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Nate · **Posted:** July, 25, 2011 - 9:12pm

I edited the time signatures in the midi software I was using as I followed along. As long as you understand the rhythm, it should come out properly. Your right though, a standard metronome wouldn't cut it in this case. I was talking about the one in my midi software, which takes into account time signature changes and such. The errors I'm talking about aren't jarring ones anyway, they are slight fluctuations in BPM throughout.

William Smith · **Joined:** June, 17, 2007 - 10:18pm **Posts:** 3227

Haha actually the solo for master of puppets isn't that hard.

my drummer showed me an interview with lars saying (this was 10 years ago) he doesn't ever need to practice again since he's so good.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** October, 20, 2011 - 1:06am

Man, I feel like my piano playing is coming along so slowly. There's all these cool songs I want to play but it just takes me so much time to learn them. Baby steps I guess. I wish I was like Bill Murray and had endless days to practice. I'm getting a solid 1-2 hours a day in but I might just opt for lessons.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** November, 5, 2011 - 9:39pm

Learning my 3rd Mario Galaxy song Space Junk Galaxy theme. I think I'm picking them up a little quicker now although this one is really not that difficult. This one is definitely an awesome track. I might learn To the Gateway next. That one doesn't seem to bad either but it is in freaking C# major. Maybe after learning all these, I'll be ready for Good Egg Galaxy. That one is going to take a bit of practice since it's much faster than the other songs. Man, so many songs to learn, so little time....

Russell Casse · **Posted:** December, 30, 2011 - 2:52pm

To keep a track of the songs I learned this year. Hopefully next year's list will be much longer.

Bach - Minuet
FFXIII - Vanille's Theme
FFX - To Zanarkand
Noir - At Dusk
Super Mario Galaxy - To the Gateway
Super Mario Galaxy - Rosalina's theme / Sad theme
Super Mario Galaxy - Comet Observatory
Super Mario Galaxy - Space Junk Galaxy
Spirited Away - Waltz for Chihiro

One's I started but didn't finish yet
FFXIII - Lightning's Theme
Christmas Time is Here
Super Mario Galaxy - Good Egg Galaxy
Zelda Ocarina of Time - Zora Domain
FFVII - Aeris' Theme (this one is pretty easy, I should have it learned soon)

Songs I want to learn next year.
Tidus' Theme
Tifa's Theme
Besaid Island from the piano collection
Linus and Lucy

And if I get good enough, maybe I'll start on some Chopin and Debussy.

So yeah, I pretty much just play video game and anime music at the moment.
I'll probably try to learn some real songs like Billy Joel or Journey at some time in the future. And possibly some GnR but I've learned so much of their crap on guitar already that I don't know if I feel like learning more GnR.

The Assassin · **Posted:** December, 30, 2011 - 3:42pm

Haha November Rain is a must learn man...if only for that build up before the guitar solo, so awesome

The Assassin · **Posted:** December, 30, 2011 - 3:48pm

I've been playing a lot of folk music recently, basically trying to get good at finger picking. I never really tried to take the time and learn it before...pretty challenging so far but im slowly getting the hang of it....Trying to perfect Holocene by Bon Iver, its not really that hard im just not used to finger picking at all

Russell Casse · **Posted:** December, 30, 2011 - 4:08pm

When you're finger picking, just remember not to move your hand up and down. Keep your hand steady and only use your fingers. You want to make a closing your fist motion with your fingers. And keep your hand relaxed.

The Assassin · **Posted:** December, 30, 2011 - 4:26pm

Yeah, thats actually been the hardest part, trying to use the right form

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 2, 2012 - 12:26am

I just encountered something new that I need to practice to get right. Triplets over eighth notes. I never had to do this before because I would only need to play triplets or eighth notes. But not both simultaneously. Now I'm playing piano, things like this come up and it really messes with your brain but I think it just takes a bit of practice for the muscle memory to kick in. I think I'm already starting to get it. The internet was also a good source to go to for tips. Thank god we live in a world of Youtube. I'm glad I started learning Tidus' theme and this cropped up. The main melody you hear in that song is triplet over eighth notes.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 24, 2012 - 9:03pm

I finished learning Tidus' theme and I'm almost done Tifa's theme. Both Aeris and Tifa's theme are really easy actually. At least the original arrangements anyway. I just need to practice Tidus' theme more. Right now, it's still pretty sloppy. I'm about half way through Good Egg Galaxy. The actual song isn't that tough. It just has a fast tempo so you really need to know it well to play it well. That song is probably the most fun to play though. Plus it just sounds awesome.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** May, 3, 2012 - 7:31pm

I started learning Buoy Base Galaxy. This is a really sweet song. I'm almost at my goal of learning all the Mario Galaxy songs in my 1 year span. I don't think I'll be able to learn Gust Gardens for a while. That will probably be my last song to learn. I can play Good Egg Galaxy but not very well. It still needs a lot of practice.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** October, 27, 2012 - 1:00pm

So after watching the guy's video on training your reading skills along with with your playin skills as opposed to just practicing playing and sucking at reading, I decided to go back to the basic books I got to try to improve my reading skills. The guy's lessons, even though they're just the sample ones (you have to pay for the whole set), are really good. I actually considered paying to download his entire set of lessons.

If you're curious, here's his first video.

On the playing side, I finally got around to learning Mario 3 theme 2 and I started learning Link's House from OoT. They're short and fun to play. I'm going to keep the new songs I try to learn short for now until my reading improves me. I also learned Rikku's Theme from the piano arrangements. The next one I might try to learn is Silence before the Storm from FF-X. It's got some really cool transitions in that one.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 3:52am

Mastered Limelight in Rocksmith. Almost have Red Barchetta mastered as well. The game is not very good at recognizing harmonics. Maybe I just suck at doing them, I don't know.

Frank · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 9:39am

i like that you are teaching yourself how to play the piano with video game music. i remember i used to be able to plunk out the zelda theme on an old piano we had at my parents house when i was a kid.

Nate · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 11:42am

Russell Casse wrote:

Mastered Limelight in Rocksmith. Almost have Red Barchetta mastered as well. The game is not very good at recognizing harmonics. Maybe I just suck at doing them, I don't know.

Whoa, they have Rush in Rocksmith? What is it, DLC?

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 2:51pm

Yeah, they have a Rush pack for like $12.00. They also have a Pantera pack. I almost have most of Cowboys from Hell mastered except for the solo which I'll probably never get to 100%. I also got the Megadeth pack, Foo Fighters pack, Jessica by Allman Brothers, Redneck by Lamb of God, and Europe - The Final Count Down. So there's my $50 PSN gift card. Best Christmas present ever.

I'm more motivated to play music I enjoy and I enjoy myself some video game music.

Hack · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 4:35pm

is rocksmith a good game to use to try and learn the guitar. I always wanted to try it but wasnt sure.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 4:58pm

I'm not really sure. Maybe? The problem is that it really doesn't teach you technique like how to hold the guitar, how to strum, how to hold down the frets how to hold the chords. Maybe it does show you visually? There might be instructional videos that come with it that I never bothered to check out. I guess you could also learn the technique stuff from youtube or someone that already knows how to play the guitar on a rudimentary level. But if you already know how to play the guitar, it think it does well in honing your technique to be better. You get better with your timings and picking, stuff like that. So I guess I'll list out the pro and cons

Pros:
Helps with technique
Shows you how to play real songs on a real guitar
Fun once you start playing songs in its entirety
Will make you better

Cons:
You need to have a real guitar
You need to already kind of know how to play it
Some people say the difficulty adapting algorithm isn't very good. It's either too easy or all of the sudden gets too hard. I think, for what it is, it actually does a pretty good job.
It's hard to set the game to your level of playing quickly. But if you're just starting out, that shouldn't be a problem since it starts everything at the lowest difficulty setting.

Other:
The "games" that come with it are worthless with the exception of the scale runner. That will actually teach you real scales. Pretty much all the other games are worthless. But then again, you're probably not playing Rocksmith for their "games". You just want to play songs.

So the game is actually very niche. Which is probably also part of the reason why it hasn't garnered the fame of Guitar Hero and such. You have to already own a guitar and already know how to play it on some level. I think it could actually be a pretty cool teaching tool since you can play 2 players on it. So if you're looking into getting into guitar, I would recommend this game. It's definitely more fun than digging around online for tabs (most of the time they're terrible) and trying to learn stuff by yourself.

Oh, and for those of you who do decide to get it, the first thing I recommend is to reverse the way they display the notes to you. For some reason, the game defaults to have the notes presented to you upside down in comparison to traditional tablature. So to keep in line with tabs, you should train your brain to read the notes the common tab style.

The Assassin · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 5:38pm

How did you deal with the lag on Rocksmith? I played it once and the lag was so bad I just stopped.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 5:49pm

I output it from the analog port directly into my speakers or head phones, not through the HDMI port and the TV. It all depends on the TV too. Initially, I had it coming out of the TV, there was some slight lag but not to the point where it wasn't playable.

The Assassin · **Posted:** January, 8, 2013 - 6:05pm

Oh ok, I guess the hdmi is the problem cause thats what I was using

Nate · **Posted:** January, 9, 2013 - 2:33am

Yeah, analog audio is a must for any rhythm based software. Even then, some games just need an old TV, no way around it. IIDX is unplayable on an LCD, even with the audio going to my sound system. Too much input lag for a game with super tight timing windows. I have my PS2 hooked up to the CRT now and it's like night and day.

I'm gonna have to grab some of those songs. I think I'll leave the Megadeth stuff for the pros though.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 9, 2013 - 3:05am

Another reason why I got a plasma. Very little video lag. Can't take it for fighting games or rhythm games.

Russell Casse · **Posted:** January, 18, 2013 - 4:40am

I can play Redneck at 90% speed but when it goes to 100%, I just shit the bed. What the hell?! Getting that last 10% faster is tough. Need more practice...

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