Rock Band!

[Royal]

Just bought a 360 and this. Can't wait until it gets here! I hope I'll be able to use the shitty rock band guitar, I have a lot of problems with it when ive played it at Best Buy. Are the ones at Best Buy usually broken or is it that bad?

[Souj]

Rock Band guitars suck in general. use a Guitar Hero one of you have one. I'm on PS3, so I don't have the choice.

[Royal]

I have it for Wii so I unfortunately can't use it. Im probably only going to be playing drums though, since guitar got boring after playing it since the first one.

[Epical]

Ok so in anticipation of RB2 being awesome and my obvious impending purchase of GH4, I've picked up RB1. The guitar is easy enough, as I'm quite used to it from GH and have no problem playing on expert across the board (going from the top frets to the bottom frets is going to take some getting used to, but meh, just time is all I need).

The drums however... I feel like a retarded tree stump in a field of rocket scientists. There is just something about that god damn bass pedal that my brain can't understand while trying to process my hands as well. Also, my shin/top of my foot gets REALLY FUCKING SORE after about 2 songs... how am I supposed to be resting my foot? Like, it's to the point where I can't play more than 3 songs in a row without taking a break because the pain is so bad lol.

Also, do you have any recommendations for fixing my case of retardfuckingdation in regards to playing the bass pedal/hands at the same time? Like, the jump from medium -> hard is helllllllfuckingNAW right now for me. Otherwise, I get between 80%-95% on everything medium.

Halp, BG! I wantz 2 b teh gud drumar.

[Thulius]

I picked RB up recently myself and I've been having a lot of trouble with the drums too. At first my body tried way too hard to sync up, to the point that I would regularly start blinking on time with the beat (). It just kind of went away after a bit of practice, but the bass pedal is still the hardest part of drumming for me, easily.

Practice is the only real advice I can think of, as there aren't really any "tricks" to drumming. The shift from medium to hard is just a huge bump in the road. The bass pedal is regularly on a completely different rhythm than your hands, and it's just something you get better at with practice.

[Souj]

seeing as I dont know what kind of physical condition youre in, only 2 things I can tell you about tired legs. 1 is the always so useless "you'll get used to it" the other is try keeping the pedal down between notes.

and as for the difficulty, when I 1st got the game, medium was pretty difficult, but after time it just got easier.
Though now im stuck on the last set of songs on Hard and dont seem to be making much progress.

[Kazesan]

Limb difficulty something that happens with every drummer. Ideally, you'll learn both limb independence and interdependence, but it will take a while. Eventually it will just click for you. As far as your leg is concerned, the more you play, the stronger your leg will get, that's really the only way you can deal with it. The one thing I don't like about Rock Band's drum system is that it doesn't have a clear indication on what arm you should be using on what notes, where real drum notation usually will. This can make the process alot more difficult as far as the learning of songs is concerned.

Also, current physical condition isn't the biggest factor unless you're an amputee, you've got a broken/sprained limb, or you're missing cartilege(sp?). I haven't worked out in about a year and a half now and I'm able to play the harder songs on drums on expert with little issue simply because I practice alot. You'll learn little tricks and techniques. For instance, alot of people try to hit the drums as hard as they can, just use your wrist really. As far as pain is concerned, try stepping on the pedal rather than tapping your foot. That's usually how a lot of rock drummers play, it gives more attack on an actual bass drum. Again, it will mean that you're going to have to build some strength/deal with some pain, but it's better for you to develop a good habit now than to fight a bad habit down the road.

Lastly, if your arms are hurting, you might want to consider how you hold your sticks. Take a look at this for a nice little demonstration on that. That site is also fairly useful for learning drum techniques and might help you out more, I found it pretty useful.

[Royal]

I found this website and it seems to be a tad useful at least if you are having pedal problems.


http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/...and-featu.html

[Kais]

NIN pack "Capital G, Burn, Last" and Shinedown songs "Devour" and "Junkies for Fame" commin' tuesday

[Kazesan]

NIN pack "Capital G, Burn, Last" and Shinedown songs "Devour" and "Junkies for Fame" commin' tuesday

Devour's going to be sick for drums.

[Plow]

I haven't worked out in about a year and a half now and I'm able to play the harder songs on drums on expert with little issue simply because I practice alot.

Remember that playing the harder songs on expert, even some on guitar, can be a fairly decent workout in itself.

Tell me you've never gotten really into the hard stuff and found yourself just as sweaty as if you were doing some aerobics or something...

[Epical]

I found this website and it seems to be a tad useful at least if you are having pedal problems.


http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/...and-featu.html

That's a great article, thank you.

On a different note now (no pun intended), I've ventured into expert guitar/expert vocals at the same time to keep the challenge up. If I know the song I'm able to do it just fine, but I'm specifically struggling with the verse fingering for Crushcrushcrush. It's the part until 0:23. For the GB GO GB G GB pattern, I keep my index on G and alternate my pinky on B and O. For the RB RO RB R RB pattern, I do the same thing but move my index to R and alternate ring finger for B and pinky for O. The last set is the YB YO YB Y YB pattern, and that's what gets me. My middle/ring/pinky finger can't do it on their own fast enough, and whenever I try to slide my hand down so my index is on Y, middle on B, and ring on O, my brain gets confused because I never play like that lol.

Am I doing that right? I hate having to pop star power the second time this comes through in order to keep myself from failing out... I'd rather save it for point stretches. It's just this part, the rest of the song is brutally easy.

[Colm]

I would stick with using your middle/pinky fingers to play YO chords, since I find the less sliding I do the less confused I get. There's not much else to say other than that eventually, you will be able to play YO chords with your middle/pinky finger. Believe me, it took ~4 months of playing GH2 to go from "ahmigawd I can't do this at all D:" to doing it on reflex. Try finding other charts with YO chords to practice the 2-4 fingering. If you have GH2, Collide is good practice for BO -> YO chords, and Psychobilly Freakout for RB -> YO chords.

[thestalkmore]

That's a great article, thank you.

On a different note now (no pun intended), I've ventured into expert guitar/expert vocals at the same time to keep the challenge up. If I know the song I'm able to do it just fine, but I'm specifically struggling with the verse fingering for Crushcrushcrush. It's the part until 0:23. For the GB GO GB G GB pattern, I keep my index on G and alternate my pinky on B and O. For the RB RO RB R RB pattern, I do the same thing but move my index to R and alternate ring finger for B and pinky for O. The last set is the YB YO YB Y YB pattern, and that's what gets me. My middle/ring/pinky finger can't do it on their own fast enough, and whenever I try to slide my hand down so my index is on Y, middle on B, and ring on O, my brain gets confused because I never play like that lol.

Am I doing that right? I hate having to pop star power the second time this comes through in order to keep myself from failing out... I'd rather save it for point stretches. It's just this part, the rest of the song is brutally easy.

You can do either. I don't slide, but do in some other songs.

[SteveMc]

I made an account just for this thread lol, I'm having a lot of trouble with "Tell me Baby" on expert drums, I'm having no trouble on the verse at all but the chorus bass pattern is killing me, any advice? I would love to G* (or at least 5*) this song and only the damn chorus stopping me.

PM me if you would like a score dual on xbox

[SteveMc]

Sorry double post ; ;

[thestalkmore]

It took me a long time to get it, because it really did seem like there wasn't a pattern at all. Like usual, however, there is, it's just a lot harder to get the hang of. Once you figure out the bass pattern, those funky hits with your hands will be a lot easier to focus on.

[SteveMc]

I'm doing better at it now, I started to do R L on the snares instead of trying to double hit it with one hand, helps a lot but still a few bass hits that get me, mostly the one before the snares, almost 5* it, just alittle more practise and I will get it I'm sure.
Some of the new Who tracks are awesome, they look fun on guitar but I am fucking shite on guitar lol.

[SteveMc]

New Shinedown song are decent, Devour is pretty fun on drums, NiN tracks won't download for me at the moments ; ; keeps kicking me back to the menu.

[Kazesan]

The one thing I'm not liking about Devour is that on actual drums, you can get away with using the floor tom to keep your foot in time with the bass beat, but not on Rock Band considering it closely follows the actual song. I feel like my right arm is just hanging there, useless, but I suppose it's better for improving my ability to keep tempo regardless of what limb is the medium.

To answer someone's (too lazy to quote or look at the name) question, I suppose you're correct, some of these songs are a workout themselves. I guess the point I was making was that you don't need to start out in "good" shape to become good at drums, though you might become healthier or more fit in the process.