More ruination of songs

Further progress (sort of) with RockSmith - a game that helps you to learn how to play a guitar and fall out with your neighbours. You use your guitar as an input controller, and the game 'listens' to how you are playing and gives you a score.

When you play better (ie hitting most of the notes) you are rewarded by the game upping the difficulty going from, for example, single notes to chords. The downside is that if you mess up the difficulty level is reduced.

The best thing about this game is that you can always get to the end of a song, unlike games involving plastic guitar games that you can get. I use the PS3 version, but from what I understand the XBox and PC versions are very similar in operation.

Tonight was again a practice night. The next performance has the three latest songs Higher Ground, Go With The Flow, and In Bloom. I am planning on doing the next performance this weekend at some point and am going to focus on these three songs after tonight, playing each one at least twice and once for the other songs in the game (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Angela and Next Girl.

I spent around an hour on the game tonight, but I think quite a lot of it was spent waiting for the PS3 to load the next section (or that's the way that it feels, anyway - I'm sure my neighbours feel different though).

Technique Challenges

Palm Mutes

The idea behind this technique is to use the edge of your strumming hand to lightly press on the strings nearing the bridge giving a more percussive sound to the note.

I earned 36137 points on that which is just short of a Silver.

Bends

A bend is where you change the note by pulling the string to make the note rise. This is where I'm having the most problems at the moment, so think I should practice it at least once each session on the game. I did achieve 15404 points which is still below my best for this technique. Silver is 45000, so I still have a long way to go with this technique.

Slides

A Slide is moving your finger from one fret to another causing the note to move up or down.
I scored 37462 for this which is just above the Silver level. Not much more to say about this one.

Rehearsals

I gave each song one run through, apart from In Bloom (my worst one to date).

Current scores for the songs with the highest I have scored in brackets:

Song	Band	Previous best	This Attempt
In Bloom	Nirvana	23960	25649
Higher Ground	Red Hot Chilli Peppers	47151	56803
Angela	Jarvis Cocker	65060	53583

What next?

I am planning on playing the three songs I know are on the next performance at least three times through. My plan for the moment is to have two runs through the Bends technique followed by playing through all six songs that I have played so far on the game.

What I don't know yet is what song will be chosen as an encore.

Lets see how I feel tomorrow night... 

Two days off

Fridays are not normally a good day for me to practice, I am usually helping out at a Cub meeting and am ready to head for bed once I get home.

Yesterday I was working and needed to collect my new glasses from the opticians and also had to go to the cinema to see The Worlds End. I'm not going to review the film, but I did enjoy it, and the sound track, very much.

A quick practice this morning following the technique, rehearse and game pattern I'm trying out.

Technique

Hammer on and Pull Offs

I did three attempts at this, satisfied with how I played but not happy. Scores 10517, 29735 and 50535 - just over Bronze and Silver for the first two and about half way to gold for the third.

Bends

I wasn't happy with how I did with this, so I think it will give it a much bigger focus for the next session. Scores 20336, 2501, 1725. And yes, that was the order I got the scores. The main issue was I messed up enough the first time and was moved down a level and just didn't get my act together to get the scores back up.

Rehearse

I got a slight improvement on In Bloom by Nirvana getting 21710 and 23960 and am happy enough. I need to get my shifting more consistent and to get the power chord ready to play for most of the song I think.

I didn't make much of a change with Higher Ground by the Chilli Peppers, a slight drop in the score but I'm happy enough with that for the moment. Scores 47378 and 471151.

Games

Super Slider

This is a falling rocks game, where you need to slide a note to move the rock into a pile to remove the pile of rocks. I just had the one try at this, scoring 11800. Not quite sure what to make of the game at the moment.

Baseball

I do like this game, I have realised that strumming when the last light hits gets a far better result and I scored 106400, not beating my high score from last time but fairly near the top - perhaps fourth or fifth I think it was.

My total points at the end of the game was 717215 and nothing new unlocked this time.

I have been having a think about an app to keep track of scores, I can't see how it can be stretched into a YRS project as it doesn't  use any open data. It might be worthwhile as a training exercise to develop ideas for creating a SaaS style  website. More thought needed on that, but for now I'm going to spend an hour coding, then lunch and shopping for tea (and getting some milk: the milk in my fridge had separated into liquid and solid) then seeing if I can get closer to the end of the book I am very late in reviewing.

Thinking about a format

Today I had a go at the Hammer On technique, one practice track and a game.

Technique

I spent about 15 minutes on the Hammer On/Pull Off technique and slightly improved my score to 34873 improving my level to Silver.

This enabled me to unlock the Super Slider game with 676654 RSP.

Rehearsal

As Nirvana's In Bloom was my worst track, I thought I'd see if I can get the score up to match the other songs. I am attempting the chord version instead of the single notes. I spent half an hour on this track, and when the power chords started to appear (and the occasional time I managed to actually play them) the tune sounded much better.

I have a suspicion that the majority of the notes played are power chords, but time will tell

Scores improved to 26373.

The Game

I had a first go at Big Swing Baseball, scoring 4600 the first time and somehow managing to get 219100 and the high score on my second attempt. This took it up to around an hour's practice (although there are a lot of gaps in the playing while sections load, so I'm guessing only around half an hour tops was probably spent tickling the strings).

A Technique Night

I've spent an hour practicing the techniques on Guitar Smith, and have managed to unlock three items.

One thing I remember occasionally annoying me with the game is when it hangs while loading a song or technique to play - this is the first time it's happened since I restarted through.

I have been thinking about how to decide how to choose what to practice, and am thinking of doing something along the lines of focussing on the lowest scores as a way of targeting the ones that need doing most.

Would an app or a website that allowed you to put the scores you earned and giving a targeted list be something useful? That is something I am going to have to have a think about.

You'll notice that I'm fairly inconsistent about how I do formatting and otherwise arrange how I present what I am rambling about.

The Techniques

Bending is dragging the string to change the note being played. To achieve Bronze you need 10000 points, Silver 45000 and Gold 95000 points. I tried this one twice, getting 18628 and 22753 points.

Shifting I earned 70001 and managed to hit the Gold status!

Hammer On/Pull Offs I didn't do as well as last time I tried, only achieving 10891 compared to 17949 I got last time.

The targets for Slides is Bronze 10000, Silver 35000 and Gold 74000 points. I managed 35836 and am fairly pleased with that.

Unlocks

At around the 640818 point I unlocked the Guitarcade game "Big Swing Baseball" and a new venue "The Low Down".

I also unlocked the Super Slider game at 696654.

Next session

I have sorted the songs and techniques into lowest score to highest, and am going to try the Bronze techniques and at least the worst three songs.

The techniques are Hammer On/Pull Offs (currently 17949 points) and Bends (22753 points).

The songs are: In Bloom by Nirvana (18391), Higher Ground by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (54271), Angela by Jarvis Cocker (65060), (I can't get no) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones (67677), Go With The Flow by the Queens of the Stone Age (79374) and Next Girl by The Black Keys (80109).

I need to investigate using the Riff Repeater to help me learn parts of each song to get my standards up. Some of the songs have more than one version, and I may need to put separate listings for each version.

New Act

As a result of the hours practice I've put in today I was promoted to "New Act" on Rocksmith. I think they might have missed out a middle word "Sad" might me more appropriate!

Apart from trying the Riff Repeater on the intro to Satisfaction all I did was play each of the songs through once that I've been playing in the past few days, and In Bloom by Nirvana twice.

Riff Repeater

This allows you to play a section of a track until you "master" the section. I tried using the Accelerator mode that lets you play through it once to see how you play it, then you get 30 attempts to get to full speed playing all the notes.

It only took me 22 attempts to get the intro close enough to correct, and when rehearsing the full song got so close to the 70k mark - I scored 67677.

I did remember to attempt Angela by Jarvis Cocker (65060) this time. The other songs attempted Next Girl (78224 - didn't beat my previous attempt), Go With The Flow 79374, Higher Ground 54271.

The new one for today was In Bloom by Nirvana, and I felt like I totally messed this up getting 13353 on my first attempt and 18391 on the second attempt.

Unlocks

I unlocked the Slides technique, and also gained an authentic tone "Cro-Magnon Drive".

Go With The Flow

Today was mainly aimed at having a practice at the songs already played.

Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones

I'm slowly getting better at this, I'm struggling a bit getting the main riff sounding right and playing it evenly. There are a couple of hammer on's added to make things interesting to the riff too (or are they pull off's? Not quite sure at the moment)
Played another twice with 50573 and 52703 points.

Next Girl by The Black Keys

Two more plays scoring 73635 and 80109 this time round.

Higher Ground by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Another two plays with 45967 and 49628 points.

Go With The Flow by Queens of the Stone Age

22794 and 65997 - a massive boost the second time round.
This song involved almost continuous strumming with some new chords that I haven't worked out what I am meant to be playing just yet - the notes are really coming out thick and fast in this song. "Manic" is a good description.

And an oops moment too: I didn't try Angela by Jarvis Cocker again. For tomorrow I'm going to make a note of the songs I want to play before picking the guitar up.

396,824 RSP Made my target with Satisfaction

I had another go at The Rolling Stones' (I can't get no) Satisfaction with the aim of hitting the 40k mark. I had three plays at it getting 29,958 43314 and 44170 with a best streak of 72 and 91% accuracy for the middle one.

At the moment if I drop in accuracy and streak I am stopping playing, using the theory that I'm getting tired.  My wrist is also aching, so I suspect I'm not holding the guitar right with my left hand. Achieved 361,085 RSP.

Although the break didn't last long!

Higher Ground Red Hot Chilli Peppers

I had three goes at this getting 2196 with a 50 note streak and 98% accuracy the first time round, but the notes were mainly open low E and G and A notes. Second run through got 9933 and a few more notes, and the final run 31225 with a streak of 66 at 84% accuracy and many more notes over many strings.

Unlocked palm muting and double stops.

Double Stops

This is playing two notes at the same time, I didn't do very well with this technique at all, and need to spend a lot of time practicing this technique. To achieve Bronze needs 5k points, Silver 15k and Gold 34k points. I scored 4514 and I will need to revisit this fairly soon.

The first "performance"

My aim for today was to reach at least 40,000 in the Stones' Satisfaction, I'd left the game with a score of around 21,000 and to find out about the shifting technique. So after finishing off my left over pizza for breakfast this was my first plan.

I did pick up my guitar last night, after applying a temporary fix to my son's laptop, breaking my glasses (£200 to get them fixed) and watching Monsters University. I could still remember part of the main riff for Satisfaction, so I suppose that is progress of a sort.

I think I need to buy the songs I'm learning to play, and to see about getting tabs or the sheet music for them too; just so I can practice.

Shifting Technique

Shifting is getting your fingers in anchor zones so that you can quickly get your fingers down on the frets to play the notes in rapid sequence. I did ok with this technique challenge, scoring 23847 where the bronze target was 10,000.

Next Girl by The Black Keys

First time through I needed 9,100 to qualify and earned 26,394. The second attempt added hammer on's to the mix and earned 60417, as the next level was 70k I thought I'd have another go and scored 74,166 with a 54 note streak and 89% accuracy. I felt like I missed more than 11% of the notes though.

Although I was wanting to rehearse Satisfaction until I beat 40k points, I couldn't find the song in the play list so I thought I'd see how I did playing it cold.

I unlocked Sustains, Hammer On's and Pull Off's as well as getting Authentic Tones Stomp Box Blues, Modified Tremelo Filter pedal, the British Wah pedal, the Reverbs Baritone 4X10 cabinet - I may need to edit this as I couldn't quite read my notes! - and also got my first customisable gear unlocked too.

New Techniques

Hammer On and Pull Off Technique

These are ways of playing notes more rapidly without needing to strum. A Hammer On is fretting a string firmly enough to make the note ring out, and a Pull Off is removing your finger fast enough to also make the note ring. I'm not sure if it's the way that I've been doing them, but they sound slightly softer than plucking or picking a note.

On my first attempted I scored 7103, with Bronze at 10k (Silver 30k and Gold 66k). Second attempt I did better, but missed several hammer on and offs as I wasn't quick enough to process where my fingers were supposed to be moving to, and scored 1004. My final two attempts scored 13413 and 17959 points.

Sustain

A sustain is basically keeping the note ringing and ringing for as long as required. First attempt I got 64443 with Gold at 70k (Silver and Bronze were 40k and 10k respectively). I did hit gold on my second attempt, but hadn't noted the score I got!

Ducks

This is an arcade game where you try to shoot ducks by playing the correct note. I occasionally manage to miss, even though I thought I was fretting the right note. I'll need to have a think about what is going wrong with it I think.

The Performance

This was playing The Rolling Stones (I can't get no) Satisfaction and The Black Keys Next Girl. I scored 28616 and 76362 and got an encore to play Jarvis Cocker's Angela and scored 28,353 giving me a total of 133,325 RSP.

I unlocked The Mouse Hole venue as well as an Epiphone Limited Edition Wilshire guitar, and an Auto Filter.

I didn't hit the target I was aiming for with Satisfaction, but other than that was fairly happy with how I'm playing in the game. My left wrist was aching again at the end of this session (and being honest it was aching from about half way through as well) so it's a good point to stop.

My current RSP level is 335834 and I am making progress to the top of the Amateur section.

Coming Next

There are three songs in the next set list:

Higher Ground by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1300 to qualify), Go With The Flow by the Queens of the Stone Age (1300) and In Bloom by Nirvana (4300 to qualify).

I think first, though, I will have another run through the first performance, if I can work out how to get back to it!

Decided to restart

After too many months of not really picking up my guitar, I have decided to restart my Rocksmith "career" and to keep a better record of how badly I am playing. The first rating you earn is "Amateur" and that is probably exactly where I will stop.

The first track to play is the Rolling Stones (I can't get no) Satisfaction. Today I've played it through four times, earning enough points to qualify the first play through and up to 21000 points.

I have decided to focus on each song until I can play it to a higher standard than just qualifying, with the aim of playing the majority of each song through unaided. I also intend to keep playing through the songs that I have learned to try and keep them current, so I suspect that my progress might be substantially slower than it was last time I was playing.

For qualifying with Satisfaction, I have unlocked the Shifting technique. This is something I need to look at next time I pick the guitar up, but at the moment I am thinking about heading out to try and enjoy the sun a little later. And I know that probably means that I'll end up in a coffee shop with either a book or the laptop. I'm also planning on heading to the cinema to catch Monsters University with Lynn this evening.

The first set list is going to be Satisfaction and Next Girl by Black Keys.

I am also considering seeing how to hook my mixing desk between the guitar and the PS3, so that I can record what I have been playing to torture and/or give people the opportunity to have a laugh at how I'm doing. That also means I could hook a microphone up and add my singing to the mix too, but I'm not too sure about that (although that also means that Lynn could sing along too).