it on the strings. The game helps me to remember to USE my pinky and strengthen it. I'm getting better-at both the game and my guitar! It's finally starting to feel less "awkward" to keep my pinky out and "available" instead of tucking it away while I play.
My husband bought me Guitar Hero II in August, and re-kindled my love for the guitar. I started taking lessons again to learn finger-picking styles (I still remember how to read music and do chords), and now, for Christmas, I told my hubby I want an electric guitar.
The console has also helped me in playing my real guitar--I have the weakest pinky in the world, and while playing my guitar I tend to tuck it in toward my hand instead of using it on the strings. The game helps me to remember to USE my pinky and strengthen it. I'm getting better-at both the game and my guitar! It's finally starting to feel less "awkward" to keep my pinky out and "available" instead of tucking it away while I play.
However, the article poses the question of whether this game will lead to the next Clapton, assumably this means a real virtuoso, a person who can not only play the thing, but actually create with it. I don't have a problem with the idea that the game might inspire such a player, but then again, the next Clapton might also right now be popping the heads off of Barbie dolls.
My point is, I don't think this game, or any game, can instill the skill and creativity needed to be the next Clapton, Jeff Beck, Johnny Graham, Hendrix or Ernie Isley, but I think it might turn a lot of folks on to the guitar who might not have become interested otherwise. How far they go depends on propensity (which no game can influence) and desire, which they will have to maintain through the bleeding-finger stage!
However, the article poses the question of whether this game will lead to the next Clapton, assumably this means a real virtuoso, a person who can not only play the thing, but actually create with it. I don't have a problem with the idea that the game might inspire such a player, but then again, the next Clapton might also right now be popping the heads off of Barbie dolls.
My point is, I don't think this game, or any game, can instill the skill and creativity needed to be the next Clapton, Jeff Beck, Johnny Graham, Hendrix or Ernie Isley, but I think it might turn a lot of folks on to the guitar who might not have become interested otherwise. How far they go depends on propensity (which no game can influence) and desire, which they will have to maintain through the bleeding-finger stage!
Guitar Hero is a toy, nothing more.
I hope you'll have the integrity to admit your short-sightedness when it does...
Everything evolves over time. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Guitar Hero is a toy, nothing more.
First off, the game is fun. I have little to worry about how I look playing it since I know others enjoy it too. I also want to point out that I have always realized that artists out there work night and day getting their music right before putting out an album. Think of it this way, you?re in your car listening to Woman by Wolf Mother on the radio. Sounds alright, yet you don?t think about the effort involved to actually make the guitar tracks sound as they do. Now play it on hard on Guitar Hero 2 and see for yourself. It?s a difficult song to play to especially when the solo comes up.
One last example I want to point out is what I thought of the movie Hackers and actual software development. Hackers was a great movie to watch. But let me be honest, virus? do not typically cry in agony that they?re getting defeated like the so called di Vinci virus in the movie. Nor do navigating folders and files get done in three dimensional skyscrapers. Oh yea, another thing, when you message someone in a chat room, usually those messaging programs do not support flaming fonts. Now that being said, do I say that the Hackers movie is totally crap and gives learning computers a bad name? No, absolutely not. Maybe it?s a bad example, but it?s one that I could at least relate with.
My point is simply this; if it?s something you don?t enjoy then don?t play it. It?s your loss. Let others have their fun. I know my family and I are having a great time with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Rock on everyone!
First off, the game is fun. I have little to worry about how I look playing it since I know others enjoy it too. I also want to point out that I have always realized that artists out there work night and day getting their music right before putting out an album. Think of it this way, you?re in your car listening to Woman by Wolf Mother on the radio. Sounds alright, yet you don?t think about the effort involved to actually make the guitar tracks sound as they do. Now play it on hard on Guitar Hero 2 and see for yourself. It?s a difficult song to play to especially when the solo comes up.
One last example I want to point out is what I thought of the movie Hackers and actual software development. Hackers was a great movie to watch. But let me be honest, virus? do not typically cry in agony that they?re getting defeated like the so called di Vinci virus in the movie. Nor do navigating folders and files get done in three dimensional skyscrapers. Oh yea, another thing, when you message someone in a chat room, usually those messaging programs do not support flaming fonts. Now that being said, do I say that the Hackers movie is totally crap and gives learning computers a bad name? No, absolutely not. Maybe it?s a bad example, but it?s one that I could at least relate with.
My point is simply this; if it?s something you don?t enjoy then don?t play it. It?s your loss. Let others have their fun. I know my family and I are having a great time with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Rock on everyone!
1. Bad rhythm outs fast. If the information received by the ear is out of sync to the fingers, bad habits result. They are VERY hard to undo later.
2. Good guitar techniques such as pivot fingering won't be learned and these are critical to playing even adequately particularly on an acoustic guitar.
3. Eye movement when sight reading is a critical skill but unless the fingering is right first, bad habits result and these are VERY hard to undo.
4. Ear training for tone production based on plectrum-hand technique takes practice. Bad habits are VERY hard to undo.
IOW, don't for a moment think Guitar Hero is a substitute for learning the real thing. If it increases desire, it will also increase frustration when the novice picks up an axe and endures real shredding of the fingertips and the months of soreness. The best inspiration for learning is a real player who plays real well.
That said, it is a game, it is fun, and it does expose their ears to good licks. OTOH, if they really want to learn good licks, download midis into a guitar editor such as Guitare Pro (cheap!) and either read the tab or the notation with the aid of a real instructor.
Do Have FUN! Otherwise, don't bother. Guitar heros have about the same rate of success as programmers when it comes to the social rewards, but they aren't usually paid as much, so as another picker said to me, "It became a job and when it comes to jobs, other jobs pay a lot better."
Experienced players make it look easy. As a bassist with over 30 years playing experience, I have had many a young person moan about how hard it was when they stopped watching me and started trying to learn it themselves. I tell them it's only that hard at the beginning, and that they gotta stick with it. Some do, most don't.
Playing a game like this, while it might inspire someone to want to learn, is not going to prepare them for the pain and sacrifice of developing enough skill to become the next "Clapton".
1. Bad rhythm outs fast. If the information received by the ear is out of sync to the fingers, bad habits result. They are VERY hard to undo later.
2. Good guitar techniques such as pivot fingering won't be learned and these are critical to playing even adequately particularly on an acoustic guitar.
3. Eye movement when sight reading is a critical skill but unless the fingering is right first, bad habits result and these are VERY hard to undo.
4. Ear training for tone production based on plectrum-hand technique takes practice. Bad habits are VERY hard to undo.
IOW, don't for a moment think Guitar Hero is a substitute for learning the real thing. If it increases desire, it will also increase frustration when the novice picks up an axe and endures real shredding of the fingertips and the months of soreness. The best inspiration for learning is a real player who plays real well.
That said, it is a game, it is fun, and it does expose their ears to good licks. OTOH, if they really want to learn good licks, download midis into a guitar editor such as Guitare Pro (cheap!) and either read the tab or the notation with the aid of a real instructor.
Do Have FUN! Otherwise, don't bother. Guitar heros have about the same rate of success as programmers when it comes to the social rewards, but they aren't usually paid as much, so as another picker said to me, "It became a job and when it comes to jobs, other jobs pay a lot better."
Experienced players make it look easy. As a bassist with over 30 years playing experience, I have had many a young person moan about how hard it was when they stopped watching me and started trying to learn it themselves. I tell them it's only that hard at the beginning, and that they gotta stick with it. Some do, most don't.
Playing a game like this, while it might inspire someone to want to learn, is not going to prepare them for the pain and sacrifice of developing enough skill to become the next "Clapton".
thats very true, on easy and medium...when you get to hard and expert the songs/button combinations become far more accurate (not to say its perfect)
thats very true, on easy and medium...when you get to hard and expert the songs/button combinations become far more accurate (not to say its perfect)
This Christmas there are no technology/gaming presnts at all, for anyone. The youngest is getting a customized electric guitar package including a Digitech GNX3000 multieffects pedal workstation to tantilize his curiosity and creativity.
It will take time but considering the thousands of hours that might have been spent on gaming - a far better investment.
People are allowing the gaming industry to form their realities - like becoming an airguitar hero - lmao, and good luck with that :)