At your parents over the weekend and have the urge to shred? Here’s a guitar flash game that might fix your craving. Use the S, A, and arrow keys to play.
http://www.strumstrum.com/games/scgmd.swf
My high scores are 26502 for Into Infinity on Amateur and 23176 on Professional. Shouldn’t be to hard to beat my score, or show me up on the Guitar vs Piano level.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Have a good weekend!
This video is a bit old, but it’s one of my personal favorites. If you aren’t familiar with Flea and Chad, they are the bassist and drummer (respectively) for Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea is absolutely one of the greatest bass guitar players of all time. Chad does some really cool stuff with him in this clip. If you’re interested, there is a short instructional bit at the end.
Flea and Chad of RHCP jam (drum and bass)
The most popular video games of today are all about rock n roll, including the recently released Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. These games, if you are not familiar with them, are sold alongside plastic, simplified, pseudo-instruments used to play through the most popular of rock ballads.
For what it’s worth, Rock Band and Guitar Hero are a blast - especially with a few buddies and a few drinks. Anyone can get some dorm cred by pulling out a pair of Guitar Hero axes at the end of the night. But these games are insanely popular… to the point that I wonder how they are affecting the real music industry?
Everyday after work, my friend John would come home to play Guitar Hero until his fingers hurt. He got crazy good at the game. We would joke that if he spent that time playing guitar for REAL, then maybe he could become a REAL rock star. But there may be truth behind the humor. Playing games and listening to music is great, but devoting your time to mastering fake instruments seems sort of ridiculous. After all, the games are not really a means for creation. You play other artists’ music, and you either get the note right or get the note wrong. There is no variation or style involved. There are song editors, but you are still pretty limited as far as tools and exposure.
Playing music in video games isn’t a new phenomenon by any means. The concept has been in use in Japanese arcades for the past 20 years. I recall Samba De Amigo, a 1999 Dreamcast title that included plastic maracas for shakin’ to the beat. These new games are different, though. Getting your song in Guitar Hero means exposure to millions of teenagers who will potentially seek out more of your stuff.
At the end of the day, I don’t care. People that are inspired by the sensation of being a fake guitarist may go out and learn to play for real. And, there will probably be the people who pick up guitar and expect it to be as simple as colored notes. Either way, anything that can push Rock into the popular spotlight in place of the top 40 crap can’t be that bad. Thoughts?
This week’s guitar smash is brought to you by KISS’ very own guitarist, Paul Stanley. The Great Alive 35 Melbourne GP Outdoor Concert was capped off last year by Stanley taking his guitar to stage - literally. Apparently the crowd wanted an encore, but the band was too lazy so they just sent Stanley out to smash his guitar.
KISS’ Paul Stanley smashes his guitar
Learning guitar was hard for me. Not because I didn’t “know” music, or didn’t follow the right path of instruction. I didn’t have a good routine.
Fortunately, I have found a more perfect routine for learning to play music. Over the past few months I have been learning to play piano, and let me tell you, it has been a hell of a lot easier than it was for me to learn guitar. I expected it to be easier, but not this easy. Granted, I did have prior musical experience. And honestly, the piano makes way more sense in terms of physical design than any other instrument. But there has been something else that has made it even easier. My routine!
When I learned to play guitar, I would practice whenever I wanted for however long I wanted to. I would practice everyday for two weeks straight. Then I wouldn’t practice for two months straight. Sometimes I would practice for 2-3 hours at a time. Other times I would practice for 2-3 minutes. My brain had no learning rhythm.
The practice routine that I have been using on piano has helped me on guitar as well.
A more perfect routine to learn guitar
- Practice guitar four days a week. Play Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Or any variant that works for you. Even if you have all the time in the world, your brain needs recovery time.
- Play guitar for 15 minute intervals, taking breaks in between.
- Consistency over quantity. Everything I read says that to learn guitar you should practice, practice, practice. Honestly, though, I stop enjoying it when I do that. After so long I lose touch with what I’m playing and what I liked about it in the first place. Get some quality practice time in on a consistent but conservative basis.
This is my method. What is yours?
Last year, Gibson released the most technologically advanced guitar ever made: the Robot Guitar. The guitar could literally tune itself for a retail price of $2,499. The company made it very clear at the time that the guitar was a prototype, and that anyone that purchased the product would be investing money in the revised model to be released at a later date.
Well, that date is almost here. Gibson revealed the new guitar, dubbed “Dark Fire,” yesterday.
A cure for cancer? No, just another damn expensive Gibson guitar.
Simply put, Dark Fire is 10 guitars in one. The Gibson Dark Fire features all of Gibson’s finest hardware, including the P90h pickup on the neck and a Burstbucker 3 pickup on the bridge. The new model also sports “Chameleon Tone Technology,” described on the website as “the ability to change your guitar’s tone to better match your environment.” The automated tuning pegs are miles faster now as well, so that you can literally change tuning in the middle of a song.
More details as well as a live demo of the Dark Fire guitar will be released on Monday, Dec. 15. You can check out Gibson’s site for more information.
The Marshall Classic Rock Awards were announced this week. I have never cared about the Marshall awards, but the concept is pretty interesting. Similar to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Classic Rock Awards recognize different artists within the genre for their contributions. Band of the Year for 2008 went to the Foo Fighters, which is an intriguing pick. I wasn’t aware that the Foo Fighters qualified as “classic” yet, but I guess they have been around for 13 years now. Check out the complete award list below.
The Rock Awards in 2 minutes
The Marshall Classic Rock Roll of Honor winners list:
Album of the Year: Whitesnake’s Good To Be Bad
Band of the Year: Foo Fighters
Re-issue of the Year: Metallica - First three albums vinyl re-issues
DVD of the Year: AC/DC’s Plug Me In
Event of the Year: Led Zeppelin at the 02 Arena
Best New Band: Airbourne
Classic Songwriter: Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac)
Showman Award: Paul Stanley (KISS)
The Armand de Brignac VIP Award: Harvey Goldsmith
Gibson presents the Tommy Vance Inspiration Award: Syd Barrett
Classic Album: Cream - Disraeli Gears
Metal Guru: Wayne Kramer (MC5)
Classic Rock/Childline Award: Bryan Adams
Outstanding Contribution: Jeff Beck
Marshall “11” Award: Slash
Living Legend: Ozzy Osbourne
