by Andrew Bohardt

Created on: April 13, 2010

I have never been a proponent of the idea that video games are bad for children, but Guitar Hero, at least in a musical sense, may be the exception.

Admittedly, I picked up the simplified axe when the Guitar Hero Metallica game was released, simply because I like the band's music. And although the game may have improved my timing and rhythm on a guitar, I am no closer to actually learning to play "Master of Puppets" or "Enter Sandman" because the Guitar Hero system (and Rock Band, for that matter) is too dumbed down.

On the Guitar Hero guitar, there is five buttons compared to 12 notes in 12 different octaves (assuming it's a 24-fret guitar), and one "strum bar" compared to the six strings on a usual guitar. Adding in chords obviously makes a real axe even more complicated, as there are far more combinations and hand positions to learn on the real thing.

Furthermore, effects such as hammer-ons make Guitar Hero that much more simplified. In the video game, players merely have to press one of the five, roughly square-inch buttons to create this effect, whereas on a real guitar, players have a much smaller surface area to achieve the desired sound.

Finally, some sounds produced by actual guitarists take more equipment than just the instrument. Many musicians use wah pedals or talk boxes to create psychedelic effects from the guitar. In Guitar Hero, these sounds are again reduced to just pushing one of the five buttons.

All of the above hinders players from picking up a real guitar due in large part to the frustrations involved in playing the actual instrument. It takes hours upon hours for an extended period of time for people to master an actual axe. Children who can sit down and pick up Guitar Hero and learn the system within a few short hours are much more likely to stick with the video game in order to avoid such frustrations.

Despite these drawbacks, not everything about Guitar Hero is bad, however. Besides the obvious idea that the game is supposed to be fun, Guitar Hero introduces players to different bands and artists that they may have never heard of without the game. Nevertheless, the fact that it keeps players from picking up the actual instrument encumbers the future generations of music, as less people will be inclined to learn and write on the actual instrument.

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