This past week, I had a fun time roaming around the center of Lima, Peru and browsing various musical instrument shops. It’s so cool that a simple shopping trip can turn into a huge adventure if you do it in a foreign country. The center of Lima has a small area that is packed full of musical instrument shops. Some of the shops are laid out like a huge bazaar with dozens of mini shops packed into a small area. If I actually spoke decent Spanish, I imagine that I could have bargained for a really good price. I ended up with a guitar that sounds pretty good, but it wasn’t that cheap either. It’s a nice souvenir, if I can get back to the States. It looks authentic and has a big ‘made in Peru’ logo engraved into the back.
Anyways, the whole point of the adventure was to buy a cheap guitar so I can learn to play another instrument. One of the other volunteers here in Peru is a music enthusiasist and he’s always talking about music, his recording studio, guitars, drums, etc. I used to play violin and piano years ago (6 years of piano, 9 years of violin). I always wanted to learn how to play guitar and this seemed like a great chance.
After the first lesson, he proclaimed that I was a natural! I had no trouble learning the chords or playing scales. It didn’t take long for me to transition fairly smoothly between chords. My volunteer friend insists it’s because I played violin for 9 years. But I stopped playing violin almost 15 years ago! (Yes, I’m old, hah)
I’ve probably spent dozens (maybe hundreds) of hours playing Guitar Hero over the past few years. I seriously think it made a real difference. I’m not a fanatic, but I do play the expert difficulty. It definitely helped with finger strength and dexterity. My strumming is also smooth, regular and fast. I even think shifting and learning how to stretch my fingers made a positive difference.
Guitar Hero is great fun, but once I learn how to play real songs on a guitar, I think that will be even better.
Ah, thats gold!
My wife has been bugging me to get her Nintendo Wii for xmas… i think i will, and include guitar hero in the package using the money i was putting aside for WAR (i was planning on checking it out when i got sick of AoC.. hasn’t happened yet, and i think a bit of guitar hero sounds more appealing than what i’ve read about WAR!).
Taur (15 years clarinet, 9 piano.. knowledge of 2 powerchords on the guitar
).
Guitar playing is fun and nicely portable! Got some songs you want to sing?
@Taur Oh, definitely get Guitar Hero. It is tons of fun, especially with friends. It has the appeal of a videogame and a musical instrument at the same time. You get the fancy graphics, the ‘virtual reality’, the scores, etc…and at the same time, you get rewarded for consistent and accurate playing. There are so many people that pour hundreds and hundreds of hours into GH trying to perfect their playing.
Oh, consider Rock Band as well. It’s like Guitar Hero, but adds drums and a microphone.
@Yasmina I’ve been playing the guitar about a week now and still having fun with it. My fingers are starting to get used to the strings, so it doesn’t hurt as much to play.
I wish I could sing, though. I have so little practice singing that I think I’m probably quite horrible, heh.
@Taur Oh, one more thing. If you have a XBox360 or PS3, get Guitar Hero or Rock Band for that platform instead. GH and RB for the Wii lacks a lot of the features you find on the better consoles.
Sadly i don’t have the PS3 or XBox360… i am more of a PC gamer, and my wife only likes the Wii (although she enjoys shooting me up in halo, just not with any regularity!).
So unless the Wii version isn’t up to scratch, i’ll have to settle for that!
Still in lima? Remember FallOut 3 is waiting when you return.
@Matchbox Oh, wow. Fallout 3 is out now. Thanks for reminding me. Yup, I’m still in Lima and totally out of the gaming loop. The only gaming I’ve done recently was when I had a few kids from the slums over at the house where I’m staying. I was showing them the latest games. They really liked the latest Tomb Raider. I guess even little kids like Lara Croft, heh.
Now really who wouldn’t love a beautiful computer generated girl? I forgot to mention Fable2 is out as well as a giant and I mean huge patch for AOC. So you might want to read the patch notes just for $%@#s and Giggles.
Hi,
I like your blog, do you want to trade links? please send me email, is in my site.
kind regards
Guitar Hero does nothing for real guitar. Don’t flatter yourself. The time you spent memorizing those colors, you could’ve learned to play for real.
I would say that playing guitar hero uses some of the same muscles as playing a real guitar, but I also started playing piano and violin and quit those years before I picked up the guitar. Playing guitar is like riding a bike. You know how to do it, but you don’t have the muscle memory anymore. It’s very likely because of your past-experience with string instruments that the guitar was easier to learn. You definitely could learn rhythm from guitar hero.
Guitar hero is definitely fun, but I don’t know if I would learn guitar that way. Perhaps some timing skills maybe.
Interesting post, thanks for sharing.