I’ve never blogged before. I’m not the kind of guy who spouts his
thoughts and emotions like a some kind of pansy. You’ll also have to
forgive my lack of professionalism. I’m not as organized as I could be,
but I have to start somewhere. It feels like I’ve typed this out and
explained this a thousand times, but if I don’t explain it, it’s hard to
understand where this passion comes from.
Rock Band has been a big part of my life for years. I may not be
SSBlind or VDOG, but I’ve put in my time and I really love Rock Band. I
feel as if people assume Rock Band is used to aggrandize players to be
in a real band. Well, I don’t view it that way. Maybe I’m biased
because I may or may not be talented enough to be in a band, or that I
don’t have that opportunity, but I enjoy Rock Band for the recreation.
When i was young, I used to hate music. I said it gave me a headache.
I had no taste for it. I think the first song I liked even a little was
by Blink 182. Took years after that before I took value to band names
and albums. I eventually started to get into really mainstream Rock
because I grew up listening to Rush, AC/DC, Metallica, Pink Floyd, and
the sort. Once I out value to those bands, I started listening to bands
like Staind, Shinedown, Sick Puppies, Foo Fighters, Disturbed, and
whatnot. I was in that phase for a long time. I absolutely loved
Disturbed and thought it was hard hitting and ground-breaking.
So my buddy brings over Guitar Hero 3 one day and I wasn’t interested
at all. I hadn’t been interested since it came out. But i gave it a try
and was addicted right away. I took to expert fairly quickly and
eventually, I was beating songs like “One” by Metallica on expert, and I
thought it was cool. It wasn’t long after, I heard about Guitar Hero
World Tour and the drums being part of it. I then learned about Rock
Band 2. I compared GHWT and RB 2 because they came out around the same
time, as if RB 1 didn’t have drums, but thats because I didn’t know
drums was really what I liked. Anyway, I got GHWT and thought the drums
felt more rewarding but much more difficult. I had a really hard time
not smacking my sticks, keeping my drum rolls on beat, and especially
the bass pedal. I didn’t get to great. I got to expert, but I had to
avoid a LOT of songs. I got Rock Band for christmas not too long after
and thought it was stupid. I thought, “What… Only 4 notes? Pff, so
realistic” and “Wow, I get like NO lenience for note timing”. It wasn’t
long until I realized that Rock Band was far better for the drums. There
was a MUCH bigger selection of songs and the timing window proved to be
such a newbie thing to hate on. Man, I played Rock Band all the time. I
was beating “Shoulder to the plow” on expert and passing “Visions” on
expert as well. I was fed up with my destroyed bass pedals and
dissatisfying drum heads, so I saved up my money and bought an ION Drum
Rocker. From then on out, I was dedicated. I spent my money on EVERY
single song I thought would be fun. I would watch the chart on Youtube
and download it if it was fun. I didn’t care about the genre. I wanted
songs by Disturbed and Breaking Benjamin, but it didn’t matter.
Bluegrass, pop, hardcore, death metal, indie, classical, it didn’t
matter. It wasn’t too many years of Rush and Greenday later for me to
notice that the majority of songs I liked to play were metal. I
downloaded “Clouds Over California” and “This Calling” and was offended
by the vocals. “Wow, that is annoying. This is stressful. This gives me a
headache”. But The charts were challenging. They were so much fun! When
i was able to beat them, I was ecstatic. I’d play them every day with
my other favorites, and suddenly my old favorites were too easy. I
wasn’t impressed.
I started to enjoy listening to the songs I played every day. I would
listen to different songs by All That Remains and think, “The screaming
is more prevalent in this song, but the drums are so insane! This is
beyond impressive”. That viewpoint spread like a disease and I slowly
grew into metal. The more metal songs that would come out on Rock Band,
the more my tastes would broaden. This is where i hit a plateau of
sorts. The more i played, the better I got, but the songs Rock Band put
out were so disappointing and boring. I was a true fan, though. I kept
looking at every chart no matter what genre the music was, and payed the
$2 no matter what. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent on Rock Band
and I kept at it.
Unfortunately, I had a PS3, so I was missing out on the songs I
started to want the most. All the “(2x bass pedal)” charts were on Xbox.
When Rock Band stopped releasing DLC, I forked out $200 for a new Xbox,
and bought all the songs I had been missing out on. It was a big
learning curve to play with two bass pedals, but I learned. And then not
too long after that, I heard about customs. “Finally, free songs! I
deserve it. AND they’re fully charted! WOO!”
I was like 2 or 3 years late to the custom scene, lol. All the songs I
could find were preserved in one or two places. When I ran out of
customs, I became desperate. So I learned how to make customs for
myself. I make that sound so easy even though it wasn’t. But it’s
because I had bad teachers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate all
those that helped me because, without them, I wouldn’t have figured it
out. It is just hard to teach others when you don’t care, and I get
that.
The teachers I had were the only guys left in this scene and I just
don’t fit in with hipsters. They condemn my opinions because I need a
certain level of challenge to enjoy Rock Band and don’t like a single
song they put out. They are the only guys who care enough to make Rock
Band songs to this day. I think it is great, the things they do, but
they don’t fit the demographic of Rock Band players who enjoy a
challenge.
I am here, doing this, because I don’t have a place. At this point,
its just me and a couple people who subscribe to my Youtube channel and
play my songs. So from here, I have to decide the content that will be
on this blog or if I am to take my content elsewhere. My initial
thoughts of content….
- News about songs being worked
- News about albums by bands (especially bands I would chart)
- Links to my songs
- Every idea I can think of to support my viewers desires
- Honesty. And just to break it in… I have no more ideas right now, but I’tll all be figured out as I go!
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