generation of button mashers to the art of music
making—putting it to the test with the experienced, gig-tested, guitar playing editors of this
magazine exclusively would not suffice. So, we
recruited a group of testers that represented just
about every category of player that might be
interested in a 6-string game controller: a serious
gearhead guitarist, a guitar teacher, a hobbyist
guitarist, a beginning guitarist and gamer, and
hardcore gamers with no guitar experience.
An Experienced Guitarist’s
Perspective
If you’re approaching Squier Stratocaster Guitar
and Controller as a guitarist looking to have some
fun playing Rock Band with the family, you may
be disappointed. One tester noted that the polymer fretboard “feels like nails on a chalkboard”
when using finger vibrato—which brings us to
one of the biggest negatives from a guitarist’s perspective. Because of the way the game operates,
any vibrato or bending registers as a wrong note.
For an experienced guitarist, it can be difficult to separate what you already know from
what the game says you’re supposed to be doing,
particularly if you’re a player who plays by ear.
On easier levels of difficulty, notes are often
omitted and it’s difficult to fight the urge to fill
them in based on what you hear. On more difficult settings, what appears on the screen may not
jive with the part that you already know, resulting in missed notes, poor scores, and frustration
knowing that you can’t follow a game at the same
level you can actually play a song.
High Performance Guitar Amplifiers
www.splawnguitars.com
704-922-0020
A Teacher’s Perspective
As a learning tool, the combination of the
Strat and Rock Band 3’s Pro Mode is undoubtedly the best option out there for learning guitar through a video game. The mechanics of
the game develop dexterity and acclimate new
players to playing strings. It serves as a rudimentary introduction to guitar, though there
is an inherent limit to the learning. Techniques
like bending, vibrato, and tapping aren’t covered, so at a certain point a student would
