The other day I spent a good hour and a half playing through 5 new songs and then “performing” them in the game Rocksmith. None of the songs were bad. But I didn’t really get into them. And I sounded off in everything I played. I made it through the songs and got the bare minimum of points, but it just didn’t sound good.
A big part of it was me. But it was also the delay and the fact that I don’t actually know the songs and didn’t take the time to really learn them. Plus, when I’m playing what is on the screen, it changes when I start to get things right or wrong.
So I’m just going to play guitar by myself for a while and not rely on software or games or anything else for a while. Let’s see what I can create. Wish me luck.
Confessions of a Wanna Be Guitar Player 
> So I’m just going to play guitar by myself for a while and not rely on software or games or anything else for a while. Let’s see what I can create. Wish me luck.
That’s the ticket. Turn it up just a fraction too loud and (as my wife from Glasgow) would say, “give it laldy”.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=laldy
I will give it laldy!
That’s awesome!
Never tried a game like that – I’m not a gamer anyway…
However I had a long period of only playing covers, I joined a covers band – we jointly agreed a setlist including stuff I enjoyed playing – Free’s Wishing Well and Alright Now, Coldplay’s Yellow, RHCP’s Californication etc.
However the other guitarist was the dominant character – and to be fair it was his group to start with. But slowly all my suggestions slipped off the play list and I just began to hate it – it was playing by numbers going through the motions. I left and started writing and eventually recording my own stuff again. I won’t knock covers bands and I still learn others songs and particularly classical pieces or solo guitar pieces, but normally there is some bit of them I re-arrange either fingering wise or just how the parts of the piece fit together – being solo pieces there is no need to figure it out with others it is just me! 🙂
But my true love remains writing my own material and recording it / performing it – to me that is what it is all about for me.
Cover bands are great and have their place. I got together a few times with friends to play covers. It was a great starting point and helped us explore each others’ interests. But we were all out of practice and were looking for a way to get back into playing, which was good. Writing, recording, and performing just seemed out of reach for what we wanted. Plus we were all busy and didn’t make it past a couple of practices. I thought of it as more of a pickup game than a band.
Now that I think about it, my first band was a cover band. I didn’t even know how to play when we started. I got a bass and learned the punk covers we played. We had one original and that was so much fun. It was a great way to learn. It probably would’ve grown into more of an originals band, but we finished school and life kept going.
I’m curious if your writing, recording, and performing has ever included a band. Was it “your band” as the main creative source? Were you all working and sharing your creativity? Was there a “dominant character”? It seems like that would also have a huge impact on anyone’s enjoyment of the band setting.
Besides, I am still such a bedroom player that I just need to get out and play…cover band, originals band, solo, whatever.
As for gaming, I am NOT a gamer. My wife is a gamer. I tried the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games with her, but figured it would take so much time to learn to “play” the guitar shaped controller that I might as well spend that time learning to play the real guitar. Then I found out about Rocksmith and see it is a happy middle ground, but the way you practice songs in the game makes it sound pretty bad till you’ve got it perfect. And the latency issues drove my wife crazy in the other room. Her trained ear couldn’t handle it. That’s what I get for marrying a computer geek with real musical talent!
Playing the Muse song Unnatural Selection to the top levels improved my alternate picking technique demonstrably. I never thought a Muse song would ever give me a run for my money but that track did.