Yes, it's true, but let me point out that there are many times where Ter will pick up the other guitar and we BOTH play for hours (yes - we have THREE guitars, two for GH and one for RB). Despite playing together, somehow I get branded as the BIG loser and Ter skates by, nary a comment. Perhaps it's because, despite the amount the SHE plays, Ter still refuses to play on the "hard" level, because, well... it's just too hard. I get branded a loser because I progress to the "genius" level or whatever it's called. But I digress...
These comments usually pointed out that, while I was progressing through Guitar Hero or Rock Band, it was just a game. I'm not exactly sure what the exact phrasing was, but what I heard was something like "what type of freakish loser wastes their life perfecting a childlike arrangement of rainbow lights and noises? You are not a real man and you are not a real guitar hero!" I'm pretty sure there were some expletives used too. These tremendously hurtful comments caused me insufferable emotional pain, but somehow I have perservered (karate men bleed on the INSIDE).
After I composed myself from the verbal onslaught, I did recognize a bit of truth to these comments. My epiphany was the new version of guitar hero (World Tour) which had many songs that were significantly less fun than GH3... in other words, they sucked (e.g., "On the road again" by Willie Nelson). Why was I being forced to play these songs to progress through this game? Then I realized the strategy of the GH and RB manufacturers. Give people crappy songs on the game and force them buy/download additional songs that they actually want to play. Cha-ching$$..
So after careful reflection on what I wanted to do with my quasi-musical career, I decided that if I dedicated as many hours to a real instrument, this would be better than a game with blnking lights and fake crowd noises. I also rationalized that that playing a real instrument might inspire Allie and Anna to begin thinking about music themselves (can you say early retirement?). But which instrument? While the drums would have been fun, they'd definitely be too loud. So I decided to get an electric guitar (the exact package shown at the right).
After about two weeks, I've already invested many hours on this thing (notice I said "invested", not "wasted") trying to get anything that resembles music to come out of it. As of yet, very little has come out of it that would be intelligible. I have never played the guitar before and I am about as ignorant as it gets. To illustrate my guitar illiteracy, consider that I broke my first string less than five minutes out of pulling the guitar out of the box!
If you use iTunes, keep a look out for any of my recordings. Stay tuned for updates on my progress (get it? - stay "tuned"!!).
