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Issue Date: December 14, 2008
Crank it up!
Take your act beyond the virtual concert stage.
Video games like "Rock Band 2" may inspire youngsters to try real-world instruments.
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Music-based video games are so hot these days that you can barely touch them with a 10-foot microphone stand. Between "Guitar Hero World Tour," "Rock Band 2," "Wii Music" and "SingStar Vol. 2," kids can rock out on the virtual stage with almost any instrument. So why bother with the real thing? Well, for openers, because you might actually learn something for a change while you're having fun.
According to a recent Guitar Center survey, as many as 81% of virtual musicians have been inspired to play a real instrument and would like to receive one as a gift this holiday season.
This starter guitar from Fretlight is computer-powered and lets you go acoustic or electric.
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If you're more of a beat maker, Disney's Camp Rock Electronic Drum Set (disneyshopping.com, $39.50) lets you play along with preset rhythms using five drum pads that light up when you hit them. As you play, you can change the tempo and rhythms. The portable drums come with AA batteries and two plastic drumsticks.
If you're intent on making the band in 2009, then ask Santa to bring you a starter instrument. Fretlight (fretlight.com, from $299) has a full-sized, computer-powered teaching guitar for anyone inspired by Slash. You can go either acoustic or electric. The guitar plugs into your PC or Mac, and video-based lessons will walk you through scales, chords and a variety of songs that are illustrated on the guitar's lighted fretboard.
A miniature piano like this First Act Discovery Grand Piano is a great place to start out for little hands.
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Little Alicia Keys wannabes are sure to be fans of First Act, the manufacturer behind a line of kid-friendly instruments, including a miniature piano. The First Act Discovery Grand Piano (shop.firstact.com, $99.99) comes with Peel & Place color performance stickers so your child can, for instance, place the "E" sticker on the "E" piano key, then peel it off once he has memorized that note. A song book and wooden piano bench are included. The baby grand comes in both black and pink, so young musicians still can express themselves via color, even without having a video game avatar.
-- Melanie D.G. Kaplan
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Feel the force of "Star Wars"
Swing your Wiimote as a lightsaber.
Long ago in a galaxy that feels far, far away, "Star Wars" was a lone movie. Today, that movie is a tiny part of an empire that includes an animated show, books, toys, collector plates and -- maybe one day -- an avant-garde ballet.
Play the new characters and probe the new planets in the latest video game installments.
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There also have been an estimated 75 "Star Wars" video games. But it's only with the rise of the Nintendo Wii that players have been able to truly wield the franchise's signature weapon: a lightsaber. While 2007's "Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga" (LucasArts, $19.99) simply added a few Wiimote swings to the game's push-button mechanics, players now have the ability to thrust and slice in September's "The Force Unleashed" (LucasArts, $49.99) and, just in time for the holidays, "The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels" (LucasArts, $49.99).
Using the Wii's motion-sensing remote, players now can brandish their lightsabers like true Jedi Knights, with only a flick of the wrist. "The Complete Saga" involved taking on hordes of soldiers, but "Lightsaber Duels" is focused entirely on one-on-one battles. You can use the powers of the Force to throw boulders at an enemy.
"Lightsaber Duels" is based on the Cartoon Network's hit series "The Clone Wars" and includes new locations such as Tatooine (Anakin's home planet) and Teth (an Outer Rim Territories planet).
The cycle continues.
-- Charles Herold
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