by Natalie M. Wolverson

Created on: April 20, 2010

Many people may brag or boast about being able to play such a song on Expert or Hard difficulties on a Guitar Hero video game, yet if you ask them to play any song on a real, physical guitar then nine times out of ten you would receive a blank expression!

Whilst Guitar Hero tries to mimic the action of playing a real guitar and does have a lot in common with a real guitar, the two are worlds apart. Playing a plastic instrument will not directly help you when learning to play the guitar. You can be good at Guitar Hero but struggle to learn a single song on a normal guitar, or you could be a great guitarist but that doesn’t mean that you will be able to play Guitar Hero on Expert!

Guitar Hero will teach you some subconscious skills, such as timing and rhythm, but it won’t teach you chords or tablature. This means that yes, you may learn to improve your timing and perhaps even build up speed in your hand whilst playing a video game. It also gets you used to how a guitar works; holding down buttons (strings) and remembering to strum!

However this certainly doesn’t mean that playing the Guitar Hero is more beneficial than actually picking up and practicing on a real guitar. Like learning any new skill you must give it a lot of time, commitment and dedication. You can't replace practicing with a video game such as Guitar Hero!

The Guitar Hero guitar controller is much smaller and lighter than a normal guitar. You may pick up bad habits, such as sitting and holding positions from practicing with the plastic guitar controller. Holding the buttons down on the controller is also much smoother and easier than holding down strings on a traditional fret board. By getting used to the smoothness of the buttons your fingers will find it much harder to adjust to the roughness of the guitar strings. Most beginner guitar players will suffer from sore fingers and fingertips when they first start learning. This is because of the pressure that their fingers feel from holding down the strings of the guitar for a chord. After a while your fingers will get used to the feeling of the strings and you will develop a layer of harder skin as long as you keep practicing on a daily basis.

Guitar Hero should be used as a game for fun rather than a form of tuition. Sure it can teach you rhythm and tempo, but it certainly cannot compare to practicing on a real guitar. Music games such as Guitar Hero are great ways to get into playing the guitar; however they should be treated as ‘games’. You shouldn’t take up the assumption that learning the guitar is as easy as playing a music game, because you will only become disappointed when you try to learn the guitar.  

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