Wii Will Wii Will Rock You...

I had a lot of fun with the Wii over the Christmas break.

Most fun for me was Guitar Hero III, and that's saying something because I had so much fun with Wii Sports; Zelda, Twilight Princess; and DDR (Or, WiiDR, as I like to call it).

I spent more time wearing out the fingers on my left hand with Guitar Hero than I think I want to admit. I know a LOT of the songs because a lot of them are old enough for even an old fart like me to remember. I remember a lot of them being played at High School dances, or on my friend's church youth group trips before the leaders reminded them that only Christian music was allowed and they replaced the tape (yes, cassette tape) with music that sounded exactly the same, but had lyrics about loving each other and accepting Jesus, despite the fact that the music made you feel like pounding someone's head in. (That's a record run-on sentence for me. I'll break it later.) My teenager likes the game a lot too, so we'll probably be getting a second guitar for a "cooperative career."

I don't love all of the music in Guitar Hero III, but I like a whole lot of it, and the music that I don't really like is still fun and challenging. I'm not great at it yet, but I beat it on "Easy" and I'm most of the way through a second beating on "Medium." I'm sure if I continue, it'll mess up my guitar lessons that I'm starting next week. I'll have to make sure that I practice the REAL guitar as much as I play Guitar Hero. That'll be the test. Oh, and I'd better practice the REAL guitar first. I don't wanna try to learn new chords with fingers that have spent their strength pushing fret buttons instead of real strings.

We'll see how the real guitar lessons go. I've tried to learn on my own, but it's taken me too long and I see little progress. When I have a weekly lesson, it should motivate me to practice. I don't want to completely suck after having paid a couple hundred bucks. I don't want a teacher to give up on me and declare me hopeless. I'm excited. I think it will be nice to be able to play an instrument that I can take along places... It's hard to drag a piano around, and who wants to sing campfire songs when accompanied by a clarinet?