If you’ve been playing a lot of music games, you may be getting to the point where you’ve started thinking to yourself, “Hey, maybe I could actually do this for real!”
Don’t laugh: Countless musicians (including yours truly) have gotten their start in a similar way, moving from tennis rackets to hand-me-down acoustic guitars, or chopsticks to drum sticks. I’m not saying everyone can do it — some people simply aren’t musical, not in that way — but here’s a secret a lot of musicians would rather you not know: It’s really not that hard.
Oh, it’s hard as hell to be great. You’ve got to be amazingly dedicated or amazingly talented. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about moving from pretending to play music to actually playing music in a recognizable fashion — quality is something separate, that comes later. There’s an entire genre of music that came from people who didn’t really know how to play just grabbing instruments and messign around, maybe figuring it out along the way, and maybe not. Today, those people are legends of punk rock, but when they started most of them had no idea how to play.
And truth be told, music games teach you a lot more musical skills than most people give them credit for. Singers — well, that’s obvious: If you’re singing in the game, you’re singing, period. The more you do it, the stronger your voice gets and the better a singer you are. Drums are a similar story, especially if we’re talking about Guitar Hero World Tour’s 5-pad setup. Once you’re playing on Expert, you’re basically playing the drums for real. Most expert virtual drummers could sit down and any real kit and figure things out in moments.
Guitar and bass are less closely analogous to their real-life counterparts, but you can still pick skills up from the games: The importance of moving your hands and fingers independently, for example; or for bassists, the sound and feel of a solidly anchoring bass line. And if nothing else, all these things teach you rhythm – a fundamental component of all music — and strengthen your fingers, hands, or vocal cords.
So don’t be afraid to give it a try. Don’t be put off by musical snobs telling you you can’t do it, because the truth is, you probably can.
If that sounds good to you, check out the article that got me thinking about this post: CNet’s “Learn how to play an instrument online” (via Lifehacker) includes a bunch of nifty-looking resources for music newbies, students, and anyone looking to improve. Have a look, try some of them out, and maybe you’ll discover that your skills aren’t so virtual after all.
