Sarah Murphy
Music, Technology and Values
11/23/15
To
understand whether or not “Guitar Hero” (or “Rock Band, for that matter, but
from here on out I will only reference “GH” for them both) is musical, we need
to take a trip down an unfortunately awkward road on the map of my memory lane:
middle school. I distinctly remember my best friend Laura getting GH and
spending hours in her basement learning how to shred on songs like “Bulls on
Parade,” or failing miserably on “Cliffs of Dover.” I became relatively good at
hitting the plastic keys to the right tempo; never “expert,” but I made my way
through a majority on “medium,” which was pretty good for a girl not accustomed
to the video game life. However, my pride at clicking buttons was cut short after
a particularly memorable dinnertime conversation with my father. John Murphy
has been playing guitar since he was in college and still performs gigs to this
day. He denounced GH and all its’ relatives as pathetic excuses for music, or
ways for lazy kids to pantomime true talent, or just another way technology was
corrupting us all and destroying that which is pure and good. I listened to my
dad, and my GH career was over.
Soon
after quitting my virtual rock band, I decided that I would follow in my father’s
footsteps and pick up a real guitar. I began pitiful attempts at chords in the
winter of my freshman year of high school and have continued to this day. My
journey with real guitar has been much more interesting and rewarding than my
short-lived glory of GH 3. I began making music, not pressing a button to a
pre-selected song. My fingers grew calloused instead of my wrists growing weak.
I learned chords and tabs, not just colors and frets. I learned how to tune an
instrument, how to change strings, how to play power chords, how to read tabs,
how to take care of an acoustic instrument, how to compare guitars, how to
strum, how to alter the sound based on my hand position, how to make up my own
solos, how to add my own flair to songs I loved, and more. I began to hear
music differently and appreciate the songs I’ve loved with a new love. Learning
guitar taught me how to be an active participant in sound, instead of a passive
presser of plastic.
I
believe that GH isn’t music based on the argument of what music inherently is. Music is the ability to alter sound
at one’s will, it’s being in control of what comes from your movements. It took
me months to get down the “F,” chord, and I still think I play it a bit
incorrectly based off of habit. My dad proudly points out that I play the “D”
chord with a different finger position than 99 percent of the population,
because he taught me how to do so. When I was learning how to play songs, the
pride and accomplishment I felt after tackling Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”
intro was indescribable. Months and months of calloused fingers and mis-plucked
strings finally resulted in a sound all my own. I believe that even playing
covers of songs sung by other people on a guitar is still an original creation,
because no one can hold down the strings with the exact same weight, and no one
has exactly the same strum pattern or even pick-density preference. These
little changeable details of guitar and other instruments like it make them
music.
I think
GH is a cop-out. Selfishly I think that because I’ve spent seven years learning
and practicing guitar, and I still can’t come anywhere close to playing “Cliffs
of Dover.” Even besides that, GH lacks the basic concepts of music. The limited
song selection cuts off choice. The necessity to hit the blocks as they pass
the bar cuts off opportunities for creativity. The quantifiable score at the
end cuts off intrinsic pride of playing a song! I can understand the argument
that GH is similar to an electric keyboard based on just hitting a button that
makes noise at the right time, but even with an electronic keyboard there is
participation in creating the sound. No matter how good you are at GH, all
you’ll ever be able to do is play the song perfectly how it is recorded. With
using instruments to play pre-made songs, there is always room for improvement,
modification, and virtuosity. Not to mention the ability to create, which is
one of music’s most important values.
It’s not
just because I’m bad at it, I promise. Playing GH in class on Monday just
confirmed my initial hunch, and my father’s wise words from the past. It’s not
real music! I received no joy from hitting a button at the right time while
playing “Float On,” by Modest Mouse. In fact, I was stressed, frustrated, and
embarrassed. When I play guitar, even when I was terrible, at least I am in
control of my own failed notes. When I missed a beat in GH, I was greeted by
the absence of noise; which is no way to learn how to play correctly. That’s
another aspect of GH that bothers me: how unreal it is. It attempts to simulate
what it’s like to play an instrument by providing a guitar-shaped controller,
allowing you to create rocker avatars, or putting the background of every song
as a different rock venue, but it does a poor job of simulating what it’s
actual like to play a guitar. There is no ability to strum in a certain rhythm,
which is indispensible in learning how to play guitar. You can’t play a sound
that’s not supposed to be in the song, and the failed notes sound like someone
ripped out your aux cord, not like you misplaced your finger on a fret.
Through
this uninterrupted rant about GH, (I started typing twenty minutes ago and have
not stopped once- apparently I feel very strongly toward this topic) I have
developed my own definition of what playing music is to me. Making music is creating
sound and altering noise through the use of your own movements. It’s the
ability to make something sound beautiful or terrible, and to have undisputed
control over which you choose. Music is something that no game can completely
simulate, because it’s a uniquely human capability that comes from combining
raw motion and sound without any restrictions. GH is great for a game, but for
music? I’ll choose calloused fingertips, capo’s, chord charts, and my Taylor
guitar, thank you.
