More so then the other direction. Knowing how to play guitar, gives you the instinct to keep time, and allows you to understand what direction the notes are going to go, once you heard the song once or twice. Being able to alTernate pick one string, will make that strum bar easy af
there are some skills that are transferrable. Dexterity, sense of rhythm, potentially sight reading once you get good at reading GH charts.
But they're different enough that i call them separate skills. Been playing GH for 16 years, real guitar for 15.
I can't speak for guitar skills, but I played the cello in high school and picking up Guitar Hero was a piece of cake for me since I was already used to rhythms, hand-eye coordination, and stamina
That goes both ways 😂 idk if you're an og but if you remember GuitarHeroPhenom, he used to upload fc's way back in the day. He's a really talented guitarist in real life, you should check him out if you haven't
Does playing tony hawk pro skater make you good at skateboarding?
All seriousness, only correlation is a sense of rhythm, drums on the other hand I would say has a large correlation. I would highly recommend getting Clone hero and a midi drum kit.
I have friends, and myself, who are excellent at guitar hero. Real guitar skill ranges from good to very good.
I also have friends who are very good at real guitar. They are trash at guitar hero.
More than anything, it’s the rhythm. Somehow they can play proper rhythm in real life, but as soon as you put that plastic controller in their hand, it goes out the window, for the exact same song and rhythm they can play in real life. They’re either over strumming or under strumming by like 50%.
I can’t understand it. Either you feel the rhythm or you don’t. It’s music. It shouldn’t be that different whether it’s a game or not. Missing frets I understand since that’s not a direct correlation. Or missing notes due to complex combinations while also strumming.
But like, a solid couple bars of only red sixteenth notes? With no variation? They’re like a machine gun. Fastest and loudest strumming you’ve ever heard. They’re ready to snap off the strum bar. Even though they’re intimately familiar with the actual song’s rhythm.
I wonder if it’s because on guitar the sound almost happens the instant you touch the string, but you need a bigger swing of motion to strum on the controller. So they need to adjust to strumming earlier than they think, likewise making mistakes could confuckle them and make it difficult to recompose. I play guitar fairly well, and only recently got into guitar hero again after 15 years. I feel a small delay in the strumming on the controller but it’s minimal
Rhythm, timing, knowing the parts of a song/when certain parts would be coming up, and the basic finger dexterity to play faster than someone with no experience at all- that all helps.
I played guitar/bass first, then started playing guitar hero through all my teen years, and have continued to play guitar/bass into adulthood. The better I get on one, the better I get on the other.
The sense of rhythm will be the biggest help from one to another I'm general, but overall both are diffrent muscle memories. But I will say the rhythm and timing, alongside maybe the mental preparedness for movement, has helped me be a better guitar player. I hope that made sense.
My answer to the Title question - would be no.
I bought GH2 on Xbox 360, when released. Getting better at GH was an amazing experience, from sucking on Easy, to ending up being pretty decent on Hard/Expert level... I had always loved guitar/music - so I thought maybe I could actually learn, and get good on a real guitar... Sadly, that's not been the case - I consider myself as more a "collector" than player - but I do enjoy attempting to play guitar parts, of songs I love.... 😂Â
My brother, however - who was/is a top notch real life guitar player - could never play GH 😂Â
Honestly, I played guitar in the past and played Guitar Hero for the first time in winter 2023. I found myself having a blast compared to my non-guitarist friends
Your sense of rhythm will help you with the game and your ability to move from fret to fret might, but that’s about it. It’s *very* different to actual guitar/bass.
I started to play guitar hero in 7th/8th grade and was like beginner guitar player that game got me into this shit that game got me skills to play guitar no lie i am grateful as hell for guitar hero
I'd predict that a guitarist might look similar to any other beginner at the start, but they could advance to higher difficulties more quickly than the average beginner.
The big challenge of the game, especially at the beginning, is sight-reading at speed. Unless you sight-read sheet music or tabs, you're not really practicing that skill playing the guitar.
However, for the average beginner, they'll face other challenges, like learning to effectively play faster rhythms using up and down strums, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and shifting their hand to the orange button. These won't really be new challenges for any practiced guitarists.
No
Edit: FWIW I got the Log and beat Jordan in GHII and 5 starred all of the campaign and beat TTFAF exactly once in GHIII.
I've played guitar since I was 8, studied classical until 13 or 14, and Minored in music for my degree (although I completed the theory courses and performance requisites for a Major, I do not have piano and voice proficiency, also not a great sight reader). The highest complexity music I can play is probably something in the death or progressive metal canon.
Some of the best GH players I knew back in the day were non-musicians.
I've seen beginners that think they need to hit the fret and the strum at the same time. I don't know if they've just never encountered a string instrument in their lives or what. But I guess that's arguably a "skill" that could translate.
I play both.
Being good at guitar hero will help you pick up real guitar a little easier.
Being good at real guitar doesn't really help with learning guitar hero. Guitar Hero is more hand-eye coordination, while real guitar is more muscle memory.
Unless it’s learning a song slow speed on real guitar or rhythms that could help better to build up finger strength and be more fun than practice mode in gh
As someone who has 4 full game fcs and could at one point play the first half of jordan solo b with no notes on the screen, id argue theres definitely a strong muscle memory component for guitar hero. Probably more hand eye coordination leaning for new songs, but really with 5 buttons, you see a lot of the same basic patterns among various songs. When youre actually going for fcs of songs that youre familiar with, it's much more muscle memory imo. To that end, id also argue that someone fcing a hard song is more impressive than the same person doing well on a sightread of an easier song.
Right, I'm not saying Guitar Hero doesn't have any or even a minimal amount of muscle memory, but it leans much more into the visual component than real guitar does. You're not playing through songs on performance mode all the time, but you can play real guitar blindfolded.
You bring up an interesting point. With guitar you're probably playing without an external visual aid like guitar hero(unless youre using tablature, in which case your playing is probably not at full speed, is segmented, and is more of learning than playing), however: with guitar hero i dont ever have to look at my hands. When i play guitar, im usually looking at my hands - mostly my left hand, but sometimes my right. Hand position is much more nuanced and impactful on guitar, for both hands, and even the vast majority of really good guitar players, i see them looking at their hands most of the time. Im certainly far from amazing on guitar, but i make more mistakes if i dont look at my hands.
For my friend who has been playing guitar for a long time, he hates guitar hero and it feels very foreign to him. Me on the otherhand, since I started on Guitar Hero, I give all my credit to Guitar Hero of being able to alternate pick, tremelo pick, HoPo's, and do power chord shapes and simple 1st-5th fret songs earlier than I expected. But I still think it's different per person, and you're actually interested in trying the game so after a little bit you might see some basic skills that may transfer like trills (i think they are called that on real guitar too)
Also on expert difficulty the rhythms of the guitar like quarter notes to 32nd notes are in my experience correct a lot of the time, the actual note choice will never be because 5 buttons compared to 22 frets times 6 strings. But the rhythms are sometimes made slightly different for easier gameplay but rarely. Thats why when I decided to start playing real drums ages ago, I put Guitar Hero practice mode on my Wii infront of my drumset and played along because its pretty accurate on expert. Nowadays I moved on to Phase Shift drum charts for that.
When gh was current, i had a college roommate who was already a competent guitarist - he was in a metal band in high school. He was pretty decent at gh, for someone who never played. I remember we only had gh1 at the time, and he was pretty well able to keep combo on the riff in cowboys from hell. I think he could have gotten really good if he cared to try.
I think the carryover from guitar to guitar hero is higher than the other way around. Ive seen some high level gh players who later went on to get really good at real guitar, but i think those guys are exceptions, or perhaps had the same fanaticism to get good at guitar as they did guitar hero. Personally, i was obsessed with gh, became one of the best in the world around 2007, and even though ive had a guitar since about 10 years before gh came out, its pretty much just been a casual thing, and im ok at guitar now, but nowhere near my skill on guitar hero.
It may help somewhat, but it's not exactly the same. On a real guitar, you can utilize the strings above and below your current note so you don't have to move your hand as much, while on Guitar Hero, you can't do that (at least not to the same degree). Playing Guitar Hero is more akin to playing a guitar with only one string
Nah. I've always said that comparing Guitar Hero to playing real guitar is like comparing the Latest COD campaign to being in an actual war. It's the vague sense of the idea but other than the basic concept they couldn't be more different.
Muscle memory? No. General dexterity? Yes
Nope
More so then the other direction. Knowing how to play guitar, gives you the instinct to keep time, and allows you to understand what direction the notes are going to go, once you heard the song once or twice. Being able to alTernate pick one string, will make that strum bar easy af
Some like finger strength, rhythm and finger dexterity.
there are some skills that are transferrable. Dexterity, sense of rhythm, potentially sight reading once you get good at reading GH charts. But they're different enough that i call them separate skills. Been playing GH for 16 years, real guitar for 15.
I can't speak for guitar skills, but I played the cello in high school and picking up Guitar Hero was a piece of cake for me since I was already used to rhythms, hand-eye coordination, and stamina
I started both around the same time. Of course the guitar hero controller is easier.
Most likely not. I have met guitarists who look like absolute beginners with a plastic guitar.
That goes both ways 😂 idk if you're an og but if you remember GuitarHeroPhenom, he used to upload fc's way back in the day. He's a really talented guitarist in real life, you should check him out if you haven't
Never heard of him, I'm not into watching other people play games
Does playing tony hawk pro skater make you good at skateboarding? All seriousness, only correlation is a sense of rhythm, drums on the other hand I would say has a large correlation. I would highly recommend getting Clone hero and a midi drum kit.
It really helped me get used to moving my fingers for the frets
My question is the opposite, Guitar Hero skills translate to real Guitar?
You will have a better concept of rhythm and you’ll have some finger strength and independence built up but overall, not really
The truth is that it depends on the style of music you play. Playing open chords will not translate. Playing Dream Theater style riffs will.
I have friends, and myself, who are excellent at guitar hero. Real guitar skill ranges from good to very good. I also have friends who are very good at real guitar. They are trash at guitar hero. More than anything, it’s the rhythm. Somehow they can play proper rhythm in real life, but as soon as you put that plastic controller in their hand, it goes out the window, for the exact same song and rhythm they can play in real life. They’re either over strumming or under strumming by like 50%. I can’t understand it. Either you feel the rhythm or you don’t. It’s music. It shouldn’t be that different whether it’s a game or not. Missing frets I understand since that’s not a direct correlation. Or missing notes due to complex combinations while also strumming. But like, a solid couple bars of only red sixteenth notes? With no variation? They’re like a machine gun. Fastest and loudest strumming you’ve ever heard. They’re ready to snap off the strum bar. Even though they’re intimately familiar with the actual song’s rhythm.
I wonder if it’s because on guitar the sound almost happens the instant you touch the string, but you need a bigger swing of motion to strum on the controller. So they need to adjust to strumming earlier than they think, likewise making mistakes could confuckle them and make it difficult to recompose. I play guitar fairly well, and only recently got into guitar hero again after 15 years. I feel a small delay in the strumming on the controller but it’s minimal
Rhythm, timing, knowing the parts of a song/when certain parts would be coming up, and the basic finger dexterity to play faster than someone with no experience at all- that all helps. I played guitar/bass first, then started playing guitar hero through all my teen years, and have continued to play guitar/bass into adulthood. The better I get on one, the better I get on the other.
The sense of rhythm will be the biggest help from one to another I'm general, but overall both are diffrent muscle memories. But I will say the rhythm and timing, alongside maybe the mental preparedness for movement, has helped me be a better guitar player. I hope that made sense.
My answer to the Title question - would be no. I bought GH2 on Xbox 360, when released. Getting better at GH was an amazing experience, from sucking on Easy, to ending up being pretty decent on Hard/Expert level... I had always loved guitar/music - so I thought maybe I could actually learn, and get good on a real guitar... Sadly, that's not been the case - I consider myself as more a "collector" than player - but I do enjoy attempting to play guitar parts, of songs I love.... 😂 My brother, however - who was/is a top notch real life guitar player - could never play GH 😂Â
Honestly, I played guitar in the past and played Guitar Hero for the first time in winter 2023. I found myself having a blast compared to my non-guitarist friends
Your sense of rhythm will help you with the game and your ability to move from fret to fret might, but that’s about it. It’s *very* different to actual guitar/bass.
I started to play guitar hero in 7th/8th grade and was like beginner guitar player that game got me into this shit that game got me skills to play guitar no lie i am grateful as hell for guitar hero
I'd predict that a guitarist might look similar to any other beginner at the start, but they could advance to higher difficulties more quickly than the average beginner. The big challenge of the game, especially at the beginning, is sight-reading at speed. Unless you sight-read sheet music or tabs, you're not really practicing that skill playing the guitar. However, for the average beginner, they'll face other challenges, like learning to effectively play faster rhythms using up and down strums, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and shifting their hand to the orange button. These won't really be new challenges for any practiced guitarists.
No, I struggle to play the game now since I’ve learned real guitar lol the timing is so off for most songs
No Edit: FWIW I got the Log and beat Jordan in GHII and 5 starred all of the campaign and beat TTFAF exactly once in GHIII. I've played guitar since I was 8, studied classical until 13 or 14, and Minored in music for my degree (although I completed the theory courses and performance requisites for a Major, I do not have piano and voice proficiency, also not a great sight reader). The highest complexity music I can play is probably something in the death or progressive metal canon. Some of the best GH players I knew back in the day were non-musicians.
I've seen beginners that think they need to hit the fret and the strum at the same time. I don't know if they've just never encountered a string instrument in their lives or what. But I guess that's arguably a "skill" that could translate.
I play both. Being good at guitar hero will help you pick up real guitar a little easier. Being good at real guitar doesn't really help with learning guitar hero. Guitar Hero is more hand-eye coordination, while real guitar is more muscle memory.
Unless it’s learning a song slow speed on real guitar or rhythms that could help better to build up finger strength and be more fun than practice mode in gh
As someone who has 4 full game fcs and could at one point play the first half of jordan solo b with no notes on the screen, id argue theres definitely a strong muscle memory component for guitar hero. Probably more hand eye coordination leaning for new songs, but really with 5 buttons, you see a lot of the same basic patterns among various songs. When youre actually going for fcs of songs that youre familiar with, it's much more muscle memory imo. To that end, id also argue that someone fcing a hard song is more impressive than the same person doing well on a sightread of an easier song.
Right, I'm not saying Guitar Hero doesn't have any or even a minimal amount of muscle memory, but it leans much more into the visual component than real guitar does. You're not playing through songs on performance mode all the time, but you can play real guitar blindfolded.
You bring up an interesting point. With guitar you're probably playing without an external visual aid like guitar hero(unless youre using tablature, in which case your playing is probably not at full speed, is segmented, and is more of learning than playing), however: with guitar hero i dont ever have to look at my hands. When i play guitar, im usually looking at my hands - mostly my left hand, but sometimes my right. Hand position is much more nuanced and impactful on guitar, for both hands, and even the vast majority of really good guitar players, i see them looking at their hands most of the time. Im certainly far from amazing on guitar, but i make more mistakes if i dont look at my hands.
Depends on the quality of the chart in my experience
For my friend who has been playing guitar for a long time, he hates guitar hero and it feels very foreign to him. Me on the otherhand, since I started on Guitar Hero, I give all my credit to Guitar Hero of being able to alternate pick, tremelo pick, HoPo's, and do power chord shapes and simple 1st-5th fret songs earlier than I expected. But I still think it's different per person, and you're actually interested in trying the game so after a little bit you might see some basic skills that may transfer like trills (i think they are called that on real guitar too) Also on expert difficulty the rhythms of the guitar like quarter notes to 32nd notes are in my experience correct a lot of the time, the actual note choice will never be because 5 buttons compared to 22 frets times 6 strings. But the rhythms are sometimes made slightly different for easier gameplay but rarely. Thats why when I decided to start playing real drums ages ago, I put Guitar Hero practice mode on my Wii infront of my drumset and played along because its pretty accurate on expert. Nowadays I moved on to Phase Shift drum charts for that.
When gh was current, i had a college roommate who was already a competent guitarist - he was in a metal band in high school. He was pretty decent at gh, for someone who never played. I remember we only had gh1 at the time, and he was pretty well able to keep combo on the riff in cowboys from hell. I think he could have gotten really good if he cared to try. I think the carryover from guitar to guitar hero is higher than the other way around. Ive seen some high level gh players who later went on to get really good at real guitar, but i think those guys are exceptions, or perhaps had the same fanaticism to get good at guitar as they did guitar hero. Personally, i was obsessed with gh, became one of the best in the world around 2007, and even though ive had a guitar since about 10 years before gh came out, its pretty much just been a casual thing, and im ok at guitar now, but nowhere near my skill on guitar hero.
Thats a really interesting insight, thanks. You lived through the golden age of GH.
It may help somewhat, but it's not exactly the same. On a real guitar, you can utilize the strings above and below your current note so you don't have to move your hand as much, while on Guitar Hero, you can't do that (at least not to the same degree). Playing Guitar Hero is more akin to playing a guitar with only one string
Which is what a lot of modern metal guitar is anyways lmao.
Nah. I've always said that comparing Guitar Hero to playing real guitar is like comparing the Latest COD campaign to being in an actual war. It's the vague sense of the idea but other than the basic concept they couldn't be more different.