Sure, you’re not really playing anything when you pick up the guitar controller to play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But for some kids, the guitar games could lead to the desire to take real lessons. And in my book, that’s a great thing.
At least it seems to be working for one guitar instructor named Bo Moore, interviewed in the Johnstown, Penn Tribune-Democrat. Moore says that he is enjoying a 35 percent increase in new students due to the guitar videogames.
“Kids who might never have become interested in learning to play the guitar are now coming to us,” Moore says.
“We’re so busy right now, and I think these games have been a big factor behind it,” he said. “We especially see a big boom right after Christmastime. We’re always swamped, with a long waiting list.”
And it seems that the song choices of these young students are also influenced by the games’ tracklists:
“Kids wanted to be like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. Now it’s nice that bands like Foghat, the Steve Miller Band and the Rolling Stones are cool again.”
The only downside is that Moore says that other teachers of other instruments tells him that lessons are down. Get on that Keyboard Hero or whatever, Activision!
[Via Gamepolitics]
