Hey guys, I was wondering what you guys do for practice and learning songs outside of rocksmith. I can read tab and such but obviously not all tabs are great and I find it very hard to play along with a song that I know would be incredibly easy in the game.

 

For example, right now im trying to play My Hero by the Foo Fighters. Its mostly power cords and such, but for some reason I just can't get my timing down. Is there anything you guys recommend? Or do I just need to keep on attempting to play along with the song?

The best way to practice will always be to just sit down with your guitar and amp and play stuff that you want to improve on.  Work in small sections at a time.  So if you know the chords and chord progressions, just sit down and repeat them over and over again until you're playing at a level that satisfies you.  Then move on to the next part, and so on.

 

As an example of my own, I have a good tab for The Black Key's "Gotta Get Away", which isn't available as a custom (yet, here's hoping).  The song is fairly simple with two basic parts (intro/chorus, and the verse) which are repeated, and a solo.  I play the song on my stereo to get the groove in my head, and then played the intro/chorus over and over again until I nailed it.  Then I moved on to the verse part until I had that.  Now I'm working through the solo.  When I have all three parts down, I'll do a full playthrough.

 

I think the most important part of practicing is knowing when to move on, and when to give up for the session.  I was told once never to practice what you're good at, but to practice what you're bad at.  So once I have a part that I can play well, I stop and move on to a part I need to work on.  If I struggle and get stuck or frustrated, I take a 5-10 minute break and come back to it.  I find if I just try and hammer through it I actually get worse instead of better.  Playing music should be fun, so if I'm not having fun I take a break.

 

Guitar Pro is a good tool for learning outside of RS, if you have well done GP tabs.  You can play along with just the tab and the midi music and watch the tab scroll as you go.  I also have Roland's Cube Jam app on my iPhone/iPad which allows you to import songs and play along with them, all through your amp.  You can section off a song and have that section play on repeat so you can concentrate on riffs, verses, choruses, etc.  You can also slow it down just like Riff Repeater in RS.

Moving to Learning Guitar & Bass :)

Moving to Learning Guitar & Bass  :)

Yeah, sorry about that, didn't know where to put it. But thanks for the move.

I sometimes try to play along with songs on http://www.songsterr.com/ Its not as easy as reading rocksmith but with a bit of training it is doable.

Maybe you could take a song you already play well in Rocksmith and try playing it outside of the game. Find the tab for your song (or tab it out by hand from watching it in Rocksmith), cue up the song on your music player and give it a go. Or if you want to get fancy there are several programs available that allow you to remove a certain part from an mp3 track (Riffstation and Anytune come to mind) so your guitar/bass part is the only one you'll hear. 

 

There's also tons of lessons on YouTube for learning specific songs (Marty Schwartz and Justin Sandercoe) and more general technique/genre lessons as well.

 

 

sleepy

I've been working on comping/Freddie Green style playing, so I haven't played Rocksmith in a few weeks now. Instead, I've been using the iRealPro app -- it's pretty excellent. Gives you a drummer, bass player and piano play (I think there are other instrument options, haven't bothered to change the default) and SHOWS the chord progression while giving you the backing. There are tons of songs available for download -- and that part's free too. I'm working on swing songs, but it looks like there's a pretty healthy list of rock and country and other styles too.

 

Definitely a great tool if you're looking at practicing your lead playing, and of course for rhythm it's excellent.

Thanks guys, I've taken a bit of all of your advice. I calmed down stopped pressuring myself and just all together relaxed. Anyway what I did was I used Audacity, slowed the tempo similar to what riff repeater does and I played along with some tabs. After 2 plays I nailed the song. Im not sure what my problem was, but I really thank you guys for the help/ support. All I can say to anyone else in the situation is to calm down and not frustrate yourself like I was doing, because playing along with a song from memory is one of the most satisfying things I have done in my entire life.

Hey guys, I was wondering what you guys do for practice and learning songs outside of rocksmith. I can read tab and such but obviously not all tabs are great and I find it very hard to play along with a song that I know would be incredibly easy in the game.

 

For example, right now im trying to play My Hero by the Foo Fighters. Its mostly power cords and such, but for some reason I just can't get my timing down. Is there anything you guys recommend? Or do I just need to keep on attempting to play along with the song?

 

Keep in mind that some customs can have timing issues -- if the charter didn't do the beat sync properly, YOU may be on the beat, but Rocksmith won't know this. If you're worried about your sense of timing, you'd be better off sticking with or testing yourself on official songs (I don't know if the song you're working on its official or a CDLC), because the official stuff is really well made. But it's always helpful to play with a metronome or a drum beat away from the game.

Thanks guys, I've taken a bit of all of your advice. I calmed down stopped pressuring myself and just all together relaxed. Anyway what I did was I used Audacity, slowed the tempo similar to what riff repeater does and I played along with some tabs. After 2 plays I nailed the song. Im not sure what my problem was, but I really thank you guys for the help/ support. All I can say to anyone else in the situation is to calm down and not frustrate yourself like I was doing, because playing along with a song from memory is one of the most satisfying things I have done in my entire life.

 

Glad you're making progress!  Doesn't it feel good??  Makes you just want to play more and more...

I never played any stringed instruments in my life until about 4 months ago. I started out with Rocksmith when I first started playing the bass, but that wasn't helping me learn the notes on the fret board. I wish Rocksmith had that option, so I can see the notes instead of numbers.I recently I found Chordify.net  where you can enter a You tube music video URL and it will play the song and also show the chords so you can play along. After a week playing all my favorite music there, I learned all the notes on the fret board.I have mostly been  just playing the root notes to those chords on the bass, but I'm also learning what notes to play between the chords.So, I haven't played Rocksmith for while a while now.  Using Chordify.net,  there is a way bigger selection of music to play to, and I haven't had created any cdlc for Rocksmith in a long time.I'm not sure if this is the best way to learn, but I'm having for fun doing it this way, I like knowing where all the notes are on the fret board.

I never played any stringed instruments in my life until about 4 months ago. I started out with Rocksmith when I first started playing the bass, but that wasn't helping me learn the notes on the fret board. I wish Rocksmith had that option, so I can see the notes instead of numbers.

You can change the fretboard inside of RS. There is one with the notes added. Just take RS Toolkit and change to "Inlay Creator". There you should find a template with the notes. There is a thread for Custom Inlays.

 

I never played any stringed instruments in my life until about 4 months ago. I started out with Rocksmith when I first started playing the bass, but that wasn't helping me learn the notes on the fret board. I wish Rocksmith had that option, so I can see the notes instead of numbers.

You can change the fretboard inside of RS. There is one with the notes added. Just take RS Toolkit and change to "Inlay Creator". There you should find a template with the notes. There is a thread for Custom Inlays.

 

ThanksJust a quick question before i search all over on how to do this, Where do you put the file RS toolkit created?Will this show notes coming down the highway instead of numbers?

Depends on the platform. I only know for PC, the RS toolkit suggests this directory automatically, it's "<drive>:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonRocksmith2014dlcInlays". For other platforms i don't know where to put the files.

 

On the "Inlay Creator" page is a link to the authors page. There you may donate the software if you think it's worth a few money.

Depends on the platform. I only know for PC, the RS toolkit suggests this directory automatically, it's "<drive>:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonRocksmith2014dlcInlays". For other platforms i don't know where to put the files.On the "Inlay Creator" page is a link to the authors page. There you may donate the software if you think it's worth a few money.

Thanks, a.peterI figured it out, it will work if you just place the file it in the DLC folder.I already know where all the notes are on the fret board and I was hoping there was a way to change the notes coming down the note highway from numbers to notes, but it looks like that is not possible, maybe in a future version.