Pretty sure anyone can learn a bar chord in 60 days. That's all you need to play punk rock in a starter school band.
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gonna fire the guitards
- Thread starter wcnewby
- Start date
Pretty sure anyone can learn a bar chord in 60 days. That's all you need to play punk rock in a starter school band.
I watched the video and it's pretty much space-age tab on steroids.
Formal beginner level music education won't help you with that either.
I bought Rocksmith about two years ago and played it pretty regularly for a few months. I'd been plinking around on guitar off-and-on for 15 years or so at that point so I had some background. I wanted to like the game. I really did. The song selections were decent, overall. The games were fun, the amp settings that you could save were pretty cool and I liked that the songs would increase difficulty as you gained proficiency. I hated the horrible, horrible delay between hitting the note on my Strat and it registering in the game. I was always out of time in the game and had to hit the note before its little indicator came close to the little "on time" area. I tweaked the settings and could never make it any better. That is what made me sell it to a guy on craigslist for $30 and that is why I won't buy the 2014 version even though my interest is piqued by the bass option.
Ha. I remember a guy at work asking me if I know about Rocksmith a couple months ago. I was really confused why a guy who plays guitar and is into rock is talking about a hip-hop clothing brand.
The OP started out with a rant against something and the thread turned into a learning thread for what he was lambasting! Another example of TB out thinking any one user!
TB is the best, most sick resource on the net.
fnord!
TB is the best, most sick resource on the net.
fnord!
People will always want an easier and less stressful means of achieving something. It burns fewer calories and takes up fewer hours. It sounds like Rocksmith does just that. Why not? My guitar teacher at highschool didn't structure my lessons very well, didn't 'manage' my playing in any way and was happiest chatting about Joe Pass and Steve Howe for half an hour. Rocksmith, I guess, gets you used to having your hands on a guitar, and before you know it you will have racked up 20 hours of experience on the instrument.
I ranted about people claiming you could call yourself a guitarist after 60 days... I had no real opinion on the game, as I have never even seen it.... Still, this is an awesome resource... I'll give your that.
I didn't know about the part where you could slow down the song and look at the riffs... That would be cool for learning covers. Do they give you notes or tab for finger placement?
I just watched the rocksmith video another user posted up and answered my question about tab. When I first started here at TB and as a bass player, I started a thread called "sorting notes from tab." A lot has happened since then, and on my own I discovered that learning tab made it very difficult to learn reading notes... especially since the new books all have tab in them... or most do. Music teacher made me put tape on the tab of my books, and after that I learned how much note reading I was really doing.... like none... I always glanced at the tab and wondered why it wasn't sinking in.
If this software used notation rather than tab, or started you with tab to learn notation and then switched you to notation, or gave you the note name next to the number, it would be a real tool, one that I would buy just to learn my neck better. OR.... used a color to represent notes... say A was red, the number that came up to tell you where to put your finger was red, then you would know it was an A. It is simple to remember the staff, the trick is getting your brain to link the notation with places on your fret board.
If this software used notation rather than tab, or started you with tab to learn notation and then switched you to notation, or gave you the note name next to the number, it would be a real tool, one that I would buy just to learn my neck better. OR.... used a color to represent notes... say A was red, the number that came up to tell you where to put your finger was red, then you would know it was an A. It is simple to remember the staff, the trick is getting your brain to link the notation with places on your fret board.
When I started, I had just gotten out of school orchestra after 7 years of instruction, was bored, wanted to play music and get all the chicks like my buddies in bands did, so I picked up bass. Yes, you can see exactly where the plan fell apart.
So, it wasn't too tough for me to pick up bass. I read all three clefs, was very used to four strings, albeit tuned differently, and was up-to-speed fairly quickly due to that knowledge already existing, and me only needing to concentrate on technique.
So for what it does, getting people up to speed, it's a useful tool. However, if you want to be REALLY good at anything, you have to put in the hours woodshedding. When I played violin in school, I'd practice before school, during orchestra rehearsal, and then after school. On the weekends I'd play 4-5 hours, take a break, and play for another couple of hours after supper. It drove my mom NUTS to have to listen to me play at first, but then I started to get good, and she didn't mind as much. I went from last chair second violin to first chair, first violin in the city youth orchestra that way, compared to kids who had been playing longer than I, with much better instruments and private lessons. I loved playing the music and how my violin sounded. And I still do, actually.
When I quit, it was for personal reasons, as the conductor of the high school orchestra was a real jerk, primarily due to the fact that I couldn't afford a whole lot (single mom, etc.), including a nice tuxedo and dress shoes, and private lessons from him. It got to where I hated playing, so I quit at 14.
Eventually I worked and saved enough money and bought a bass and an amp. And the whole cycle repeated itself.
The point I am (laboriously) making here is, young musicians are gonna suck. They're gonna have to come to grips with that, and realize it's OK to suck. That's SUPPOSED to happen. Its the countless hours in the woodshed that get you PAST the suck and into a state of less suck. And while Rocksmith eases that transition for the microwave generation, many of them still won't stick to it if they have unrealistic ideals such as, "I've played this for 60 days! How come I am still not headlining an arena?"
I think that, more than anything, music educators need to rethink their approach. And that goes for the guys in the music store as well as the teachers in the classrooms and the conductors in youth orchestras. Because if we're relying on video games now to develop the future music talent, we're flat out doing something wrong and if we don't fix it, the music landscape's gonna be pretty harsh.
So, it wasn't too tough for me to pick up bass. I read all three clefs, was very used to four strings, albeit tuned differently, and was up-to-speed fairly quickly due to that knowledge already existing, and me only needing to concentrate on technique.
So for what it does, getting people up to speed, it's a useful tool. However, if you want to be REALLY good at anything, you have to put in the hours woodshedding. When I played violin in school, I'd practice before school, during orchestra rehearsal, and then after school. On the weekends I'd play 4-5 hours, take a break, and play for another couple of hours after supper. It drove my mom NUTS to have to listen to me play at first, but then I started to get good, and she didn't mind as much. I went from last chair second violin to first chair, first violin in the city youth orchestra that way, compared to kids who had been playing longer than I, with much better instruments and private lessons. I loved playing the music and how my violin sounded. And I still do, actually.
When I quit, it was for personal reasons, as the conductor of the high school orchestra was a real jerk, primarily due to the fact that I couldn't afford a whole lot (single mom, etc.), including a nice tuxedo and dress shoes, and private lessons from him. It got to where I hated playing, so I quit at 14.
Eventually I worked and saved enough money and bought a bass and an amp. And the whole cycle repeated itself.
The point I am (laboriously) making here is, young musicians are gonna suck. They're gonna have to come to grips with that, and realize it's OK to suck. That's SUPPOSED to happen. Its the countless hours in the woodshed that get you PAST the suck and into a state of less suck. And while Rocksmith eases that transition for the microwave generation, many of them still won't stick to it if they have unrealistic ideals such as, "I've played this for 60 days! How come I am still not headlining an arena?"
I think that, more than anything, music educators need to rethink their approach. And that goes for the guys in the music store as well as the teachers in the classrooms and the conductors in youth orchestras. Because if we're relying on video games now to develop the future music talent, we're flat out doing something wrong and if we don't fix it, the music landscape's gonna be pretty harsh.
So do old ones sometimes, I just started trying to learn viola on a craptastic cheapo (figured my pudgy hands could handle that better than violin). I think I've accidently given the dog cancer my playing is so bad. 20 minutes to tune the dang thing (why they don't use guitar tuners is beyond me) and then the level of required precision for intonation is so extreme compared to bass that it's very frustrating. Very. The bow barely grabs the strings to the point I sometimes use my bass bow but that grabs too much and scratchiness ensues. I tried some vibrato the other day and I nearly punched myself in the face.
Frankly it is amazing that any kids stick with some of this stuff. I've got my 6 year old daughter on formal recorder lessons right now and a little piano (when she feels like it for fun) and I totally understand why she often hates practicing. It's hard! I'm hoping to get her good enough that she starts to enjoy it and want to go further but that initial hump stops many people from playing at all. Anything that helps kids (or adults) over that hump is a good thing in my book.
Haha a guy where i work told me hes buying this for his kids and he even mentioned that they will learn it in 60 days ..then after 60 days he will get them lessons (if they need them)
I disagree.
Theory is fun to learn...for me at least.
Yea when i first started I was like everyone else who said..pshhh theory? Jimi didn't know theory why should I? It was also intimidating because I didn't understand it...
Well.. fast forward a few years and I begin to hit a wall where I cant seem to learn anymore when all of a sudden someone turns me onto learning what a 145 is and circle of fifths. I was jamming with people and didn't wanna be the loser who never learned anything so I started slowly looking at it and quickly started grasping the concepts. Once i started to understand it, theory became fun and I HAD to keep learning as much as possible.
I think the hardest part is actually diving into it but once you do and begin to understand it, it actually becomes fun because it "unlocks" music that was once never accessible without certain knowledge.
I thought of this in a totally different way. So this game will get more kids trying to play the guitar. As others have stated, they'll get to a certain level and most will just be happy with it but appreciate what goes into playing an instrument.
Fast forward 5-10 years. How many of those kids will appreciate going to see live bands because they know how hard it is and can respect true musicianship?
Sounds like a win-win to me.
Fast forward 5-10 years. How many of those kids will appreciate going to see live bands because they know how hard it is and can respect true musicianship?
Sounds like a win-win to me.
I guess it comes down to definitions for me. If you can play well enough that people will pay to see you do it, you have become a musician. When you support yourself with this skill, you are a professional musician. When you can play the riff from "love in an elevator" you are a person who learned the riff from "love in an elevator"
I can make crème brulee, it doesn't make me a chef.
I can make crème brulee, it doesn't make me a chef.
thats the stage where u power through it like a man until your finger tips turn into rock hard booty shaking conductors
It's called marketing. How many Rocksmiths do you think they could sell if they said anything other than how easy it is? Everyone is always looking for the "easy button". It's not really about playing the guitar, it's about selling a product. If it helps people learn to play then that's a good thing. They'll find out soon enough (after they've bought the product) that it's far from easy.
Conversely, if they already have tried to learn to play guitar and have struggled, this will appeal to those people too. They've tried and failed and are looking for the "easier button". Marketing, that's all it is. It doesn't have to be true; they just have to make you want it to be true enough to buy the product.
