Rocksmith 2014 Championship Week 53

[Nacholede]

And here's a little improvement :D

http://i.imgur.com/G6Oai1a.jpg

[Motive]

Can`t stop to play this song, very funny and finally improve my score at bass (late upload this video):

http://i.imgur.com/ErvZ3QU.jpg

[fripponomic]

nice song, but sadly there are any wrong notes in the bass arr. never mind, just play them :P

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141026/2mibpmmf.jpg

 

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141026/ug7vhcrd.jpg

 

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141026/z2bdc236.jpg

[Motive]

@  Yes it bad, i`m too hear it, and one phrase,  close to the end, have big diff with chart, even shift at half beat. But anyway it fun to play.

There video, mistake for bass i wrote in topic cdlc.

https://vimeo.com/110086550

[NoonyDeloony]

B: http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/40857044645714328/4A3219B9D77DC8C1CBBABD208F0AE978D8DB920A/

 

Only time for 2 songs tonight so played the 2 I'd heard of. Creeping Death is one of my favourite Metallica songs but I am so bad at playing thrash :) Better at moshing to this track than playing it. For me I'd guage it at a low advanced, a 6. ( "WHAT!??" I hear you cry) and the following is why:

 

As a beginner I tended to pick tunes with a hook, a nice arpeggio sequence that repeated itself, something with a bit of fret work rather than rapidly paced plec work, some bassists may have done the same so I'm speaking from a pretty small perspective, possibly a tiny minority, but that's just how I began (Pistol Switch). Playing with a plec I find incredibly difficult as opposed to plucking so it really throws me through a loop when I encounter it. So a 6 in my opinion, but I'm damn sure everyone huffing and neighing at me right now and shouting "2" or "1"! Which is understandable as the bass line itself is very simple, just the techniques are something that I haven't a natural skill for... I know it's down to practice for that but not all bassists have the same start point when learning and not all have been playing long enough to have mastered the certain techniques despite being in the higher ranks of learningdom :)

 

 

 

A: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=332436105

 

Pretty Fly: Again another excellent choice for advanced this week :) I love this song and it's great fun to play, I haven't played it before today so I was pleased with my first attempt. Score from my plucky perspective, 7 :). Sadly no more time left tonight but hopefully will be more organised tomorrow evening for practice (darn tootin' kids!)

[fripponomic]

  :D​played the multitrack version 

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141027/a4956jjg.jpg

[MilkmanDan]

@ -- I heard a few chart / sync errors in Como Me Pongo also, most in intro and outro.  Maybe us Magna Charters should unpack and try to fix that up?  For me the very first couple notes stood out the most, I think I could do an easy fix there.

 

@@NoonyDeloony -- Even as someone who is more of a "Jason Newsted" than a "Cliff Burton" (ie. I'm a pick guy -- not suggesting my skills are even close to being in the league of either!) I would rate the song's difficulty pretty high also.  It is pretty straightforward frethand position-wise, but even if the tempo was much lower it has enough technical stuff to avoid being *dead* easy (ie., even at half tempo it wouldn't be "Black Magic" from the default Rocksmith song list).  With the speed considered, it will require a fingerstyle player to be pretty fast with 2-3 fingers, or a pick player to be fully competent in alternate picking.  Neither of those is something that I'd peg at "beginner" level for sure.  I don't know that I'd personally put it up in advanced, but mid-range int sounds about right to me -- maybe a 5.

 

I'm still working at improving my fingers playing skill.  I started off only being able to work with my pointer, but I'm getting a bit better at using pointer/middle. Creeping Death would have been Burton originally, so he'd have played it with fingers (or same for Rob Trujillo today), but I'm not even close to being able to do that kind of speed with fingers.  I'd need LOTS of practice to get there -- I don't even have good calluses on that hand, so I get pain in those fingers after short rounds of practice even on really easy beginner-level songs!  :)

[Kaijin]

If I can give my opinion, although I'm still a newbie when it comes to play the bass... maybe it's because I like a lot to play all Metallica songs, but for my level, Creeping Death is pretty easy, I say this because I got 98% on the 1st run and since then I usually only miss 2 or 3 notes, so I always get 99.xx, usually 99.89%, which are 2 missed notes and the funny thing is that they are never the same 2 notes lol.

So, for my level, the bass arrangements are in the proper classes, since I got 99 on BG, 91 on IM, 98 on ADV and 94 on MC, but I only have been playing on a real bass for a few days, so my opinion might be completely wrong, if so, I apologize.

 

As for the guitar arrangements, it's a "strange" week in terms of scores/classes, since my best on MC lead so far is 92.52% and rhythm 98.97% (both scores aren't posted, since I got them last week on another CS). I only played the arrangements 10 times each, and I never use RR or restart songs, so I haven't played the song that many times to justify those scores, although this is common with Metallica songs.

I will struggle a lot to get better scores on the lead BG (65%) and IM (61%), despite the fact that I only played each song 1 time, I know that I won't get the scores much better than that, if I can get 5% on each, it's already very unusual. The type of arrangements are very difficult to me (I haven't played any rhythm yet, except MC), so I can't give a rating to the guitar arrangements, because I'm really bad playing chords.

 

I've seen you guys giving rating to the songs/arrangements, so I wanted to be sure how to properly rate the songs according to my level. I'll play the guitar arrangements a few more times, so I can give a proper rating.

As for the bass arrangements, I think we rate the arrangements from 1-very easy to 10-very hard, if I got it wrong, please correct me, so, BG-2, IM-5, ADV-6, MC-7.

 

Just my 2 cents :)

[Nacholede]

Now i tried MC with my emulated bass

http://i.imgur.com/De7C3h8.jpg

[Rodman]

Now i tried MC with my emulated bass

http://i.imgur.com/De7C3h8.jpg

 

Well, you are gonna buy a real bass real soon i suppose, thats what happens all the time here :), and - the mc class bass players might better get their winter clothes ready quickly :)

[MilkmanDan]

If I can give my opinion, although I'm still a newbie when it comes to play the bass... maybe it's because I like a lot to play all Metallica songs, but for my level, Creeping Death is pretty easy, I say this because I got 98% on the 1st run and since then I usually only miss 2 or 3 notes, so I always get 99.xx, usually 99.89%, which are 2 missed notes and the funny thing is that they are never the same 2 notes lol.

So, for my level, the bass arrangements are in the proper classes, since I got 99 on BG, 91 on IM, 98 on ADV and 94 on MC, but I only have been playing on a real bass for a few days, so my opinion might be completely wrong, if so, I apologize.

 

{snip}

 

I've seen you guys giving rating to the songs/arrangements, so I wanted to be sure how to properly rate the songs according to my level. I'll play the guitar arrangements a few more times, so I can give a proper rating.

As for the bass arrangements, I think we rate the arrangements from 1-very easy to 10-very hard, if I got it wrong, please correct me, so, BG-2, IM-5, ADV-6, MC-7.

 

Just my 2 cents :)

 

There is no "right" answer, all of our ratings are always going to be subjective.  But in general, I think of it like this:

 

Difficulty 1-3: Beginner

To me, something that belongs in this category is not just easy for me, but would be something easy enough to be playable to a high accuracy (90%+ for guitar parts, 95%+ for bass) for true beginner players that have been playing their instrument for a few months or less.  The sample song that I always give is "Black Magic" for bass from the default Rocksmith 2014 song list -- 4 notes in the entire song, regular pattern of transitions, all eighth notes, completely static frethand position.  I think it doesn't get much easier than that, so I think of that as being a "1".  "Blitzkrieg Bop" is another good example for lead/rhythm/bass; even though it uses chords in the guitar parts they are all power chords in a very straightforward transition pattern.

 

Difficulty 4-6: Intermediate

I think of songs in this category as being like beginner, but with some techniques, sheer speed, or other issues that would make it hard for a true beginner to be capable of playing the song to a high accuracy.  Even relatively easy techniques like slides and hammer-ons and pull-offs might knock a song into this range in my opinion.  Lots of movement in the frethand, or jumping to different strings outside of the usual root/fifth/octave kinds of patterns can push a song here also.  Or for guitar parts, any chords other than power chords -- especially if they require transitions between chords that need to be even slightly quick under pressure.

 

Difficulty 7-8: Advanced

Songs in this category may require relatively complete proficiency in all usual/normal playing techniques, along with fast and accurate frethand positioning, string skipping, etc.  I think these songs would often be challenging to a player who has been playing for less than 1-2 years, especially without a good amount of practice.  Someone who has been playing for many years and is quite skilled might be able to get a very high accuracy on these songs on their first try, but they should probably be technical or fast enough to keep even that kind of player on their toes even if they are getting high accuracy.

 

Difficulty 9-10: Master Class

Songs that use the more advanced techniques (tapping, sweep picking, lots of hard chords, precise harmonics, possibly slap/pop for bass, etc.) or an abundance of more regular techniques combined with speed, lots of shifting up/down the fretboard and over many strings, and/or very unusual beat patterns/skips etc. are what qualifies a song for the MC range to me.  From the default Rocksmith library maybe some of the Rush songs would fit for bass (or Hysteria by Muse), Joe Satriani for lead, and I dunno what for rhythm (I suck at chords).  Even for very skilled players, these are probably too hard/fast/technical to get extremely high accuracy (97% guitar or 99% bass) without at least a little practice -- no sight reading your way to 100% most likely.

 

 

 

So that's kind of the guidelines I use, but there is no reason that system is any better/worse than any other.  The only other thing to keep in mind is that now that the bass and rhythm difficulty has been separated from the lead difficulty, I think the basic goal is to have 1 each of Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced / Master Class songs per week in the primary arrangement, which is lead guitar.

 

Each of those songs must have a bass arrangement also, but they might not fit into the same class as their lead parts, and they might not really fit into the same range of 1 being Beg/Int/Adv/MC; for bass there might be 2 Beg, 1 Int, and 1 Adv, or 3 Int and 1 MC, or whatever.  So for bass, I think we usually classify them based on what the community here thinks of as their difficulty rank compared to the other 3 songs.  So the easiest of the 4 will be "Beginner" even if it really is a better fit for a higher difficulty, and the hardest will be "MC" even if it is really only an Int or Adv.

 

And hopefully most of the songs have a rhythm guitar arrangement, but that isn't strictly required...  So that works kind of like bass arrangements except there might be some difficulty levels that don't have a rhythm part at all.

 

Anyway, it is good to have your ratings for bass and guitar parts, because they are all subjective so it is best to get lots of opinions on them so they can be sorted/ranked well!

[Rodman]

-= WEEKLY LEADERBOARD UPDATE =-

 

 

Heavy competition was going on, gr8 job everyone!!!!

 

Leader changes:

@MaZtoR               INT LEAD

@HohyCZ               INT RHY

 

Insane steak continues from @theunbeatablefromargentina at MC LEAD with another win, still 71/100 pts and now a 51point lead to tied  2nd place (!)

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

 

http://i62.tinypic.com/2dugwn.png

 

of course already online

Have a great week everyone!

[Kaijin]

Thanks for the explanation @@MilkmanDan, I have to play the guitar arrangements more times, although since I started 2 years ago, chords were/are my biggest handicap, so I'll keep that in mind when rating the arrangements.

[Motive]

So anyone will to try fixed bass chart Ska-p?

[Mortalo]

Check this out to see how we scored in the past. Everything is about the feel of the song. Sometimes you can get poor score on song on 1st play, but you can see that with time invested you're able to get better. See last week's Skyclad song. I started at 82%, but I felt that I can do way better. I ended up close to 96%, so it was clearly Intermediate song.

 

So simply:

Beginner - easy song, not complicated, maybe basic solo, that's the first songs you learn how to play properly.

Intermediate - class in which you spend the most time, techniques can vary, but it can't be many of them, solo is not really complex.

Advanced - here it's getting serious, simply - songs when it's a little bit too difficult, when you think that it's too much, solo that you know you can't handle, or it's simply to weird.

MasterClass - insanity, fast, or simply WTF!? effect, it's just pure madness, this class is easiest to define.

 

I rank the songs based on my feel. I belong to Int class, so everything that I see easy, goes to Beginner. If I know that with enough time I can reach good scores, it's Intermediate, and if it's a little bit too much for me - it's Advanced. MC, as I said, is no problem to spot.

Best way is to play some of the songs from the past, get the feel of them, and you'll get better sense of difficulty ratings. At the beginning I felt that it will be difficult for us, but it ended pretty well. We differ sometimes, but in most cases we think same/similiar, so that's encouraging.

[fripponomic]

So anyone will to try fixed bass chart Ska-p?

I'm already working on it :)

but there are more wrong notes... this will be a comletely new version

[Motive]

@ Awesome! Hope today can willl try? :) very want play it yet, but with right chart.

[Rodman]

I'm already working on it :)

but there are more wrong notes... this will be a comletely new version

That´s the spirit man! This is just great. Thank you!

 

If anyone asks for an approved songs list:

Only quality tabs in the championship approved "Songs from the past" list!

[Kaijin]

Some awful rhythm 1st runs and some bass SA scores...

 

Rhythm BG:

http://s6.postimg.org/o5b924i4x/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Rhythm_BG_1_64.jpg
 

Bass BG:

http://s6.postimg.org/bryev7sgh/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Bass_BG_2_99.jpg
 

Rhythm IM:

http://s6.postimg.org/bt8comua9/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Rhythm_IM_1_68.jpg
 

Bass IM:

http://s6.postimg.org/mhc3nh49d/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Bass_IM_2_95.jpg
 

Rhythm ADV:

http://s6.postimg.org/im8pkwl3l/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Rhythm_AD_1_54.jpg
 

Bass ADV:

http://s6.postimg.org/68vvdzvf5/RS2014_CF_Championship_Week_53_Bass_AD_2_98.jpg

 

 

So, after playing the rhythm arrangements, no surprises, they are very low :lol:

 

Despite that, the Ska-P lead and rhythm I think it's easy (not for me), but I would rate it with a 2.

Although I found more easy to play the Offspring song, the chord changes are faster and much more than on Ska-P, so I would give it a 5 for lead and rhythm.

The Fishbone, well, I've never been so "lost" while playing a song, sometimes I didn't even knew what strings to fret :lol:.. but considering my extremely low dexterity playing chords, 54% was already a good score for me, I would rate it with a 8.

Creeping Death, it's hard for me to rate this song, this is the 2nd week I'm playing it, although different versions, but the charts are similar and I have no problems in getting good scores on the song.

That being said, the lead I would give it a 10, the solo is amazing, very difficult to play. The rhythm I find it very easy, but given the speed of the song and the concentration required to maintain the same rhythm, I would give it a 8.

 

Thank you too @@Mortalo, I think now I understand how to rate the songs, I just wanted to be sure I wasn't giving foolish ratings.

I agree with you about 1st and last scores, there's some songs where the improvement can be quite substantial.

I didn't mention before, but during the time I was "away", I played (and still do) in a very small CS every week, so I understand perfectly what you mean. I usually record all the 1st runs I do on a new song... well, actually I record almost every time I play, so it's funny to see the video of the 1st run compared to the video after 6 days of practice, I've had a few laughs at my own expense several times :lol:

About 1 month ago I started to play in more CS's, so currently I'm playing in 4... here, the smaller CS I just mentioned above, a bass only CS and a CS called MMCS, master mode championship.

I think I eventually will start to play better, since I never turn away from difficult songs (I mean difficult for my level/skills), on the contrary, I'll probably play this week's songs many times, since they all have the techniques I have more difficulties with.

 

Looking forward to play the fixed version of the bass arrangement of Ska-P, thanks for the trouble @ :)

[Nacholede]

 

Now i tried MC with my emulated bass

http://i.imgur.com/De7C3h8.jpg

 

Well, you are gonna buy a real bass real soon i suppose, thats what happens all the time here :), and - the mc class bass players might better get their winter clothes ready quickly :)

 

http://www.memegenerator.es/imagenes/memes/full/13/41/13412935.jpg

[MilkmanDan]

 

{snip}

http://www.memegenerator.es/imagenes/memes/full/13/41/13412935.jpg

 

I'll see your Stark and raise you a classic Boromir:

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/143/1150341449762.jpg

[lordlk]

Nice songs! Just the other day I've downloaded a few Offspring songs. Let's see how I do, because Pretty fly was one of those songs that I learn back in the day... :)

[Joey]

Probably shouldn't count it as I have been practicing it a while already so its kinda easy for me. 

 

http://i.imgur.com/iXk6dBL.jpg

[MaZtoR]

How do you guys fret this chord?

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k228/maztor42/Rocksmith%20championship%202014/DAChord_zpsacc774f8.jpg

 

I can do it like Rocksmiths wants on my acoustic, but the 7 fret on my electric is just to small to fit 3 of my fingers in a row. (I play the open A with 2,1,3 finger instead of the old standard 1,2,3.)

[Joey]

Just keep your index finger flattened on the 5th fret and flatten your ring finger on the 7th fret. That is how I do it and it works each time. Coincidentally you can also just do it like a B major chord chord position as well without hitting the A string.