Rocksmith

[luckton]

So, can this teach me to actually play guitar? 

[Trippy]

Yes.

[Sky]

Agreed.

[Velorath]

So, can this teach me to actually play guitar? 

The original had some shortcomings in that respect which it looks like are being dramatically improved by the new one (teaching basic stuff like how to hold and use a pick, and more tools for learning chords for instance).

[tar]

So, can this teach me to actually play guitar? 

Agreed as above with the additional observation that even (especially?) if you're an absolute beginner it makes practicing fun.

Getting over that initial hurdle of sucking horribly to the point where holy shit you can actually play something was the hardest part for me, prior to rocksmith I never got there. Mainly because I hate people so getting lessons was out

[Velorath]

Apparently they're going to release a bunch of DLC from Japanese bands at some point:

ACIDMAN  New World (Shin Sekai)   
The Birthday   stupid   
B'z   Easy Come, Easy GO!   
B'z   Barely chop (Giri Giri Chop)   
B'z   juice   
Golden Bomber (Golden Bomber)   Earphone (Earphone)   
Golden Bomber (Golden Bomber)   Mental Death (Death Mental)   
Golden Bomber (Golden Bomber)   Te woman and young (Memeshikute)   
Tomoyasu Hotei (HOTEI)   Bambina (Bambina)   
Tomoyasu Hotei (HOTEI)   Battle Without Honor of Humanity
Tomoyasu Hotei (HOTEI)   Thrill (Thrill)   
Kazuyoshi Saito (Kazuyoshi Saito)   I want to be easy (Yasashiku naritai)   
ONE OK ROCK   Liar   
ONE OK ROCK   NO SCARED   
RIZE   PARADOX Gymnastics (PARADOX Taiso)   
Straightener (STRAIGHTENER)   From Noon Till Dawn (feat.Tabu Zombie & Kunikazu Tanaka)
Straightener (STRAIGHTENER)   ROCKSTEADY   
9mm Parabellum Bullet   New light (Atarashii Hikari)   
9mm Parabellum Bullet   Punishment

[Dren]

So, can this teach me to actually play guitar? 

I started without knowing anything and can play the songs I practice a lot with on the game.  It still takes a lot of practice, but it is fun especially when you love the songs you play.  The best part is that you have a full band playing with you and you are using the right effects and amp for the song.  When I get decent at a song I almost forget I'm actually playing because it sounds so good.  I've even gone to just freeplay mode to see if I'm really playing it right and I AM!  Best feeling evar!1!

I agree they can improve on the newbie learning stuff and they are.  That's a big reason I am looking forward to this.  I have a lot more to learn.  There are tons of shortcomings to the program, but they continue to tweak and improve, which as I've said is both awesome and unexpected.  It makes me happy people like this game, they actually like it!  I've turned a ton of other people on to the game too (experienced and not.)  I've struck up a ton of great conversations with people I run across that play and trade tips.  That's fun you can't buy.

My biggest gripe, but not a killer is that I still wouldn't be able to play from sheet music.  That would be my ultimate goal, but for now this has jumpstarted my path a million times more than any other option.  Actually, I'd still be saying, "I should learn to play....."

[Sky]

Dren, that's why I go on about having a mode where they put numbers on the colored boxes. If they did that (and you use a properly inverted fretboard), you'd basically be learning how tablature works. I still can't play from sheet music (which is generally standard notation), but a guitarist should know both standard notation and tab, and it opens a bajillion guitar books for you (like anything Hal Leonard publishes).

Upon reflection, I think the new master mode sounds pretty awesome at my end of the spectrum. I haven't used it in the current game, because I don't really study and learn each song, I just like to dick around with it. And having master mode as a separate thing, I've never used it. The new version (if I'm reading it correctly) having an integrated master mode that will fade back in for parts you struggle with or are still learning, but fading out for stock riffs and known parts? That's a pretty decent chance for me to learn songs better by uncluttering the notation with parts I know. I think that (along with DLC carrying over, of course) bumps this up to a launch purchase for me.

For all the shortcomings of Rocksmith (and it's not a short list), it's an amazing 'game' and tool and I unreservedly recommend it to everyone.

[Velorath]

Good video about some changes they've made to the lessons.

They've also announced three more songs (all pretty good selections):

MUSE – Knights of Cydonia
Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box
Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy

[Velorath]

The complete tracklist has now been revealed:


       Aerosmith – Walk This Way
       Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy
       Alice In Chains – Stone
       Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine?
       Avenged Sevenfold – Bat Country
       Bob Dylan – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
       Boston – Peace Of Mind
       Bush – Machinehead
       B’z – ultra soul
       Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me (2012)
       Deftones – My Own Summer (Shove It)
       EarlyRise – Wasteland
       Fang Island – Chompers
       Foo Fighters – Everlong
       Gold Motel – Brand New Kind Of Blue
       Green Day – X-Kid
       Iron Maiden – The Trooper
       Jack White – Sixteen Saltines
       JAWS – Stay In
       Joe Satriani – Satch Boogie
       Kiss – Rock And Roll All Nite
       La Sera – Love That’s Gone
       Magic Wands – Black Magic
       Mastodon – Blood and Thunder
       Minus The Bear – Cold Company
       Monster Truck – Sweet Mountain River
       Muse – Knights Of Cydonia
       Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
       Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
       Pantera – Cemetery Gates
       Paramore – Now
       PAWS – Sore Tummy
       Queen – We Are The Champions
       Radiohead – Paranoid Android
       Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
       Ratt – Round And Round
       Red Fang – Wires
       R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
       Rise Against – Savior
       Rush – The Spirit Of Radio
       Screaming Females – Rotten Apple
       Slayer – War Ensemble
       Splashh – All I Wanna Do
       System Of A Down – Hypnotize
       Tak Matsumoto – GO FURTHER
       The Dear Hunter – Stuck On A Wire Out On A Fence
       The Kinks – You Really Got Me
       The Police – Every Breath You Take
       The Rolling Stones – Paint It, Black
       The Shins – For A Fool
       The Smashing Pumpkins – The Chimera
       The Who – My Generation
       Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Mary Jane’s Last Dance
       Weezer – Say It Ain’t So
       White Zombie – Thunder Kiss ‘65

[Sky]

I was hoping there would be a sale at some point before release, throw the kids a bone!

Do they have a firm date?

[Velorath]

I was hoping there would be a sale at some point before release, throw the kids a bone!

Do they have a firm date?

A firm date for what, the game's release? It comes out on Tuesday.

[Dren]

Sweet.  Count me in for a purchase at launch.  Good stuff.

[Sky]

A firm date for what, the game's release? It comes out on Tuesday.

Yep, thanks. Looks like my hope for at least a 10% sale are dashed.

My poor fingers, playing electric is rough on them as I normally play a nylon classical. And my poor wrist, as muscle memory allows me to pick fast and for extended lengths...but my muscles are also not used to it (I fingerpick the nylon). I probably should've started warming up a couple weeks ago.

Luckily I've been playing a decent amount lately, warming up for some more sessions for my classical album that may some day see the light of day. I'm going to be doing some voice over work for a friend's rpg so I need to dig out the recording rig (read: nag the old lady to get her junk out of my den :)).

[Velorath]

Messed around with this for a few hours so far. Let me get the downside out of the way first by saying that while the DLC all transfers over for free, you actually have to pay $9.99 to carry over the songs from the disc. I can't fault them too much since it sounds like it's due to licensing costs, but it still ends up making the game a bit more expensive. Also 5 songs don't carry over, which are as follows:

Eric Clapton “Run Back To Your Side”
Cream “Sunshine of Your Love”
Seth Chapla “Jules”
Seth Chapla “Star Spangled Banner”
Chris Lee “Boss”


Everything else so far is pretty good though. As always keep in mind I'm coming at this with a complete beginner's point of view and never picked up an instrument before getting the first Rocksmith. With the first game, I largely focused on Bass as it felt like it required less in the way of detailed lessons and managed to get fairly comfortable with it. I'm still no expert, but I can at least play a lot of the easier and mid-range songs ok which is pretty good since I've only learned through this game, and have been playing less than a year (a month of which I was unable to play due to a broken collarbone).

With the new version the much improved lessons are helping me get into guitar a bit more. Most importantly they give you tools to help learn chords which is one of the main areas I felt the original game lacked. Even basic stuff like "here's how you hold a pick" is nice to have, and they even seem to have some lessons you can watch on how to restring a guitar or how to keep your instruments maintained.

The other big improvement is that the UI and loading times are a million times better in the new version. I no longer have to listen to 15-20 seconds of A More Perfect Union by Titus Andronicus after every song I play while I wait for the song list to load back up. The game also seems a lot more stable than the original also, at least on the PS3 anyway, which had a habit of freezing when trying to replay songs.

For people who are goal oriented like myself, at any given time the game usually recommends three different things for you to do (one is usually just to try to learn songs, one usually involves doing something in session mode, and one is typically doing a particular lesson, or playing one of the arcade minigames). They then take that even further by giving you little goals inside many of those activities also. For instance when playing a song it will usually give you goals to hit like getting your mastery percentage of the song to a certain level, completing a lesson related to techniques used in the song, or hitting a certain number of notes in a row. Similarly, the arcade minigames have a selection of in-game related goals to achieve as well.

I'm sure it seems silly to some people, in that the goal should ultimately be to learn to play guitar and bass better, but there's something about being able to quantify your progression in video game terms that somehow adds extra motivation. In the first game after you maxed out your level, the only way you really had to gauge improvement was by beating your score on individual songs.

Anyhow, those are my early impressions of the game so far. There's a lot I still haven't messed around with yet.

[Sky]

My first impressions.

Latency is still an issue, but I was running it through my normal setup (x-fi to optical breakout to receiver), since they touted latency reduction. Under those circumstances, it is slightly more playable than the original, so I'm hoping for good things when I go with the 'rocksmith setup' (onboard optical to receiver). Whatever easy song it loaded up wasn't terrible but when I went for The Trooper (a song I've played on bass for years, it was my warmup song in the day), it was nigh unplayable. The triplets kill it. On the other hand, I learned the cool lead guitar riff during the verse bridges.

That said, the experience is a marked improvement. The learning style can be a bit onerous at my level with easier songs, but I didn't tweak ways to speed that up (skipping over some of the speed increase increments, for instance). But it's a really solid tool to nail unfamiliar or complex parts. Looking forward to digging into some Megadeth with that tool, if I can tame the latency.

They didn't implement full on tablature numbers on the colored note boxes, something I still feel would complete the experience. But they do highlight fret numbers as each appears in a riff, which is a huge improvement. I can see complex passages still bogging down a bit for sight readers, but it does seem the problem of getting lost as they move the view around is mitigated by the highlighted numbers.

I did the recommended slide lesson, seemed ok enough. I was a bit disengaged since I know most basic techniques. Showing a video and integrating it into a riff seemed like a good idea, though.

For some reason I couldn't find the DLC to unlock the old core songs. I did buy the new chicago dlc, the old lady is going to be psyched. I also agree on loading times, it's way better. On the other hand, those psychedelic sound wave amps on the sides are already bugging me.

[Merusk]

I think I've decided to get this and teach myself guitar.  Any recommendations on what sort of guitar to pick-up? Would one of the cheap ToysRUs specials be ok for a first timer since having never played, ever, I'm loath to pay $200+ for a good one.

[tar]

I'm hardly an expert but I can't recommend strongly enough going down to your local guitar shop and at least just picking up a few different body styles to see which fits your hands best.

[Trippy]

I think I've decided to get this and teach myself guitar.  Any recommendations on what sort of guitar to pick-up? Would one of the cheap ToysRUs specials be ok for a first timer since having never played, ever, I'm loath to pay $200+ for a good one.

No it would not. You do get what you pay for up to a certain extent. The super cheapy ones don't play very well and will frustrate you while trying to learn.

The low-end of the major manufacturer budget lines (e.g. Squire for Fender and Epiphone and Gibson) are not much more expensive and will likely offer better playability "out of the box". My recommendation would be to get a low-end Squire or Epiphone* in the body style you like.

* The bundled guitar package is an Epiphone in fact

[HaemishM]

I bought an Epiphone Les Paul last year for less than $200 (think it was $149). I can't speak about it highly enough. It has great tone and playability. I've since tried out some other guitars in different body styles for about that price that I haven't liked as much. The key is to try out as many as you can before you buy - getting the right feel AND the right tone out of your guitar is very important.

[Sky]

If you know someone who plays who can accompany you to the guitar shop, that would be the ideal.


http://www.guitarcenter.com/Schecter,Electric-Guitar-Guitar,New-Gear.gc?extup=Ibanez,ESP,Squier,Dean,Epiphone,100-200&ipp=100&o=1

[Merusk]

Only guitar player I know is this lead singer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI_n3flJDL0

I'll see if I can drag him over to Guitar Center sometime then.

[Sky]

It's usually pretty easy to convince a musician to go to a music store :)

I like the track, too.

[Musashi]

If you're even pretending about thinking about maybe one day learning guitar even halfway seriously, spend the money to get a decent instrument.  Cheap guitars are terrible for beginners because they're hard as fuck to play.  Cheap guitars will make your learning curve much longer, be frustrating, and sound like hammered dick.

You don't have to spend a thousand dollars.  You can get away with somewhere between $400 - $600 if you do your homework.  Get a Fender Squier Strat, or a Epiphone Les Paul and call it a day.  Have a professional set it up for you, and then don't fuck with screws or alan keys until you know what you're doing.  Knobs, switches, and strings are okay.  There are shitloads of them on craigslist.  Mostly because they're newb guitars that players are embarrassed to admit they own once they learn enough to start showing off.  

[Sky]

If it's a decent sounding and playing guitar, you should never be embarrassed to play it. My SG 61 reissue cost $1600 in 2006 but don't listen to me   (also worth every fucking red cent and then some...and it's appreciated in value!)

Anyway. Rocksmith. Session mode. Fucking be there. Load up the stock classic metal band, play over changes in E aeolian. Holy shitballs is that fun. I even like how they suggest notes, keeps it from getting too stale by choosing things I might not center on. I was about to hit the 'jam with the band for ten minutes and the stupid thing locked up on me with a full system crash white noise screeching, my poor bastard of a cat who is high as fuck on nip is probably halfway to Albuquerque by now.

edit: Oh, and latency...what latency? I plugged direct from the mobo to the receiver (probably what crashed it, har). I'll have to see what happens when I'm in song mode, but in session mode there was no discernable latency. I'm fucking discerning when it comes to that shit. Niiiice.

[Musashi]

To be clear, yea they shouldn't be embarrassed. But they are. And in fairness, even the second tier factory models that sell for five or six hundred dollars come with the cheapest parts available.

With that said though, there aren't too many reasons why you couldn't trick out a squier or epiphone to sound pretty good. Almost everything on a guitar can be upgraded. Tuners, bridges, nuts, pickups, pots, saddles, etc. The only things you can't upgrade is the type of wood, and you can't upgrade a bolt on to a neck-thru. The problem is that all those parts come with an individual premium. That's why it makes more sense to buy something decent to begin with.

My main point to anyone who may be considering buying a guitar though, is that the $200 Wal-Mart special is beyond help and should be avoided at all costs.

[Merusk]

I see.

Well thanks for talking me out of buying the game. I'll have a few lunches instead.

[Sky]

Don't listen to him, you don't need to spend $400-600 dollars to get a decent starter guitar. What the hell.

[Selby]

Don't listen to him, you don't need to spend $400-600 dollars to get a decent starter guitar. What the hell.

Seriously.  Pawn shop.  My $60 early 1980's no-name Randy Rhoads knock-off is a great guitar despite looking like crap.  Plays better than anything else I've ever tried too.

[Sky]

$70 classical - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3667682/Music/prelude.mp3 (couple years ago)

My new classical that sounds and plays amazing cost me $250.

Anyway. Derail. Another couple hours tonight, game continues to impress. My only complaint is still the thing about putting numbers directly on the boxes I'm looking at. As I said, HUGE improvement by highlighting the fret numbers as you go into a riff, but if you don't see it you can basically be stuck without being sure which frets they're displaying like in the original game. Especially in complex passages with a longer jump when you're unable to look ahead until the last second.

But that's pretty much it. The interface is vastly improved and the new features are great. Love it.

[Velorath]

Haven't had a huge amount of time to play, but when I have been playing I been trying to split my time 50/50 between learning guitar and playing bass. Bass is kinda like the comfort food for me now when I just feel like being able to play some songs. I was struggling with the guitar for a bit because even with the lessons, I was finding it a little hard to learn and practice chords. I'd kinda learn some from the lessons, but there wasn't really an easy way to find a song to play those particular chords in. However today I discovered the minigame they have in there called Return to Castle Chordead and it feels like exactly what I needed. Think Typing of the Dead but with chords. They start you off showing you the E5 which you then play to kill the zombies on the screen. After a couple minutes of that they teach you A5 and some zombies will require you to play E5 and some A5 to kill them. Then they throw in F5 and so on. Actually a lot of the arcade minigames they've made are pretty well done and actually fun to play as games as opposed to just learning exercises. I played a bit of Scale Warriors on the bass yesterday, and it was pretty good as well.

I'm also liking the song selection they've chosen. There's a lot of stuff here I haven't heard before, and most of those that I've played so far are actually quite good. Glad this game came out right now since there aren't any other games I'm looking forward to coming out for the next several month, although I'm curious to see how Bandfuse turns out in a few weeks. I can't really see it being any better than Rocksmith 2014, and it only has a handful of tracks not available here. I haven't read too much about it, but I've read in various Rocksmith comment threads that Bandfuse will actually help teach you how to read music, but I'm not sure to what extent that's accurate, so maybe in that respect it might make a good additional purchase at some point.

[Sky]

Velorath, do you know the CAGED method of learning the fretboard. It's the single best thing I've learned about the guitar in 30 years.

[Samwise]

Velorath, do you know the CAGED method of learning the fretboard. It's the single best thing I've learned about the guitar in 30 years.

Just looked it up.  What kind of sorcery is this?

[Velorath]

Velorath, do you know the CAGED method of learning the fretboard. It's the single best thing I've learned about the guitar in 30 years.

I've heard it mentioned, but no I don't know it. I only really know one person who can kinda play guitar, so mostly Rocksmith has been my only learning tool. Even then it wasn't until I got 2014 earlier in the week that I felt Rocksmith might actually be a viable tool for learning guitar so really I've only been trying to learn for 3-4 days now. Looking up CAGED I can see why some people comment that Rocksmith doesn't teach enough music theory because reading about it on a couple different sites right now, and it reads almost like a foreign language at first. It took me a few read-throughs to wrap my head around what they were saying. It seems like for CAGED one of the main things to really learn first is the chord shapes which gives me a good starting point I suppose. Appreciate the advice.

[Sky]

Basically, on the guitar there are a zillion ways and places to play a chord or scale. But it all boils down to 5 archetype shapes. CAGED, or the 'cowboy chords' (the basic chords all strummers know). Learn those shapes in their first position and you can move them around anywhere to play other chords. And the magic part comes in because they all link up together. If you look at the 3 highest strings of a C chord (really, grab your guitar and make a C) x32010, then make a D chord xx0232 and look at the 3 highest strings. That little 'triangle' shape? That's a link between D and C! (the pattern wraps, CAGEDCAG etc up the fretboard.

The confusing part is calling them CAGED, because it refers to the shapes not the root of the chords when you move it.

Taking that D example. if you change xx0232 to x54232, you are still playing a D major, but it's using the C archetype chord shape.

Aaanyway. You're absolutely right. Learn those basic chords first. When you've got a handle on them, I recommend a couple books to open up the rest of the fretboard and make memorizing all those insane combinations a LOT easier. I went from playing in a couple spots I memorized to more or less being able to play anywhere in any key in a fairly quick span.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/

Also, I still suck at music theory. The CAGED thing is more about understanding the physical fretboard and allowing you to play more easily.