Perseverance and Phun

For Christmas Santa brought the kids Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii. (ohh..hey I rhymed..lol) At first it started out being a fun gift for mom and dad as the kids didn't really take an immediate interest. Mainly because it was a bit different for them, as a game, and it was a bit difficult. As they watched us play, they became more and more interested and dipped their toes in the water.

Needless to say my son has taken a keen liking to it. However he has his own spin to playing it, as his hands are small for only being six years old. I still cannot figure out how he plays this way, nor how he has gotten as far as he has playing this way.

Traditionally you hold the guitar vertically, wrap your left wrist under and up and around the neck of the guitar to play the frets and your right arm over the base to strum. Well my son lays it flat on his lap and holds it so his thumb is on top of the frets and he hits each key individually with his thumb. Ya...weird huh? This worked well for when he was on the easy level because you never had to play more than one note at a time (if you did it was rare). However on the medium level you have to play more than one fret at a time. Well you can't play two notes with your thumb now can you? So what he does when he comes to the double notes is he flips his hand around as to play the "correct" way and when the double notes are through, he goes back to playing with his thumb. I don't know how he does it. On top of all that he jams his entire body along with the song!! So he is movin' and shakin' and playin' all at the same time.

Now guess how far he has gotten by playing this way? I still cannot believe it....but with out help, he has already completed the easy level and now he has gotten past Slash (whom he beat on the FIRST friggen time) and is now working towards playing Lou on Medium. Any of you who do not play this game, let's just say that playing on Medium is tough, and thats playing the "correct" way. Now imagine playing like my son!! ACK!! (See pictures below of examples of how he plays).

I have to give him tons of credit, though. I titled this "Perseverance and Phun" for a reason. This kid will play the heck out of a song until he beats it. Once in a while he starts to get upset and I remind him that if we get upset, then its time to put the game away. He calms down and beats it..LOL. Now when he battled Slash on Medium, he did it on his very first try!! It took me like 10!!! What a kid!!

***If you click on the pictures you can see them full size =)