GuitarGames.net announces three online courses which teach the fundamentals of music through music related video games. The courses cover finding guitar notes, music theory for beginners, and developing a practice routine.

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) June 18, 2009 — GuitarGames.net announces the release of three online courses that teach guitar playing and music skills with video games. The course topics include Guitar Notes, Music Theory for Beginners, and Developing a Practice Routine. What makes the courses unique is their use of GuitarGames.net’s online video games. Students learn the note names by playing a game called Note Squish, a kind of “whack-a-mole” music notation hybrid. Notes on the fretboard are covered by a game titled “Birds of Fretopia”, where the object is to shoot an alien bird with the correct note name. The courses also make extensive use of light-hearted pneumonic devices and whimsical stories while covering traditional music education topics.

The courses continue GuitarGames.net’s tradition of making music education fun. Guitar teacher William Wilson created the site as a means of competing with video games for his student’s attention. “I got tired of hearing students come in and telling me ‘I didn’t practice, but I played Guitar Hero, does that count?’” Guitar Hero, a popular video game with a guitar-shaped controller, has little if any educational value according to Wilson. He found that while students had enough time to play video games, they didn’t have time to practice. “Getting students to practice is the hardest part of teaching. So I asked myself how can I meet students where they are at.”

Enter GuitarGames.net. Out of his frustration in motivating students Wilson created a set of about fifteen video games that teach various musical skills. The games range from walking guitars that teach key signatures to fish that help students learn music notation to a scale trainer that helps students develop speed and learn to improvise. Since its launch in 2007 nearly 10,000 guitarists have tried his games. He credits their success to the way they isolate the intellectual part of learning guitar. “Part of the difficulty in learning guitar is that there is so much going on. Positioning the hands correctly, learning to read music, finding the notes on the guitar…It’s tough. If you can work on these separately, all the better.” Wilson makes GuitarGames.net available to everyone, not just his own students, yearly membership is $19.95 and the games are free to try.