punchyrumble

I'm not offended I know that's a weakness for me. I think the takeaway from this thread and this week is that this "championship" is much more about competition now than having fun. And that the beginner songs are also beyond my personal skill level/dedication. So I'm dropping out and maybe will rejoin sometime later.

I had a good first video + vocals for Beautiful People this week too almost finished up (love that song), though was still practicing for a better score. Ah well.

I don't mean any offense to the chord-challenged concerning Night Fever. Every guitarist has their strengths and weaknesses. Chords were my biggest weakness for my first year of Rocksmith - it takes a long time to build up the strength necessary to bar well on the fly. But in terms of guitar concepts and difficulty to execute, Night Fever is just not very complex.

 

There's a huge library of chords out there to learn, but the chords every guitarist starts with are major and minor barres. That's all you need in this song! The only exceptions to this rule are the chords that remove one finger from a major or minor barre, which, once you wrap your head around it, is even easier - or at least, takes less energy to do.

 

If Night Fever is difficult for you at the moment, I would suggest practicing it a lot, because if chords are a weakness of yours, this song is fantastic for working on them. As mentioned, the slow BPM and long rests give you a lot of time to switch your hand position. There's only three riffs, and they repeat with no variation. It's very learning friendly.

 

@@punchyrumble : I'm really surprised to hear you find it intermediate. Didn't you get a higher score in fewer attempts on Night Fever than The Beautiful People?

Right, so is a "beginner" in the championship someone who's taken guitar lessons, maybe played played some simple songs a few years on their own just now started picking up Rocksmith? Or is a "beginner" someone who's never played guitar at all before Rocksmith and couldn't even pass through the basic lessons in the game?

I guess the difficulty is too high for me in this competition then, that's fine with me.

 

Herein lies the big problem with Rocksmith. It lets the user decide what path they want to take, which is great for the guitarists who know the basics already but for a true beginner it needs to make them follow the correct path. For true beginners to guitar learning to play songs normally comes after you learn the basics of guitar (IE. How to tune your guitar and your basic Major/minor chords). Rocksmith is awesome as it lets players just jam to any song hitting the notes that come on screen but that is not the best way to learn. You have to have a basic concept of chords and should be able to fret barre chords correctly. Barre chords are the hardest chords to learn as they can be complicated and painful but are something that you must learn. The difficulty levels that are in this competition are assuming that the player has at least a grasp on the basics of guitar. There are no shortcuts as i said before it just requires practice. 

 

 

Well, I would personally consider Night Fever "as-is" too difficult as a beginner song, and if it were picked I wouldn't be able to play it to a point I was satisfied with. I could play the version with DD lowered to down 66% and the game even recognizes this fine at 100% but playing like that feels kind of cheap. I'm do better with songs with single note melodies that I can riff repeat on verses something that I'd need the strength to barre on. That's why I personally bumped up the difficulty.

Since I'm the only person that's actually placed in beginner and played 5 of the past 6 weeks I put a suggestion in on the song selection spreadsheet. Sorry for the disappointment this week. Everyone else is free to try out songs on @@Mortalo link to the Song Selection List, especially for the ones where I have mine (or ones that didn't have any at all like this one) as maybe they're ranked wrong? I've been doing this ever since the week when we had Californication which was much *harder* than initially ranked and a substitute song was added. 

I kind of felt if I could play something 80-100% then it's a beginner song, 60-80%+ = intermediate, anything less I'm not going to even try to guess. I think I was playing this one in the 70%'s, but looking back now and playing it again I'm doing better than when I first tried it out so I can agree it was probably placed too high, or else I'm just better than I was a few weeks ago. 

I've only been playing guitar entirely on Rocksmith for just shy of a year. I do practice on the Guitarcade, but only have about 100 hours in game total between PC and PC3. So even most of the beginner songs picked for the competition are well beyond the range of a "true" beginner recently starting out to play. I'm amazed at how good I am from even a few months ago though and happy with my progress. I'm an "old man" though and only play for fun. ;)

Back when there was 3 classes of songs, no doubt this was a beginner. But with the addition of the Advanced class between Intermediate and MC that feels like a tougher call of how things are divided. Is a 3 song an Intermediate? Should it be a 4? Anyway. there's always next week!

 

I agree with Gamut here on this, Night Fever is not difficult at all and to be put in category of 4 seems a bit too high. These chords are supposed to be one of the first thing a guitarists learns. Yes they are difficult at first but they are not impossible. As Gamut said there is a lot of time between most chords on this song so it gives ample time to position your hands before you strum the chord. I am sorry for those who can't do the chords correctly but to place this as an intermediate difficulty is something i wouldn't agree with. This song should force people to wake up and realize that they need to practice chords if they can't play this song well. You can't be a great guitarist if you don't know how to play chords. Wether they are barre chords or standard chords, if you play in intermediate normally and can't play this song you need to focus on learning chords and stop everything else. Chords are a fundamental part of guitar and must be learned in order to become a better guitarist. Playing only powerchords and single note songs does not make one a guitarist. 

 

There are 2 mini games that are a hell of a lot of fun that will help you with chords and I suggest all beginners take time to play them so that can learn them. They may seem scary at first but with practice they will become second nature, you guys just have to take the time to learn them. All of the best lead guitarists are all able to play chords because its one of the first things you are supposed to learn. 

 

My opinion of the difficulty of Night Fever is it should either be a 2 or 3 max. Its a slow song which very few chords and they all repeat over and over. The 7th is just removing one finger off a fret from a Major/Minor chord which is very very simple. I position my fingers first in the Major/Minor position and then as the time comes to play it I just remove the required finger that needs to be removed. There is no extremely fast switching in this song like in many many others if there was then maybe I would give it a 4. 

 

I think the Marilyn Manson Song and Bee Gees songs both have something a little tough going for them. The Marilyn Manson is a pretty fast rhythm and strum pattern. To play Night Fever as charted for beginners is harder to hit those chords. I can't yet barre that 2nd string to play the F#m7 correctly, but the game recognizes it fine as 2422xx. The song has a few pretty other pretty cool chords a beginner wouldn't be used to seeing. They could possibly be switched in difficulty, or could possibly both be beginner. After my first few plays, I'm scoring higher at Night Fever than Beautiful People but I feel like I'm sounding better and making better progress at Beautiful People. :) Happy about the picks this week though, will check out Metallica too!

http://i.imgur.com/GXmmRxGl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KCJjOs4l.jpg

Tougher songs this week than last!

First try

http://i.imgur.com/qWOVeEul.jpg

Like 20th try (improved in accuracy but would randomly miss)

http://i.imgur.com/tF4C7cel.jpg

Not much time again this week, Sky is Mine easy/fun to play along with as Rhythm.

http://i.imgur.com/gm0IyWul.jpg

Kept losing the pattern on the INXS song even though I've played it a ton.

http://i.imgur.com/yOosqWvl.jpg

Thanks @@Mortalo, 

The INXS song is a solid beginner song, one that's both pretty well known and fun to play. (And my pick so thanks!) I agree it's nice to have a little easier one now and then and hope a few more people show up this week and play in the the beginner class! Most of my scores so far on this have been in the mid 80s, but I think I can step it up. Amorphis is awesome, will be a fun rhythm! I love to play Amorphis even if it's beyond my skill level, something to aspire to and practice on!

INXS song - I knew the riff, didn't know the song. I think it will be refreshing for Beginners to play something not difficult.

 

Ska-P. Well, I neither like ska nor reagge, so it's not fun for me.

 

Beginner Rhythm - 99.58%, 272 streak

I waited some time for RNG to select this song, though I think it's not as fun as previous Amorphis song we played. Again it's only lead being challange.

 

@@Rodman My Hybrid Slinky likes D standard :P

Good songs this week, I though Como Me Pongo was a little more difficult that previous beginner songs, but got better after a few playthroughs. It seems easy because it's only a few chords, but it's fast and they switch a lot. Trying to play it as charted seemed even harder for me so I'd go back and forth between high and low E string chords. Interesting though. Couldn't get a great score at it.

http://i.imgur.com/PmUCKvvl.jpg

I liked Pretty Fly, but that's a solid intermediate song and I kept getting downranked on sections. Will keep practicing at that song though.

I think it was mentioned already, but this week was really tough for beginners, especially if anyone was going to be new to joining the championship. I don't actually see anyone on the leaderboard yet that isn't in another class (and doesn't many that have posted higher scores in other classes).

I don't think beginner songs should have tunings that aren't either in E Standard or Drop D. Anything else is probably going to require different strings for RS to recognize well and also be a turnoff. One of my guitars at home has strings that I play in D Standard, but my dad's guitar has super light strings, and I tuned it down to try to play this song (once) and immediately tuned it back up again. ;) I think 10-15% of the song % loss was misses for recognition, the rest was because the song was pretty fast in general and probably I'd rank around a 3.

http://i.imgur.com/wsyLOqkl.jpg

I tried Skyclad around 10 times in RR and normal and love the song but couldn't get through it without getting down ranked on the arpeggios. I kept getting better and better though, and removed the DD and ended up with a not super bad score.

http://i.imgur.com/5LwhLJjl.jpg

Though first try on Zebra was almost the best of them all this week. :)

http://i.imgur.com/1vivAwml.jpg

Anyway, I'd rank Drink a 3 but wouldn't have chosen it for beginners because of the tuning. I'd put One Piece Puzzle at 7 in Advanced and possibly Zebra just slightly easier than One Piece in Intermediate at 6. Fun week though.

On vacation travelling this week, so no time to play since Sunday and away all weekend, so will post what I had from then before I'm out again. Good songs though, really liked playing them.

http://i.imgur.com/EHXYtyXl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/54bNKmQl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/92GIdOTl.jpg

Almost forgot to post! Didn't do great this week, but loved the songs. 

http://i.imgur.com/BKaXK09l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/u7qZUlil.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nPgIMQgl.jpg

Will not let me break 90%! Still happy about the score attack, good week.

http://i.imgur.com/iv9JLFTl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/f7lhx9tl.jpg

I won't take Californication out (due to bass and cause it's late). Instead we will go with additional Beginner Lead from The Who - My Generation. That's quite difficult solo for beginner but should be ok. Better score (from RHCP and TW) will count at the end of the week. And cause we don't have beg rhythm we can go with The Who's song as well. I think that it's too late to replace Californication.

 

I'm sorry for what happened, as that was me who put Californication difficulty score.

 

PS. It seems like RHCP is Int level, so we can make it beg/int, with two winners from beg and int pool. Also rule of better score between RCHP and L7 would apply. So it would be The Who - Beg, RPHC - Beg/Int, L7 - Int. I hope it's not complicated.

Thanks! I finally got back and realized I never even played "My Generation". I think it's a good alternative, and surprised I never played it so thanks.

I'd rate My Generation Lead a solid 3 with a tough solo part but still able to get a more respectable score than RHCP for a beginner.

"My Generation" Rhythm actually feels harder than the lead, closer to a 4. It includes the solo and the chords are tougher than the lead's to hit later in the song, like the Bb's. Will work on it and post up a score later.

Heh, I felt that Beg song is quite slow and not overly complicated, that you need to use RR to get good scores but it's simple. It's hard for me to tell as I can't stand that song, so maybe I'm not the one to judge here.

It does have a slower BPM, but half of the chords I wouldn't consider beginner level chords, the finger position switch isn't coming that easy. Slowing down the arpeggios and song to 50% I can almost get them, but not at full speed, and not in a week. And once the ending hits it completely downgrades me. I think it's a matter of using significant RR just to even pass the song without failure with the DD on. ;)

Here's my attempt after removing DD, playing RR on parts of this for an hour and playing through Youtube tutorials of this song for about an hour, just to keep the weekly streak up if this song remains. If I crack 50% (this week) that would be an achievement. 

http://i.imgur.com/coLUj11l.jpg

Very nice! I'm going to see them in Orlando in a few weeks. Really looking forward to that.

I don't think Californication is a good pick as a beginner song (lead). I'd put it on around at *least* a 4 maybe 4.5 on the current rating system. It's got around 10 open chords, a few tricky arpeggios, a non trivial solo, an intermediate strum pattern for the chorus, and open chords later in the song. It's got a lot of skills that I'd consider above beginner, especially compared to previous weeks. I watched an hour of video on how to play it, before trying and I can maybe get 40%. The version on CF is even missing a few transitions in the main riff that would it closer to Advanced. I love the song and will play it someday but feels a little above my skill at the moment and even if I remove DD it's not going to be pretty. ;)

Loved the Whitesnake song for both Rhythm and Lead, and my best attempt was actually my first. Couldn't really get into the Misfits songs and it was a little fast for me.

http://i.imgur.com/Ardl4TYl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rhPaiyKl.jpg

Liked the song this week, never heard of this band.

http://i.imgur.com/0Aj3rxel.jpg

Thanks! Awesome update to on Tribute too!

http://i.imgur.com/DuyvHr2l.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/E0V3w8jl.jpg

Dang forgot to submit my score for last week! Wouldn't have changed the leader board but like to keep the streak going and played the songs a few times. Looking forward to this week.

I think storm20200 is talking about the link under the bass path.

And yeah bummer about Tribute. Solo is missing about half the notes, but I can't play it either so I also never noticed. ;)

Rhythm guitar part on the Blink 182 is the most beginner part of this week, should be some 100's in there. I had the most fun playing that one so far and highest score out of all parts. I almost even scored higher on first play through of the Blink 182 lead than the White Zombie lead (66% vs 71%). Will play them a few more times this week.

Felt like it missed a lot of chords because of the low tuning, still was fun and had never heard this one before.

http://i.imgur.com/EEfsVcel.jpg

Fun song this week, I think if I had time tomorrow I could get a few more % out of it but too busy this weekend.

http://i.imgur.com/ednIz5Sl.jpg

Missed a few weeks, liked this song though. Really wasn't into the Johnny Cash tune.

http://i.imgur.com/by287Cb.jpg?1