Coursera, NaNoWriMo and Rocksmith

Diversions

I seem to have lots of diversions away from focussing on playing, this is probably because I have far too many interests (and need to work for a living).

This week has not been a good week for playing, although I did start the Introduction To Guitar course with coursera, and am going to try to make sure that I do complete it this time around.

Next month is NaNoWriMo, and I came up with an idea for a character and background plot for a story. I suspect that I will be just a little busy, as to be successful with the event I'd need to write 50,000 words over the month and would need to average 1600-2000 per day to achieve this.

I'll probably be talking about that more in one of my other blogs, rather than this one. My character quite possibly might be a guitarist and singer though.

Rocksmith

Today I played 20 songs taking just over an hour, and managed to improve on previous scores with 9 of the songs.

I still have to qualify with When I'm with You by Best Coast, and need 31100 points to achieve this.

The Dawn of the Chorded game took a couple of attempts, scoring 27600 and 34200 neither good enough to get in the top ten list - although both attempts initially got me to #11, although obviously the second go pushed the other into twelfth place.

Vasoline threw some extra chords in, I'm not sure of exactly what they were but the last one looked something like Em7 (Bb)/Bb and I was a little bit flummoxed by the fingering postion to get the chord letters.

I Want Some More was also adding some extra chords, but I was too busy trying to get my fingers into the right shapes to recall exactly. I did not F# and C# but am probably wrong about those.

Surf Hell also threw some C chords into the play mix for me today too.

When I'm With You finished with a G today, but the finger shape didn't look exactly like the version of the chord I'd been playing with Play With Fire so I'm a little confused about that.

Although I was intending on spending some time this week practicing after work, I was out most evenings with other activities and didn't manage to find the time.

I got very little completed with getting the initial version of the RockTracker application.

Playlist

Practice Songs

Angela by Jarvis Cocker: Beaten previous high score of 78172 with 80260
Higher Ground by Red Hot Chili Peppers: Scored 58054.
Go With the Flow by Queens of the Stone Age: Scored 84208.
In Bloom by Nirvana: Beaten previous high score of 39301 with 40081
Vasoline by Stone Temple Pilots: Scored 71651.
I Can't Hear You by The Dead Weather: Beaten previous high score of 38441 with 39500
Surf Hell by Little Barrie: Scored 25488.
Boys Don't Cry by The Cure: Beaten previous high score of 26820 with 30779
Number Thirteen by Red Fang: Scored 23345.
Where is My Mind? by Pixies: Scored 55323.
Well OK Honey by Jenny O: Scored 22550. My PS crashed when saving this score, so it's not included in my total RSP
Me and the Bean by Spoon: Beaten previous high score of 39709 with 40392
Play with Fire by The Rolling Stones: Scored 20721.
Song 2 by Blur: Scored 72507.
I Want Some More by Dan Auerbach: Beaten previous high score of 19806 with 23475

Third Street Lounge

I Got Mine by The Black Keys: Scored 24332.
Do You Remember by The Horrors: Scored 56989.
Breed by Nirvana: Beaten previous high score of 54818 with 55886
Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz: Scored 11744.
When I'm with You by Best Coast: Scored 28058.

Full song list

Song	Artist(s)	Latest Score	Latest Score
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	The Rolling Stones	74097	73793
Next Girl	The Black Keys	83349	83349
Angela	Jarvis Cocker	80260	80260
Higher Ground	Red Hot Chili Peppers	59421	58054
Go With the Flow	Queens of the Stone Age	89836	84208
In Bloom	Nirvana	40081	40081
California Brain	RapScallions	9136	9136
Vasoline	Stone Temple Pilots	71862	71651
Slow Hands	Interpol	42257	42257
I Can't Hear You	The Dead Weather	39500	39500
Surf Hell	Little Barrie	30509	25488
Boys Don't Cry	The Cure	30779	30779
Jules	Seth Chapla	11068	9647
Unnatural Selection	Muse	25297	25297
Outshined	Soundgarden	34738	30338
Number Thirteen	Red Fang	28531	23345
Use Somebody	Kings of Leon	57844	57844
Where is My Mind?	Pixies	57701	55323
Well OK Honey	Jenny O	25719	22550
Me and the Bean	Spoon	40392	40392
Play with Fire	The Rolling Stones	24535	20721
Song 2	Blur	76886	72507
I Want Some More	Dan Auerbach	23475	23475
I Got Mine	The Black Keys	27025	24332
Do You Remember	The Horrors	61026	56989
Breed	Nirvana	55886	55886
Are You Gonna Go My Way	Lenny Kravitz	13010	11744
When I'm with You	Best Coast	28407	28058

Local Support Act

I've just completed the next set of songs, and got my rating raised to "Local Support Act". I hope they mean that it is just for people in your living room though.

The songs in this set were
I Got Mine by The Black Keys, Me and the Bean by Spool, When I'm with you by Best Coast and Song 2 by Blur.
When I'm with you took a significant number of attempts to get my playing up to the target standard. I'm still refusing to accept dropping the qualification level. I kept gaining and losing levels as I was going through the songs, so consistency is something I need to work on.

Song 2

When it came to Song 2 I was expecting to spend weeks trying to get the 50,600 points needed to qualify. But I managed it first time through. Being totally honest, what I was playing sounded totally naff and not at all how I remember Blur playing it.
The only reason I can think of is there are long strings of repeated notes and I managed to get large parts of them accurately enough to gain the points required to qualify.

The Gig

This is my opportunity to wow the virtual audience. The first two songs, I Got Mine and Me and the Bean,  I totally bombed, I'm not sure if any of the avatars walked out, but I would have.

I did manage to wow the crowd with When I'm With You and Song 2. I didn't get Song 2 to sound much closer to the original, but did improve on playing a couple of the sections.

And now I'm a Local Support Act. I certainly don't feel like it, and suspect I have excessively high standards but that is probably the best way.

Tonight I'm hoping to get to the Ketton Ox in Yarm to catch an Acoustic Evening. The snow seems to be melting nicely, so fingers crossed.  The only downside is that I'll not get home until past midnight, and I have a 6am get up for work in the morning. Oh, and I've got an assessment in the morning. Perhaps going to the Ketton Ox isn't such a wise idea...

Mixing Desk

I've treated myself to a mixing desk as a combined Christmas and Birthday present to myself. The plan is that I will use it to record some of the songs I'm learning, both from the Guitar Smith program and from other sources I am (trying to) learn from.
There will be some singing involved too, mainly from me so be afraid, very afraid.
Lynn and I will be recording some songs under our Heron Hymn brand. The singing in that will be much better, but that's mainly because it will be Lynn singing and not so much me. As long as I am driving the desk, I can make sure of that (but don't tell Lynn!)

Qualified!

I've qualified with Play with Fire, finally, so I got to do a gig on the game.

The Muse track is still a challenging one to play, I don't think I would have qualified although I haven't played it for a few days now. If I was to learn to play this properly, I think I'd have to practice it frequently to keep the song playable for me.

I still like Jenny O's Well Ok Honey, and would have had enough points to qualify so I'm quite pleased with that. I did mess up a few times during the playing though.

Thinking about it, it might be worth the effort to play each song again two or three times to get the feeling for the song back before doing the gig, that might improve my RSP.

The new songlist is:
I Got Mine by The Black Keys qualify at 12,100.
Me and the Bean by Spool, qualify at 31,500.
When I'm with you by Best Coast qualift at 31,100.
Song 2 by Blur qualify at 50,600. I did notice something: the qualification score for this song has suddenly jumped!

I have two ideas about learning and playing these. One is to play in the order they give you until you qualify, the other was to play through them once, and then focus on the most difficult until you qualify and then do the next most difficult and so on.

I Got Mine

I scored 10,104 at the first attempt and the song introduced E7 and A. Second attempt at the song I got 14,578 so qualified nicely with that song. 

Me and the Bean

First attempt I got around 18,000 points which is a nice start. The game locked up after the third attempt at the song, and when the game was restarted I scored 35,319 which is nicely over the qualification level. I've played this one about half a dozen times.

When I'm With You

This song is more challenging, mainly with the shifts up and down the fretboard from 3rd to 12th fret. I earned 24,222 at my first attempt.

The E 'power' chord is introduced in the song.

I stopped playing after about an hour and a half on this session, mainly because my wrist was starting to ache and my shoulder was feeling uncomfortable. 

If anybody wants to donate an electric guitar, I'd appreciate it: I am playing on a Fender electro-acoustic guitar at the moment and the body is fairly wide compared to a pure electric guitar.