Isn't gameplay just another form of sightreading?

[Conner Malvecino]

For all musicians out there... I was just thinking this morning, isn't the way the notes that flying at you, just another form of sightreading? I know that the notes don't actually give the pitch or the full time value(16th note? Quarter note triple) but it's pretty analogous what we do when we sight read- we only concentrate on the upcoming notes ahead and not the rest of the page.

I know for me, my hardest part of sightreading is anticipating where the next section will lead to(are going to the Coda now?) and because my mind is a bit thrown off, I sometimes mess up on the current section that I'm in. I'm sure this technology has been experimented with, but isn't old school sheet music ever going to be replaced with a better technological advancement?

[thegreatpablo]

I had given this some thought. You're absolutely right, it is just sight reading. Though, as you noted, it's flying at you, so during sections when you're not playing, you don't have time to study the next sections, so when complex rhythms get thrown at you, it's hard to figure them out.

One thing I had been wondering is at what point can you start memorizing it? I was raised a musician, and even then, I have a hard time memorizing any thing from Guitar Hero or Rock Band to play them with my eyes closed for instance...perhaps it's because I don't have the sheet music to study.

[HMXJohnlok]

I had given this some thought. You're absolutely right, it is just sight reading. Though, as you noted, it's flying at you, so during sections when you're not playing, you don't have time to study the next sections, so when complex rhythms get thrown at you, it's hard to figure them out.

One thing I had been wondering is at what point can you start memorizing it? I was raised a musician, and even then, I have a hard time memorizing any thing from Guitar Hero or Rock Band to play them with my eyes closed for instance...perhaps it's because I don't have the sheet music to study.

I would just go to practice mode, and replay sections over and over and over again. Repetition is the best way for me to memorize. I don't think it would be any more difficult to memorize for Rock Band using practice mode than it would be with sheet music.

[thegreatpablo]

I would just go to practice mode, and replay sections over and over and over again. Repetition is the best way for me to memorize. I don't think it would be any more difficult to memorize for Rock Band using practice mode than it would be with sheet music.

Admittedly, I have no real desire to memorize, I just learned, when playing guitar for instance, and sax back in highschool, that it was much easier to memorize what I was playing (it came naturally, no real effort).

[Conner Malvecino]

I would just go to practice mode, and replay sections over and over and over again. Repetition is the best way for me to memorize. I don't think it would be any more difficult to memorize for Rock Band using practice mode than it would be with sheet music.

YES! Exactly! When you actually start seeing some intense RB band competitions, you're going to see some cats really putting time into memorizing their parts...heck...just like a real rock band (not to mention serious classically trained musicians.) At that point, your basically going to see a psuedo-live performance...somewhat cool in a way. Their actually playing the notes...but playing in such a way to prevent the notes from 'dropping out' as oppose to the plastic instruments generating the sound.

[TheWabbit]

If you consider playing by tabs, I guess it could be. However, reading music from a sheet is important and should not be skipped. There is a reason a lot of rockers started on piano first.

[scuzme]

I was raised a musician, and even then, I have a hard time memorizing any thing from Guitar Hero or Rock Band to play them with my eyes closed for instance...perhaps it's because I don't have the sheet music to study.

Me too. I thought about jotting down some complex sections of the drum on a piece of paper, sheet music style. But i was too lazy to get up from the chair. I ended up just slowing down the practice section and count how many beats are in the bar to determine if they're 16th or triplets. :p

If they do music sheet style then this game would be too easy.

[AdamWill]

GH / RB charts are rather similar to typical drum tabs rotated through 90 degrees (and scrolling, obviously).

[Conner Malvecino]

GH / RB charts are rather similar to typical drum tabs rotated through 90 degrees (and scrolling, obviously).

One key difference is that drum tabs interconnect notes designated some type of time relationship. It's hard to determine if what's scrolling is a sextuplet or just 6 notes flyings by you in succession...or at least at this stage of the game I know I can't personally tell. But I definitely like you're analogy.

[DivaMom]

I wish the vocal part was MORE like sight-reading, actually. The same line is not always the same note, and the distances are not consistent between lines in different phrases.
I never played guitar (well, I tried it long enough to learn 3 chords, then my fingers hurt, and I gave up 'cause I was still taking piano lessons at the time :p ), and my experience with percussion is almost entirely keyboard. What was that lovely polite way my instructor put it? Oh, yes "very weak on snare".... lol.

[tf5_bassist]

One key difference is that drum tabs interconnect notes designated some type of time relationship. It's hard to determine if what's scrolling is a sextuplet or just 6 notes flyings by you in succession...or at least at this stage of the game I know I can't personally tell. But I definitely like you're analogy.

Tab by nature alone never has any sort of timing designation, it's the implementation of hybrid tablature that brings this to tabs.

I've always felt that GH/RB is exactly like guitar tab (or close enough) just flying at you sideways. In fact, I've used that analogy to some good success in teaching my wife and brother-in-law how to play guitar/bass and read tabs over the past few months.

[Conner Malvecino]

Tab by nature alone never has any sort of timing designation, it's the implementation of hybrid tablature that brings this to tabs.

I've always felt that GH/RB is exactly like guitar tab (or close enough) just flying at you sideways. In fact, I've used that analogy to some good success in teaching my wife and brother-in-law how to play guitar/bass and read tabs over the past few months.

Fair enough. I guess I'm just used to the hybrid tabbing on drums as it's all about the timing. On the midsection of "Maps" I had trouble deciphering if the four notes I saw was a triplet with a 'tag' note or just 4 16th notes during practice mode, and of course you can't hear the drum track unless you play the notes correctly in the first place.

I also made an analogy that the scrolling colored tubes are somewhat like Tetris but noone really agrees with that one.

[tf5_bassist]

Fair enough. I guess I'm just used to the hybrid tabbing on drums as it's all about the timing. On the midsection of "Maps" I had trouble deciphering if the four notes I saw was a triplet with a 'tag' note or just 4 16th notes during practice mode, and of course you can't hear the drum track unless you play the notes correctly in the first place.

I also made an analogy that the scrolling colored tubes are somewhat like Tetris but noone really agrees with that one.

Yeah, it is a bit difficult to know what the precise timing is without knowing what the actual part is supposed to be played as beforehand. I was botching some fills just for that reason on songs I didn't have memorized completely.

Hmm... Like Tetris... haha... I can see that, actually. It's a bit of a stretch, but I completely see the reasoning. :D

[AdamWill]

"and of course you can't hear the drum track unless you play the notes correctly in the first place. "

well, you could just play the song on guitar :)

[sporkBrigade]

I've always picked up these games fast from DDR on, and I always tell people it's because I was a good sight reader in High School. The comparison is especially potent when you think about concert performances where you still need your sheet music. You practice songs a lot, but you never quite memorize it. Reading the sheet music during a performace though is exactly like playing these games. You can only read ahead so far, and you can't go back if you make a mistake. The "feeling" of the music going by even has a scrolling effect in your mind.

I think band nerds over all others will always have an advantage at the notes falling down the screen type of gameplay.

[Conner Malvecino]

"and of course you can't hear the drum track unless you play the notes correctly in the first place. "

well, you could just play the song on guitar :)

Actually, AdamWill...you have something there! I could just actually "train" in guitar and perhaps feed the audio into my computer to mp3 it and listen to it at my leisure. Thanks for the enlightment!