Everyone should be warming up their hands and arms for use before playing. I am surprised this is not gone over in Rocksmith. When I first started bass, I had to find ways of keeping my fingers and arms moving at work throughout the day. They would get tired and ache all the time while I was playing. Now that has not been an issue for years. Since I very much play notes and I arpeggiate chords with bass, I never really had to stretch my hands. I stopped doing the stretching exercises.
I have had to start that again. My arms do not ache(maybe my shoulders, but that's already stopping only 33 days in), but I know that my fingers could stretch for chording a lot easier if I started up a stretching routine. While looking on youtube for some recommended ones, I came across 2 different people that talked about not stretching before playing guitar, getting carpal tunnel, and having to not play for 4-5 months because of it. It doesn't even take you 5 minutes to do the adequate stretches. Here's a stretching vid, it is more comprehensive than the "for guitarists" vids I've seen, and I have found it is really really good.
The results are immediate. This is not something you have to do a few times before you see the result. Now, over time you'll be able to stretch further, yea, but immediately your chording should feel a lot better after doing stretches like these before you play.
Day 33
Split my playing in 2 today, so I got more Guitarcade practice in than usual. This is because I really do use them to warm my hands up. I guess its a good time to do a post about hand exercises, you've probably read it before this then, even though I'm typing it after, so I'll not go into it here.
I've been neglecting going through my session mode missions. I pretty much figured out everything on screen in the first couple of times playing. I'm not someone that can ignore something and say "I'm sure I'll be told what it is later". No, when I'm presented with something I don't know, I instinctively find ways of figuring it out if I can't figure it out myself. So going through those missions were tedious, but there is one saving grace: the recommended bands part of the missions. I probably would not have rocked with a kazoo, something I do just for "fun" in the past few days, if I had not been given the band as a mission requirement. Session mode continues to be very important for me, as I wish I could jam with people more than I do. Nothing helps more than playing with other people. Playing by yourself in your room or garage, you can develop an isolation syndrome where you think you're improving, but you're not really doing anything useful to anyone but yourself. To your ear its a neat new phrase, but without knowing how it fits in with a band, it may be kind of bad.
I am seriously about to give up on the "learn a song" section of the game. I have yet to learn any skills for playing other things while playing a song in this section. When I'm playing, the song is broken up into so many small chunks, and the difficulty swings wildly from easy to hard at the drop of a hat, and I focus more on doing the thing instead of learning a song. Seriously. I think I'm done with that aspect. It does not help me. I only get angry. Not because the songs are too hard, that would never make me angry, but the way the game adjusts and chops up the songs, its useless to my brain. It helps zero. Maybe time will change it. I've several times said "ok, today I'm going to play a crap ton of Learn a Song" only to get so angry I have to walk away from the Tv for a few hours. I'm not an angry person, its not easy to make me angry. If I focus on Lessons, Guitarcade, and Session mode, I can play for 2+ hours and not blink. Five minutes into Learn a Song and I"m ready to break stuff.
I guess I"m a little harsh on the Learn a Song thing. There's plenty there that can help people. Its not bad for me due to Ubisoft's lack of trying. I think I've just convinced myself over the years that Guitar Hero is a waste of effort if its not for a room full of people, that playing tiny bits of songs that don't make you sounds like a song is a waste of my time.
Anyway, I'll keep you posted if this changes. I hope it changes.
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