Rock Band Pedagogy

“Why don't you learn to play a real instrument?”

If you play Rock Band or Guitar Hero you have almost certainly heard these words before. What's worse is that, if you're like me, you probably bought into the idea. The fact that the games are fun as hell should be enough to neuter accusations that they're wastes of time, but it's hard not to wonder whether I could have learned how to play guitar in the time it took to master Green Grass and High Tides on Expert. The drums and vocals in Rock Bands 1 & 2 and more recent Guitar Heroes do a little to ameliorate this, translating at least some of the player's time into real world skill, but what if even more could be done?

This might actually be the case very soon. Harmonix and Mad Catz have pulled out all the stops with the peripherals for Rock Band 3. The two most exciting offerings are an actual midi keyboard and a guitar with 102 fret buttons and six nylon strings in place of the old plastic paddle. The new Pro Mode makes full use of both controllers, as well as improved cymbal attachments for the drum kit, in four new difficulty tiers added above expert that will require the same skills used to play instruments outside the game. You won't be able to pick up a guitar and thrash from day one, but the skills you'll pick up in Pro Mode should be enough to get you past the frustrating plateau which drives so many people to give up learning a real instrument.

Harmonix's mission statement from the beginning has been as much about celebrating rock music as creating a game, and despite the scorn of certain Artists-Formerly-Known-As they've already exposed huge swathes of gamers to music they might never have encountered. Rock Band 3 is poised to take it a step further, enriching not just the audience of rock music but the participants as well. Even more exciting, however, is what this might mean for the place of video games in our culture; if Harmonix is successful it could be a watershed moment in both gaming and pedagogy.

And, although I am unbelievably excited about Rock Band, that last bit is much more interesting. Whether video games are art or not has been, and will continue to be, hotly debated. What gets less attention is the investigation into whether or not games are a meaningful educational tool. This is odd, because this is a question for which a “yes” answer is not only possible but, as time wears on, probable.

“But wait,” you say, “my school had 'educational' video games, and they barely taught me anything. All I learned from Oregon Trail was how to slaughter wildlife for no good reason!”

Just because it hasn't been done right doesn't mean it can't be done. Things have come a long way since the the days of pixelated Buffalo holocausts and dot matrix printers. If you haven't already heard of it, go take a look at the institute of play. It turns out pedagogists have known since Piaget in the 50's that engagement with an activity and the motivation to continually push and constantly improve at it, the same effect a good game has on its player, is the single most important aspect of the learning process.

Any teacher will tell you that the best learners are the ones who engage with their curriculum, stick with it over time, and consistently push themselves to do more and more. Unfortunately, they are at once depressingly rare and almost impossible to create. And yet, to the amazement and frustration of educational professionals who study games, game designers have made a billion dollar industry out of turning us all into engaged learners...of a sort. They might not be the sorts of skills you can apply to the real world, but the intricate specials and combos of Street Fighter, the lateral-thinking puzzles of Portal or Myst, and the web of stats and tactics of any given Final Fantasy require the kind of deep, luscious thought most teachers would kill to get out of their students.

That's the problem though: games have, at least so far, had a hard time teaching anyone anything of actual value in the outside world. For the most part, I think, it's simply for lack of trying. Cynical as it sounds, video games are products, and entertainment makes more money than education. By extension those games that do try to teach tend to lack the commercial and artistic allure of their counterparts, and aren't as attractive to students as commercial games. This generation of consoles has seen a small shift in the trend, especially in Nintendo offerings such as Wii Fit and Brain Age. Their effectiveness is questionable, but anything that gets gamers burning calories and doing math problems and makes it fun is a step in the right direction. What Harmonix is planning with Rock Band 3 could take things to a whole new level, though. It might not seem like it now, but something like this could be a huge step in gaining a sense of legitimacy for the medium, not to mention the effect it could have on the way future generations of students learn.

 

I have seen too many friends and brilliant peers failed by our school system not to be excited about this. If Harmonix’s promise for Rock Band 3 comes true, if they do a good enough job of reminding us that play and productivity aren’t opposed, it could save countless future students from disenfranchisement. Their stated goal since the release of the first Rock Band has been one of inclusion and celebration as much as the creation of a video game. I can only hope that one day we are able to approach learning and work with the same playful reverence they show for rock and roll.