The electric guitar's complexities and mysteries, which have eluded the common man for far too long, have been condensed into five colored buttons and a switch.

That's the beauty of Guitar Hero.

Picture riding through the very cosmos of rock, trusty axe in hand, delivering face-melting solos that bend the very fabric of the space-time continuum. You're capable of making your guitar tone simulate almost any guitar legend's tone with frightening accuracy and ease. You simply turn on the Playstation, plug in and rock out.

To address those who aren't familiar with the game, picture Dance Dance Revolution on a toy guitar, complete with a whammy bar. Feel like playing Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn or even Dimebag Darrell? No problem. All you have to do is study the patterns of the falling colored spheres that correspond to the musical changes, and hit the fret buttons while you strum on the "picking button."

Despite the game's quick learning curve, becoming a guitar hero does take a little practice. To hit the buttons in synch with the spheres and music, it would seem as if one would require an adequate sense of rhythm. It makes sense that a guitar player or any other musician would possess a higher understanding of rhythm than a non-musician would.

"There may not be a direct correlation between playing guitar and Guitar Hero, but having rhythm definitely helps. Since the game relies heavily on hand-eye coordination, it could possibly help in sight reading too," guitarist Nick Laino (sophomore-communications) said.

Some gamers believe the game contains a slight delay in the image and audio correlation.

"You may be at a disadvantage if you're a musician properly following the guitar rhythm, trying to match the audio and the visuals," Guitar Hero player Ingmar Carlson (sophomore-anthropology) said. "There's a little bit of a delay, so you have to hit the button right before the game tells you to."

The delay is small and nearly undetectable, so it doesn't make much of a difference. If you're a musician who recognizes the delay, you could view the rhythmic deviance as a bit of a challenge.

As the levels increase, the number of notes you have to hit increases. As you increase the difficulty, the number and rhythm of the sphere patterns begin to coincide with the music.

"In the easier difficulties they take out a lot of notes to simplify things, but in the later difficulties it seems more like an actual guitar," non-guitarist Michael Robinson (sophomore-engineering) said.

There's one final component that may allow guitar players an advantage through familiarity of hand positioning and built hand strength and dexterity. I don't believe these are major factors, because the difference between holding down an actual guitar fret and pushing down a controller button is vast. Also, playing an actual guitar requires a sense of depth.

"There's only one row of five buttons, contributing to a horizontal aspect. But an actual guitar has a horizontal and vertical aspect because there are physical strings," Carlson said.

Guitar Hero is a game that relies on a strong sense of rhythm and timing, and musical experience definitely couldn't hurt. Familiarity with the basic actions of a fretting hand could help. But fortunately, with a little practice, everyone can become a guitar god.