Prince turned down Guitar Hero, prefers kids 'learn how to actually play'

Prince is full of BS. Knowing him, he's just using that as an excuse to not have his music in a medium he doesn't like.

I still say people that do this whole "Learn a real guitar!" thing is missing the whole point. Yea, playing a real guitar is fun and all, but the last time I checked I didn't have a backup band and singer... and a audience... Even if I did, I don't play rock guitar, so I'm still up crap creek without a paddle.

Anyway, if a kid plays guitar hero or rockband and never picks up a real guitar, I don't think they would anyway.

Prince just bitch slapped GH in the face and then served them pancakes.

Fuck yo' couch!

thats good and all, but actually learning to play guitar hero takes a hell of alot more time and money and you still won't be able to have it sound like the actual songs most of the time, i took guitar for 3 years (long before GH) and i still could barely do anything...

As a musician and a casual GH/RB player, I'd have to strongly disagree with Prince. His attitude is one of snobby elitism: "oh, look at me! I'm a REAL musician and people love me and I put a lot of work (or *cough* may just be naturally talented) into what I love to do and anyone who isn't as devoted as me just takes shortcuts with games like GH. You know, it's just sad that the next Mozart will never have picked up a real instrument because he will be too busy playing a plastic controller."

I call bullshit.

GH, notably, has reinvigorated my interest in music and pursuing it professionally and I can speak for many who have attempted playing REAL instruments because of these games. Many give up after realizing star power doesn't work on a Gibson, but some have truly discovered the rush of playing music and have even gotten their kids into it.

Let the kids play what they want to play. Regardless, the musicians that will define the future will find an outlet because that is what they were built to do. Hell, they may even get a shove in the right direction with these games.

He crushing my dreams!!

I need Prince in a music game. I have to trackdown his fanclub email or something and bug the living hell out of him until he does it.

He is missing the bigger picture here and that getting kids interested in different types of music in the first place. I would have never even picked up Rock Band if I didn't get exposed to different music at an early age. And he was one of the first black artists that I saw that made playing a guitar look cool to me...

So he doesn't want kids to play with a virtual Prince, he wants them to do it for real.

EWWWW

Anyway i gotta agree, that other than the drums GH and RB are nothing like the real thing. That said it's a Godsend for the music industry that is struggling to find itself in the age of iTunes.

This just reminds me of the south park episode. More artist should agree that this guitar hero thing is getting old, and people spend so much time swinging plastic guitars that they could learn how to actually play.

Learning guitar is not "hard". The initial learning curve is harder than say piano, but once you practice a couple scales and chords you can pretty much play the at least the skeleton of any song. Guitar is pretty easy to get good at if you just devote some time to it.

GH is pretty gay in that it's designed to make you feel like you're playing "guitar" instead of a videogame, with hammer-ons and pull-offs and shit, and a lot of people actually think GH is related to the real thing. But at least some people will prob attempt guitar for real because of it.

Seriously who the hell cares what Prince has to say?! F*ck that guy. Friggin' weirdo can stay the hell out of my video games.

If he were ever in a video game it would be called 'Mirror Hero' and all you do is stare at yourself in the mirror.

Man, I'm not sure I've ever heard anything so discouraging! The guitar is "incredibly tough to learn" how to play? If Prince is saying that then we may have to rely on Guitar Hero to get kids interested in learning how to play guitar.

Vote me down all you want - I'm a professional musician (not guitar) and I've played the guitar for almost 30 years. I'm very good at it. It isn't a hard instrument to learn how to play. Hard to master - for sure. We should never tell kids something like that is hard to learn.

Excluding non-Western instruments, there aren't many that are incredibly tough to learn how to play. Otherwise there wouldn't be millions of young kids around the world playing adequately.

Bring on the disappearing ink.

Reminds me of "An Evening With Kevin Smith" when he talks about recording a mini-documentary Prince.

Never seen it? Never will -- Prince took the recordings and locked them in his secret vault. Yep, he hired Kevin Smith to record the documentary for his eyes only.

That guy has class. And Soul Glow.

Holy shit. I never thought I'd agree with Prince about anything.

Prince should do it on the condition that somewhere in the manuel they talk about virtues of Max/MSP

Prince is right. Pushing colored buttons to a Metallica song is nothing like the reward of actually being able to play those riffs. Guitar Hero is't playing guitar, it's just learning to push colored buttons with someone's song is playing in the background. If you want to pick up a guitar, learn the real thing. Their is nothing better than being able to create your own song on a guitar. Creating a song with a few colorful buttons ain't cutting it.