Guitar Hero
November 13th, 2007 by jenh
I’ve played Guitar Hero a few times in the past month, and it makes me wonder, how do we music educators compete with the instant “guitar hero” fantasy that this game provides? Players can choose to be anything from a Jimmie Hendrix- to a Courtney Love-type rock star with virtual crowds getting pumped or looking bored based on how many notes are played correctly. You only need some familiarity with playing video games to play Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and hear that YOU are the rock star, with a band backing you up. In my (albeit limited) Guitar Hero playing experience, however, an understanding of beat, meter, and duration in music and their reflection in the iconic notation that comes flying across the screen is helpful to making the game “click” and become a truly musical experience, at least from my perspective as a trained Western classical musician. Maybe we music educators are necessary after all. Could we be preparing our students to have a more musical experience playing Guitar Hero, rather than a strictly gaming experience? Perhaps future versions of Guitar Hero will allow one to control volume and timbre, begging the question, is playing Guitar Hero playing a musical instrument (or could it be) and will we, and should we, offer it in our music classes?
I have yet to play Guitar Hero, but I have seen others play it and notice similarities to Dance Dance Revolution. Both have symbols for actions that the player needs to take. If one synchs themselves to the beat they are more likely to get more points and better accuracy. I have thought that both of these games might be an effective (an unusual) tool to teach rhythm to students. Your observations are only affirming my feelings.
I am currently studying Elementary Education at Purdue University, and I have been involved in music my whole life. I have a serious desire to incorporate some music education into my daily lessons, and this brought to my attention a tool that I have not yet considered. I have been playing guitar hero for some time, and never thought of using it as an educational tool. I do believe it could work well when teaching rhythm. Thanks for the good idea!
I stumbled upon this great entry after googling music education blogs. I’m a first year music educator (teaching middle school) and I’ve wondered the same thing. It really hits home when I get some of my guitar students asking if we’ll ever play Guitar Hero or Rock Band in class. I always think to myself immediately, “yeah, that will help us play, right.” But given Lindsey’s comment, I think I would just need to think outside of the box a little more. I don’t know if you’re at all familiar with Rock Band, but the drumming simulation is, in my opinion, a pretty accurate experience. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. Possibly a great tool for both learning rhythm and building coordination for your percussionists. The challenge would be getting students away from the screen and into real notation. I will say this would probably eliminate the battle in trying to get students to practice.
In response to your final question, I don’t believe Guitar Hero is a musical instrument by itself, but rather a display in coordination. I do believe, however, that it could be used quite effectively as a musicality builder for students, comparable to electronic eurythmics. Just a few thoughts…and good luck in your endeavors.
Tyler
Guitar Hero is Dance, Dance Revolution for your fingers. It’s not a particularly music making experience. It’s DDR for kids too lazy to move their feet.
Guitar Hero can be a fun reward for class parties, if you do that sort of thing. I can’t us it since I teach elementary and, because of the game rating, I am not allowed to have it at school. I do though have DDR, which is great for teaching steady beat and even rhythmic values. You can change the settings to have each arrow a different color for each value. For example; red is quarters (one beat,) blue is eighth (or the half point of a beat,) yellow is 16th (or a 1/4 of a beat,) and so on. DDR also has options for editing tracks to create your own steps.
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The proper way to learn about this info is to utilize all resources at your disposal….
Guitar lessons…
I couldn’t have said it any better myself…
This is a very interesting post. I never really saw much musical merit in Guitar Hero, but maybe I need to open my mind!