Guitar Hero / Guitarists

[Yossarian]

Just got Guitar Hero 3 and thought I'd try a post to 1) See if I can find some online players and 2) find guitarists on this board.

If you play guitar did you find that it helped or hindered you when you played Guitar Hero? If you weren't a musician, did it inspire you to learn to play the real thing?

Are there any aspects of playing that you'd like to see in future releases of the GH series?

[Kreegs]

Originally Posted by y0ss4ri4n

Just got Guitar Hero 3 and thought I'd try a post to 1) See if I can find some online players and 2) find guitarists on this board.

If you play guitar did you find that it helped or hindered you when you played Guitar Hero? If you weren't a musician, did it inspire you to learn to play the real thing?

Are there any aspects of playing that you'd like to see in future releases of the GH series?

Sure I can answer this. 1.) yes I have GH3 and GHA
2.) I play drums (set and drumline in college), guitar, and Piano. I actually think this helps playing guitar hero because your timing is so much better. Half the time I dont even look at the notes as they are going accross the circles at the bottom. I mainly go off the tempo of the song and where the notes are positioned on the board as they are approaching.

I will try to explain this - The board of notes on the screen has thick and thin lines representing the appropriate beat of the music with the down beat of each measure being a thicker line than the others. I rely more on where these notes lie in this spectrum rather than try to hit them exactly when they hit the circles. Does this make sense? Also, playing guitar helps you understand the "hammer on" and "pull off" techniques a little better. What hindered me is that I knew some of the songs on real guitar and the game was nothing like them. Another thing that bothered me is that you can't play GH notes unless your left hand is pushing a colored button. Reall guitar allows you to play notes open -without using your left hand - so when I would play songs that I knew on guitar that had open notes in them it REALLY threw me off.

Overall, I think being musically skilled at any instrument will help you succeed at GH, DDR, Rock Band, really any of the timing based music games. But you have to be aware that is it absolutly nothing like playing the real thing! Let me know if you have any questions about anything in here! Thanks

[Yossarian]

Originally Posted by Kreegs

What hindered me is that I knew some of the songs on real guitar and the game was nothing like them. Another thing that bothered me is that you can't play GH notes unless your left hand is pushing a colored button. Reall guitar allows you to play notes open -without using your left hand - so when I would play songs that I knew on guitar that had open notes in them it REALLY threw me off.

I get what you mean. The biggest problem I had is when I wanted to rock out to 'One' (beers had been flowing) but the notes bore no relation to what was being played so me playing triplets for the machine gun part just made 'squink' noises instead. Boo.

One thing missing from GH is the little articulations that add character like percussive strums. It was really weird playing a Tom Morello solo using notes and getting punished for playing 'dead notes' (no fretting, just strumming) in the quiet parts. I love that boss battle.

[Kreegs]

Yup I totally get what you mean! I am not master at the game, but I can beat most songs on expert (not the dragonforce one i am not that into it) haha

[Turbo D]

I have both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band (both on 360).

I've always had a guitar around, but never really played it until recently.

I find that after playing GH3, I'm much more capable of playing. My fingers more naturally stretch and I'm able to change chords faster. I'm also not looking at the strings as much.

GH3 definitely has improved my hand skills and given me some motivation to push further with the guitar than I ever did before.

Not saying it can replace lessons, but it's helped with the "feel" of playing and confidence.

[Yossarian]

Originally Posted by Turbo D

I have both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band (both on 360).

I've always had a guitar around, but never really played it until recently.

I find that after playing GH3, I'm much more capable of playing. My fingers more naturally stretch and I'm able to change chords faster. I'm also not looking at the strings as much.

GH3 definitely has improved my hand skills and given me some motivation to push further with the guitar than I ever did before.

Not saying it can replace lessons, but it's helped with the "feel" of playing and confidence.

That's interesting. I hadn't thought of it like that. I have a little book of guitar exercises that feature chromatic drills that are similar to GH but I wouldn't have thought that GH would translate that well to the actual instrument as there's no real sense of position shifts.

It's given me motivation to get back into playing properly and reminded me how much fun it can be to just play.

[Kreegs]

Yea I know a lot of people who were inspired to play guitar because if guitar hero. That is pretty cool

[Tull]

Real guitars are for old peoples.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/127949/

[neuzd]

(Guess who's the clown in the picture - hint: he's the same clown who edited the shot, changing a Natural Burst Standard SG with the GH one)

I found that the control scheme is very good and that being a guitarist really helps during different parts of the game.
Most of the movements are those a real guitarist does when playing so without doubt he will need less time to get in the game.
And as Kreegs was saying, if you're a musician, chances are that you're good at most musical games.

Anyway, I got pretty tired of it quite soon. It is a fun party game but as soon as it started to become difficult for my skills, I dropped it.
There's no way I will ever put that effort in a game when I don't put it in doing the real thing (yes, I'm lazy as hell). I've been playing for more than 20 years by now, and there are lots of things I should have learnt in all this time that I missed because I'm just so lazy. Becoming a good guitar hero player but remaining a mediocre guitarist would be the final blow. No thanks, I still have a dignity as an artist.

For the opposite (moving from GH to real guitar) I don't know if it's really of big help. What Turbo D experienced (feeling more comfortable with a real guitar after some GH) could be explained by saying that if he spent the same amount of time on a real axe instead of the plastic one he would have accomplished the same results.

[Yossarian]

The weird thing is that GH has helped my playing in an unexpected way.

I got pretty embarrassed that I was stumped on medium and couldn't get my little finger to work properly that I stared using the practice feature where you can slow down the tracks or focus on tricky parts.

This works as an excellent phrase trainer and I found myself playing along with guitar parts on a real guitar when my girlfriend is practicing. I know most of the notes of Raining Blood but the practice lets me play along at a human speed so I can work up to the mental speed of the original.