I've thought for a while that the concept of teaching instruments through games is a great idea, and hope this lives up to my expectations. If this piques your interest, you might want to look at the independent PC title Synthesia (<a href="http://www.synthesiagame.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.synthesiagame.com/</a>) which is based around a similar idea for piano; despite not particularly polished it has the core concepts down and is improving all the time. I hope that one day someone sees the potential in his and throws money at the developer to give it the time and resources it deserves to turn it into a large-scale commercial project.<p>I have great hopes for these sorts of products, and think teaching instruments via games is simply the low-hanging fruit of a bigger idea. I think using technology to improve learning is a woefully unexplored area, and that learning is a sector that is ripe for some serious disruption. I don't think textbooks or lectures are an good or efficient way to learn, but we're still using those same methods that have existed since time immemorial without strong emperical evidence simply because it's the status quo. Meanwhile, technology and our knowledge of neuroscience and psychology have improved beyond all recognition, yet they are massively underutilised in terms of helping people learn. I can't help but feel that one day all these dots are going to be connected and it's going to dramatically change how we learn and educate for the better.
This reminded me of the same game concept that was supposedly under development a few years ago when Guitar Hero and Rockband came out. The game was to be called Guitar Rising and was going to allow for the ability to use any electric guitar. Now the game is beginning to seem like vapourware but you should check out the demo video.<p><a href="http://www.guitarrising.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.guitarrising.com/</a>
That reminds me of Disney's Star Guitarist (<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5128332/disney-star-guitarist-guitar-hero-but-with-real-guitars" rel="nofollow">http://gizmodo.com/5128332/disney-star-guitarist-guitar-hero...</a>), a game using a real guitar, not sure if it ever came out though..
Anyone think this will be a real game-changer?
At least now my friends can't complain that the game is easy because there's no actual strings/chords to play.
I think there's an age cut-off where people go from thinking this is cool to being embarrassed to own one.<p><a href="http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/guitar-hero-comic.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/...</a>