in my rediscovery of guitar hero, i am revising what i’ve always said about the game and its relation to past experience with a musical instrument. i still believe musicians have a slight advantage, but not for the reason i first thought.

i assumed musical training instilled a better sense of rhythm, making the dots easier to follow. but i’m pretty terrible at the rhythmic sections, and the loud clicking of the paddle actually overpowers the rhythm of the music. even if i were fantastically rhythmically inclined, i still listen to the guitar clicks (which are a fraction of a second ahead of the beat), not the music.

where i totally rock are the sections that depend heavily on pinkie use and left-hand shifting. i’d guess guitar players are naturally good at this, as are people who can play stringed instruments (holla, cello). i don’t know enough about woodwind and brass, but i imagine there’s some benefit (especially w/ constant pinkie use, but perhaps not with the shifting). the same goes w/ piano.

obviously slavish dedication to the game and hundreds of hours of practice will overcome any pinkie disadvantage one might have, but i’m sure my 7ish years of intense cello-play has enabled me to find great success in impressing boys with my virtual shredding skills.

if i were on that episode of gossip girl where serena and vanessa play guitar hero at some lame party, i’d f’ em both up.

]]> http://www.skunkgal.com/2009/06/guitar-hero-and-pinkie-strength/feed/ 0 http://www.skunkgal.com/2008/04/id-totally-make-out-w-this-dude-at-orchestra-camp/ http://www.skunkgal.com/2008/04/id-totally-make-out-w-this-dude-at-orchestra-camp/#comments Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:24:37 +0000 alison http://www.skunkgal.com/?p=517 in between sectionals and awkward square dances, we could have complained about pachelbel’s canon in d together.

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video via ben, who didn’t even play the cello.