Guitar Hero Ruins Musicianship

As Stan's Mom points out clearly... "if they spend half the time learning a real instrument instead of learning the game who knows what they can accomplish."

I feel sorry for Stan's Dad when he shows the kids how to play a real guitar and he is called "gay" for it. Though... I am also showing my age. How can you say Guitar Hero is real? It's fake. It's a bunch of role playing, button pushing and quite frankly... It's stupid. You push a couple of buttons for points. What about the energy it takes to sit and learn say, "Lie In Our Graves" by Dave Matthews or "Ain't Talking About Love" by Van Halen? I know what it took for me to learn those songs. And quite frankly (again) it's something I can do at anytime and impress the shit out of my friends. But actually... I think it is more rewarding to know I can do that...instead pushing some buttons. It's different than other Xbox games

Now...something that really pisses me off. This new tid bit from Gibson. Automatic guitar tuners? What the hell is this coming too!! $900 to add this onto an already expensive Les Paul to keep it in tune... I don't know if I like this. This isn't what music is about. I mean... Eddie Van Halen must be shitting on himself because he has said in countless articles that to truly tune a guitar is impossible. All the strings are Perfect 4th apart in pitch which is the easiest interval for the human ear to pick up and learn. (Perfect 4th is the two note guitar part in verses of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana) It's all perfect 4ths except for the interval between the G and B strings which is a Major 3rd. This "problem" causes the B string to be frequently out of tune in certain chords. Eddie flattens the pitch by ear when he tunes his guitars and stays away from playing the open B string with out fretting it some where. I do slightly the same thing because it makes the open C chord and F barre chord, major and minor sound better. It's more in tune.

The other thing I find difficult is how can this guitar pick on the change of air pressure and heat that cause your guitar to go out of tune in the first place. If you are rocking out with a electric guitar your guitar gets a little warmer because your hands are running up and down the fret board. Plus the ambient temperature changes, especially if you play on stage at the local bar. The more people that come it the warmer it gets and the farther flat your strings go because of the heat. That's why when a band like U2 plays, they have like 20 guitars on the side of the stage for Edge to pick from. If you watch there is always someone tuning a guitar back stage when a guitar guru like that is playing. The guitar tech is constantly battling this back stage. Does the guitar get in tune better when a bunch of sweaty frat boys come into a bar to see the local punk band?

Gibson should just leave well enough alone. They make a great product already that is unmatched in sound quality and tone. Why fuck it up with some electronic bullshit that will probably not work.

Also... I have officially banned myself from EVER playing Guitar Hero. It's stupid... lame and really does not make you a better person. It just gives you callouses and bad dexterity and improper posture. Learn a real instrument. It's more rewarding...