Expert Drums

[RX King]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?

[bouchnick]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?Your drum is not broken yet?

[RX King]

Thankfully not. The only problem I seem to be having is when the notes on the red pad are in quick succession, but I just read a quick fix for this on the Tech Support forum, so no worries there. Hopefully it'll work just fine -- I'd rather not wait two weeks without drumming.

[drno830]

I am stuck on Orange Crush on expert. I can't keep a rhythm across multiple pads for the life of me. And if I get stuck on Dead on Arrival, I am done with solo tour. Quickplay here I come

[RX King]

Orange Crush is a beast even on Hard. Very strange drum pattern. It is killing me being stuck on Dead on Arrival -- it's shameful, man!

[MorningThief581]

Man, so many songs on expert have given me fits... I feel like I'm flailing hopelessly but I manage to squeak by somehow. Dead On Arrival and Detroit Rock City actually got me practicing a couple sections at slower speeds for about 15 minutes each. Now the only thing stopping me from the tier of doom is Don't Fear The Reaper. The middle section is bad enough... I get through it probably one out of five tries. But beyond that I haven't managed to get through the ending. 90% is my best so far. It's just so damn tiring. Grrr... If the last five songs are all this hard, it's going to be a while before I make it through.

[HPLabonte]

I had no problem at all with Orange Crush

and there's a reason to be stuck on DOA, no time signature =P

[RX King]

I absolutely cannot get through any songs that just seem like fills all the way through. On fast songs, it's near impossible for me to get all of the tiny intracacies just right. I want to play a BEAT!

[FippyDarkpaw]

The songs with a lot of random fills are hard. Basically you have to memorize them. Stuff that is repetitive is easy on expert. Like Blitzkrieg Bop probably has more notes than most songs, but it doesn't change much so it is easy.

[RX King]

Of course, the worst song about drum fills is "Won't Get Fooled Again." I will be insanely proud when I finally beat that song on Expert. Seems so far away right now.

[drno830]

I can't believe I got through Won't get Fooled Again on hard. It was insanely lucky.

Did you think that Are You Gonna Be My Girl was easier on expert than hard? The beat was really weird on hard, with the missing bass hit

[RX King]

That does mess me up on some hard songs. I'll play a bass note that isn't there on that difficulty, but it's on the song.

Yes, Are You Gonna Be My Girl is actually pretty easy on Expert.

I'm kind of fudging my way through Expert songs right now, seeing as I haven't even finished the Hard Solo Tour. Just one more song.

[drno830]

The only song on Hard I haven't beaten is Run to the Hills. Haven't gotten past 20% yet.

[Chris_Gonzalez]

That does mess me up on some hard songs. I'll play a bass note that isn't there on that difficulty, but it's on the song.

Yes, Are You Gonna Be My Girl is actually pretty easy on Expert.

I'm kind of fudging my way through Expert songs right now, seeing as I haven't even finished the Hard Solo Tour. Just one more song.

I'm fudging my way through Hard. Stuck on Detroit Rock City. I got there like 10 minutes ago and I was like "Eff this, I'll try again tomorrow." So I shall. :P

Maybe it'll be easier on Expert for me, because if I'm not playing in time with the beat, I can't play. It's like how I couldn't play on Easy in Guitar Hero because the notes were randomly placed, but I could play on Medium just fine because it was closer to playing all of the notes than easy.

[RX King]

The only song on Hard I haven't beaten is Run to the Hills. Haven't gotten past 20% yet.

I literally played that song for four hours yesterday until I beat it. I never want to play that song again in my entire life. I almost cried when I beat it, man. Seriously.

My red pad doesn't like notes in quick succession, so it was near impossible to get through that song for me. Good luck on that -- keep trying.

[ClinTrojan]

I played practice mode on Wont Get Fooled Again in Expert full speed and got 78% on 3rd try, that good?

[RX King]

That's really good, dude. The thing that can be deceptive about practice is that you don't have the crowd deciding whether you stay or not -- if you miss a lot of notes in succession, you lose, even if you would be able to do the rest of the song just fine. This is why I kept on losing Don't Fear the Reaper -- the solo break is ridiculous.

[ClinTrojan]

ya lol I do most of it pretty good, thing that is weird with me, I get like all the bass note and what I miss are the off beat hand patterns sometimes.

Dont Fear The Reaper, I play in multiplayer on expert and get to the ending and then mess up lol...The break i got down ;)

[Micker]

Foreplay was tough for me, once it goes into longtime its easy.

[v1g1lance]

I have just got to finish Won't get fooled again on expert (no reason why I won't at this stage, just need to practice 1 section) but FOB kicked the crap out of me. I have either 5 or 4 starred pretty much everything else. I don't enjoy playing the song either, which I suspect is why I don't play it well.

So far my fav is Molly Hatchet :)

IMO a lot of songs are EASIER on expert (like run to the hills). The missing beats on hard were messing me up.

Anyway, keep with it, you'll find it rewarding!

[RX King]

Anyway, keep with it, you'll find it rewarding!

Vigilance, right? :)

[v1g1lance]

Yeppers. Vigilance was already taken on XBL so I had to improvise :)

[Sonci]

I too am stuck on DOA on Expert. I just CAN'T get used to the seemingly sparatic kick pedal.

/shakes fist

[wayaway103]

don't fear the reaper is killing me at that solo break...and foreplay is seemingly impossible on hard. yet, i beat won't get fooled again in quickplay on hard. blows my mind.

[RX King]

I too am stuck on DOA on Expert. I just CAN'T get used to the seemingly sparatic kick pedal.

/shakes fist

I got the intro down (with the kick notes in between the snare / tom notes) but when it gets into the verse, I find it very hard to keep up with the double kick notes and where to place them.

[srkishy]

just keep working at it, i just beat solo tour on drums two nights ago on expert, felt great. Although being nine on the ps3 leaderboard feels great.

Honestly if you can beat the game on expert, you might as well be a real drummer. You'll do it though, keep it up.

[Sonci]

I got the intro down (with the kick notes in between the snare / tom notes) but when it gets into the verse, I find it very hard to keep up with the double kick notes and where to place them.

Same here!

[ClinTrojan]

like the first page lol....it because DOA lacks time signature

[Sonci]

like the first page lol....it because DOA lacks time signature


Forgive me, but I'm obviously not hip to the drummer lingo. What exactly is a "time signature"? Like, a constant bass pedal beat?

[RX King]

Curse Fall Out Boy and their incredibly complex drumming that completely does not satisfy whatsoever!

[CollegeDropouts]

This song held me up quite a bit, this and detroit rock city were destroying me, when I got past those, it was The Reaper and Foreplay, after that it was Run to the Hills, after a little practice, you'll get them all tho. I have 4-5 starred every song now and the LAST song I had 3 stars on was Dead On Arrival, so don't feel bad, it's a tought one. I just 4 starred it today, still working on the 5 star.

[SoulScreme]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?

Not on expert, but I'm halfway through hard and there are two songs that throw me off on every difficulty. Next to You and Orange Crush.

[MorningThief581]

Finally beat Reaper on expert. I also blew through Tom Sawyer and Flirtin' With Disaster. Is it just me or does Flirtin' With Disaster have no business being in the last tier? I don't mind though. It's actually fun... turns out it's my favorite song to play on drums. Next To You, Run To The Hills, and Won't Get Fooled all look pretty tough. I made it to the 75% mark in Won't Get Fooled... that's where Keith starts going crazy. He'd be rolling in his grave if he heard my rendition of the first 75% of the song. :) I just need to work on rolls for Run To The Hills. I can't imagine my wrists moving fast enough to actually play all those 32nd notes individually through the entire song. Anyone beat it on expert yet? Any pointers? And Next to You... I don't even have a clue. I tried 4 times and didn't last longer than 10%.

[shoombabi]

I'm actually extremely concerned about because I rank in the top 20 for Drum Career and it's using all Hard mode scores. I would expect there to be more than 15 people playing on Expert at a level that would score higher than someone on Hard, despite being near-flawless on a lot of things. Face of the matter is, there aren't, and that's a testament to the insanity that is expert level drumming.

I am 100% convinced that when I finally beat the Drum solo tour on Expert I will be able to play the drums IRL.

I think i should Quick Play "Won't Get Fooled Again" on Expert. I passed it first try on Hard and I was like "Why is -this- the final song?" I'm really curious to see what Expert throws into the mix.

[CollegeDropouts]

To MorningThief

Don't use your wrist, try to use as much bounce as the pads will give you. I just use my fingers to bounce them quickly and I can last through the whole thing. After getting minorly tired, and missing the tripple bass beats, I usually get around 90-93, depending on how well I pace myself. I just learned this strategy and it's working smoothly, just relax and play with bounce.



Shoombabi
Most people started the drum carreer on Medium, next is Easy, then Hard, and finally Expert. Your rank at 15 overall is pretty much showing the first month of people playing. They will get better, and after New Years, I'd be surprised if you'd be in the 100's. I started on Expert, just beat it yesterday, and was ranked like 700. I did half the songs over again, and I'm placed around 200. People will get better. And about 'Won't Get Fooled Again' being the last song. I agree. It's REALLY REALLY fun, my favorite song to play, but not as difficult as other songs that held me up. That's just my opinion. Keep rocking bro.

[MorningThief581]

To MorningThief
Don't use your wrist, try to use as much bounce as the pads will give you. I just use my fingers to bounce them quickly and I can last through the whole thing. After getting minorly tired, and missing the tripple bass beats, I usually get around 90-93, depending on how well I pace myself. I just learned this strategy and it's working smoothly, just relax and play with bounce.


Thanks for the tips. I didn't really think that trying to manage all those notes with my wrists was the best approach, and so far my best success (I only tried it 4 or 5 times tonight) came just letting the sticks do the work. Also good to know I can pretty much ignore the triple bass parts and still get through it.

[j00zt1n]

I just finished drums solo expert tonight, but I did get stuck on four different songs for a little bit. Dead on Arrival, Detroit Rock City, Run to the Hills (hate you) and Won't Get Fooled Again.

I'm just glad that Blackened isn't a main career song, it's going to be a while before I make it through that one.

[RX King]

Reading everybody else's struggles is giving me courage. I'm relieved I'm not the only one who's having trouble. :)

[Rogue42]

My expert career is currently stuck at The Hand that Feeds, which is just past my level, at the moment, I suppose.

Hard career, I'm 57/58 songs, with only Run to the Hills in between me and victory. I finally passed the other three that were giving me trouble, Next to You, Foreplay (Long Time is a piece of cake, by comparison), and Tom Sawyer (not sure what problems I was having before, I guess I've just gotten that much better).

It's definitely been my experience that just practicing and continuing to get time in on the drums and challenging myself that I've improved consistently and markedly over the last couple weeks. If you had told me when I bought the game two weeks ago that I'd be almost done with the hard solo career and half-way complete with expert on drums, I'd have laughed my head off.

Good luck, fellow faux-drummers!

[davidshek]

like the first page lol....it because DOA lacks time signature

Absolutely incorrect. I just listened to it again on my mp3 player, and the entire song is in 4/4 time (or 8/8, depends what tempo you use). The WHOLE song is in the same regular time signature that 99% of all other rock songs use. (ok, maybe 99% is bloated, but it's way up there)

[v0mitr0n]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?


I'm stuck at Fall Out Girl on Expert as well. It's that stupid emo style drumming .. all over the place! No rhyme or reason, just some drummer guy using as many fills and cymbal crashed in odd places as possible.
I'll have to practice a few of the more wack sections. I actually don't mind the song, I just can't feel the beat.

I changed my seating height and it made a HUGE difference with hitting the kick drum (heel up). Before I was in a low chair, I switched to the coffee table, and now I can bounce that sucker like there's no tomorrow!

[shoombabi]

My expert career is currently stuck at The Hand that Feeds, which is just past my level, at the moment, I suppose.

Hard career, I'm 57/58 songs, with only Run to the Hills in between me and victory. I finally passed the other three that were giving me trouble, Next to You, Foreplay (Long Time is a piece of cake, by comparison), and Tom Sawyer (not sure what problems I was having before, I guess I've just gotten that much better).

It's definitely been my experience that just practicing and continuing to get time in on the drums and challenging myself that I've improved consistently and markedly over the last couple weeks. If you had told me when I bought the game two weeks ago that I'd be almost done with the hard solo career and half-way complete with expert on drums, I'd have laughed my head off.

Good luck, fellow faux-drummers!

This was also my sticking point on Expert for about half an hour. I was about to say "It's just like Run to the Hills, except it makes more sense because you have a steady pulsing bass drum that you don't need to worry about," but then I reread your post and noticed RttH is the only Hard you haven't passed ;)

Just as a quick pointer, start each set of 6 notes on the left hand. That way RRR -> Left/Right/Left, and the follow-up RRY -> Right/Left/Right. This way, you're avoiding a double tap with the same hand, and using the right hand on the yellow sets you up for the left hand on the next set of RRR. Good luck with those!

Oh, and remember. You don't have to hit every note to pass a song. On RttH especially, if you focus on the RRR RRY patterns and you hit the in-between phrases (I think it goes YY(B+Bass)(G+Bass)), you'll gather enough overdrive to fill-in a lot of the harder sections. Then, just before you crash and burn, hit the drum fill, regain your energy, and you'll find the song is over fairly quickly.

[oberlin]

Wow you guys... I managed to beat In Bloom and Black Hole Sun on expert. That's about the extent of it.

[Deeznutzs27]

You can take shots at this all you want since its soo very "in" on this board to bash Fall Out Boy but here is a thought .... The drummer for Fall Out Boy is pretty damn good. They picked this song for the drums. Every other part of the song is easily done but drums are a beast all to itself.

[RX King]

Like I pointed out earlier, the drumming might be complicated, but it's not fulfilling. It actually felt cool to play Tom Sawyer -- not so with Dead on Arrival.

[Deeznutzs27]

I understand the not fulfilling part. If you dont like the song/band no matter how great the parts are they wont be fulfilling to you.

[Rogue42]

This was also my sticking point on Expert for about half an hour. I was about to say "It's just like Run to the Hills, except it makes more sense because you have a steady pulsing bass drum that you don't need to worry about," but then I reread your post and noticed RttH is the only Hard you haven't passed ;)

Just as a quick pointer, start each set of 6 notes on the left hand. That way RRR -> Left/Right/Left, and the follow-up RRY -> Right/Left/Right. This way, you're avoiding a double tap with the same hand, and using the right hand on the yellow sets you up for the left hand on the next set of RRR. Good luck with those!

Oh, and remember. You don't have to hit every note to pass a song. On RttH especially, if you focus on the RRR RRY patterns and you hit the in-between phrases (I think it goes YY(B+Bass)(G+Bass)), you'll gather enough overdrive to fill-in a lot of the harder sections. Then, just before you crash and burn, hit the drum fill, regain your energy, and you'll find the song is over fairly quickly.

Thanks for the pointers! I do start those sets of 6 with my left hand, but it's more natural to do it Left/Right/Left/Break/Left/Right/Left/Break as roll with the right hand at half speed. The problem is, as you have stated, the right stick is what needs to hit the yellow pad. I've tried retraining myself to do this, but it's just going to take a few runs at it to get good at it. I've had a little bit of luck with my method on Lefty Flip, but the rest of the song is just awkward, and it's odd twisting to play on G/B instead of R/Y.

No matter, I've been improving daily since I started playing day one, so I have no doubt that I'll get there with a bit more practice.

And I've definitely fill-skipped a few hard sections in the past, so I'm quite familiar with that technique! ;)

[Odwill]

Rouge42, is it the chorus that gets you in "Hand that Feeds"? The intermittent high hat screwed me up big time. I used cross sticking to do that part (left hand on yellow and right hand on red) and it went very well. Just an idea...

[sawyer7as]

I'm actually extremely concerned about because I rank in the top 20 for Drum Career and it's using all Hard mode scores. I would expect there to be more than 15 people playing on Expert at a level that would score higher than someone on Hard, despite being near-flawless on a lot of things. Face of the matter is, there aren't, and that's a testament to the insanity that is expert level drumming.

I am 100% convinced that when I finally beat the Drum solo tour on Expert I will be able to play the drums IRL.

I think i should Quick Play "Won't Get Fooled Again" on Expert. I passed it first try on Hard and I was like "Why is -this- the final song?" I'm really curious to see what Expert throws into the mix.

real drumset has 3 more drums and 2 more cymbals, 1 being a peddle. a good basic one. good luck

[JB4GDI]

Fall Out Boy's song was the only one I couldn't pass on the 2nd or third try on expert drums. I had to practice for about an hour to get the hang of the drum pattern, and I'm still not that good at it.

Other than that the only other one I had trouble with was (Don't Fear) The Reaper. I did fine until the last drum pattern where I died a painful death like 2 times. I finally got it, but man that took a lot of focus.

-Jaime

[Rogue42]

Rouge42, is it the chorus that gets you in "Hand that Feeds"? The intermittent high hat screwed me up big time. I used cross sticking to do that part (left hand on yellow and right hand on red) and it went very well. Just an idea...

I honestly don't know, but I would suspect it's earlier than that. I've only tried it a couple times yesterday, so I'm not too concerned. It's just... tricky. I'll get it soon enough. :)

When I get home from work, Run to the Hills is my first target, anyway... I'll need to beat this if we're to have any hope of making it through the Endless Setlist.

And I'm just stoked that I can now manage Foreplay/Long Time myself once I attempted it on expert and realized those were triplets at the beginning and not quarters.

[Smidget]

DOA expert took me a few times to beat, until I captured all the patterns in my mind. Nothing else expert has given me much trouble passing until Reaper *pulls out hair* It completely owned me until I finaly took it into practice mode to make sure I was reading it right. Reaper needs to be swapped with Flirtin' With Disaster in tier placement. Practice mode is definitely helpful, btw, for anyone stuck on a song. Nice being able to slow down parts to check them out.

Now I got the last two to go. Only tried them once each but yeah, I think WGFA is going to be a toughy. I think I might go back through the wholoe list to attempt five starring everything I only got 4 on, for the practice and prep. for WGFA. I think Run to The Hills is just gonna be about getting the technique down.

[shoombabi]

real drumset has 3 more drums and 2 more cymbals, 1 being a peddle. a good basic one. good luck

Granted, but likewise, a real guitar has 4 to 6 strings and something like 13 more frets for each one, but if you play the guitar or bass parts on expert, you would at least have a basic understanding for picking up the bass or guitar. I'm not saying that you'd be able to pull off anything close to the solos the game condenses into 5 colored frets, nor am I saying that I'll be able to rock out with Peart.

There are still, however, very fundamental points that expert mode teaches on these instruments. Rhythm, for one. The ability to independently move limbs. The understanding of complex rhythms. And most importantly, you understand the fundamentals of moving the hands around a set.

The people that struggle in these games are the same ones that watch arrows scroll up the DDR screen and hit them at the top. These games never were - and never will be - about hitting notes as they cross a line. Yes, that is how you achieve the goal of "completing" a song, but deeper in the nature of the game is the fundamental breaking down of its components and putting it back together in a form that makes sense so you can hit the notes as they cross the line with minimal effort.

The people that make these things look easy? They're not making it -look- easy. It IS easy, because they've gotten to a different mental level.

I still stick with my first statement, and that is, I am confident I would be able to play the drums in real life having finished expert mode. Throwing in a few extra things to hit is not an issue. I can track (and efficiently hit) 9 things at once fairly easily. I've also gotten through some interesting songs on Keyboardmania, that had 17 or so to track. ;)

[Smidget]

I still stick with my first statement, and that is, I am confident I would be able to play the drums in real life having finished expert mode. Throwing in a few extra things to hit is not an issue. I can track (and efficiently hit) 9 things at once fairly easily. I've also gotten through some interesting songs on Keyboardmania, that had 17 or so to track. ;)

Go for it man. I'm a drummer and though I've never taken any classes, I highly doubt drum teachers start with "ok, so you have your snare, 3 toms, highhat, 2 crash cymbals, and a ride cymbal. We're going to incorporate all of these all at once from your first lesson today." haha The great thing about RB is that, as a byproduct of the game, it teaches the needed basic rythm with right hand hitting something constant, left hand hitting snare, and foot doing something separate. Learning fills and odd cymbal usage comes down the road. A real drum set is after all quite different than 4 little pads with a pedal thingy :p

(in a 5 piece set-up and non-lefty situation of course)

[RX King]

I'd certainly be interested to see how skill at Rock Band translates to real life instruments, specifically on the drums. I don't think you can learn hardly anything about playing guitar from the guitar controller (I'm a guitarist first and foremost), but the drums are a different animal. Who knows, I might be able to rock some groovy rhythms once I finish this game all the way. The only way to find out is to try it.

[shoombabi]

I'd certainly be interested to see how skill at Rock Band translates to real life instruments, specifically on the drums. I don't think you can learn hardly anything about playing guitar from the guitar controller (I'm a guitarist first and foremost), but the drums are a different animal. Who knows, I might be able to rock some groovy rhythms once I finish this game all the way. The only way to find out is to try it.

Well, I've played viola for 9 years, so I'm very comfortable with the basic concepts of string instrumentation and at least intermediate music theory. That said, I tried playing classical guitar for like half a month before I quit because I couldn't wrap my mind around the distance between strings being fourths instead of fifths and the bigger fretboard and so forth. After playing so much of guitar hero though, i figured I'd give guitar another go, except I switched to the bass. It is an INCREDIBLY fun instrument.

And the best part?

Guitar Hero / Rock Band will definitely improve your "bass"-ic skills :D The dexterity involved and the ability to pick in the proper manner can definitely be learned on a toy guitar, and certainly the rhythm you pick up in bass mode translates extremely well to the real bass. Granted, I wouldn't have come as far as I did without knowing the music theory behind it, but I certainly do believe something can be said for the guitar controller (at least for picking up the bass).

I really hope the game does encourage people to become real musicians. Music is such a wonderful thing to participate in.

[MorningThief581]

darn. broke my kick pedal this morning with only next to you, run to the hills, and won't get fooled again remaining on expert. i think i might lose a bit of my short-term muscle memory by the time the replacement arrives. bummer.

[funINfuneral]

man how the hell do u guys even get to expert on drums?? im still on easy on all the hard songs haha

[darknessmoon]

I've been able to clear "...And justice for all" fairly decently, but I'm stuck on "Epic..." There's this one part where I believe is the solo portion of the song where it has some oddly placed notes (to me at least) and that's where I end up failing... I make it to like about 55% of the song. :(

[Royges]

Don't Fear The Reaper Hard last of the block

In Bloom on Expert

http://card.mygamercard.net/ES/gelsig/ROYGES.png (http://profile.mygamercard.net/ROYGES)

[CollegeDropouts]

I'll have to make a video in a few weeks of me playing on my dads kit watching RB drum scrolls. I think it'd be funny and if I could pull it off, might even sound legit! =)

[MJDoja]

beaten all except wont get fooled again on expert. too much DRUMMING goin on!!

sigh.. well with a broken yellow pad i have no more multiplayer fun on my drums (i dont wanna open it up and void the warranty, so just gotta wait on the replacement.) i enjoy just letting people pick songs and playing..

except when they pick maps or the killers, certain songs im just never in the mood for.

i was the same way with DOA (and epic, and probably another one along the way too) .. i probably took 30mins to an hour youtubing it part by part and goin in practice mode.. now that the song makes sense.. it just comes down to pulling it off. you really cant be lazy, ****ing energetic hardcore drummers.

im probably the only one who ever picks DOA when im host.. i actually ended up liking it a bit.

[CollegeDropouts]

DOA is one of my favorite songs to drum bro. I pick it all the time because it's got a lot of feel to it. 75% of the songs on RB are 4/4, very basic, off kick, kick here and there. Granted, fun as hell to play... BUT, DOA, Won't Get Fooled Again, Flirtin' With Disaster, and Brainpower are my favs.

[ClinTrojan]

what time signature is DOA anyways, DOES IT EVEN KEEP TIME??? lmao

[CollegeDropouts]

Well, DavidS said it's 4/4 and he listened to it on his Ipod or something. He's a drummer, has seems like he has been for a few years now, so David, I'm quoting you.... it's 4/4!!

[toefer]

I surprisingly was cruising through expert drums, only failing a song or two, until I got to the tier with Dead on Arrival. First I couldn't beat that, then I couldn't beat Detroit Rock City, and something else. I forgot. Anyway, eventually I got those other two done, and had DoA left, and it was pretty frustrating. I kept failing about 13% of the way in, over and over, and then one time I finally got past that opening part, and was able to cruise on until about 35%, and failed.

Then, out of nowhere, I finally got the hang of it, sort of, and was able to get all the way to the end, where it was starting to just repeat over and over, and I failed. 95%. I slammed the drum sticks on the ground, like an angry little kid, and started stomping around, looking for something to punch. And then all of a sudden, there was a knock at my door, and it was the UPS guy with my new guitar. So I cheered up, figuring I could play the guitar career now, since I'd have a working guitar. So I rip it open, and find a box labeled Xbox 360 Wired Controller (I needed/ordered a PS3 one), so it was back to being mad.

Anyway, to sum it up. After being mad about my guitar (which later turned out to be a PS3 guitar inside an Xbox labeled box) I played DoA two or three more times, and finally beat it. Now the only song I have left in the next tier is (Don't Fear) The Reaper, which is getting frustrating. I suppose its better to practice the last part, instead of spending 5 minutes to get there, only to fail every time.

There's something so nice about clearing a tier, and having a new set of songs to play. On a side note, when I first got the game, I didn't think I'd ever be playing expert drums, but I've surprisingly caught the hang of it fairly well. I've 5 starred a bunch of songs on expert now, including a few 99%'s. But then there's this BOC craziness getting in my way.

As for tips, since this is kind of why I replied, if you're still having trouble:

1) Take breaks. I found that if I kept hitting restart, I started to do crappier. But if I took a break for a few minutes, I could jump right back into it, and do fairly well.
2) I unhooked the bass pedal from the metal cross bar thing, and slid it in closer to my chair, and put a pillow on my chair to kind of sit up high. This gave me a good amount of leverage with my leg, which made doing all the quick hits on the bass pedal a lot easier than the way I normally play.
3) Make sure you hit those red notes and bass notes. I found that if I made sure I hit all the red notes and bass notes, and just tried to hit everything else, I did alright. There's that one loading screen that mentions the fans care more about those than the other pads, and that's certainly true.

[JB4GDI]

im still on easy on all the hard songs haha

It helps to...

A. Be an experienced drummer
B. Be good at rhythm games
C. Play the game before it's released.

Those are at least my reasons.

-Jaime

[SoulScreme]

DoA is kicking my ass on Hard right now. It's actually the only song keeping me from going to the next tier. Seeing as my band just reached the fan cap for hard, I'll probably be trying to get through the rest of hard sometime soon so I can attempt some expert. I'm pretty proud of myself at this point, no experience to easy to medium to hard in 2 weeks.

[MJDoja]

DOA is one of my favorite songs to drum bro. I pick it all the time because it's got a lot of feel to it. 75% of the songs on RB are 4/4, very basic, off kick, kick here and there. Granted, fun as hell to play... BUT, DOA, Won't Get Fooled Again, Flirtin' With Disaster, and Brainpower are my favs.

the toughest are the most fun it seems.. if you have the skills or patience!

WGFA is a bee-yotch for me.. i just get caught up

[Teh_Nfsjunkie91]

DoA is actually one of the first songs I played Expert on... Weird, I guess people learn differently.

[SoulScreme]

Yeah, people really do learn songs differently. I have trouble on DOA on hard, but can play Gimme Shelter with no problem on hard.

[evilmrpeepers]

I've never played drums before this game came out so I'm still working on it. I'm starting on normal though. It's hard getting used to moving both arms differently.

[ZkDotNet]

Yeah, people really do learn songs differently. I have trouble on DOA on hard, but can play Gimme Shelter with no problem on hard.
Well, that makes sense since DoA (tier..7?) is way trickier than Gimme Shelter (tier 2).

[SoulScreme]

Well, that makes sense since DoA (tier..7?) is way trickier than Gimme Shelter (tier 2).

Maybe I've got the wrong song in my head... sorry... I totally do, it's Maps that's giving me crap.

[drews97]

Stuck on the Aerosmith song on expert. It will be impossible to beat with my drum kit because it cannot pick up the drum roll section fast enough. Single strokes, double strokes, press roll...doesn't matter, won't go nearly fast enough. Need a replacement set.

[davidshek]

Well, DavidS said it's 4/4 and he listened to it on his Ipod or something. He's a drummer, has seems like he has been for a few years now, so David, I'm quoting you.... it's 4/4!!

If by 'a few years' you meant 16, then yeah ;)

Yup, it's in 4/4. FOB's drummer does like to play off the beaten path, so to speak, quite a bit. So even though it's in 4/4, parts of it might not sound like it cause there's no downbeat on 2&4 like you're used to hearing in a 4/4 song. That song is a ***** on Expert, but definitely doable :)

[StaticSmoke11]

im stuck on dead on arrival on drums as well

[dethklok]

The song I am currently in love with on Expert is Orange Crush. It's so fun to play :)

The song I hate most on Expert is DOA... it's too f'n hard. I don't know why Fall out Boy was put in the game... oh well. I have to deal with it :D

[koivufan75]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?


k really dumb question but i need to know as my friend is sending me the game soon..... where did you get the fall out boy song from.... i cant find it on any of the set lists that are posted online...

[davidshek]

The song I hate most on Expert is DOA... it's too f'n hard. I don't know why Fall out Boy was put in the game... oh well. I have to deal with it :D

Because it's challenging to play on the drums. :) Once you get it down, it's actually rather fun!

[RX King]

Because it's challenging to play on the drums. :) Once you get it down, it's actually rather fun!

The only thing that bothers me about this song is that it's BPM is through the roof, so the notes that show up on screen, even when they're slowed down, are crammed together, thus making them hard to read. Oh well -- I haven't really practised it that much lately. I've been working on getting Won't Get Fooled Again down on Hard mode.

[C Dress]

im stuck on vasoline, just because i cant get the ****ing beat with the bass, i can play every other song too in quickplay.... i barely passed run to the hills but i did....

[drews97]

I think Don't Fear the Reaper is the hardest song in the game for expert drums. Beat everything in the last tier much more quickly and beat two of the last tier songs first time through. I probably failed Don't Fear the Reaper 40-50 times. That was a good feeling to pass that one.

[C Dress]

No, look closely next time..

a song called Run to the Hills


I finally beat Vasoline, but I am stuck on Dead on Arrival too

[_epacs_]

Right now, I'm stuck on Fall Out Boy's "Dead on Arrival" (lamentably so.) The kick notes on that song are killer and in very strange places. So far, even after practicing it for hours at a time, I'm still only able to get maybe 70%.

Which songs are you having the most trouble with?

God I hate that song so much... I had to practice the intro part for about and hour straight just to 3 star the song. I have an easier time with Tom Sawyer than Dead on Arrival , which is just ludicrous. I can only imagine Run to the Hills on expert. *cringe*