On Guitar Heros and real guitars

The fact that I enjoy playing Guitar Hero and have recently started learning how to play a real electric guitar do not have a cause and effect relationship, but they're still part of my reality. Back when the only guitar in my life was plastic and had no strings, I often wondered how real guitar skills affects Guitar Hero play and how Guitar Hero play affects real guitar skills.

When my real guitar arrived right before Christmas, I stopped playing Guitar Hero and started working on how to learn to play guitar. I didn't play Guitar Hero again til the end of January when we hosted a party and the nephews wanted to play.

So far I've learned that getting good at Guitar Hero doesn't help you much with a real guitar, but learning to play a real guitar can help with Guitar Hero.

I think that the only thing that Guitar Hero really helped me on guitar was the fact that I was already kind of used to using my pinky so fingerings that require the pinky weren't as difficult to pick up. Other than that, Guitar Hero isn't much help. There's a lot of details to left-hand technique that just aren't in the game and probably shouldn't be,

I did notice that my practice with a real guitar has helped my playing of Guitar Hero though. The reach in my left hand has improved quite a bit..not enough for a real guitar where I'm shooting for a 6-7 fret reach, but definitely enough for the mini SG controller. The Green-Orange reach is no big deal now. My left hand fingers are a lot more independent so certain combinations that used to be difficult are a lot easier. I'm more consistently going back and forth between Blue and Orange without moving my other fingers.

I'm glad that my guitar practice is helping my Guitar Hero skills. I'm much more likely to get through Jordan in the game than I am likely to get through Jordan with the real thing.

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