A Guitarist Tries Guitar Hero for the 1st Time

So I have been in Greensboro, NC for the week visiting family and friends. Last night, my lady and I went out with my friend, KRSONE, and his wife. After a nice dinner we went back to their house for wine and to play Guitar Hero.

I've never played Guitar Hero as I don't have a video game system. And for the fact that I have currently have 7 REAL guitars. (I've had more that 25 in my lifetime.) Why play a video game of a guitar, when I can play the song in real life.

But there I was at my buddy's house watching him and his wife smoke the songs, on easy level. After watching them and getting a feel for the game, KRSONE says, "Your turn, Spider!"

So I start on a practice level with the song "I Hate Myself For Loving You" by Pat Benatar. (A fitting song for someone in my life.) And, I SUCKED!! I only got 24% of the notes correct.

The next song I tried was "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson. A decidedly harder song, but I thought I was getting the hang of things.

I SUCKED AGAIN! This time getting 49% of the notes right.

Later in the evening I tried an Aerosmith song while the band was on stage. I got booed off. Dang!!

Ok, I know. I'll do good on the song "Black Magic Woman" by Santana. I can play both the guitar and bass parts in real life so I should rock on this one. Right? WRONG!!! I played the bass part and I only got 53% right. The whole grooving end part I just blew out of the water.

I think one of the problems was that I was picking the songs in time with the music and not as the color notes passed the lines on the screen. At one point my buddy turned off the music to see if I would do better just using the visual cues. That helped me only a little.

The big thing was the scrolling fretboard really bugged my eyes out. You get so focused on it, and then when I'd look at something else in the room it appeared to be moving vertically. By the end of the night, I couldn't look at the screen anymore. (And no, I know it wasn't the wine I had been drinking.)

My eyes hurt through the night as I slept. And they still hurt this morning as I type this. I guess I am not used to video games anymore. I hope that doesn't eat into my geek cred.

Off to go play my REAL guitar and be a REAL guitar hero!