Rocksmith; what is it and Day 01

Rocksmith 2014 is an update to the original Rocksmith(sometimes called Rocksmith 2013).  It combines rhythm gameplay(Guitar Hero) with learning.  Instead of a guitar controller, you have a special cable that allows you to plug any electrical guitar into your game system.  This cable translates the guitar's analog tone into a digital signal that can then be used by the game.

The focus is less on making a game, and more on making a teaching tool that resembles a game.

The game uses licensed music that is converted by the game developers into several difficulty levels that progress from easier to harder as you learn to play.  The devs have also modeled amps and effects so that you sound like how you should in each song.  You can slow down songs, repeat certain parts by themselves for practice, and adjust their difficulty if the game is going to quickly for you.  The best part is that it turns practice exercises into Retro-80's style arcade games that you play by doing whatever subject you are practicing that day.

The game's tag line is the 60 day challenge.  Play at least 1 hour every day, doing whichever activity you want(learn a song, jam with a band, do lessons), and by the end of the 60 days, you will consider yourself a guitarist.

Day 01

Day one started with a small crisis.  The USB connection was finicky for me, and for about 2 minutes I was adjusting things while trying not to cuss like a rockstar at the top of my lungs.  I have not had that problem since. The game asks questions to get a similar guitar on screen to the one you're playing.  You then choose a path(changeable very easily) between Lead, Rhythm and bass, after which you tune.  The tuning is a little eager to move through strings... I had to redo a string, but it works, and is nice.  Then I'm shoved into the main menu with a suggestion to learn a song.  The game has "missions", a sort of questing system to help you figure out what you want to do.

 I'm a little bit of a tech/gear nut, so the first thing I did was ignore the suggestion to get started with a song.  I go and look at their "Tone" sculptor.  You can put pedals before the amp, and there are a wide variety.  If you know your pedals, you can figure out which is the Tonescreamer and which is the BOSS DS-1 by how they describe them.  There is everything from a chorus to a envelope filter.  You can choose from tons of amps(just about every Marshall made, and a few boutique amps with "Rocksmith" printed on them to avoid copyright), then even cabinets are modeled.  Lastly you can use some studio/rack effects like reverb and compression.  You map the tone to a controller so you can easily switch between them.

It is freakin' impressive, but if you're new at it, it can be daunting.  They have default settings based on songs in the game, so find a song with a tone you like, and use that.

Getting a little long...  I'll try and wrap up day 01.

I started with Blitzkrieg Bop.  I suck at counting quick notes using a pick... but within 20 minutes, I could stumble my way through the song outside of the game, and people could guess the song I played.  I then found my way to the jam room and instantly had a breakthrough in my playing.  I said before, I actually KNOW the concept of scales and chords, but I have never really applied it.  It just has something to do with my learning style.  I can be told things and it never sticks.  I created a classic rock inspired jam band, chose the key I wanted to play in, and instantly something clicked.

This key felt like how I play "My Girl" on bass.  Holy crap, its the same pattern!  I started playing some bluesy stuff in the pattern, then tried a punk way of doing things.  The band changed to match whatever I was playing, it felt like I was actually playing with a jam band.

It was great.

I now know the key of E's pattern starting at the 12th fret by memory.  My brain just could never work like that before.  I had muscle memory patterns of parts of songs that I used to improv blues lines before, but numbers just make my brain space out.  Within a few minutes of PLAYING while LOOKING at visual representations of the pattern, and HEARING it all work with the band, and it was committed to memory.

How its going to be.

I plan on going into more detail about the game, and about music and maybe my stuff, each post having a different subject.  At the end of the subject I will update the blog with my progress with a day count, and my progress..