Chad Ozman of Decatur never thought about furthering his guitar learning until Guitar Hero.

The video game has helped expand the allure of guitar-playing.

Like Ozman, others have found an interest in picking up their guitars again or learning to play for the first time after pushing the colored buttons on the game's guitar controller.

"I started playing the game, and it made me want to play my guitar more, so I took lessons," said Ozman, vocalist for local band Shark Tank Mafia (formerly The Store). "The game made it seem like you could easily play the real thing."

That's a misconception, he came to learn.

Ozman had played guitar before and began taking lessons, but he found the game and playing the guitar to be dissimilar except on the expert level, he said.

He added that guitar players of his band have found it difficult playing the game.

"It's definitely hard for a professional guitar player to adapt into playing the game," he said. "They hate it. It's not the same."

Jeremy Polley, a guitar teacher at Linda's Music Center, agreed, saying the game is "not accurate by any means" compared with real guitar playing. But the game is drawing children into learning to play the guitar.

He said children who have been looking to take guitar lessons with him have specifically wanted to learn the rock songs of the Guitar Hero games.

Polley, who has been playing the guitar for six years, owns Guitar Hero II and III and has a blast playing the games. But he added, "I'm much better at the real guitar than Guitar Hero."

Polley knows other guitarists who are not in favor of the game. "There are some guitar players who think it's a joke or mediocrity, but the whole reason of video games is the escapism," he said.

He believes there are people who feel they can pick up a guitar and play it a after mastering the video game, but it doesn't work that way.

"It is a form of escape, and it should be taken that way and viewed that way," he said.