themusiciansite.com

Heyo, Blogsville. I will preface this with the following follow-up to the last post:
I am a huge Guitar Hero and Rock Band fan and, being a teacher, see and have used the huge rhythm potential in the game. The fact that it makes it seem almost like there is A) only one string on a guitar and B) only five frets isn't the handiest for teaching, to be certain. However, it does quite strongly teach internal rhythm, especially the Drum peripheral of Rock Band -- indeed, Rock Band 2 plans to have an extensive practice mode to teach you real drumming techniques, from off-beat bass drum hits to paradiddles. The vocal aspect teaches internal pitch control, a very real aspect of very real vocals, and even the guitar peripheral teaches strong internal subdivision and rhythmic patterns. Harmonix, the producers of Guitar Heros 1, 2, and Rocks the '80s, as well as Rock Band, even make loading screens advertising the next step: purchasing musical instruments. ("Wanna make even more noise? Buy a real drum kit." "A real guitar is pretty cheap - maybe it's time to invest.") So I'm a huge advocate of the games not only as ridiculously fun, but also as a great way to get into musical performance.

So, let's say a few weeks ago, YOU were playing Guitar Hero on the PS2. The PS2, of course, didn't get the sweet Les Paul lookalikes that the XBox 360 and PS3 got -- no, they've got their own awesomeness in the Kramer Striker controller and, in the oldest, beginning days of Guitar Hero (all of three years ago), the very first controller was found in the SG. So, let's just say a few weeks ago you busted out that SG controller and played some Godzilla from the original Hero. And you rocked it. But then you decided, after being prompted by one of the game's loading screens and looking down at the elaborate piece of plastic in your hands, that you should try this out for real. You shop around and get what you soon find out is actually a pretty decent deal on a real, honest-to-goodness Epiphone SG Special Electric Guitar (Ha, you even found one on Lefty-Flip Mode, the Epiphone G400 SG Left Handed Electric Guitar) You buy it, get a nice little amp, some cable, and, of course, a distortion pedal (because otherwise it would just not be the same), and head home. You hook it all up, grab the fifteen-cent pick you stole out of the store (how very punk-rock rebellious of you), and are ready to rock.

Of course, you don't really have any training or knowledge. But you DO know that Power Chords are supposed to sound cool. So you go online, search up power chord, find a site that explains what you're supposed to do and bust it out.
ROCKIN'! It's sweet. You move that finger shape around on the board and find out you can do it anywhere and it's still awesome! This guitar stuff ain't so bad.
The website is saying all this weird stuff, though. It's not calling them Power Chords after awhile; it's calling them "Fifths". The site explains that you're playing one note, and then the note four notes above that (the first note would be like "1", and the other note is four up, or 2 - 3 - 4 - "5" : the "fifth"). So, why isn't it called a Power Chord? I mean, they're the same thing, right?

Well, technically, yes. But you keep looking around and find that guitar chords can be crazy weird. You have to hold your fingers on different frets on different strings, put your index finger on all the strings and the rest above it for some things... it looks pretty nuts. This Power Chord thing sounds pretty cool and it's way easier. But it's just weird, that a lot of places are just calling them "Fifths" when they don't call any of the other chords... well, anything but chords.
You keep studying the Guitar a little online and wiki up the word "chord" for any explaination and find this: "a chord is three or more different notes that sound simultaneously." Oh - these Power Chords are only two notes! A few lines later you read: "Two-note combinations are typically referred to as dyads or intervals". Clicking on intervals, you look down a little and find the now-familiar word: "Fifths". And there are fourths and thirds and sixths and this all looks pretty in-depth, this music business. But you want to go bust out some real, full-on chords -- you go back to the wiki page for Chords and, moving your fingers into position, follow the picture for an Open C chord. A strum across the strings and BAM, you've played an awesome chord.

Where do you go from here? Well, hey man, that's what teachers are for. This lesson was free. Heheheheheh.

And thusly, a guitarist is born. And from Guitar Hero, no less. I've seen it happen - so, rock on, Guitar Hero, for bringing the world musicians!

Andrew

Labels: Chords, guitar hero, Musical Education, Power Chords

Labels: Musical Education, shopping, wish list