Harry’s Place Arts

“What a stupendous waste of time.”

I don’t play Guitar Hero myself, or any games for that matter, but your utilitarian sneering (”demented lab rat”) is most unbecoming. Lots of things that are enjoyable are a “stupendous waste of time”. Do you also fulminate at people standing around in art galleries, or folks falling out of pubs (a waste of time *and* money), or people gazing at big screens with flickering images?

Next up from Celluloid: “How training hard and eventually becoming a top flight player for England is what you should be doing - not sitting on your useless fat ring playing Fifa 08 with your mates.”

If you are thinking of buying Guitar Hero, why not pop down to Lidl where you can buy, for less money, an acoustic guitar and “how to play” books.

Amen! Tell it brother!

… but apparently the sales of real guitars have gone *up* because of Guitar Hero.

I saw a father and his teenage son loading up one of those ‘beginner bass’ packs by Yamaha in the car park the other day. I get a warm glow when I see that. Someone is going to feel the power of making it go ‘booom’ and be as hooked as I was.

“Guitar hero” is surely a development of “Air guitar” more than an aid into musicianship. I doubt that many headbangers ever really picked up any musical instrument more complicated than a tennis racket!

In February, my teenage and pre-adolescent cousins introduced me to Guitar Hero. I’m a guitarist and enjoyed the game immensely.

In the last few months both my cousins have had birthdays, and at their request, received guitars. The elder one has displayed a remarkable, innate talent. She taught herself The Beatles ‘Blackbird’ after playing for only a couple of months. Now she’s going to take lessons.

My faith is restored. If the game actually has the Harry Potterish effect of making people interested in making real music, then that’s a good thing. I should declare I am not averse to loud rock music (quite the contrary).

“How training hard and eventually becoming a top flight player for England is what you should be doing - not sitting on your useless fat ring playing Fifa 08 with your mates.”

Good idea. Why not organise a five-a-side and get fit? I’d like to see Harry’s Place versus Samizdata.

Btw I think I spotted the guy in Pendulum using one of these http://www.starrlabs.com/ Ztar things on Jools Holland last week. Couldn’t decide if it was more closely related to the GH controller or to those naff ’80s guitar shaped synths,

“Btw I think I spotted the guy in Pendulum using one of these http://www.starrlabs.com/ Ztar things on Jools Holland last week. “

I had one of those things briefly in the early 90s when I first started dabbling in MIDI after buying Cakewalk Pro. It was horrible. It’s basically a MIDI trigger, so instead of making any sound itself, it triggers either MIDI synthesized sounds or samples stored in a sound bank. The idea is that people who are more fluent on guitar can have an “input” device that isn’t a keyboard. The one I had was very unresponsive and disappointing, so I returned it. No doubt the technology has improved dramatically since I last had a go.

You get involved in “playing” the notes in Guitar Hero in the same way you get involved with fine art by doing painting by numbers

You get involved in painting as a hobby through painting by numbers, or watching Alwyn Cranshaw, or going to an evening class, or being given some watercolours for your birthday. It doesn’t have to go any further. We don’t all have to man the culture industry’s pumps. But if we want to, we have to start somewhere.

Image stripped from previous comment (a Warhol painting by numbers painting):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2372454142_e24f8e85e6_b_d.jpg

Yeah, but can you do this with Guitar Hero?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3f3kHZfH-I

This probably tells you all you need to know about “metalcore” (pretend metal for weedy students).

But the big question is wtf is the BBC doing spending our license money advertising this toytown shite?

Shouldn’t it be going toward Jonathan Ross and Jeremy Clarkson’s salaries?

Playing “Guitar Hero” versus learning to play the acoustic guitar. Is that like posting to a political blog versus getting involved in a real political campaign?

Admittedly, growing calluses on your fingers is more fun than sitting through a Constituency Labour Party meeting …

Sneer not until you have tried. Its a game. Its fun. A lot of fun.