Gotta beat this level! and Day 10.

There are some things I need to wrap my mind around in this new kind of format of "game" learning.

As a gamer I have this achievement habit, and I don't mean just the "chieves" that are now on consoles.  This goes further back.  This is the desire to stick with a certain level of a game(like Mario world 5) until I get through it nicely, and then use warp tunnels to never have to deal with that shit ever again.  If you go at music like that, you're going to suck.

A song is not a level.  A practice track is not a level.  You need to keep at them, you need to be able to do them without notation in front of you, and without Rocksmith telling you how to play.  That's the point of this, right?  You want to learn guitar, not learn how to play a "game".  I still go through each practice track at least once a session, and I go through the newest one 100% perfect twice.  I focus on not getting it "right" but making it sound good.  Making it sound good is just as important.  You might think "its a practice track, what does it matter" and I say that if that's your approach, you're making things harder on yourself.

Unlike a certain infamous Guitar Hero episode on South Park, you will not be asked to remember one of those songs to play without the game.  That's isn't the point of Guitar Hero.  Committing songs and riffs to muscle and mind memory is very important, and doing it with the smaller and easier pieces of the practice tracks is a good start.


Day 10

Had a frustrating day today.  I'm no stranger to bends on an instrument.  I have particularly strong bends because I typically play bass.  I don't just typically play bass, I use Lo-Rider strings that have lots more tension.  When I demo a bass at a bass shop, the strings seem like loose springs to me in comparison.  I don't know if the game was just having a hard drive detecting them, or they have an insanely tight tolerance for bends.  I was so angry at the Bends lesson because rage-quitting and doing something else more productive would mean I have to start the lesson over again.  So I finally, with lots of cursing, got to the practice track, completely ignored and worked on some riffs I have been developing, and turned the game off after the save.

The whole day wasn't wasted, I did my usual warm ups, and got new high scores in each of my warm up games.  My errors with Duck Redux seem to have been from me fretting too hard.  I do not think that's the only problem, I think Duck Redux is flawed in that aspect, but I am able to play again accurately by using a light touch on the E string above the below the 5th fret(towards the headstock is below in music notation).

I'm starting my march toward the chord lessons.  Its time to face the beast.  I was supposed to start learning songs today too, but I did not get around to it.  I got more than my hour in(I've yet to stop at one hour in all the days so far), and I'll get started on songs after or during my chord training.