Category: Guitar News

Here is a handful of news items about learning guitar in a world full of electronic geniuses with an aching to get rich.
Guitar Hero’s Contribution To The Free World
“Before “Guitar Hero,” Nathan would shun any music on the radio he didn’t perceive as his generation — now he’s learning there is such a thing as a classic rock ’n’ roll song that never goes out of style.
Who ever would have thought, 20 years ago, rock music would help bridge a generation gap, not lead to deeper divisions? Maybe, when all is said and done, that will be “Guitar Hero’s most lasting note.”
norwichbulletin.com

“Music lessons were once confined to the living room, where parents hounded and their children begrudgingly practiced a classical repertoire. Today, younger and younger kids are picking up electric instruments, assembling into rock ‘n’ roll bands, and performing for audiences soon after they start playing. Influenced by the music their parents love, not to mention video games and the preteen artists they see on television, kids are asking to rock and getting the chance.
Until recently, learning an instrument amounted to ‘classical education, without much exception,’ said Chris Vuk, a classically trained violinist who founded the Vuk School of Groove, a Cambridge venue for music lessons. ‘Suddenly, rock music has broken the model,’ Vuk said. ‘It doesn’t have to be dull.’
The School of Groove, with 16 teachers and 110 students, holds concerts several times a year, letting even neophyte musicians take the stage.”
boston.com

The Pros and Cons of Taking Guitar Lessons Online
“There was a time when online guitar lessons were dominated by theory text. All that you could do was read through the text and try to grasp the subject. Imagine learning a guitar by reading a book. It sounds like one of those books ‘Play a guitar in 3 minutes’. Gosh, if it was as easy, then we would have millions of guitarists in the world. However, the material included in an online course has evolved considerably.”
melodika.net

Another hi-tech guitar teacher
“The Optek Fretlight ($399 to $529 for an acoustic and $499 to $899 for an electric; fretlight.com) offers an alternative way to learn guitar. The Fretlight has red dots of light built into its fretboard, so when the guitar is connected to your Windows computer loaded with Optek software, the fretboard lights up to indicate where to place your fingers. That makes it great for beginners, and the guitar’s build and feel means the novice won’t outgrow it.”
redorbit.com

Technorati Tags: learning guitar, Guitar Hero, The School of Groove, Guitar Lessons Online

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What teenage boys do in their bedrooms has kept glossy magazine publishers and online archives of the human form in tasteless mansions for many years. Now two more companies devoted to inspiring teen dreams are engaging in a bit of a tiff.
Gibson guitars are used by many guitar legends like B.B. King and Eric Clapton. They’re also used by bedroom guitar players all over the world via Activision’s ‘Guitar Hero’. Now, according to Reuters, “Gibson requests that Activision obtain a license under Gibson’s … patent or halt sales of any version of the ‘Guitar Hero’ game software.”
‘Guitar Hero’ has made a billion dollars and Gibson feels it’s entitled to a piece of the action because fourteen million ‘Guitar Hero’ players go to that fluffy pink place in their heads holding what looks a lot like a Gibson guitar.
According to Reuters, “Activision said its games did not infringe Gibson’s patent, and that by waiting three years to raise its claim, the guitar maker had granted an implied license for any technology.”
Read the story here.

Technorati Tags: Gibson guitars, Guitar Hero

According to a news report Guitar Hero is inspiring a new generation of guitar tragics.
“Guitar Hero and similar games such as Rock Band have guitar-shaped controllers with five color-coded fret buttons. The player presses the corresponding buttons as colored “notes” stream across the TV screen with the music. The better players get bonus points - the bad ones are booed off the stage.”
“Guitar Hero and Rock Band do take a certain level of skill; it’s just a different one than playing the actual guitar. A video clip circulating on the Internet captures real-life guitarist Scott Ian of Anthrax trying to play his own song, Madhouse, on Guitar Hero II. He fails. Repeatedly.”
If a new wave of people learning to play the guitar doesn’t grow out of the Guitar Hero craze, we can imagine guitar playing remaining rooted in the genres of decades long past!

Technorati Tags: Guitar Hero, Rock Band, learning to play the guitar