My Wife Blames Rock Band

A few friends of mine got me into gaming on the XBox 360. I used to game when I was younger and my son has been into games with several different systems over the past years. But the 360 is a little different with XBox Live.

XBox Live allows you to play along with friends over the Internet. You're able to play with or against them and talk to them with microphones while you play. It's actually a lot of fun. A few friends I used to do trackdays with, get together once a week and we race cars at various racetracks around the world with a game called Forza 2. The realism in the game is incredible. The bumps, ripples, camber of the tracks are all there. I've turned a lot of laps at Road America, and racing it with Forza 2 is close to being there.

So when a new game called Rock Band was released I was interested. I had played a little of Guitar Hero with my son. Guitar Hero is a game where you play a virtual guitar with buttons instead of strings. You still have to strum the guitar, and while it can be difficult, because it uses buttons instead of strings, it's obviously very different than playing a real guitar.

Rock Band was actually created by the same people who created Guitar Hero but this game included a guitar, a microphone, and drums. I bought it for my son and I for Christmas, I was tempted to open it early but I waited. We played together a lot. Part of the reason I got the game was so we could play more together and it was fun.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band are a lot of fun. With little effort or practice you're able to get on the stage and seem to create the music of your favorite bands. On the easiest level you play only a few of the notes, so when you hit one note, the system might play 4. So it's easy but still seems like you're creating this incredible sounding music you've listened to on the radio. It's a lot of fun. There are of course, more difficult levels, medium, hard and expert. On the expert level you play almost all of the notes in the music, so it's a lot closer to the real thing.

I concentrated on the drums while my son rocked the guitar. The drums in Rock Band consist of 4 different pads and a foot pedal for the bass drum. While it was challenging, I had a lot of fun. I started out on Medium and worked my way through the songs. The game is very good in that it has you progress through a virtual tour at cities around the world, but the songs progress in difficulty from easy to hard. So while the first songs might be easy, you'll find your limits of playing along the way. Maybe you'll struggle with syncopated bass drum beats, or drum rolls, or other aspects. But through practice of the song you'll eventually do well enough to continue to the next gig and new songs.

Youtube video showing Rock Band drums

Playing drums can be a lot harder than it seems. If it were simply keeping a beat, it wouldn't be too difficult. 1, 2, 3, 4. But playing drums reminds me of martial arts where you need to learn dexterity, independent movements and controls of your limbs. Playing drums is like rubbing your tummy, patting your head and tying your shoes all at the same time. Well, maybe not tying your shoes but you get my meaning.

As I made my way through the game I finished it on Medium level. That was an accomplishment for the drums. I got together with a few friends one night to play Rock Band together. It was a blast. Of course I played drums most of the time and I did good. It was a lot of fun to play together, even if it was a game and we weren't actually playing music. I was designated the official drummer.

I moved on to Hard which was more difficult. I worked nightly on songs until I could complete them. Some songs I could get through without even practicing, some were much more difficult where I would have to practice various parts in order to complete them. In Rock Band to complete a song you need to do it with a certain degree of accuracy. As I worked nightly and continued to have fun I told myself if I kept this up, continued to have fun and completed the game on Hard or Expert I would consider getting a real set of drums.
I made it through the game on Hard and while it took a lot of work and practice I had a lot of fun. I began looking for a real drum set and managed an incredible score!