No more Guitar Heroes anymore?

Recently a friend challenged me to a game of Guitar Hero as he viewed me as a worthy opponent given that I can play the real thing. Surprisingly to him I was shockingly bad at it.

I’ve been aware of this game ever since an 11 year old kid that I taught guitar to kept proclaiming how good at it he was. The game had sparked his interest in learning the guitar as well as helping this youngster to discover some classic rock songs. This is all good in my book. The problem is he had a hard time differentiating between a real guitar and the computer game. Frequently I was met with “I can play this on Guitar Hero so I don’t need to play it on guitar”

And that is the danger. It is easier for folks to pretend to play the song in the game.

Is this Guitar Hero a curse to music or a great introduction to music for the masses? I for one am not a fan - Mario Kart is much better, however the royalties from Guitar Hero must be worth a fortune to any band lucky enough to get their music featured, a great source of income in these troubled times for the music industry.

One thing is for sure , the fad shows no loss in momentum and I have noticed that more and more bars are hosting guitar hero nights. Maybe I should learn guitar hero and teach that?

Still, the Guitar Hero fad is not quite as bad as a New Zealand band that gigs to a backing tape and who pretend to play cardboard guitars (yes cardboard) THEY ACTUALLY GET PAID FOR THIS and have done for a number of years. You have to admire them for getting away with that one!

In the meantime it seems the world of pretend guitar playing shows no sign of abating and I am dreading the first gig performed on rock band or worse see the clip below...

For an idea of where this might take us: view the video below and check out this article on New Music Strategies

ready to cringe?