It's encouraging to see young people picking up the guitar, no matter what kind of feedback (no pun intended) they're getting, whether from video, software, or what have you. But nothing can replace one-on-one instruction from a qualified teacher. Even a few lessons with someone who can guide the novice player would be worth it, to establish good habits and a practice regimen. Online teachers can also be helpful: you might check out the WorkshopLive website and sample their lessons. Keyboard, too (shameless plug: I'm one of their keyboard teachers). Learning music can provide a fabulous way to express yourself, so go for it, but don't expect instant results. Anything worth doing well takes time and patience and a sense of humor. Good luck!

I'm chiming in here a bit late, but I'd like to comment on the Guitar Hero/Madden connection.

It's clear that playing either of these video games does not, in fact, teach you to actually participate in real life. Quarterbacking in Madden cannot prepare you for being tackled in real life.

However, what both of these games do teach is actually the important skills that complement the primary skill. In this case, the primary skill would be playing the guitar and playing football. The secondary skills are rhythym and strategy, respectively. The Guitar Hero skills set has been written about here many times, so I don't think I need to add to that argument.

One of the features in the Madden games is choosing what offensive or defensive plays to run. While that is not the same as actually creating your own plays, it is one way for athletes to learn to recognize the patterns and plays in a game as well as guage their relative success in a computer model.

It's true that Guitar Hero does not teach the guitar, and Madden does not teach football. However, if you think about these games in another light, they really do serve as a means of practicing thought patterns.

I'm certainly fascinated and amused to see little dudes pseudo-wailing in Best Buy, but I'm worried about the psychological and sociological implications in our instant-gratification culture.

As Daniel Levitan chronicles in his most excellent book, "This Is Your Brain On Music -The Science Of A Human Obsession", it takes roughly 10,000 hours to become a world-class expert at anything: Musician, Brain Surgeon, Master Criminal. There's simply no way around this repetitive brain training.

While Guitar Hero may help optimize some rudimentary ear/hand coordinative skills, my guess is that the neurochemical tags that are developed are mostly specific to Guitar Hero itself.

The nuanced and extremely complex feedback mechanisms involved in the rarefied world of someone like a LA studio musician take years to develop.

Guitar Hero is about ego. Musical craftsmanship is about developing a physical discipline which eventually evolves into a spiritual and artistic discipline.

My guess is that the number of people who will actually pick up a real guitar and see it through to even minimal competency is very small indeed.

He could barely play and was chosen for the Sex Pistols as a publicity stunt. Not a great example of musical integrity. Meanwhile, I have a hard time imagining Keith Moon condemning video games for any reason. Or kids, for that matter.

...someone is playing this game. It looks like fun. I enjoy watching people play almost as much as they enjoy playing...

What's weird is the notion that it's heartening that the kiddies are taking up the good, wholesome rock and roll lifestyle because Guitar Hero is exposing them to Boston and the like. Even if all these Playstation guitarists go on to learn real instruments, will they produce any great rock and roll if their impression of rock music is that it is fun for the whole family? At best Guitar Hero is going to breed a hoard of junior Neil Schons.

It's good that Keith Moon and Sid Vicious aren't alive to see all this.

If there is no connection between your ears and your fingers to let you know when you aren't fingering something correctly, you have no hope of ever playing the guitar. Also, while inspiration is required to even get started, perspiration is what's needed to accomplish anything. Joe Satriani had to practice full time to get where he is today, and he's great of course. Toys and workbooks are certainly fun, but there is NO substitute for talent and perserverance. I should know, I've been playing for 40 years and will testify that the old saying is true.. "it takes 10 years to make a good guitar picker" no matter who you are.

Also, if the kid wants to learn Freebird, he'll have to learn to play slide.

Come to think of it, every video game I've watched my kids play requires some bizarre sequence of commands by the right hand (square, square, circle, triangle, circle, square) while the kids simultaneously manipulate the directional controller with the left. As far as learning "hand independence" you could easily claim that learning ANY video game is going to be an asset to learning how to play the guitar - which I think we can all agree is probably not a defensible claim.

Second, and more to the point of the article, if video games spark interest in the non-virtual version of the simulated activity, has there been a corresponding rise in kids in martial arts classes spurred by ninja-type games, car-theft from Grand Theft Auto, fencing from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Ascribing a renewed interest (did it wane?) in guitar playing to a video game is as nonsensical as saying that more kids are signing up for classes in math or symbolic logic because of the Soduku craze.

Short version: If Farhad had actually learned to play an instrument, he never would have written this article.

As another commenter pointed out, Guitar Hero players are improving their guitar skills like Madden players are improving their football skills, i.e. not one bit.

If anything, people who go through the twenty minute learning curve that will allow them to sound cool on Guitar Hero are going to be that much more heartbroken when they come face to face with the years-long learning curve that will allow them to sound cool on an actual guitar.

And the idea that somehow the guitar was on its way to the dustbin of history, like the sackbut or the lute, is about as plausible as the idea that kids need a video game to get them interested in being rock stars.