Jump to content

 

My progress Diary


demonizer_andy
 Share

Recommended Posts

ok so i should get the game today and though the game has been out for a year or so now in america iv found very few progress reports that have either been honest or kept upto date, every video i have found or diary has been from someone who claims to be a noob at guitar but then gone on to say that they palyed guitar constantly for 5 years and then had a break, so its not exactly fair to new guitarists as they can over expect......

 

the idea of this is for people who are unsure and at the level i am, or want to learn guitar but cant afford constant lessons as they can become expensive, il be honest throughout and any questions feel free to ask...

 

I myself have knowledge of guitars i own 2 an electric and an acoustic, iv taught myself some guitar but am no means a jedi master or the cleanest of players,i cant think of a song that i can play accurately all the way through apart from basic strummed versions of good riddance (time of your life), hurt by johnny cash, everlong by foo fighters and they say by scars on broadway, these are all really easy songs and dont require much skill at all, im currently learning sweet child of mine but only really got the first part of the intro sorted, so you get an idea where i am, i aint been in bands or played for years and had a little break or anything, i have no understanding of theory or scales or anything like that basically iv watched youtube videos and looked at some tab, so as said i know the basics but nothing in depth.......

 

soooooooooooo im going to keep this updated from the get go and il mark down my feelings towards the game, my progress on songs and mini games and basically what i learn,i understand the first song is satisfaction so once my game arrives il jump straight into that and play it through once and update my score with you guys, once iv got an understanding of the song and the game il play a couple more times and again keep you updated, this is a song iv never even tried to play before, to be fair i dont think iv attempted any of the songs apart from the main riff to slither to which i failed at, this is again down to speed and accuracy, something which i want to improve through this game

 

as also stated i will keep you informed after playing the mini games and how my speed and finger placement improve as this is what i struggle with the most when i attempt to play solos etc

 

anyways thats enough ramble for now, im just waiting for the postman to arrive and i can get stuck in and update you guys in a few hours

 

ok so first thoughts -

 

sorry for the late update i only got the cable this morning dam postman haha, anyways i plugged in my guitar and straight away it gets you used to your strings and helps you tune your guitar and to my surprise i was bang on already, not bad for a noob haha, anyways it gets you to grips with a basic riff that turns out to be satisfaction and then into the game you go, my first effort at satisfaction wasnt bad at all i hit 99% of the notes, that said it only gives you 2 or 3 to choose from,but it soon throws extra shifts or notes into the mix to catch you off guard and you have to adapt n learn quite quickly..

one thing i have found though is it really is teaching you something, iv always been pretty slow at finger placement and speed shifting and even with simple songs like satisfaction or angela iv found myself alternate strumming and shifting my fingers fairly well and can feel the muscle in my hand adapting... the difficulty can sometimes appear to spike but you find yourself relaxing as the song goes on and hitting more and more of the notes, so far im happy with rocksmith but im going to crack on for another hour or so and then when im a bit more to grips with it il give a firther update and let you know how im doing..

 

quick update again few songs in now the 2 iv just played are higher ground and go with the flow, one thing i have noticed which might be a bit daunting for some is the difficulty curve which i briefly touched on, i found myself playing single notes then all of a sudden it was 6 or 7 of the same note and then it would throw something new into the mix which was like woah hang on a second lol but when i started to fail to hit the notes fast enough it did remove the section on which i struggled and built me back up again, and i am finding myself learning quicker and quicker,the only thing that i have found a major struggle so far is major shifts to where your playing on the 3-5 frets then it throws a solo in on strings like the GBE strings that you aint really used in the game yet but down on the 12-15 frets, it does seem a major shift for you to think ohh umm hang on n your counting down the frets n wanting to get your hands in place n by time you have looked up n down a couple of times ou have missed the section..... anyways im off back into the game and as always any questions feel free to ask

 

=========================6 HOURS OF GAME TIME=================================

 

OK iv had a bit of an extended run at the game now and im really happy with it this is not constant game time iv been messing with mini games restarting songs and playing about a little bit showing friends the game, but heres my thoughts so far....

i really am enjoying the game/software but as said by myself and another poster below is the difficulty could do with tweaking or patching, its my only major gripe with the game so far, reason being.... for newcomers especially this can be really daunting basically you play along and strum a few single strings to which sometimes sound nothing like the song you are attempting to play (are you gonna go my way being the prime example) you will be playing alternate strings nothing too tricky and then the odd shift to a lower fret etc, but as you pick up speed and your comfort zone increases it starts throwing more notes and faster picking till you get better and better and hit a set percentage and it gradually increases the difficulty, which is absolutely fine or at least it would be if it did it properly, now what iv found is if your doing particularly well at say the main riff from ''are you gonna go my way'' and it increases the difficulty thats fine, but it increases the difficulty for say the bridge too or the solo sections when you have had no practice at that part, and you can find yourself just watching a screen of notes flooding towards you till it decides you are not good enough and starts to take notes away again....

 

what i have found to combat this which again is a bit of a nuisance is you have to make use of the mini games and the riff repeater, the only downside to this is you have to unlock the mini games by progressing through the career, all i can do so far is say once you unlock the duck minigame or scale runner use them and use them again, they are the best tools in this game, one problem most newcomers are going to face is finger placement its all good getting used to using frets 1-5 but if all of a sudden a song changes and your using 5-12 your going to be in trouble so learning where your frets are without looking and getting used to where to pick your strings is mandatory....

 

anyways im sliding off topic i dont want to come across as a review but what the game is doing for me so heres what iv not so much learned but improved on so far

 

bends

finger placement

palm mutes

 

these are something that i never use especially palm muting and im finding this game is doing what videos and text books couldnt and thats getting the happy medium between playing a string and muting it, im by no means amazing at it but its getting there, also my finger placement between alternate strings is getting better, one thing i wish i had done is recorded my progress which i may do after the weekend, i may record one of the earlier songs being played by myself like go with the flow and then take the time to work on that one song and see what i can achieve after a week at it, well its bed time now and tomorrow i plan on spending more time with the game and making use of the mini games so il update after taking an in depth look at them

Edited by demonizer_andy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is cool if we reply to these, or are you wanting to save yourself a few posts beforehand, so that you can do thorough updates? If so, I'll remove my post and re-post when you give the O.K. :)

 

I just want to talk about the difficulty spike. It's nice, but it's irritating when you want to restart a song, as you've messed up. Whenever I restart, it makes me play at a higher difficulty", when I want to get the easier difficulty down to an art first. I haven't found any way of resetting it, other than backing out to the main menu, and resetting the difficulty in the Options menu.

 

The game is really good though, and I'm already getting the hang of a few things. I was a damn good Guitar Hero player, long before I even touched a guitar, so this transition is really good for me as I can play my real guitar, but still play in the same environment as Guitar Hero.

 

I have noticed one issue though; Tuning. My guitar was tuned by a friend, and it sounded fantastic. The game made me tune to E Standard, and it really doesn't sound right at all. The top string doesn't match the other strings (bear with me, I'm a noob with terminology here). Also, I know you have to do it when you play a song, but having to check the guitar is in tune after every little thing is ANNOYING!

 

I was very pleased with the included fret markers, as though I can count the frets very well, it's nice to just know instantly where to place your fingers.

 

Which guitar are you using? I have an Ibanez GRG-170DXL (L is for Left-handed). I know it's a budget guitar, but I love it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im left handed and use an ibanez too, some people hate on them but in fairness they do some good entry level guitars and with a little work you can get them to sound really nice, but yeah everything you mention i agree on and dont worry il reply to any questions or comments in the reply boxes and il update my diary using the edit button, but yes the difficulty changing can be an ass and thats what im going to touch on next

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this post has been interesting - i tried this @eurogamer and have wanted the game for ages.

 

I have never had lessons so all of what i know (quite little) is self taught but i did do music to GCSE standard so have relatively good understanding of some aspects etc.

 

Im left handed too - i wanna throuw that in there now as both u seem to be too!! Yay we can rebell - more on topic tho, i found that during the "go" i had at eurogamer, i felt it was going against stuff i had already learnt rather than accompany it for example. Kings of leon's use somebody i can play. but according to the game i was not doing it their way. Fustrating - as you can play the same some in a variety of ways (variations) to achieve the same effect/sound.

 

Most guitarists don't play things to an exact way - more of a whats more suitable/easier to do in a song etc which i believe is how they get their style. I didnt feel that this game encompasses that.

 

I do feel that it is however a good investment if you are serious about learning guitar and dont want expensive lessons. this game is overall VERY accurate!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Firstly, Tahae T; I believe you messaged me on LIVE? I'm sorry I didn't get back to you, I tend to forget about LIVE messages when I'm in-game.

 

Secondly, I've been playing some more today, and I'm finding myself getting really frustrated with it. The game is starting to not listen to what I'm playing. I had to try about 6 times to get it to register the E string on the 15th fret, because it just wouldn't accept that I'd played it.

 

The difficulty thing is really doing my head in, because it's throwing chords at me that I've never even seen, never mind played! There isn't enough "teaching" in the game, it just expects you to know everything. Doing well on one string for 2 minutes doesn't mean you're ready for major chord changes. They need to change it so that you can choose when to ramp up the difficulty, like Rock Band allows you shift up a speed in Practice Mode.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DW bout not getting back to me i sometimes do the same lol. I have noticed alot of people complaining about the difficulty and how the game controls it and not yourself. It should have difficulty levels you can select and perhaps " suggest" to you when it thinks you are ready to try another/higher difficulty.

 

And Demonizer - how have you found the mini games? Do you feel they are helping you in any way at all/ making it fun etc?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Secondly, I've been playing some more today, and I'm finding myself getting really frustrated with it. The game is starting to not listen to what I'm playing. I had to try about 6 times to get it to register the E string on the 15th fret, because it just wouldn't accept that I'd played it.

I've had that happen to me quite a few times recently too; play notes and/or chords and it doesn't recognise that I've played it. I had to wonder if the strings slightly were out of tune again due to having restrung my guitar recently (plus also it has a floating tremolo). Even though the sound check at the beginning of everything you do gave my tuning a pass, in precision tuner it turns out that my strings were indeed slightly out. That seemed to help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
  • Create New...