Playing games
Our house has become quite musical lately. I’ve been making more of an effort with the piano, in between dance and my other commitments.
Then Tobermory, about six months? or a year? ago, discovered that a game called Rocksmith was due for release. It’s an Xbox/PS3/PC game; you plug in a real guitar (like, an actual electric guitar) to your console, tune it all up, and then the game teaches you to play guitar. It’s seriously FANTASTIC. Tobes played guitar, quite seriously, until he had a bad wrist injury a few years ago; and as with all these things, if you don’t practice you lose the skill.
So, Tobes got Rocksmith for his birthday, as it was released at roughly birthday-time. All three of us have been playing - Thaqui learned a little guitar in the past, as did I, and we’ve been variously cursing at it / each other as we slowly learn the basics.
Tobermory probably has the best approach - he’s actually practicing and repeating things, where Thaqui and I are happily bowling through the game without really refining our skills first. Hey ho!
Then Thaqui discovered a PC game called Synthesia, which teaches you to play piano. He also learned a little piano, so he went out and bought a fairly cheap 49-key USB keyboard for use with said game.
I’m really, really impressed. I’ve been playing piano since I was three, and started lessons when I was five; the game is very, very well designed. And if he does get bored with the constraints of the 49-key, there is most conveniently a full size piano sitting in the living room.
It’s nice living in a household that appreciates music. Not just listening to other people’s, but caring about creating it too.