Two Weeks with an Ax

And now for something completely different.

I have become a statistic. Over the holiday, I got a Playstation 3 as a gift. Shortly thereafter, I took advantage of a very large accumulation of Dave and Busters points and got myself a copy of Guitar Hero III. For those of you familiar with D&B, you have some idea of what it takes to accumulate 15,000 D&B coupon points. My fiancee and I have been saving them up for a couple of years now and she is really good at certain timing games. Definitely outside of the average. Thus, one "free" copy of Guitar Hero III came home. Hey, I had the points and didn't feel like polluting my home with an XBox 360, even "free".

I've played Guitar Hero before with my friend Tom on his XBox 360. Fun stuff but not something I was looking to get. Since I had the PS3, had talked about the game at work (several of my co-workers own the various games as well as Rock Band), I decided it was worth getting at the price offered.

Haven't picked up GTA IV since.

In playing the game, I found myself getting into the music. Plus it was music I liked and had grown up with in many cases. Yes, that is what being a teenager in the 80s will do to you. The game gets you thinking about playing the music itself and that it might be fun to do it for real. Being a technical person, inevitably the question began to form in my mind: "How hard is this to do?".

Bear in mind, this is not the first time I asked this question with regard to music. A few years ago, I decided to give the flute a try. Rented a flute and signed up for lessons with a good and patient teacher at Music and Arts. Things went reasonably well and got the basics started before my teacher had to go to Yugoslavia on short notice. He transferred his students to other teachers but I didn't like the other teacher. Given what the lessons were costing me, I stopped going. Within a month, I wasn't playing anymore.

I did it strictly to try it and to try something new. As a child, I never learned an instrument beyond the recorder (which every middle school student seems to suffer through) and never took music voluntarily. Just felt I never had talent or intuition for it. I was a nerd.

Guitar Hero got those thoughts going again. With the flute, I was told at the time it is one of the hardest instruments for a beginner to start on. Given my experiences, I can believe it. Until you can get the lip plate at the proper angle, shape your lips, blow and produce a steady tone, you go nowhere fast. To play a "G" note took me two weeks.

The guitar, on the other hand, is apparently one of the easy instruments to self-teach on. Anyone can pluck a string. It makes noise. Progress proceeds from there.

Three weeks of steady Guitar Hero and the question wouldn't leave my brain. My character flaw had kicked in and said, "Here's a new interest. Go forth and go crazy until you get bored or something else piques your interest.". So I put household feelers out and getting positive feedback, I gave in and two weeks ago I crossed the threshold and bought a real guitar and some beginner books.

I followed the first rule of beginning musicians: Get what you want to play. Easy choice since I wanted an electric guitar. Can't play rock and metal if you can't get the sound you've heard on the game. The electric guitar has another advantage over an acoustic as well as the flute: I can plug headphones in and torture only myself. Since I am in the words of David Lister "a tone deaf, tasteless noise polluter" when it comes to musical instruments, this is not a trivial feature.

So I went to Guitar Center two weeks ago today and bought myself a Les Paul starter pack and I have been slowly working through my books. I started originally with the Rock Band Guitar Method book that advertises you can learn to play the songs from the game without having to read music. It uses guitar tablature only. Despite being simple to start, you have to make huge leaps to advance. So I backed off that and went to the Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1, a classic beginner guitar book. It starts with one string on the first three frets and moves up from there. That's more my speed.

So I've spend 30-45 minutes each night with the book open on my desk, my ax over my shoulder and headphones on, picking away at "Ode to Joy" and "Yankee Doodle". Lame (except for "Ode to Joy", I love Beethoven) but I can play eight notes and almost complete the simple songs without mistakes.

So I am a Guitar Hero statistic. Not a child but still someone who has picked up a real instrument and taking a go at it as a result of the video games. What I lack in experience I make up for in patience and desire. Being old has its advantages. I've been downloading guitar tabs for songs I've liked and bought music books for the guitar including the Guitar Hero III songbook.

Let me tell you something Guitar Hero wizards: If you think "Give It Your Best Shot" by Pat Benetar is a super easy song to play, try picking up the real ax and attempt to chop through the opening riff of 8-10 notes. Even with the guitar tab, it's a four finger chord. Sure a beginner with no practice on the guitar could do it but they will not get far. Just trying the first note is educational. I can't even fit my fingers into that position long enough to strum it. Forget about trying to travel the neck for two or three of those notes.

Put simply, this stuff is hard! Even bands you might criticize as having simple songs or easy sounds, those guitarists are still doing things that you or I cannot. So my respect for any guitarist has grown considerably because I've seen and felt first hand the difficulty in trying to make those sounds, let alone making them seem easy.

Strangely, the song from Guitar Hero I can blame for this is "Minus Celsius" by Backyard Babies, a bonus song you can buy in the game. It just stuck with me. So much I've bought the album with it from iTunes and I have the guitar tab for it. I like that style of progressive rock leaning towards heavy metal or industrial. I grew up with Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Rush, Queen, Van Halen and so on. These are the sounds I want to learn how to play. Some seem straightforward. Others are ungodly.

But I'm enjoying it and not aurally torturing my beloved. Foster isn't sure what to make of this. Sometimes he'll lie at my feet while I practice. I think he's keeping an eye on this strange thing on his Daddy. When I play Guitar Hero, he gets upset. Apparently I am not paying enough attention to him.

I'd say I've made a good start. What I like about the guitar is it gives you instant feedback about your mistakes. If you aren't fretting the string properly, you'll hear it. And I've gotten further these past two weeks that I ever did in four months on the flute. I can play eight notes on three strings and working on my fourth string. Hey, we all have to start somewhere. I've picked up guitar tablature in a hurry and now I'm tabbing out the sheet music. I can read the music but tab is just so much easier.

I've enjoyed it so much that I went and bought a guitar effects pedal just so I could play around. Basically an expensive toy. But its fun to change up a song and switch from a distorted scream to bluesy. It also has a built-in metronome and drum machine so I can use it for keeping time. I am considering adding an electric bass guitar and working with that too. From what I've read, the bass is the easier of the two to learn due to a slimmer neck and fewer strings but really requires someone else to play with to make the songs seem right.

I eventually plan to seek out a teacher to advance with. However, a lot of teachers won't deal with adult students. Apparently we're too much trouble. But if you know a guitar teacher in the Metro DC area who is easy going and willing to work with adults and has good recommendations/references, I would consider sending my business their way. Also considering giving the Soundry in Vienna a visit as they might be accommodating to someone like me.

I don't think I'm doing too badly for a beginner. I don't know what a proper progression should be but given my pitiful music background, I think I'm doing ok. I'm enjoying it and making steady progress. Even though it is old fashioned, practice is the key. Every time I do it, the fingers are obeying just a little bit better and becoming more reflexive. I'm looking forward to simple chords and learning how to work up and down the neck.

Rock on! Have a good weekend everyone!