Guitar Hero allows players to feel like skilled guitarists without years of practice by pressing buttons on a game controller timed to on-screen cues. While technically not playing real music, the game is popular with both musicians and non-musicians alike. However, some argue that Guitar Hero may discourage players from mastering the real guitar if virtual guitar skills can be acquired so easily. Developers counter that the game exposes more people to the thrill of guitar playing who would otherwise not have access or patience to learn a real instrument.

1. The Low Cost of (Guitar) Heroism; If a teenager can become
a make-believe guitar hero, will he ever bother to master the
real thing?; [U.S. Edition Edition]
Steven Levy. Newsweek. New York: Jan 29, 2007. Vol. 149, Iss. 4; pg. 24
Abstract (Summary)
By allowing more than 2 million gamers to become ax slingers without the years of practice
involved, Guitar Hero has become a cultural phenomenon. Technically, you are not creating music
by pushing buttons on the fret board of the game controller (which button to push is dictated by
similarly colored dots that scroll on your screen at higher and higher speeds). Hitting the right
button at the right time simply unlocks music that real guitarists created using real guitars.
Full Text (635 words)
(Copyright (c) Newsweek, Incorporated - 2007. Reproduced with permission of copyright owner.
Further reproduction prohibited without permission.)
Legend has it that the iconic blues guitarist Robert Johnson was granted his otherworldly chops by
Satan himself, at a deal forged at a Mississippi crossroads. The price was his soul. In 2007, one
does not have to cut such a hard bargain to get the unique rush of being a guitar god. You don't
even have to sit in your room and practice for months on end. All you need is a PlayStation 2, a
special game controller that looks like a tiny Gibson model SG and software called Guitar Hero 2.
Within 10 minutes, you will be shredding heavy metal. As you get more adept at the game you will
be ecstatically channeling Eddie Van Halen. All this with no strings attached.
By allowing more than 2 million gamers to become ax slingers without the years of practice
involved, Guitar Hero has become a cultural phenomenon. Technically, you are not creating music
by pushing buttons on the fret board of the game controller (which button to push is dictated by
similarly colored dots that scroll on your screen at higher and higher speeds). Hitting the right
button at the right time simply unlocks music that real guitarists created using real guitars. Yet the
illusion is given that you are actually making the sounds yourself. "It's cracked the code of music
playing, giving you the rhythmic, emotional feel you get from playing guitar," says Van Toffler,
president of MTV's music group. (MTV liked the game so much that it bought Harmonix, the
software company that developed it.) One Guitar Hero junkie, Detroit Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya,
spent so many hours playing the game that the resulting wrist inflammation kept him out of three
postseason games. And surprisingly, some of the most avid fans of this faux musician exercise are
actual musicians; the game is a fixture on tour buses. Ed Robertson, lead guitarist of Barenaked
Ladies, recently told The New York Times that he was so engrossed in a Guitar Hero solo of "Free
Bird" that he barely made it onstage for a real concert.
Clearly, Guitar Hero is fun. But by bestowing the rewards of virtuosity to those who haven't spent
years to earn it, is it dumbing down musicianship? If a teenager can easily become a make-believe
guitar hero, does that mean he won't ever bother to master the real thing?
Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, says that the intent of Guitar Hero is to provide the thrills of real
musicianship to those who would not otherwise have the opportunity. "Almost everyone who takes
up guitar quits after a few months," he says. "For me, learning to play the guitar solo to 'Bark at the
Moon' would take five years, and even then I couldn't do it right. But spending two or three weeks
learning to do it on Guitar Hero is not too much time--and I'll really be able to feel like I'm playing
it." In that sense it's no different from other experiences made virtually accessible by the computer,
from being a World War II sniper to playing golf like Tiger Woods.
What's more, as digital technology becomes deeply integrated into "real" instruments, we can
expect the shortcuts to virtuosity that we see in Guitar Hero to become commonplace in music.
"One of the issues that musical instruments have is that they're difficult to learn," says Henry
Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson Guitar, which is aggressively integrating computer technology into
new product lines. "Building calluses and pains-takingly learning all the musical fingering is not
creative, but is the discipline to get the creative rewards ... In the future we want to reduce the crap
you have to deal with to allow people access to that creativity." It sounds great--just as the Devil's
offer must have struck Robert Johnson at the crossroads.