You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past few years, or be totally oblivious to the world of gaming, to not have some awareness of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band phenomenon. These games have achieved massive sales and a wide following. Initially they were primarily guitar based, but now the genre has expanded to include drumming, singing (?dancing), and even DJ’ing.
Obviously as far as games go they are very popular and fun for many people. But do they have any musical merit? Should musicians see them as a positive thing, negative, or indifferent? My own experience with these games began a couple of years ago with Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 (complete with plastic wired Gibson Explorer shaped guitar controller). I thought it was good but didn’t find it something I was motivated to come back to again and again. Recently I revisited the music game genre when Santa brought us a couple of the RockBand games for Christmas – we got Lego RockBand (which is great for kids) and The Beatles RockBand (great for me as I’m a massive Beatles fan) complete with wireless Hofner Bass controller, drums, and microphone. I’m not going to comment on these games specifically other than saying that I think the Lego game is a huge improvement to make these games more accessible to younger players. Previous games were/are just a bit too tricky for most kids below the age of around 10 to get into. This game adds a “Super Easy” mode which requires only a basic idea of rhythm and not the co-ordination skills usually involved in these games. The narrative is fun (like all the Lego computer games) and the song selection is good, truly making it a game the whole family can enjoy together. I hope future editions of RockBand and Guitar Hero will include a similar Super Easy mode for the little ones.
As for The Beatles’ game, it’s a great snapshot of the career of this great band. Musically and visually it’s excellent, though technically a little more challenging than the Lego game so not ideal for kiddies. The wireless Hofner bass controller is a beautiful thing – very high quality construction which doesn’t have the cheap plastic feel of my old guitar hero controller. And in case you were wondering it can be used for guitar and bass play – the controls are just the same.
Ok, enough about the games themselves… what about their musical merit?
My view is that these games are a good thing. If nothing else they challenge people’s timing and rhythm, improve co-ordination and possibly even their sense of pitch. The guitar play obviously doesn’t truly replicate a real guitar, with buttons instead of strings, however the finger movements, and the right-left hand co-ordination are important skills to develop in playing real guitar. You’re never going to be able to jump right from playing this game to playing a 6 string like Van Halen, but it might give you a little bit of an advantage in learning compared to a complete novice.
Drumming is probably one step even more realistic than guitar playing – it’s similar to having an electric drum kit – the physical movements of hitting the pads, and using the kick pedal are pretty much the same as the real thing. My Beatles drum kit even came with real wooden sticks. I’m not a drummer but my feeling is that playing RockBand drums would give you a decent intro and a huge head-start for learning the real thing. Starting with the easy levels and moving through to expert would be a great way to develop pretty good rhythm skills.
And singing is well, singing. There’s nothing fake about singing into a microphone and hearing your voice back through speakers. And in many ways this is better than singing in the shower or singing along to a CD in your car because the visual cues in the game help with timing and pitch. I haven’t played any of the dedicated singing games (like Singstar or Lips) but the singing feature in RockBand itself is pretty cool. The Beatles game even allows you to sing harmonies and use multiple microphones. Not quite like having a singing teacher in your living room but still pretty good.
Beyond those technical skills I think these games offer two more things – music appreciation and inspiration. The repertoire of songs in these games is a great way of exposing younger generations to classic rock and pop music. My boys have been enjoying classic tracks from artists like Queen, Bon Jovi, Tom Petty, David Bowie, Bryan Adams and heaps more – even the Ghostbusters theme! (who knew that song had such cool guitar riffs?!? – see below) – and of course no one should be ignorant of the Beatles!
Secondly if playing these games inspires a few people to take up a real instrument themself, or gives them a bit of confidence that they might be able to, then surely that’s a good thing too! 
Rock On!
