Music Games Drive Kids' Interest In Real Instruments
from the school-of-rock dept
A report from the UK says that 20 percent of the kids there that have played music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have picked up real instruments because of the games. The author of the report says it shows that when music is presented to kids in new and compelling ways, it can get them interested in creating their own music. We'll note it's nice to see that kids getting excited by video games can have some positive effects and not only translate into violence, as one recent study said. It's also interesting to note that Gibson says it's getting a sales bump from the games, particularly for its iconic Les Paul guitar, after which one of the plastic axes in Guitar Hero is modeled. This is a little ironic, after Gibson wanted to extract some money from Activision by waving an unrelated patent in its face and trying to get the company to license it. This further illustrates to record companies how these games can add value to their content and serve to promote it, but sadly, you know that somehow that lesson will still be lost on the labels.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: guitar hero, music, rock band, video games
Companies: activision, gibson
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
It can take months, even years of practising before someone is good enough to pick up an instrument and play along well to their favourite songs. With guitar hero it takes around five minutes.
Unfortunately there's still a lot of snobbery around games like these; people who consider themselves 'real' musicians often dispute their worth (Nickelback even went as far as to call them the reason for the decline in the quality of modern rock, the irony apparently lost on them).
But I'd think it fairly obvious that while playing a guitar-shaped controller is nothing like playing a real guitar, games like this can help you learn about rhythm, tempo and timing, skills that do transfer to real instruments. Its not a big step in reading the notes in Guitar Hero to reading actual guitar tablature.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
No joke. Talk about a low quality modern "rock" band. They play one song. Sure they can play it well and can change the lyrics, but ITS THE SAME SONG!
Besides. Guitar Hero != Playing a Guitar. I know guitar players who are pretty good (1 is amazing) and pretty much all of them think playing Guitar Hero is harder than playing a guitar, at least once you know how to already.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
That's a ridiculous comment. It all depends on the difficulty of stuff you are doing and how long you have been working on each task. I'm sure many real guitar songs are harder to play than playing guitar hero on normal, and while playing the dragon force song on expert may seem nigh impossible, I challenge your guitar playing friends to play this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLHR8zaEsA8&feature=related
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
Now Rock Band, If you can play the drums on that well, than you're really close to playing real drums. This is coming from the same guy who also has played drums for a few years. The singing part as well, it won't get you all the way there but it will get you close.
For the record, I have a Behringer because of this game. I'm not that good at it but my arms have never gotten tired.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Absolutely true
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Right on
My older brother is a band instructor. He has been trying to find a way to get kids interested in music again and playing instruments. He said that since Guitar Hero and Rock Band have come out, he has had quite a few kids come in to learn to play the guitar, drums, etc.
My brother actually has a TV and PS3 in his class room that has Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The school bought it for him since they saw that kids were interested in music again when they played this. Once a month, he invites non band members to come down to his classroom and see the instruments, play with them and enjoy a little Guitar Hero. It has been an overwhelming success! Over 20 new kids into band just this first semester, with more planning on joining.
Anything that can be used to get someone interested (note how I didnt just say kids) in music is never a bad thing. Yes, guitar hero and rock band may not be teaching them how to actually play a real guitar, but it gets the interested. The game is meant to be fun, nothing else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Good news. Now if only proceeds would go back to public education...
It's a damn shame many schools across the nation no longer have music classes just so kids can fall asleep in mandatory second languages.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I've been playing bass for over a year now, and am in an actively gigging band.
Who says video games cant encourage you to do something good?
www.myspace.com/imaimpwns
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
This really depends on a lot of things... I personally have played guitar for a couple years, and coupled with having been hardcore at ddr/piu for like two years makes guitar hero really easy, except for some parts of the last section of gh3 and dreamtheater in rb.
That said rock band is much more fun because it is much more of a social activity than gh, which seems to be more focused on just getting better individually. It sucks when you have a bad singer or drummer though...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
hehe...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's true at my house
I have an old Fender Squire Strat that I don't use anymore, but I decided a few years back to leave in in the living room where all the family instruments are in case anyone else wanted to play it.
Now, routinely on Friday nights, they'll set up Rock Band, and one or two of the guys who can play a bit will bring the squire strat in and play along with the tunes.
Then, more and more, my brother (who's got great musical talent, but usually just gets bored) sits down on the piano or with a guitar during the week and starts to work out parts of the songs he's been playing on Rock Band.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
oh snap!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Well, this is quite the exaggeration. If you are actually a player and it took you months or years to learn to bang away with 3 or 4 chord fully diatonic non-modulating rock 'n roll, you should ask your teacher for your money back, 'cause they obviously did a crappy job teaching you how to play, or you just didn't practice. If you're not a player, then you're just spreading more FUD about the difficulty of learning to play a guitar/bass/drums in the rock idiom.
Now, if you're talking about playing tenor along with Coltrane, then yeah, you're not going to do that right out of the box, but R&R? Comon.
"With guitar hero it takes around five minutes." to learn how to tap your fingers to the music like almost every human being already does.
You get scored for keeping a beat and pressing buttons on cue. It has nothing to do with actually playing an instrument. It is what it is, please don't try to justify it, or make it more than it is.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No joke
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Free Myspace music
Free Myspace music
[ link to this | view in thread ]