Christian Music in Rock Band
Anyone out there play the video game Rock Band? In the past couple days, some great news has been announced. On March 30th, 1CN Records announced their new worship artists, Jonathan Lee and Andy Kirk have songs in the game via the Rock Band Network.
- Jonathan Lee - Sound Of the Redeemed
- Andy Kirk - Love Is The Only Thing
Then today, Harmonix, the company that makes the game, Rock Band (Rock Band 2, Lego Rock Band, Beatles Rock Band) announced 6 more Christian songs coming out some time next week.
- Skillet - Monster
- Anberlin - Feel Good Drag
- Thousand Foot Krutch -Fire It Up
- Hawk Nelson - Live Life Loud
- Superchick - Stand In The Rain
- Switchfoot - Meant To Live
On a personal level, I am so excited to see some spiritually positive music showing up in a completely secular venue.
So, now the big controversy. We’re all guitar players or aspiring guitar players here. Does clicking some buttons on a plastic guitar help in any way to become a better musician?
PRO
- Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero generate genuine interest in wanting to learn to play music (just ask the music/guitar teachers in your area)
- Teaches left-hand / right-hand timing and coordination
- Promotes ability to sight-read music; to clarify a game player is translating the note-gems they see on the tv to actions with their hands to “play” the gems. Its not sighting reading a chord chart or sheet music, in terms of what the brain is doing, its very similar
- Drums – I would say the closest “fake” instrument to being real in terms of rhythm and technique. The only thing missing from drums is the hi-hat pedal.
- Vocals – clearly like doing karaoke with the benefit of seeing the pitch in reference to what the player is singing
CONS
- There are no strings on these plastic guitar, no picking techniques or articulation
- 5 buttons is nothing like 6 strings over 22 frets (21 if you have a strat, 20 for your acoustic)
- 5 colored circles or rectangles is nothing like actual notes and do not directly translate to real notes
So what’s your take?
Do you think playing video games like Rock Band help in playing real music?
hey this is not really a comment about this blog post, more just in general… RWTC is a GREAT site, and the blog is actually really cool and very helpful… whoever has been running the site for the last 6 months or so is really doing a great job, thanks for putting out a great resource at a reasonable cost!
Thanks Steven. If you have any ideas for us, please don’t hesitate to let us know (email, blog comments, facebook or twitter). We’re trying to stay up to date with all of the social media tools that are available.
While I can play guitar, mainly rhythm stuff mind you, I get lost in the early stages of guitar hero for the simple fact that you don’t play all the notes/chords. Generally I want to play what I am hearing not the notes that the computer wants to me to play as they drop. Often what I hear and what I need to play to score isn’t consistent.
Oh for the day when someone invents a way to plug in an actual guitar to the gaming system. Can you imagine a guitar hero game with a real guitar and where you can learn to play the actual songs.
ha ha Joel, one of my friends just sent me a crazy product video this past week. Apparently there are all kinds of people trying to figure out how to make guitars with strings to work in video games.
I think that would be hilarious … I’d love to finish playing a song during worship and have my score show up on the projector … how funny would that be? I suppose i should be more concerned with what score the Lord would give me on how much of my heart poured out instead.
this is soo cool, i agree
I think the games encourage a comfort level with guitars and really spark the interest of budding players. I see many of them taking the next step into real life play and many succeeding!
Excellent solo guitar version. Nice touch on guitar demo.
Hi! Just wanna say I like your posting.
I think it’s interesting..
Surely, i will read your next postings.Keep up the good work!!
a.e. (“,)
Unfortunately, many free online music can not be downloaded legally, because they are subject to copyright. There are also consequences for anyone caught illegally downloading and distributing the music of others.
Once you stumble upon the music you can download legally, so there is a risk that is loaded with virus, spyware and adware. There are also ethical concerns for Christians who want to download music legally authorized.
How to find free Christian music can be downloaded legally, then?
Your best bet is to find an online site that hosts indie Christian hymns. These songs are free to control other people, no producer or record companies involved.
I made a wiki page containing all the current Christian music songs available on Rockband (currently 54 songs). I update it frequently with the newest Christian songs added. You can view the page here: http://christianrockbandmusic.wikispaces.com/
Hi i play a little guitar and i can say i could not get in to guitar hero.
I would say it don’t help to learn how to play a real guitar, i have a blog set up that has a lot of free tips and lessons on blues,acostic,rock ect.
While i was looking for contant fo my sight I stumbled apon this site called (fretlight.com) this site is the real guitar hero, It blew my mind , you sea the frets light up with leds that show you witch strings to push , It is also controled by softwear that you can slow down the song or repeat smal peaces of the song, I hope this was helpfull, There is to much stuff these guitars do for me to list here , let me no if this helped out.
I love Rock Band and I’m a Mom!! My son usually plays the guitar, I do the drums and my daughter sings. Great Fun!! I have to agree that video games like this really do help with learning timing and some hand placement with the guitar. It may be a good place to start to learn timing at a young age.
Rock Band needs to add some guitar effects pedals.(Ha)