Orchestra Hero by Michael Gordon :: Writing for the New York Times, Gordon poses the question: Will scenes like the image to the right from the Guitar Hero video game (image by The Associated Press/Activision) soon include French horns, contrabassoons and triangles? And his answer is, he hopes so.

What is the hottest thing in music right now? A pair of video games ─ Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Anyone can play. The games allow you to become a member of the band. Each game offers a range of pop music hits on game controllers that look and feel like guitars and drums. What makes these video games so much more impressive than “air guitar” is that through the use of something called the instrument game controller the player actually experiences the visceral feeling of performing music. You can even improve if you practice.

Read more here.