Revenge of the Guitar Player
Upon playing Guitar Hero for the first time in 2005 I was treated to several simultaneous epiphanies (if such a thing can happen): this could revolutionize the music digital distribution model, someone has to incorporate drums and singing and the game interface would be an exceptional way to teach guitar using tablature. Guitar Hero and Rock Band utilize an extremely simplified version of tablature so the mechanics are already in place. It's just a matter of getting input from a real guitar.
A few months ago I heard about a project called Guitar Rising from the developer Game Tank. The idea is very simple; it's Guitar Hero with a real guitar as the controller. Rather than colored notes that correspond to colored buttons on the controller Guitar Rising uses guitar tab - which is simply a music notation where each string is represented by a line and the fret you're supposed to hit on that string is called out by the number. When I found out that Game Tank was showing Guitar Rising at GDC I beat a path to their booth to see how it played.
Guitar Rising plays just like it sounds; like Guitar Hero with a real guitar. The graphics are pretty rudimentary at this point without the polish of Guitar Hero and Rock Band - there are no rendered characters or effects - but what's important is that they've gotten their premise to work.
First and foremost you need a real guitar to play. Whether the game will come with a budget guitar has not been decided but as of now no additional hardware is necessary. You just adapt the guitar cable down to the mini-jack for your microphone input on your PC and you're ready to go. Since there's no intermediary hardware between the guitar and the PC the guitar has to be tuned up to the standard tuning. The game will include a tuner utility but songs that require alternate tunings like drop D or E flat are being avoided this early in the development. Incorporating alternate tunings is something that is still being considered however.
The song list will make or break a game like this and the demo featured such guitar mainstays as Metallica's "Enter Sandman", Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love", Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated." Whether or not these songs will make it into the final version is not yet known since the music licensing is still in progress.
As people are always quick to point out playing guitar isn't like playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band. For one thing there's more than one way to play a given note or song. I loaded up "Enter Sandman" and played the notes that were programmed in the game but even when I went back to the way I learned it some 17 years ago it still worked. Guitar Rising reads the sound of the note coming from the guitar as opposed to the actual string and fret you're using. As long as the note is correct the game will count it as correct no matter what string you play it on.
The complexity of six strings and anywhere from 19 to 24 frets per string can make sight reading a little difficult. Longtime Guitar Hero and Rock Band vets can sit down to play any song on hard or expert difficulty without having seen it or even heard it before but that will be much more difficult in Guitar Rising. The developers are aiming to make a game for guitar first as opposed to creating a tool to teach guitar. The option to include teaching tools like scales and chord transitions is still on the board but it has not been finalized yet. As a matter of fact there weren't any chords at all in the game when I played it. Game Tank treads a very thin line between making a game that's accessible to everyone while also keeping guitar players happy. Once you add chords sight reading a song cold becomes practically impossible for someone who doesn't already play guitar.
I don't see Guitar Rising taking off like Guitar Hero did if for no other reason - and this will sound strange - than it isn't as satisfying to play. Let's say you've never played a guitar and you pick up Guitar Hero. If you hit the notes you're tricked into thinking that you're rockin' the house. Even if you hit all the notes on Guitar Rising chances are you're still going to sound terrible without previous guitar experience because the game uses the real guitar output. There's a great deal of technique to play guitar on top of being able to hit the right notes in the right rhythm and this game won't teach that technique.
In its current state Guitar Rising isn't going to teach anyone how to play guitar. From what the developers told me the point of the game is not to teach but adding lesson functionality is something they are considering. With some tutorial videos and practice lessons Guitar Rising could teach the basics but it's no substitute for long hours spent practicing. If you're learning guitar it certainly won't hurt to have a game that has you playing more but fans of Guitar Hero should not look to Guitar Rising as their ticket to a real stage. There's no shortcut for becoming a living guitar god.
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