Why make a plan and keep to it?

I was going to comment that this was a short session, but I spent just over  90 minutes with the playstation running, and played 21 tracks although some I played several times for a total playing time for around 1:01:40.

Today I decided to focus on a smaller practice list and play each song several times to get my fingers warmed up before attempting the set list. This is the opposite of what I had intended yesterday when I made a list of what I was going to practice.

Why have a plan and keep to it after all!

Before I started I had two attempts at the Dawn of the Chorded game, and managing to get onto the leader board at number 10 on the second attempt, scoring 46700.

When I first started learning to play the guitar, I was using an introduction book and kept getting stuck at trying to get the F chord to sound anything like it should. I noticed during the game that I was managing to get the chord.

Playlist

Practice Songs

Well OK Honey by Jenny O: Beaten previous high score of 25719 with 30030 points. Played this five times, and slowly improved from 19677 points the first time I played the song
When I first heard this, I thought it was a fairly uncomplicated tune, but I am starting to see some of the more complex parts of the song starting to show up and confuse me.

Me and the Bean by Spoon: Beaten previous high score of 40392 with 51537. I played this track five times also, getting the best result the third attempt and dropped back in points for attempts four and five.

Play with Fire by The Rolling Stones: Beaten previous high score of 24535 with 30940. I only attempted this one twice, I could hear my girlfriend starting to move about and thought it would be a good idea to jump to getting the set list completed.

Third Street Lounge

I Got Mine by The Black Keys: Beaten previous high score of 27025 with 29272. Tried this one three times, and am getting around 71% of the notes right.

Do You Remember by The Horrors: Scored 54821. This one I did twice, the second version not as good as the first, and only getting around 62% of the notes right.

Breed by Nirvana: Beaten previous high score of 55989 with 57930. I didn't think I did that well while I was playing this one, but I must have done something better than the last time I played it.

Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz: Beaten previous high score of 13010 with 14668.  I did achieve 74% of the notes on this one, and it might be the smallest guitar track on the entire game, the backing musicians seem to play a huge amount more. Having said that, the actual playing is fairly complex and I'm sure I have by no means seen everything that I have to play for this song.

When I'm with You by Best Coast: Beaten previous high score of 28407 with 30496. So close to qualifying, the target is 31100! Bacon butties were calling, which is why I stopped playing today.

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	29272	30030
Me and the Bean	Spoon	51537	51537
Play with Fire	The Rolling Stones	30940	30940
Song 2	Blur	76886	72507
I Want Some More	Dan Auerbach	23475	23475
I Got Mine	The Black Keys	29272	29272
Do You Remember	The Horrors	61026	54821
Breed	Nirvana	57930	57930
Are You Gonna Go My Way	Lenny Kravitz	14668	14668
When I'm with You	Best Coast	30496	30496

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

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.

Play with fire

Play with Fire

The Rolling Stones

I like the lyrics in this song, it's about a high society girl that ends up with a working class lifestyle.

There is a G - D chord transition that is causing me difficulty at the moment, but the main problem I am having is processing new notes at the same time as playing. The first sight of a new pattern causes me much more problem than playing something I have played a few times. Perhaps it is muscle memory starting to kick in?

There is an Em chord that appears every now and again, but I am not playing consistently well enough to have it stay in my score.

I'd only spent around 40 minutes playing last night, but mainly because I was busy with an electronic circuit to simulate the sound of rain. Annoyingly it doesn't work correctly, so I'm a little peeved with it.

Unlocked Scale Runner

Well Ok Honey

I've (finally) managed to get enough points to qualify for this song, so get to move onto the next one in the sequence. I got 26,028 points so that nicely got me above the threshold for qualifying.

I still like the song, and intend to buy the Home album when I get some spare money.

Play With Fire

I'm not going to say that I like all Rolling Stones songs, because I don't think I have heard all of them. What I will say is I like the ones I have heard.

This one added two new chords, G and Em. I am not near getting enough points for this song to qualify, the best I have managed is around 19k, and need 22,200 to qualify.

Of course, when I do qualify, that is the third one in a set and I get to play all three in a performance. Thankfully still in my living room, and not in front of a real audience.

Scale Runner

Another of the mini games that Guitar Smith includes, and I managed to unlock it when I qualified with Well Ok Honey.

You get to chose the scale you want to practice, and have to play the scale and get your character to jump from note to note. As you get better, the game gets faster and changes from a simple up and down the scale to playing parts of the scale.

I've only played this one three times, I've had the guitar out for two hours and have other things that I really need to be doing.

Can I be getting addicted to the game (or to playing the guitar), because the first thing I did when got up  was to pick the guitar up and start playing, instead of booting up the computer.