What about being an intermediate player?

[NKN]

This game has interested me. I produce music and play(ed) many instruments. Although I know my chords, music theory, and the basic/pentatonic scales, what can this offer for me?

I'm at a point that if I want to get better I really should pay for lessons, or do research that I do not have time for. I don't know how to say this without people thinking I'm a douchebag saying I'm already pretty decent or something.

So, how far can this game take you? Any other intermediate guitar players start this and find it useful?

I am genuinely asking.

[Sir Grady]

definitely... you gonna love it

[NKN]

Originally posted by DSCSir Grady:

definitely... you gonna love it

Awesome. It's interested me for quite some time now, so I think I'll get it! Can you use a midi interface? It's basically the thing you apparently *have* to buy...

[Paladin]

Nick, don't pass go. Buy the game. You will be a better player in the end.

[905]

Firstly no midi cable. You have to use their real tone cable. Also many have trouble getting it to work with really high end sound cards, so hopefully you have a somewhat normal PC to play it on in addition to any studio pc. You might get it to work on that, but it really is happiest with onboard motherboard sound.

Now to being an intermediate player. I don't think I would call myself that, yet. But if all you know are the pentatonic scale it sould be able to teach you a great deal more. Foir scales, there are two mini games that can teasch you lots of scales. BTW do you know the pentatonic up and down the neck in all 6 positions (C A G E and D)? If not it will teach you that as well.

There is a game called scale warriors where bad guys are on different notes in teh scales and to kill them you have to hit the note they are on. As you progress though the game it will give you different postions of a scale and you can choose to play different scales. In this one they tend to jump around a lot. Then there is scale racer where you are a car and a cop car is chasing you. There is only one lane open to get around rows of cars. The lane is the scale and you run up and down the scale. There are off ramps taht take you to different scale postions and so you can learn to run up and down the scales. I like this better of the two.

Then there is another part of the game called session mode. You choose from many diffferent artificial bands, choose a key and a scale and then jam with the band. This is also a great way to learn a scale up and down the neck. It also highlights the chord tones and so you can play them over the changtes.

Then ther is learn a song. You can choose bass, rythm or lead as a path to learn. In the songs you can learn how songs are played. In your case, lead you probably be what you would want to do. You can start learning solos which sounds like what you would want to work on at this point.

So I think this would be good for an intermediate player. I think even an advanced player might like the scale stuff if they haven't learned scales such as major, blues, dorian, harmonic minor, phygrian etc.

[caldaar]

To add onto what 905 said.... It seems that you know all of the why's of how a guitar makes music... What i would guess that you are looking for is getting yourself to be able to play all of the chords and notes at full speed? Is that correct?

If so, then Rocksmith is perfect for you. Rocksmith does not worry about the Why's, but goes straight into playing. It forces you to stop looking at the fret board over time, and get the feel of where the frets are. It helps you get your hands moving to the proper positions. It helps you build the speed in your fingers to get to playing those fast riffs.

It also listens to make sure you are doing it right. If you bend a note when you shouldn't by pulling it or pressing too hard, it will not count it... or if you hit a wrong note. But, if you add a few notes it will count. On chords, it will see if you strum in time.. Now, because some chords sound very close to others, it may accept something that is close, but not exact. If you completely mess up the chord, it will mark it as a miss. That just leaves it to you to clean it up.

Because the game listens to your guitar for the exact notes... A guitar that may sound good enough to you... might not be exactly right. It is a good idea to have a new setup done on your guitar, so that the game can hear it correctly with what it expects.

[Buck]

Originally posted by 905:

Also many have trouble getting it to work with really high end sound cards

I still have no idea why either. I've had no issues running the game on numerous different systems with various SB X-Fi and Z Series cards. Professional audio cards are a whole different ball of wax (it's like trying to run games on a Quadro or FireGL - They can do it, but it's not optimal, they're just not designed for that).

Probably the most important thing is to simply make sure the latest drivers are installed, and set both the RS cable and sound card format's to 16-bit/48Khz( Though I've successfully run the game with the sound card set to 24-bit/96Khz, it's rather pointless to do so. you simply CAN.NOT perceive an audible difference. Anyone who claims they can, is lying or simply has no idea what they are talking about. This would be esp true because RS audio files are in 16-bit/48Khz format), and use Stereo output (I lave mine in 5.1, but 2 channel stereo is the fastest)

[CostlySpider]

I think you will enjoy it, if your are used to reading tabs, some people complain that the rocksmith interface is bizzare, one you can invert your strings, so it looks more like tabs,two it really isnt that hard, there is a guide on what everything means, it takes a little getting used to but it is not really that hard. If you know all those things picking up the symbols for rocksmith will be nothing.

The only thing you may find discouraging, is somethimes yoiu hit a chord or bend, and for whatever reason, rocksmith may not pick it up one time, but the next time it does.

Its not really a huge big deal, as long as you know you hit it or played it right. In learn a song or something, but it can be frustrating in score attack.

[songless.bird]

I play on 3 PC systems and had no problem getting it to work. One of those has a "high end DAW sound card".

[Sysrei Games]

It's a great deal for starters and intermediate players. One of the best purchases I made.

[Bobifle]

I think you'll progress with this game, but even if you don't, it's worth its price.

It's a very fun and alternative way to learn songs.

[NKN]

Originally posted by caldaar:

To add onto what 905 said.... It seems that you know all of the why's of how a guitar makes music... What i would guess that you are looking for is getting yourself to be able to play all of the chords and notes at full speed? Is that correct?

If so, then Rocksmith is perfect for you. Rocksmith does not worry about the Why's, but goes straight into playing. It forces you to stop looking at the fret board over time, and get the feel of where the frets are. It helps you get your hands moving to the proper positions. It helps you build the speed in your fingers to get to playing those fast riffs.

It also listens to make sure you are doing it right. If you bend a note when you shouldn't by pulling it or pressing too hard, it will not count it... or if you hit a wrong note. But, if you add a few notes it will count. On chords, it will see if you strum in time.. Now, because some chords sound very close to others, it may accept something that is close, but not exact. If you completely mess up the chord, it will mark it as a miss. That just leaves it to you to clean it up.

Because the game listens to your guitar for the exact notes... A guitar that may sound good enough to you... might not be exactly right. It is a good idea to have a new setup done on your guitar, so that the game can hear it correctly with what it expects.

Yes, I think you are correct. If anything, it's just lead guitar, and solos, and maybe more precise/faster single string strumming. Well, I will be using my Gibson Goldtop.. I think it will sound fine :-). And I bought it, I just need the real-tone cable but I can't wait to start!

[NKN]

Originally posted by Groz:

I think you'll progress with this game, but even if you don't, it's worth its price.

It's a very fun and alternative way to learn songs.

Awesome! I got this on sale for $20! :)

[mikedavies]

I would consider myself to be an intermediate player.

I think fisrtly you can get a lot of content in a wide variety of styles. Yes the interface takes a little while but how else can you easily set up sessions of continous sight reading material this easily and get feedback on how you are actuially playing. So for me it is great for reinforcing a foundation by playing something reasonably mindlessly for a couple of hours each day.

I feel a lot of beginers struggle where to go next and the answer is to get out of Rocksmith and go and do technical stuff elsewhere. The Intermediate player coming into should understand a lot more regarding musical structures and technique as such they will see Rocksmith as being a source for lots of technical based stuff. So I am quite happy for example putting on a section of a song on a continous loop and playing the arpeggio's through for half and hour to get them laid down. I might then turn off Rocksmith and continue with the same patterns in different chord shapes or in different keys for the next hour or so. So in effect Rocksmith has supported my practice and made it a bit easier but importantly I knew what it was I wanted to do all along.

So I think the answer for the intermediate player is often a lot of variety, internet lessons, books and CD's being a membber of an online teaching programme, having jam tracks at hand at various tempos and keys, having a basic drum machine to act as a metronome, record yourself for analysis etc... just add Rocksmith into the mix and you have something a bit different, not the answer but potetnially a tool to find your own way with your own music.

[caldaar]

Originally posted by Nick:

Yes, I think you are correct. If anything, it's just lead guitar, and solos, and maybe more precise/faster single string strumming. Well, I will be using my Gibson Goldtop.. I think it will sound fine :-). And I bought it, I just need the real-tone cable but I can't wait to start!

A gibson Goldtop? Nice guitar..... I still would suggest a setup for intonation, action, pickup height. Etc.... Those will cause you problems in the game since they change what it hears.

If you are looking for the Realtone Cable... It might be cheaper to find the first RS with the cable... it is the same cable. And it will give you access to more songs.

[rcole_sooner]

The one thing with being an intermediate player coming into Rocksmith...

You have to realize it has some "gamey" aspects to the interface.

If you can get over that, and just accept it as another fun tool in your toolbox, you should get a lot of use and fun nights from the game.

Me being both a video gamer and a bedroom rock star, this game is perfect.