Dave Grohl speaks on 'The Beatles: Rock Band'

"Rock Band is totally changing the way kids are getting their music these days. ... I think it's cool," he said. "As a way to teach a kid to play music, I don't know about that — it's a video game — if you want to learn how to play guitar, pick up a guitar.

"But, like, I get it, you know. And I was happy when the Beatles ['Rock Band'] came out, because there's kids that probably wouldn't have discovered the Beatles any other way. And I think it's important for everyone to know about the Beatles," he continued. "It's the foundation of what we do. It's cool that now you have a 7-year-old kid that knows the chorus to 'Love Me Do,' because otherwise they probably wouldn't."
(from MTV.com)

Dave Grohl was a primary member of Nirvana, the founder of the Foo Fighters, and one of the very, very few rock musicians from the last 20 years that will (IMO) be remembered in the future as a musical legend and GENIUS. Alot of musicians, including Jimmy Page (of Led Zep fame) and Jack White have gone on record to criticize Rock Band and other titles in the music game genre. I find it very refreshing to see a musician of Dave Grohl's caliber to come out and give Rock Band it's props.

Great article. Thanks for posting....

I can see why some guitarists like Page and White might slam Rockband games. But, the key thing they are missing is that if a kid wants to play the guitar, and has a musical inclination to do so, he or she won't pass on the real thing for a game controller shaped like a guitar. They're going to go for the real deal. Rockband is for gamers (for the most part).

Originally Posted by 62hofner

Great article. Thanks for posting....

I can see why some guitarists like Page and White might slam Rockband games. But, the key thing they are missing is that if a kid wants to play the guitar, and has a musical inclination to do so, he or she won't pass on the real thing for a game controller shaped like a guitar. They're going to go for the real deal. Rockband is for gamers (for the most part).

You often hear musicians rag on the Guitar Hero/Rock Band genre of games. Their main gripe?...it has no value as a tool for learning how to play an instrument. While I would agree with that for the most part (i.e. it's impossible to learn chords, riffs, etc. with a 5 (10 on some) button controller) I do think the game does a fairly good job of teaching a sense of timing. I can't tell you how many guitarists I know that can do a fairly decent job of playing chords (rhythm) but can't play lead for shit because they have no timing. Timing is a very important part of playing any musical instrument.

Another plus from the game is it makes a person concentrate on (or hear) parts of music (i.e. the intricacies of Paul's bass lines) that are otherwise ignored or not very prominent in the original recording. This helps when trying to transcribe parts of a song (playing Beatles Rockband has made me discover I have been playing a few notes incorrectly...for YEARS).

While I agree it is no substitute for the real thing, I disagree with the notion it has no value.

I don't get why musicians bag on the music games. As has been said, anyone who wants to play an instrument will figure out early on that mimicking playing in a game is not like actually playing the instrument itself. And it will in fact introduce people to songs they wouldn't normally listen to. It's happened to me many times with both Guitar Hero and Rock Band.