Rocksmith Catch All

Hi, imbiginjapan and clumber

Yes, I have a clip on tuner. Being a guy I decided to go 'all in' on the guitar, and buy a stack of guitar kit even before discovering if I have an aptitude for it. My sixth string is tuned to E, and holding down the third fret delivers a G#.

I'll try both going lighter on the strings and playing, er, unplugged.

Thanks for the advice. I really want to supplement my other learning methods with Rocksmith because there's so much variety in the game and the Guitarcade is great fun.

detroit20 wrote:

Hi, imbiginjapan and clumber

Yes, I have a clip on tuner. Being a guy I decided to go 'all in' on the guitar, and buy a stack of guitar kit even before discovering if I have an aptitude for it. My sixth string is tuned to E, and holding down the third fret delivers a G#.

I'll try both going lighter on the strings and playing, er, unplugged.

Thanks for the advice. I really want to supplement my other learning methods with Rocksmith because there's so much variety in the game and the Guitarcade is great fun.

Hmm.... Well... I'd almost have to see your technique to help. Unless something is terribly wrong with the guitar you shouldn't have intonation issues that low down the neck, and only on one string at that! Sooo... It sounds like you're bending the sting too much when you fret it. Oddly enough a heavier gauge E string might help with that. Light gauge strings can wobble like spaghetti sometimes.
Out of curiousity what model guitar did you get?

Hi,

I bought a very cheap (£70), very basic electric guitar by a company from Elevation. I was going to pile in and buy a full Rocksmith bundle (the one with the Les Paul guitar), but new ones are hard to find and I didn't want to commit too much cash to what might be short lived hobby.

detroit20 wrote:

Hi,

I bought a very cheap (£70), very basic electric guitar by a company from Elevation. I was going to pile in and buy a full Rocksmith bundle (the one with the Les Paul guitar), but new ones are hard to find and I didn't want to commit too much cash to what might be short lived hobby.

For what it's worth, those Epiphone Les Paul Specials are quite possibly the singly most common guitar around, and I see at least one on sale used in every guitar shop I walk into. When I bought a guitar about four months back (a Hagstrom Ultra Swede, oh my GOD I love that guitar), I thought I'd trade in my old Epi LP, and the guy frankly said the market is glutted and he couldn't sell it for more than $75 at best, so he'd give me $50 for it. I just kept the crappy thing as a beater guitar.

If it's a super-cheap guitar, there's always potential quality issues, as they're all cranked out by giant Korean factories and such and quality control is nil. Sometimes it's a good one, sometime s it's crap. My crappy little Epi LP is actually pretty decent to play, but I've picked up other ones that had lots of buzzing, weird intonation, high action, and necks that actually felt like they'd never been really sanded. Do you know anybody else with a guitar, where you could plug it in and see whether the same issue is happening? Could be a way to narrow down the problem.

I commonly have that problem and it's pretty much purely down to pressing the string too hard. It happens more on easier difficulties too because I'm pressing on one string at a time so it's getting all the force. Once the single notes become barre chords the problem goes away.

This thread being active again actually had me playing for nearly an hour today, so thanks for that detroit.

Toddler loves it too, she was trying to sing along while I was playing Angela.

@MilkmanDanimal - Ha! Yes, I do know someone with a guitar. My near neighbour, the guitar teacher and professional guitarist! I'd like to do a couple of lessons with him, but I want to do that when I've learned enough from Justinguitar and Rocksmith to understand what I'm being taught. I want us both to get the most out of his time.

@MrDeVil909 - I'm glad you've been inspired. I've hit a bit of a wall on chord changes (I'm trying justinguitar's one minute changes), where I just can't seem to improve. Everything I've read says "Push on. Don't give up It will come together." But at the moment, I just can't see it. My fingers just can't seem to find the right strings at the right time...

Just a heads-up that most Rocksmith DLC is 40% during the Steam sale that started this afternoon.

Oh man, this Steam sale is going to drain my wallet.

Oddly, the store only seems to be showing me the DLC that's on sale, which excludes anything released in about the last four months.

ergstrom wrote:

Oddly, the store only seems to be showing me the DLC that's on sale, which excludes anything released in about the last four months.

Yeah, Ubisift always holds back their newest Rocksmith DLC from Steam sales. You'll probably have to wait until the Fall/Winter sale to pick up anything relatively recent.

I keep a running text file with the names of all the songs I want and then I purchase everything in bulk when it's on sale.

Once you've settled in and know you want to give the guitar a proper go, it is totally worth it to learn how to re-string and setup a guitar. Having the neck properly adjusted and the string height set can make your guitar feel like a whole new instrument.

You only need a few simple tools (some feeler gauges, a small ruler, a screw driver, some alan keys, and good capo, a string winder and a tuner) and you're good to go. You'd be amazed at how much of a difference it makes and how much cash you save not having it done at a music shop.

Manufacturers usually have a recommended set of measurements you can use as a starting point, as well as a plethora of instructional videos on YouTube. So don't be afraid to give it a go.

Has anyone else ever been tempted to hit the "Add all DLC to cart" button? Oh man if I only had an extra $1600 burning a hole in my pocket.

Also, I guess I've never noticed before but does Rocksmith handle pinch harmonics?

pizzaddict wrote:

Also, I guess I've never noticed before but does Rocksmith handle pinch harmonics?

it does. there's even a lesson for them.

ranalin wrote:
pizzaddict wrote:

Also, I guess I've never noticed before but does Rocksmith handle pinch harmonics?

it does. there's even a lesson for them.

This is something I'm not remotely close to understanding yet. That and tapping. Of course it seems like these need a lot of gain and that's not really my bag. I guess I'm just not a shredder.

imbiginjapan wrote:
ranalin wrote:
pizzaddict wrote:

Also, I guess I've never noticed before but does Rocksmith handle pinch harmonics?

it does. there's even a lesson for them.

This is something I'm not remotely close to understanding yet. That and tapping. Of course it seems like these need a lot of gain and that's not really my bag. I guess I'm just not a shredder.

I've yet to do one intentionally and the couple times i did it by mistake was on the lower tunings. Still it's something i want to learn to do so go back to that lesson to try.

No desire to learn tapping, but i'm a huge fan of Zakk Wylde and Danzig songs so they're all over them.

Pixies song pack was released today.

Features 4 songs from Doolittle: “Hey,” “Monkey Gone To Heaven,” “Wave Of Mutilation,” and “Debaser." These have all been available as CDLC, but it's always nice to have official versions.

Does anyone else have issues with the sound mixing on the CDLC usually being off? I feel like on official stuff I can leave everything at 100% and go, but with CDLC I almost always have to turn the music down to 80% or less just to hear the guitar.

pizzaddict wrote:

Does anyone else have issues with the sound mixing on the CDLC usually being off? I feel like on official stuff I can leave everything at 100% and go, but with CDLC I almost always have to turn the music down to 80% or less just to hear the guitar.

that's the issue with CDLC you're at the mercy of whomever made it. luckily the stuff i've picked up only have issue with a few tracks. It's why i buy the official stuff whenever comes up like above.

detroit20 wrote:

@MilkmanDanimal - Ha! Yes, I do know someone with a guitar. My near neighbour, the guitar teacher and professional guitarist! I'd like to do a couple of lessons with him, but I want to do that when I've learned enough from Justinguitar and Rocksmith to understand what I'm being taught. I want us both to get the most out of his time.

@MrDeVil909 - I'm glad you've been inspired. I've hit a bit of a wall on chord changes (I'm trying justinguitar's one minute changes), where I just can't seem to improve. Everything I've read says "Push on. Don't give up It will come together." But at the moment, I just can't see it. My fingers just can't seem to find the right strings at the right time...

Just to chip in my 0.02c, as someone who picked up the guitar for the first time three years ago and has been through the whole Rocksmith/Justinguitar beginner journey.

1 - Most teachers and players refer in some way to "getting over the hump", which means sticking with it long enough to learn enough of the basic skills, techniques and knowledge to "just be able to play". If you can get over the hump you are set - most people who give up never do, and it takes longer for some than for others - but stick with it!

2 - I'd strongly suggest having that first lesson with a real life human sooner rather than later. Don't worry about not understanding enough, or even that you need to be of a certain ability before seeing a teacher, neither actually matters. That first lesson or two is there to teach you the absolute and most valuable basics. Let me put it this way, if you were going to build your own house and knew it would take a few years to do it, would you lay the first bricks yourself and get a professional bricklayer to show you how once you'd figured some stuff out, or would you get him to show you how to lay the first bricks? Your first lesson(s) are that foundation upon which everything else is built.

3 - Oh yes, I remember this bit. It's all about repetition, building that muscle memory. Best approach is a little and often. Focus on a small number of chords, play them for a small amount of time (say 5 mins) several times a day. And be aware of a likely next stage, which is even weirder (than having your fingers not do what you tell them) - you'll get to a point where you can play these chords, and then for no apparent reason, not be able to for a while, and then you can again. Apparently its quite normal and common, but feels very odd and slightly annoying when it does.

So glad to hear you have decided to take up the guitar - it can be such fun to play, or just noodle around. Good luck on your journey.

Hi, chiefsheep

Thanks for taking the time to offer some advice.

Your bricklaying analogy is a great one. I'm going to book my lesson with my neighbour this weekend!

On 3, I'm starting to see slow but steady improvement. My chords sound better and I'm changing them more quickly. I'm also starting to be able to identify and rectify my own mistakes. I'll also prepare not to be too discouraged when my skills desert me.

The thing I'm finding hardest now is making time for Rocksmith itself.

More frustration and puzzlement this week.

Spent 45 minutes on Level 1 of Castle Chordead, but could not finish it. The progression went from A5 to E5... Then mugged me with F5 which I literally could not stretch to play. I eventually found a workaround using my thumb rather than my first finger, but it was hopelessly inconsistent.

I feel poorly treated by Rocksmith here. Surely chords are too important to be left to chance in this way. For me, this is where gamification starts to break down.

I'm also struggling with my first song, Are You Mine? Rocksmith seems to be moving too quickly for me. I get 86% on a play along and the game suddenly throws in Bach to back slides. I would like to move more slowly. Hoiw can I do this? I'd like to be consistently at 90% before moving forward.

detroit20 wrote:

More frustration and puzzlement this week.

Spent 45 minutes on Level 1 of Castle Chordead, but could not finish it. The progression went from A5 to E5... Then mugged me with F5 which I literally could not stretch to play. I eventually found a workaround using my thumb rather than my first finger, but it was hopelessly inconsistent.

I feel poorly treated by Rocksmith here. Surely chords are too important to be left to chance in this way. For me, this is where gamification starts to break down.

I'm also struggling with my first song, Are You Mine? Rocksmith seems to be moving too quickly for me. I get 86% on a play along and the game suddenly throws in Bach to back slides. I would like to move more slowly. Hoiw can I do this? I'd like to be consistently at 90% before moving forward.

Focus on using Riff Repeater to control the speed and difficulty.

There's also a game/lesson for slides. Which is primarily (for me at least) being comfortable knowing where the frets are and moving between them. If you get used to moving between 3-5-3 or 2-4-2 and then expand from there is a huge break through moment. That gives you time to concentrate on the fiddly bits.

Still like imbiginjapan mentioned the Riff Repeater is your friend when learning songs.

I'll happily "third" the suggestion of Riff Repeater - it may be the most useful and powerful part of Rocksmith.

There seem to be two main approaches to learning songs on guitar, which for convenience I'll call the "traditional" way and, er, the "other" way (I'm sure they have proper names), and Riff Repeater supports both.

Traditional

The "traditional" way would be to set the difficulty at 100% from the very beginning, and very slowly ramp up the speed. That's how a lot of people learned the guitar, and was certainly a popular way historically.

Pros: you learn the song note for note from day one and you don't end up changing your fretting as more notes are added (I found as one note turned into two turned into a chord I was fretting with different fingers, which meant I was changing every time a note was added, which felt like I was having to relearn the whole song every time the difficulty increased - bad for developing muscle memory)

Cons: many songs are a lot harder to play below a certain percentage of their proper speed (usually 50-60%). The song (will) may include techniques you aren't even close to mastering yet (and if you can do "most" of the song well, but cannot do one section well, you won't 100% it)

The "other" way

Good ole' Riff Repeater and Dynamic Difficulty. Now you can start with a few notes, but at full speed, and add notes as you improve.

Pros: You feel like you're playing the song from day one, you don't try to play the complex bits until you have learned the fundamentals.

Cons: Dynamic Difficulty isn't a smooth climb, it's a series of steps and some of the steps feel huge and can really throw you (and I think this is what has been frustrating you here). "Hey, those single note runs are sounding really good, I'll bump your difficulty up 10% - here, have some bends/slides/vibrato and a couple of barre chords. And....go!" Every time the difficulty goes up you may end up changing the way you are fretting things.

So, hopefully a couple of suggestions based on what I do:

1 - Play through new songs using low difficulty/full speed to lock in what I am aiming for, what it's "supposed to sound like". It also gives you the "yeah, I can do this! Check me out , playing with the band!" feeling. (Use Riff Repeater, highlight the whole song and drop the difficulty down so the whole song is at, say 20-30%)

2 - Then ramp difficulty across the whole song up to 100% (or up to the point where things I can't do/haven't learned start appearing, ie some barre chords, or slides, or bends, whatever it is for you) and the speed down to maybe 20% and go from there, increasing speed in slow bumps as you improve.

And one other big thing - when you find a section that's really causing you problems (ie slides) use Riff Repeater to practise just that small section over and over (maybe ten or twenty times in a row) at a speed you can manage, even if that speed is waaay less than the rest of the song. Do it consistently over a few days and, ta da!, you'll find you're able to play it.

(All that last one is is just a restatement of many teachers' advice - break the piece down into the smallest pieces, practise the chunk that needs work until it improves, then put it back into the piece as a whole)

Remember - "slow is smooth, smooth is fast"

Hope some of that helps!

Hi,

Thanks for advice. I'm going to focus on using Riff Repeater to master 'R U Mine?' and improve my understanding of the guitar. When I get stuck on a technique, then I'll return to the mini-games (apart from Return to Castle Chordead, which I don't think is fit for purpose).

detroit20 wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for advice. I'm going to focus on using Riff Repeater to master 'R U Mine?' and improve my understanding of the guitar. When I get stuck on a technique, then I'll return to the mini-games (apart from Return to Castle Chordead, which I don't think is fit for purpose).

A quick lunchtime browse discovered this long forgotten link somewhere in my bookmarks - a few useful bullet points about Rocksmith

https://www.reddit.com/r/rocksmith/c...

FWIW, I hate Castle Chordred. I much prefer Star Chords to gamify learning chords and quickly changing them.

Bad Religion is the new DLC!

Hopefully this means we'll see some of the other artists that were on Bandfuse soon.

Thanks, chiefsheep. That Reddit was really helpful and I put the advice into practice this weekend.

The only thing that I can't find when I play is any indication of which fingers are meant to playing which string. One of the Reddit posters says that RS does this, and includes pictures. However, I couldn't see any when I tried. Is this functionality that I need to activate somehow?

This I'm working may way through this, but there are a couple of passages of 'R U Mine?' where the A (yellow) and G (orange) strings are being played simultaneously (or at least appear to be), and I just can't work out what I'm meant to be doing and how. Indications of which fingers are being used would help.

One final minor frustration:

After practicing the song, Rocksmith suggested that I learn about Hammer Ons and sent me to 'Legato 101'. I feel like I've gone back two months to the beginning of my learning the instrument!

I can see how much better I will be when/if I learn the 'Hammer Ons; Pull Offs' Practice Riff... but that feels very far away. At the moment, I just cannot complete even the 'Hammer Ons' riff at full speed. I'm setting aside 15 minutes at the end of my nightly practice just to improve at this.

I think the source of my frustration is the fact that Rocksmith is happy to 'pass' notes that sound terrible (but that are played at the right time), and is even happy to 'pass' incorrect notes that sound right, but will 'fail' notes that are late (but that sound acceptable).

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the fact that the game demands a high standard of play in order to progress, and actively encourages mastery. But sometimes it is disappointing to be confronted constantly with things that I cannot do.