I play "guitar hero" with my son. He's 11 I am 47. He kickes my butt. He plays on exp

he's really good for his age at this game and now thinks he wants to take guitar lessons. I use to play keyboards in a band %26amp; I realize its not always a fun experience to practice , practice, practice all the time. Would I be wasting his time %26amp; my money to get him started in guitar lessons ?

I play "guitar hero" with my son. He's 11 I am 47. He kickes my butt. He plays on expert level %26amp; I on easychinese theater

I can understand your concern, but this is a great opportunity to get him into something he seems like he would enjoy and may be good at.

And yes, he may get into it then realize it's too much work and quit - but we all learn from our mistakes, right?

It's win-win: He either really does like it, gets into it and works hard, and gains a really cool skill that most people don't have. Or, he quits and learns that you don't just accomplish things without hard work and dedication.

If you look at it that way, it's not a waste of money in either case.

You can get really cheap guitars at Wal-Mart - Which yes, I'll admit are junk for an actual guitar enthusiast, but if he actually gets into it then you can consider purchasing a better one.

As far as the lessons, put a give-take spin on it. Have him mow the yard (or some other chore) regularly in exchange for you paying for lessons. If he's not serious, the double-work load will make him go ahead and give it up quick (instead of just keeping on screwing around on Dad's money).

I play "guitar hero" with my son. He's 11 I am 47. He kickes my butt. He plays on expert level %26amp; I on easyopera mini opera theater

I understand where you are coming from. most people don't understand all the time, hard work, practice, and dedication that it takes to learn an instrument. if you maybe sit down and talk with him, find out if he really understand the practice it could take and if he really enjoys it, then i don't see why not.
Guitar Hero and the actual guitar are two entirely different things. For one, Guitar Hero doesn't have strings. But I feel this question may have better resolutions in the Parenting section. But the best I can say (as a single, childless 20 year old video gamer who also sucks at Guitar Hero) is that from the parenting shows, sitcoms, etc. I've seen, you should encourage your child to pursue his interests, and help him discover his talents. But I may not be such a reliable source. I've got baby siblings, but no child of my own.
Not at all. He's old enough to know that playing a real guitar won't be as easy as the game. Instead of five buttons and one stum bar, you have six strings, and....tons of frets! As long as he understands that it will be a lot harder to sound "cool" on a real guitar, he'll be fun. He can start out trying to play the songs from the game. When he masters "Psychobilly Freakout" on a real guitar, let me know, haha!
if he has the desire and strive for playing guitar learning guitar takes discipline and patience as well as practice music is a great thing
If he plays on expert, he's got some skill. But, I think you should give lessons a trial run before actually paying for it; it may turn out that he doesn't like it. Either find someone that offers a free trial, or pay for that first lesson, then the others (if necessary).
Interesting dilemma you got there.... I play guitar hero 1 %26amp; 2 and I'm pretty good at it( I can finish some songs on Expert level, not all). Thing is, I used to play the guitar and even played some of the songs found in Guitar Hero on an actual guitar. Because of that I became quite good at Guitar Hero quite fast. What I'm trying to say is that some of the skills that I already posess due to past experience w/ a real guitar, carried over into playing Guitar Hero. Your son on the other hand, has it the other way around so there might be a good chance that he has a natural ability in playing the guitar. Word of caution though, Guitar Hero and actual guitar playing share some similarites but are very,very different in so many, many ways.