From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Guitar Hero fails to factor in dynamics

By Myles Karp
University School of NSU

February 7 2008

Playing the guitar is not easy.

I would know; I've been doing it for 12 of my 15 years of life.

Scores of friends and acquaintances have taken up the instrument, discovered that it is not as easy as it seems and quit.

I have only retained my ability during the years through constant discipline and practice.

Understandably, it's frustrating for longtime guitarists when a certain game comes along that makes it possible for 12-year-olds to think they are the best guitarists since Dylan went robotic.

I have played songs on a real guitar and had people tell me they got five stars on that same song in Guitar Hero.

So? How much talent does that take?

Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm awful at the game.

But if this is so, that means Guitar Hero cannot be an accurate representation of guitar playing.

If the game is truly dependent on talent, how could my guitar teacher's 7-year-old son beat him every time, when the man has been playing the guitar for almost four decades?

A 24-fret guitar has 144 different places to put your fingers. A Guitar Hero controller has five.

With a real guitar, you have to actually pluck one or more of six strings without accidentally hitting the others, which are just millimeters away. In Guitar Hero, you just push the knob.

Besides strings, Guitar Hero fails to factor in dynamics, sound, picking styles and the bleeding and calloused fingers that accompany playing the guitar.

If you spend enough time to beat all three Guitar Hero games and get five stars on Jordan, you could have spent this time doing something ultimately more useful and rewarding: learning an actual instrument.

I strongly suggest this approach to music over spending countless hours learning a fake instrument that you most likely will not be able to play in a few years, as it will become obsolete.

Take my advice; playing an instrument is a talent that you can keep your whole life, perhaps even as a career.

Don't let all that time and all those aching fingers go to waste on a plastic guitar.