Any guitar players/drum players out there?

 How much does Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero translate to the real thing?

Now I understand that a stupid plastic controller with 5 buttons and a switch thing hardly resembles a real guitar with 6 strings and like 20 frets, but doesn't it help with finger dexterity?

What about Drums? I figure the Rock Band drums translate pretty well to real drums or vice versa, right?

Guitar Hero -

Absolutely NO translation whatsoever. The only remote help is stretching your pinky finger doing the Blue and Orange notes (or whatever the highest registers are on the Guitar).

Rock Band:

Drums actually translate very well. Drumming is all about rhytmn, and all of the songs help you. I play drums rather weakly in real life. However, after getting Rock Band, and playing Hard and Expert, I do believe it translates very well - as you can learn various beats, timing, and all the other misc. skills in drumming. The weakness is how the drums are positioned - as a non-electronic set is setup alot differently. However, it translates VERY well on an electronic drum set.

Rock Band:

Vocals "seem" to help out if you are working on expanding your vocal range, and staying on pitch. Im not a real-life singer, but I do think it helps a little bit.


So:

Guitar: Useless
Drums: Very useful
Vocals: Somewhat useful

Kotaku posted a good video of someone who can play "Welcome Home" from Coheed and Cambria solely based on his Rock Band drumming skills:

http://kotaku.com/374231/video-proof-that-rock-band-learns-you-some-drummin

Guitar has absolutely nothing to do with the real thing. A real guitar has 24 frets with six strings, plus the combination of them for chords... while the GH thing has only 5 buttons. The controller is more resembling to a piano than to a guitar.

 Meh.  I read the words "Welcome Home" and thoguht for a second that they ahd actually chosen a GOOD Metallica song for RB.  Boy was I disappointed when I read "Coheed and Cambria". :|

OT: From my experience with GH, I can't see GH transitioning well to playing a real guitar, but practicing with a real guitar certainly gives you an advantage when playing GH. :P 

I feel that Guitar Hero didn't help my guitar playing at all. But I'm using Rock Band as an start for real drumming.

what about the use of scales? I'm learning scales on my guitar and I figure the button things on GH help out a little?

I don't know. I've played maybe 1 hour of GH at the most

I play the drums but haven't played Rockband so I can't comment on that ...

My brother is a guitar teacher and his claim is that he has never had as many really good guitar students as he has since guitar hero was released. Part of this is the increased dexterity in your fingers that guitar hero provides, and the (very) basic understanding of notes and frets that guitar hero teaches ... Truth be told, the main reason is probably that the motivated guitar hero players who complete the game on uber-hard with 5 stars (including all the bonus tracks) are already far more motivated than the typical kid who saw a band at a concert and decided to learn the guitar.

Well I wouldn't say guitar is completely worthless.

Some one who has never picked up a guitar and plays the game first has an advantage over someone who picks up a guitar first.

It's a baby step for doing two things at once, strumming w/ one hand and placing your fingers on buttons in sequence and combinations.

Heck power cords aren't that hard to play.

And I would say it helps with listening.

Before I picked up a guitar I had a hard time picking up guitar sounds. Seeing a visual representation along with the audio I would say is definitely helpful.

But yeah it won't make you jimmy hendrix. One of my friends plays the game and then tried a real guitar and he was frustrated at the fact you don't always strum every string. And he had no clue on how to hold a chord.

So if you are incredibly dense and expect guitar to be easy that it I can see where it does some harm.

I have Rock Band and the benefits I've noticed as far as music goes are:

1)The game improves your sense of rhythm. I have NO sense of rhythm at all, but while playing rock band I can actually get into it.

2)The drums help you control the drum sticks and it helps you learn how to separate your foot from your arms. (i'm still struggling with the latter)

3)Your eye to finger coordination and reflexes improve. I think Rock Band does that better than any other game I've played, including DDR.

4)Endurance. Play Highway Star on hard or expert, or go back to GH2 and play free bird.

5)It teaches you patterns of style. Especially Rock and Metal. I personally would like to see more Funk styles, kinda like Old School Incubus and even Maroon 5.