Everyone is playing guitar hero. This does not surprise since we attend a music school. But does anyone realize how this video game could be used for an awesome rhythm lesson? For anyone who is not familiar with guitar hero, it is a game where you follow a track of circles. As the circles come to the end of the track, your job is to hit the corresponding color button on the guitar. Some circles are even dragged, which means they are held.
This game has a lot musicianship to it. Besides playing notes to your favorite rock song, you are playing a rhythm and coordinating not only you fingers but also your other hand to strum the string-button. On top of this, you can you use a wammy bar on held notes to gain more points.
This may sound ridiculous but this could help people with sight reading, strenthening fingers, coordination and down right rhythm!!
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There is a lot of research going on right now on how video games and learning are related. There is surely something to be said for hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, etc. I can recall nearly using Dance Dance Revolution to get my old high school marching band to learn some makeshift dance moves. I think it is well worth looking into what is actually being learned/developed from playing video games...musically and otherwise.
On a lighter note, check out this link to learn more about some "competition" for Guitar Hero:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/
activision_reports_sluggish_sales
I was thinking of having a DDR arcade machine in my class room and "punish" students who had troubles with rhythm by forcing them to play the game to internalize one. HA!
I've had these same exact thoughts!!
i just want to crack the game and reprogram it!! ahhhh
um..i think that friday should be guitar hero friday..and that my classes will spend fridays playing guitar hero lol. It really does help rhythm, sight-reading, and even piano a little bit.
THATS A GREAT THOUGHT>....IM EXCITED JUST ABOUT THE THOUGHT ITSELF
Now I have a feeling that everything Dave said went through that "I hate guitar hero" filter. We can all say something won't work, but we can also say something will work, and it has a better chance of working if we say it can it. It's one of those "I think I can.." type of things. If you want it to work then it will work. It works that way with the students too. If the students think it will work, then it will work for them. Even if it doesn't work for them, they will think it does and it will spark the interest so they might want to work harder on their music..or practice more often..or become musicians one day.
well Ketti, I'd have to ask you if you ever played guitar hero. If the answer is no, or once or twice, I suggest giving it a run through.
First of all, it doesnt matter what you press if it's green, yellow, square, triangle, left, right or anything. It's about the LEARNING and EXERCISE. I belirve all learning is conencted therefore if you somehow incorporat rhythms you are learning in a piece and put into a form that kids can grasp, I would have to say it can work.
Even if I hand-eye coordination is the only productive outcome, in music it is crucial.
I was not suggesting to use two guitars and create my class room into a rock concert. I could see everyone playing on a guitar and reading off a lead sheet I created pertaining to rhythms in our repertoire...
Look beyond the couch potatoes in Ithaca and see the new, hip, cleverly-hidden learning style..
Ok. Maybe, MAYBE this could be somewhat useful for rhythm learning, but as Ketti said, it does force people to anticipate the beat far too much.
As far as exercise goes, you get none playing guitar hero, so I don't really know where that comment came from. So from the way I see it we've got learning: minimal, depending on your teaching/learning styles. exercise: zero.
I agree that hand-eye coordination is a useful thing to have in general, but unless you're making your students juggle while they sing, there's not a whole lot of music that require any sort of hand-eye coordination what so ever.
Maybe if you incorporated the rhythms you used in a classroom setting it could become more musical, but you would have to be extremely selective about what songs you let them play, and keep careful tabs on actually making it a learning experience.
I think that guitar hero could potentially be used hand in hand with another learning activity, but I think it would be EXTREMELY difficult to keep it from disintigrating into chaos, and to communicate to the kids exactly what they were learning. It would also be really difficult to keep from teaching the kids bad habits such as over-anticipation, and the whole 'blank stare' thing... the last thing I want is a jumpy, drooling choir.
I don't think I personally would ever use guitar hero in a classroom, although with a lot of thought and preperation, it could potentially work in some situations.
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