This is exactly what I was hoping for when I bought Rocksmith:
My daughter picked up the pink Washburn Lyon tonight (I love that guitar - it's VERY light) and qualified both Satisfaction and Next Girl. Then she played her first event and scored something like 39,500 or so.
My son and I also messed around in multi-player mode on Smoke on the Water. I personally burned out on that song in about 1978, but he discovered it and loves it so I bought the DLC for him and we rocked out on it tonight. Nice to play more than the first 7 notes for a change!
My wife isn't a guitar player, but she's very supportive (and/or tolerant).
Housekeeping
I was cleaning house again and noticed that I had scored enough points on Next Girl to reach MM, but somehow I hadn't gotten MM yet. (I think that's the song where I realized it matters what order to meet the criteria; you have to max out all the phrases FIRST and THEN get 100,000+.) So, I check out the phrase levels and found them all maxed. Odd. But, what the heck. I played it through and got the required minimum score (actually, 109,775) to Master Mode my 8th song. I'd still have a hard time playing most of them from memory, though.
Here are my current top ten hits:
| Song | Artist | Date First Played | Event # | Qualifying Score | High Score | Best % | Best Streak | Play Count |
| Angela (Combo) | Jarvis Cocker | 23-Jan-2012 | 4 | ? | 200033 | 99 | 302 | 11 |
| Run Back to Your Side - Chords | Eric Clapton | 23-Feb-2012 | 6 | n/a | 197259 | 100 | 89 | 5 |
| God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen | Brian Adam McCune | 28-Jan-2012 | n/a | n/a | 135350 | 94 | 96 | 61 |
| Do You Remember - Combo | Horrors The | 26-Jan-2012 | 5 | 61800 | 132554 | 88 | 50 | 11 |
| Satisfaction, Chord Arr. | Rolling Stones The | 5-Feb-2012 | n/a | n/a | 108484 | 97 | 155 | 5 |
| Next Girl | Black Keys The | 14-Jan-2012 | 1 | ? | 109775 | 98 | 158 | 6 |
| Angela (Single Note) | Jarvis Cocker | 26-Feb-2012 | 4 | n/a | 101103 | 97 | 126 | 11 |
| Breed - Combo | Nirvana | 2-Feb-2012 | 5 | 28800 | 101066 | 96 | 122 | 29 |
| Satisfaction - Single Note | Rolling Stones The | 14-Jan-2012 | 1 | ? | 99647 | 97 | 155 | 45 |
| Surf Hell - Combo | Little Barrie | 19-Jan-2012 | 3 | ? | 96966 | 95 | 108 | 70 |
This list pretty well represents what I've been working on lately. Just going through Riff Repeater and leveling up everything that's not at Max and then going back and trying for Master Mode. This has been my strategy since I first got scared that I'd run out of songs if I just kept blasting through Events. And, it's working. All but the last two of this list I've unlocked in Master Mode. But, I still can't play them well from memory - so that's my next push.
Hey,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting your kids interested. My kids are a little younger - what do you think would be a good age to start? I was figuring roughly "the point that they can play Guitar Hero/Rock Band on more than Medium" would have the hand eye coordination/speed needed. What do you think?
Thanks
~Tim
Tim: I'm by no means an expert on kids, music education, or guitars, but I'd say kids could play Rocksmith as soon as they can physically handle a real guitar.
DeleteDon't buy them a toy like a First Act or anything like that - those sound so awful that they'd probably never want to play again! And, they probably won't stay in tune long enough to work in RS anyway. There are some nice scaled-down guitars made for kids. By the time your kids are old enough to manage one of those, I'd say they'd be mature enough (mentally/intellectually) to play Rocksmith. The pseudo-tablature notation in RS seems to be very intuitive for kids. Mine picked it up with no help from me whatsoever. And neither of my kids have ever had music lessons (other than a few weeks of recorder class my daughter took after school in 5th Grade).
My son is 11 and at least average size for his age - maybe slightly taller. He has a Squier Strat which he can just about manage, but it's really too much for him. I'm going to let him try my LP Junior which has a slightly shorter neck. My daughter is 13 and has a Washburn Lyon that I got super cheap. It's a full-sized guitar but it's got a fibreglas body and is very light and easy for her to manage. (I love it. Much easier to carry than a 12 lb. LP Special!) If your kids are younger than 11 and not freakishly tall/large, they'd probably need a scaled-down guitar to really enjoy playing.
I'll look into this and do a separate post on it! Please be sure to subscribe to my blog so you'll be alerted when I post a new entry.