Anyone with zero experience learn to play with Pro Mode?

[Krystof]

In regards to any of the instruments in pro mode, but mostly curious about guitar.

Have you started Pro Mode with no experience, and manage to learn to play at expert level? Or Outside of Rock Band? Any advice or suggestions to help people cross that medium?

Mostly curious because my pro drum skills seem to have crossed over to real experiences, but pro guitar seems like a beast that will require a lot more than a few video game tutorials.

[slammer612]

It is an uphill battle I will tell you. I started playing with the squier last March when it was released, and even before that with the Mustang back at Rockband 3's launch.

The mustang and squier have a differ feel to them playing, and I tend to do better on the mustang (I usually play the squier with fail mode on because I can't stand playing it with the mute button, but by doing so destroys any chance of scoring high because of the string vibration causing multiple detections.

Getting to Medium level did not take too long with either, although it takes quite some time to be able to switch chord positions at the very start. Bar Chords killed me hard to move up to hard. It takes a very very long time start to form those correctly. I have watched videos, and descriptions on how to do them properly, but even though I feel more confident getting into that position it, bugs me when I think the sound is off.

So I am in between Hard and Medium without any other source of outside training, but I usually get real busy and my play time goes to zero very fast. It also has a hassle of setting it up to play. I have not tried Rocksmith, I am unsure if they have another approach to teaching Bar Chords better (but they really suck to try to self learn)

[Doom878]

I played a couple of months on a borrowed guitar prior to getting my Squier but had a midi adapter so I would do the rb3 drills and some songs. The practices are great and will get you situated. Plus you'll get your hands stronger so you can easily change chords and do harder shapes including barre chords. I think Krystof u mentioned u had RS also. I like using their freestyle mode and practicing techniques to supplement grinding songs.

[skyp1e]

I cannot say that I never played guitar before. (I played keyboards for over 30 years so that's no help).

I never sat behind a drum kit in my life, and playing PRO drums sure -feels- like playing for real.

Anyway, as far as guitar goes, I played as well as I ever would from the age of 15 until last year at 45. I never learned a new chord or how to play any leads or anything. To repeat, I knew everything I did about playing guitar from the age of 15 and there I stagnated knowing how to play C, G, D and A (never learned any other chords) and a handful of songs that used those chords.

I've since learned easily double that amount of guitar ability since playing RB3 in PRO mode and I hardly play PRO guitar at all.

So take that for what it is worth.

[Krystof]

Good vibe so far. From what I take from this, it depends on how much time you put into it?

I do have RS Doom878, never tried those modes but I will! From the hour or so I played I was pretty happy with the results. I'm guessing a mixture of both RS and RB3 will help improve my skills.

[CJHobbes]

Good vibe so far. From what I take from this, it depends on how much time you put into it?

I'd gather to say the bolded part is the most important point. Like any musical instrument, or really any hobby/skill of your choice, you only get out of it what time you put into practicing and performing said skill.

Personally, I had zero guitar experience before I got the Squier, and while I have fun plodding around on it, I don't quite have the dedication to get anything tangible out of the game. But I do feel that if I wanted to dedicate time to playing the instrument, the game would give me the opportunity to learn how to be a semi-competent guitarist.

I suppose I'll also add that if I wanted to truly learn the guitar, I'd find an instructor and use Rock Band as supplemental learning. From playing sports, bad habits are very, very, very hard to break, and it's much easier to learn good habits without having to break old ones.

[Obi_Wan_Kenoli]

I don't think I'd ever really get to that level playing Pro. When I started it up, knowing nothing about Guitar, I was going through the tutorials and repeatedly getting hit with terminology I didn't really understand while at the same time not even knowing the proper way to hold a guitar pick (thank god for youtube).

I think the Pro is best if you have some rudimentary experience, or if you're pretty good and just want to get better. Maybe you can get up from true novice to expert, but I'd think that the time you spent doing it through Pro would be more efficiently spent gaining that level of proficiency by just taking a class.

The learning mechanic is trying to tie into the core game's reactionary chart based game mechanic of the 5 button play and that's not helpful for the "learning" aspect. Even at 60% things just happen way too fast for my brain to process what my body should be doing and internalizing it, or even learning what note or chord I'm playing and if there is any "method to the madness". When I mess up a chord the overlay in practice showing the neck and the finger position is helpful, but i wish in practice there was a way to leave that up there so I can see those snapshots of finger placements all the time.

I've found I was better off just going to guitar sites for a while and milling around there at my own pace so that I could come back and tackle the tutorials, and that yielded the best success. I don't know what the name is, but the diagrams for chords with the frets and dots are easier to understand for me, just like the fretboard display in practice. Trying to "place my fingers so that the waveform passes under the shape I make", eh... Not registering so far at least.

After a while I honestly started to wonder why was I going to the tutorials in RB3 when the sites and videos I were watching yielded better results in me actually learning anything rather than swatting these chord shapes and numbers flying at me. I mean it was marketed as a teaching tool and it honestly would make a beginner or middling guitarist that already had the basics down better, but the way it's implemented isn't great for beginners. Even at the lower speeds it becomes a reaction game, and that might work for 5 buttons, but 60% is way too fast for me.

Kind of wish they would have let me play Expert, in training at least, but step through the song note by note, chord by chord, at my pace, actually learning; or at least bring things down to 10%. I'd feel more motivated and rewarded by playing Hardest Button to Button slow and sloppy as hell on Expert actually learning something and getting audio feedback the whole time, than playing it on easy or medium because at least the only way I'll react fast enough to the falling notes and only really learning to play every 4th or 8th note and not really playing the song.

To be honest I could care less about the score so if I could play Pro stepping through note by note, but disable any scoring I'd have probably used it a lot more as I'd be freed up to from the restrictive falling gem mechanic, it works for regular play, but not so much for learning something as complex as an instrument.

[MagicMurderBag7]

Well, I had zero piano/keyboard experience and can play expert pro-keys fairly well. The same with pro-drums. I only recently decided to really try pro-bass. I cant do the chords required for guitar yet, but I figure that after I get good enough at bass I should be able to handle the chords.

[defdog99]

I can change a guitar string now. Step 2 of 1000 completed.

[topdrawer]

i picked up guitar about 8 months prior to Pro guitar coming out. i had learned a few riffs and a couple simple songs prior. i knew a few chords, but i couldn't switch between them fast enough, just between a couple of them. i also could play a barred chord to save my life - i didn't have enough strength. i couldn't separate my middle finger from my index when curling them in so that was hard too.

now a year later i can actually 3 star most songs on expert. the flying notes at high speed has forced me to improve on my chord switching and relying on my muscle memory, as opposed to "learning at my own pace" method where i would never ever step out of my comfort level and i was improving very slowly.

just jumping into hard helped even if i missed most of the notes. i just tried to get the ones that caught my eye in time. just this week i went on line to learn some songs from tabs and i was playing a long as i read without looking at my hands. anyway, slowing down doesn't help with reflexes. for me going at full steam ahead is what helped.