Progress?

Getting into frustration

Ok, so I have gone through a few of the ‘Lessons’ and tried a few more songs.

I am starting to get a little frustrated, not because I’m a tallentless idiot (I already knew this), but because when you’re ‘playing a song and it switches up from an easier mode it then started giving me directions I don’t understand.

Ok, so when you first start playing a song, it stats off really easy with just one note or an open string. This is fairly simple to master as long as you can keep time. After a few bars, it then increases the difficulty automatically. Obviously the higher the difficulty the more of the actual track you are playing. But I found that it was giving me directions that I have no idea what it wants me to do and the game doesn’t pause to explain the direction so after failing a few of these directions, it then goes back to the easier setting. Not too good to make any progression. I guess I should read the manual, if there is one.

And they’re off

So I have had my first couple of hours with Rocksmith and considering I used to play, all be it over twenty years ago, it’s scary how much I’ve forgotten. I may as well be starting from scratch.

So I started with Learn a song (R.E.M’s Losing my religion). It starts off with one note and in a similar vein to Guitar Hero, you have to hit the note on time. After a couple of ‘attempts’ it suggested I started on the Lessons. ‘That good eh’?

The lessons start with things like attaching the strap, holding the guitar and how to hold a pick. The lessons progress to actually playing the instrument and this is where I hit my first stumbling block, that took me a few minutes to work out. Basically it was asking me to play some notes up and down the fretboard. But it kept stopping and telling me I was playing the wrong note, which as far as I was concerned I wasn’t. I discovered this was being caused by me, pressing too hard on the strings. In fact experimenting with this, the software does seem to be very sensitive to this.
With this in mind, I was able to continue with the slightest bit more success.
I’ve got a long way to go.

And so it begins

Today is the day.

I’ve just taken delivery of my ‘new’ guitar. Ok, its second hand, but much to my delight, it’s in very good condition. I had expected it to have a string or two missing but they are all there and look almost new. It even came with a gig bag. Considering what I paid for it, I’m very pleased.

And so it begins, time to put Rocksmith through its paces. Can it teach me to play? Only time will tell.

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