If you are like me then you don’t play video games. In fact, I hate video games. In my opinon they are a complete waste of time. So why am I writing about this video game? Because The Beatles Rock Band is something well beyond just a game, it’s a great interactive musical learning tool.
I am not really talking about the guitar and bass guitar bit. I actually think the guitar part of Rock Band is really lame because it has next to nothing to do with playing real guitar and very little to do with the music. It has nothing to do with guitar playing because playing real 6 string is about one hundred times more complex than simply pressing a few buttons and it has little to do with the songs because I have found that the changes in the game rarely change in time with any chord changes in the music.
The drumming and the singing parts of the game are what I find really interesting and important. These parts of the game are directly related to doing these things “in real life” and the relationship to the music is also far more direct.
If you sing a song in tune and with the correct timing then you’ll get a good score. It’s true that you do not have to sing the real lyrics (you can simply hum the melody if you want to) but so what? Musically what matters is hitting the right notes at the right time. I think Beatles Rock Band Video Game is actually a really great way to improve your singing.
When you play the drums on the expert level you are really hitting every single drum hit that’s in the real song! No, it’s not exactly like playing a real drum set, but it’s close enough to be very effective practice. There have even been cases of people moving directly from Rock Band drums into playing a real drum set with barely a hitch in the transition.
The Beatles Rock Band is recommended an excellent pick-up for any real Beatles fan along with (obviously) The Beatles in Stereo and The Beatles in Mono Box Set box sets.
