After the horrific Columbine school shooting, some people blamed video games for the perpetrators' violent behavior. Scores of war simulations, shooting fantasies, and violent attack games, the critics alleged, lead to an acceptance of horrendous and otherwise unacceptable behavior.
So most parents should welcome a musical video game like Guitar Hero as something wonderful. Players earn points by playing a guitar-shaped controller along with a song, scoring higher the longer they can keep up a run of correct notes and rhythm values. And a rock star is a healthier role model than a deranged killer or a lunatic car thief.
That's all very well, unless you happen to be a musician. Then, Guitar Hero isn't the wonderful game that makes Playstation 2 safe for the living room. Click the strum bar to find out why.
Guitar Hero has been incredibly successful, spawning Guitar Hero II and this fall, Guitar Hero III. The games use a guitar-shaped controller with five buttons on the neck and a strum bar on the body.
To play a note, a player must hit the correct fret button and "strum" the note by pushing the strum bar simultaneously. "Chords" are formed by pressing a combination of fret buttons. The game shows a series of notes scrolling down from above into the current five-across row showing which buttons to push. (Image from Wikipedia, originally from GameSpyand used for critical commentary.)
Anyone who has ever played a guitar will look askance at this layout. Here is a typical guitar chord symbol. It has a superficial resemblance to the Guitar Hero game board, but GH turns the chart onto its side. The elongation where future notes work their way down is suggestive of a guitar fretboard, but here's an actual fretboard. What do you see that you don't see on the GH controller?
How about six strings and 21 frets?
How about asking yourself how anyone is going to really learn how to play a guitar if they think hitting five buttons and "strumming" one bar is the same thing as maneuvering up and down a guitar neck with that many places to put your fingers, ignoring how many strings to strum for each chord? Even the rawest guitar beginner is going to learn to play chords within a month of lessons, and every guitar chord involves more than one string as well as a combination of finger placements.
Guitar Hero does have harder songs for those who earn the points, and more difficult scoring systems for those who enjoy the challenge. Here's a video someone made for a Guitar Hero contest, playing along with Rush's YYZ. That's definitely not an easy song on Guitar Hero, but it's even harder on a real guitar. I look forward to the day I can play it, and don't expect that to be for a few years yet. I'd recommend you watch a little of this if you've never seen Guitar Hero because the video editor did a nice job of showing the game screen while the gamer is playing along (you can skip the first minute of rocker braggadocio).
I worried about what Guitar Hero is doing for the understanding of musicianship when I asked a teen at an electronics store to show me how the game is played. He willingly picked up the controller and played along with Cherry Pie. When I realized that those five buttons on the neck were IT as far as the "notes" went, I was shocked. "Wow," I commented, after thanking him, "this is nothing like playing a real guitar."
"Oh yes it IS!" he insisted.
"You play a real guitar?" I asked.
"This is pretty close!"
"No, it really isn't."
But he was convinced that by scoring well on Guitar Hero, he could really be a rock star. Hey, isn't a guitar controller better than an air guitar?
As a mom, I'm thrilled there's a game out there that doesn't involve killing the other player. As a musician, I'm terrified that few players of Guitar Hero would be willing to take on the work required to actually play the songs they score points to.
I've heard there are real rock stars who love playing Guitar Hero. I've also heard some of them can't play their own songs, which shows there's musicianship, and then there's gaming.
This is a community diary. All topics on musicians, music, and other noise are welcome.
Previous Music Room Diaries
#12 - 6/04/07 Missed My Gig! (Music Room posts on Monday!)
#11 - 5/27/07 Dkos 5th birthday - Music you loved/hated as a 5 year old!
#10 - 5/20/07 What do you play when you travel?
#9 - 5/12/07 What are you trying to improve?
#8 - 5/05/07 Cinco de Mayo Edition!
#7 - 4/29/07 Requests You Won't Play
#6 - 4/22/07 Crossovers and Genre Jumps
#5 - 4/14/07 Inane Song Structures (Pachelbel)
#4 - 4/07/07 Ear Playing vs Sight Reading
#3 - 3/31/07 Perfect and Relative Pitch
#2 - 3/25/07 Music Lessons
#1 - 3/18/07 Jokes & Stories