*rocknroll *videogames

Adding video to channels (Rocknroll, Videogames) - requested by rasch187.

Ha, brilliant.

I have never... ever played guitar hero, rock band or any of the games, I've never a) had the wish to spend that much money on a game, and b) What you do for the guitars is so far removed from real playing, I saw it as kinda silly.

BUT.

Both the singing and the drums intrigue me a lot because, well, look at this, the drumming is the same (more or less). It's a really FUN way of learning the drums. Spend a while on rock band with the drums before starting any drumming lessons would get you over that initial 'man, I suck, I can't be bothered doing any more' part of learning an instrument, and straight into the 'man, look how good I am now'.

If only they could make the guitars the same... if only.

The drummer looks like he wasn't thrilled with the result. He probably expected the guy to completely suck, but he was actually pretty good. Now he's like "fuck... now every kid can do what I do."

I'm pretty sure he already knew how to play drums, I'd seen him do it on another episode where there was a drum duel with some other drummer. That's really vague but I haven't watched AotS in forever.

Close, but at one point in the song, the drums sound right but he is not even hitting the freakin' hi-hats to the sound that the freakin hi-hats make! I call his bluff. Around the 3:34 mark.

Plus, there are double pedals in that song and Rock Band in no way shape or form prepares you to double it up.

Let alone open and close the hi-hats. So that's that, either he has drummed before elsewhere or this is edited.

previous drum experience or bust

my friend was just telling me how after 8 months his buddy bought his kids real drums to replace RockBand because the kids made enormous progress with RockBand... (from zero experience)

Validity of this video aside, I would expect drumming in rock band or guitar hero to transfer somewhat to real drums. You're rhythmically striking targets with sticks in both cases. It's not like the game guitar which has almost zero relation to a real guitar.

I play the drums, and first time on Rock Band I was able to jump right into Hard on songs I had heard before.

(... its was almost harder on Medium or Easy, and I sucked bad at reading along with songs I didn't know... last time I tried I was a little better)

There are tons of nuances left out (hi-hat, different cymbal and snare strikes, double bass pedal, etc.) but I definitely think Rock Band/Guitarhero World Tour are fun ways to get your feet wet on the drums (without the intense volume).

So, i was going to go on a rant about how this video is flawed, but i will break it down into bit sized chunks.

Coheed and Cambria suck.

Their music is simple.

The kit they play might as well be a rock band kit for the size of it, all four pieces wow.

The guy has played drums before.

This is a lousy excuse for an interview.

and

Lets see him pull off something by a drummer like Neil Pert, Mike Portnoy, or Tomas Haake. Put this guy behind a drumkit, say, even a six piece, or an eight like I play, or a 12, and see him fall apart like a little baby.

You can learn to play drums from practicing on Rock Band, to an extent. What you CAN learn is how to coordinate your two hands and one of your feet, which allows you to play simple backbeats. What you won't learn is hi-hat pedal usage, the difference between a ride cymbal and a crash cymbal (not to mention when to use them), and how to control your volume and tone with the drums.

So yes, you CAN learn to play a little bit of drums from Rock Band, but it doesn't translate over to anything close to a performance level.

DrumMania drums, on the other hand...

That said, this is obviously staged/edited/he's played drums before.

It won't teach you technique, touch or tone, but it's a nice primer to reading notation, staying in tempo and basic limb independence. I'd love to see Rock Band/Guitar Hero give you the option to use music notation instead of the scrolling guitar neck thing. What a great way to teach/learn sight reading and basic music notation.

If you really want to play drums, you should research technique (and maybe get a lesson or two from someone who knows what they're doing), to make sure your hands aren't too tense and moving in ways that could lead to Carpel Tunnel, Tendonitis and other RSD's.

Yes, rock band drums will teach you real world drumming. It's really unlikely that you would get worse at drumming from playing a drum simulator.

But if you are really good at flight simulators i still don't want you flying me to London on a 737.

Kevin Pereira's played drums for years. Was just a fun video they did.

The most important part about playing drums in a band is being able to hold a steady tempo. Oddly enough, that is something you practice a lot with games like this. It doesn't matter how awesome your technique is... if you can't hold a steady beat, no one will want you.

Obviously the game won't teach you how to be amazing, but it will help with stability. The guitar in the game won't teach you how to play a real one, but the drums do seem to transfer somewhat to real playing (at a certain level at least).

>> ^MINK:
Yes, rock band drums will teach you real world drumming. It's really unlikely that you would get worse at drumming from playing a drum simulator.
But if you are really good at flight simulators i still don't want you flying me to London on a 737.

Have you tried Microsoft's new Hudson River landing simulator? It's awesome...

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
I'd love to see Rock Band/Guitar Hero give you the option to use music notation instead of the scrolling guitar neck thing.

Absolutely...that would be an awesome feature. My wife is a band director, and her specialty is percussion. Yeah, shes a drummer! And she can go from reading notation to playing Rock Band without missing a beat (pun intended).

On the other hand, a friend of mine who is also a band director and whose specialty is percussion, can barely play songs on medium level. Its an odd thing. He just cant relate the colors on screen to the colored drums. But put him on a real set and he's rockin.

Does it translate to the real drums?
Yes.

Does it make you a drummer?
No.

Does it help?
A lot.

RB drums (or the future evolution thereof) could be the best way to train and introduce people to the drums.

It's a SIMPLE electronic drum kit connected to a game. So tell me electronic drum kits aren't like the drums?

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
It won't teach you technique, touch or tone, but it's a nice primer to reading notation, staying in tempo and basic limb independence. I'd love to see Rock Band/Guitar Hero give you the option to use music notation instead of the scrolling guitar neck thing. What a great way to teach/learn sight reading and basic music notation.
If you really want to play drums, you should research technique (and maybe get a lesson or two from someone who knows what they're doing), to make sure your hands aren't too tense and moving in ways that could lead to Carpel Tunnel, Tendonitis and other RSD's.


Uh oh. I have been playing Guitar Hero World Tour for about a month and my right wrist hurts pretty bad after a good 4 hour session. (Fucking hi-hat; why do I gotta hit that thing so often?) It could be from a previous accident while masturbating for 4 hours, but I think it's the drums. Seriously though, after reading your post I may just go out and get some real lessons so I don't fuck up my hands. Damn, didn't even occur to me, I just figured I had to get used to it.

Also, is it common for drummers to have knee problems, or is that just the shitty bass drum pedal that comes with the game? Probably another technique that I'm missing out on.

I guess I could weigh in on this. My friend plays Rock Band a lot. Probably around 5 hours a week. I play drums and have had him over and talked him into trying and he couldn't really do it. I've seen him play RB and he has all the motor skills necessary to play drums but he really couldn't make a beat.

Also, playing RB doesn't seem to help timing that much. Watching him play RB, it looks very flaily.

RB teaches you that drumming is basically doing the same thing over and over again. So I think yes, it totally helps teach you drumming, because you learn, "Hey, I'm not Neil Peart. I'm not going to unleash any gnarly drum solos, I just have to learn not to get bored playing the same damn thing for 3-10 minutes." But I guess the same could be said for bass...

I call shenanigans!

If you know how to play drums you probably shouldn't even try Medium or Hard on the Rock Band set, go straight to Expert because the simplified notation in Medium/Hard is almost like playing a different song altogether.

Also WOO Coheed. I hope they do release more C&C songs for Rock Band, it's clearly just their label holding it up if the band is all for it. I'd buy all four albums for Rock Band if they sold 'em.

I've got a kit I will sell. Cheap.

Kevin Pereira is a real drummer. I definitely remember him having a head to head with the drummer from Fear Factory, Raymond Herrera, on AOTS one night (was just before or right after Rock Band came out) He even mentioned in the show that he plays the drums a couple times. He defiantely did NOT pick up those skills from RB, but RB does teach some foundation to drumming. You're just not going to get the full package from the game.

Yea that was utterly and completely a setup. I've put rock band drummers on my 9 piece Tama kit and they had no idea what they were even doing. They tried to hit the drums in the same patterns they had taught themselves from rockband and were constantly loosing timing, didn't know the first thing on how to use the highhat properly. My nephew and his best friend.. it was rather funny.

However they did learn some basics from it such as a skill many have terrible trouble, learning timing and to teach how to make their appendages do different things at once. They were able to learn some very basic beats right off the bat, but anything with an ounce of difficulty they could not do what so ever.

Still with rockband their only experience they could learn to actually play the drums significantly easier then someone who had never played an instrument in their lives. (Which, coincidentially, are often the same folks who think drumming is the easiest thing in the world.)