You don’t need a music teacher to get started

When Guitar Hero came out in 2005, a lot of players caught flack for playing plastic guitars instead of learning to play a real one (note: this never seemed to apply to Counterstrike, F1 Manager, or Madden players). The fad eventually (sadly?) passed. A lingering idea lived on.

Why couldn’t a video game teach you to actually play?

Enter Fret Zealot and Roli Piano.

Fret Zealot is an attachment you add to an existing guitar to light up the fretboard similar to the way you see the notes coming in a game like Guitar Hero, showing you where to place your fingers to play actual notes. It’s an updatable platform with new batches of songs added somewhat regularly. While it’s considerably more challenging than picking from the five buttons on a plastic guitar, it actually makes real music when you play it, rather than playing the pre-recorded note(s) from the fully gamified version.

Roli Piano is a fully integrated system. It has a lightup keyboard and a display for the “falling notes” style of rhythm game. Frankly, the keyboard is a better direct analog to the video game origins, since it’s a linear setup directly correlating to the notes on the screen.

These products take the basic concept of the music rhythm game and translate them into a medium that more resembles actual instrument learning. Rather than just going for a high score or clearing levels, you’re actually picking up a life skill.

That’s gotta be worth some points, right?

Whatever method you pick, try learning a new instrument!

P.S.: Plastic guitars are still fun.