Guitar Troll

I get a lot of questions from students with regard to my skills playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band.  I can tell you, without any hesitation,  (or concern, for that matter) that I am supremely terrible at such games.  They seem perplexed at such a revelation.  My nieces and nephews, all of whom seem to be quite accomplished gamers, like to pretty much beat any score I can put up, and then ask me things like, "But Uncle Richard, don't you play these instruments for a living?"  I usually cannot come up with much of a good replay beyond a rather meek, "yeah," and then recall how for quite some time, in the years before we had Gray, all of them were the best kind of birth control for my wife and I as we pondered whether or not we wanted to have kids any time soon.  On a side note, one of the many reasons I am a fan of Gene Simmons reality show, "Family Jewels," is the episode where the members of Kiss attempt to play their own song on one of the above mentioned games, and fail miserably.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against these games.  And, to an extent they actually can teach a bit of rhythm and basic coordination; but they are not remotely like playing a real instrument.  To be fair, I have never heard the manufactures claim them to be intended to teach real musical skills.  They do, however, work great as a music appreciation tool.  I have had several student's comment that they have since become big fans of some pretty iconic classic bands after being exposed to the music on the video games - so they cannot be all bad.

The Tuesday release of the new DJ Hero spin-off of the Rock Band/Guitar Hero games got me thinking about an idea I had with a friend of mine a while back as those games were first originally becoming popular.  It's called "Guitar Troll."  The idea is simple: you take the guitar controller from one of the games, but rather than play it like an instrument, you use it like a battle axe against your virtual opponent. First round is maybe Pete Townshend and you are judged on who can most creatively destroy a guitar.  Then it's on to Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, etc.  The details are still being worked out, but I think I at least wanna make up some t-shirts for now, if anyone wants to help promote the idea.