Rock Band 1 Clone Hero
Manda Ulibarri
I play the piano (on a low level) but want to try something new. I stumbled on the console game Rockband 3 where you can attach a real e-drum set (the Roland TD9-SX seems to work) and play the game with it. Two questions:
No. I'm an accomplished drummer but I can't play Rock Band for toffee. Rock Band is a game, so it's designed to present a challenge to the user, one that's accessible to and enjoyable for adults and children with no musical knowledge. For this reason, it omits some things that are a big part of playing drums in an ensemble:
Volume. By this I don't just mean the dynamics written in the piece, but of each individual note: the articulation, both written and interpreted. This is something that's easy to understand on a real kit. It's harder on an electronic kit, just like how you can't learn piano just by playing a keyboard. It's not possible at all when you don't have any feedback about what your articulation sounds like.
Notation. The "scrolling dots" view that Rock Band gives you might be good for beginners, but I'm sure you understand it's unrelated to sheet music. Different publishers write their drum parts in completely different ways, and the easiest way to learn what the notation means is from experience of playing from lots of sheet music.
Counting. Not only does the "scrolling dots" view always tell you where you are, the game also makes sure you're kept busy all the time. If only composers thought the same way! Alas, unless you're playing heavy metal, or some kinds of jazz, you're likely to spend a lot of time playing 16-bar rests. In a way, this is the hardest part of drumming with a big ensemble. Everyone has their own strategies for coming in in the right place, and this is something you can only learn by playing real music with an ensemble.
Tempo negotiation. Rock Band is like playing with a metronome. It's all too common for rock and pop bands these days to use a "click track", which is practically the same thing, but most drummers have to follow a conductor, or possibly set a corporate tempo for the rest of their ensemble. This is a skill in itself: it's not just about being able to play in time, but being able to vary the tempo to suit the music and accommodate the other players (e.g. to let them breathe at the end of a phrase). I suspect that too much Rock Band would be a source of bad habits.
Of course, I'm not including here any of the things that a teacher will tell you but are hard to learn from any self-teaching method: what it should sound like, what kind of potential you have, how to set up a kit, how to sit, equipment recommendations, local bands who might want you, and so on.
Overall, I'm not advising you never to play Rock Band. One of the things you need to do to improve on kit is to put in the hours playing the same rhythms over and over again: the percussionist's equivalent of practising scales. On the harder difficulty levels, the arrangements it gives you are pretty representative of some standard rock beats. Once you've learned some technique on a real drum kit, I imagine Rock Band could help make that practise more interesting, if you have the discipline to keep using your technique, and not "cheat" by just hitting the pads any old how.
What I am advising is that if you turn up to a jazz band or another ensemble having only played Rock Band with an electric kit, you will end up looking pretty silly: maybe even worse than if you'd turned up with no experience at all.
I am proof you can learn to play the drums through rock band. I have an Alesis Dm 10 and not only learned how to play through the game, but now play with a band of my friends after 3 months of me playing the game. Its all memory once the game is off. The timing is also memory. There are career goals in the training section that teaches rudiments and is every intricate fill on the game. Does it teach reading music? No. But if practice is what makes perfect, and a kid having a blast playing he or she WILL learn due to repetition. I also have programmed the ride cymbal in the song on the ride on the e kit. Its programmed pretty well out of the box. I did have to tweek the high tom to match the yellow pad. I agree you do not learn composition, how to read or write or any advanced technique. But to play. Absolutely, yes you do. You build stamina, confidence and skill. If you are an accomplished drummer and you can not play Rockband then the solution is to turn your skill level to expert and familiarize yourself where each drum head is comparatively speaking. Improvise, On the cheap kit with the game its red=snare yellow-high tom blue= floor tom and green= crash and or ride. A regular kit isn't marked with color. But I can play on my acoustic kit (after repetition of playing on the game) and be 100% impressive to the people playing with me. I disagree with the first "no" answer.
If you are playing piano with a teacher, you will be learning about dynamics and phrasing (volume of each individual note in a unit of time) and will have made the first steps on how to apply this when you move to real drums.
If you are using expert mode on the harder songs, the game can help you learn rhythms much quicker than listening to your favourite songs, the game allows you to learn the songs in slow motion for really complicated rhythms. Step up the speed when you can get 100% accuracy, or even better memorise and play without looking at the screen.
If you can can play in expert mode, you will have a fighting chance of being very good, even amazing after a few years on the real drums with a teacher, only a teacher can show you good technique. More importantly, you only want to try something new. This game will give you a good footing for rhythm patterns at a fraction of the cost of a good drum kit with lessons.
A good musician is always improving. If you use the game and you are improving as a musician, then keep using it. But if you become really keen, then get a teacher and a practice kit before bad habits become un-learnable.
Although rock band is a great and challenging game think about it this way... you're in the arcades and you walk past someone on the dance mat and they are doing great getting perfects all the time... now take the dance mat out the way are they dancing? no they are jumping up and down constantly... although the movement/technique on rock band and guitar hero is the same as actual drumming the timings of the beats are completely off in most cases on the game the notation is much different and you aren't concentrating on the song just four or 5 colours flying at you for 5 minutes. E-drums by themselves without the game for a "template" is a much better way to learn. Trust your internal clock and your own ability over that game. Keep them separate in my opinion.
I've been a self taught drummer for 20 years and I wish I had this tool when I was beginning. Is it gonna make you a great drummer? No, but it will teach you dexterity in your limbs and rythms every drummer should know for a solid base of rock drumming. .
Guitar Hero was an absolute smash hit upon its release, and has remained incredibly popular ever since, with 23 editions published between 2005 and 2015. Unfortunately, however, most versions were only ever released on console platforms like XBox and Playstation, meaning PC gamers had to either invest in a games console, or limit themselves to the 3 editions released for PC.
As briefly mentioned earlier, the game has also inspired millions of children to learn real musical instruments. A March 2012 study by the British Journal of Music Education found that games like GH help to develop real musical skills, and that at minimum, they made the idea of learning how to play instruments for real more appealing to a majority of kids.
We will preface this section by pointing out that using emulators and unofficial ROMs may result in damage to your PC. You should be aware of the dangers of downloading files from unverified sources before downloading and installing such software.
Guitar Hero was a multi platform game, and has seen several PC compatible versions released since the initial console launch of the original, although not every version had an official Windows release.
It was widely regarded as the most challenging of the series, and as a result became the best selling game of the year, receiving widespread critical acclaim, with an 8.9/10 from IGN, 8/10 from Gamespot, and 5/5 from Common Sense Media.
The series has spawned a number of mid cycle artist edition spin offs and expansions, including Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which is the only such title to have been officially released on PC. The launch came a few months after the various console releases, with copies hitting the shelves in October 2008. This was the final version of the game that featured only guitar and bass parts.
Guitar Hero World Tour, was the follow up to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and was released in November 2009, about a year after the Wii, Xbox, and Playstation releases. This was the most hotly anticipated version of the game to date, largely due to the inclusion of drum and microphone controllers, which truly allowed players to experience playing in a full band.
The drum controller and microphone additions were a massive success, and take most of the credit for the popularity of the game, which can still be purchased brand new from numerous retailers.
There were never any PC specific guitar controllers made for the PC versions of the game, that being said, there are several controllers, both officially licensed and 3rd party manufactured, that work perfectly on this platform.
The first step is to plug your controller into a USB slot on your PC. If the controller you have has a console connection rather than a USB, be sure to use your converter. Windows should automatically detect the control device and attempt to install the requisite drivers.
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