Oh man, good luck trying to beat me at sucking at all these games. I have absolutely no sense of rhythm. I can't even tap my foot in beat to a song, and if people are clapping along at a concert I tend to be off unless I've gotten so far off I'm clapping with everyone else again.

I remember in college playing donkey konga, and all my friends would laugh... even the ones who were pretty bad at it enjoyed seeing me play as I managed to do even worse. With guitar hero, I can occasionally get into it, and have played a handful of times. If i've had a few beers I can sometimes get into it and start trying to jam, but then I end up getting ahead of the notes or something. I can't seem to stay on the beat, and my hand eye coordination sucks (my dad, who was my T-ball coach, had me playing pitcher and catcher as they were the positions I was least likely to get hurt in).

Phil

philipgar wrote:Oh man, good luck trying to beat me at sucking at all these games. I have absolutely no sense of rhythm. I can't even tap my foot in beat to a song, and if people are clapping along at a concert I tend to be off unless I've gotten so far off I'm clapping with everyone else again.

I bet I could beat you at sucking at all other games, but I could probably beat you at the music games. I cannot play other video games for my life, well, except for Paper Mario of course, but that takes me awhile because I end up getting bored and not touching it again for a few years.

zany wrote:ah so you're of THAT school of thought. you must have some actual talent at playing for real.

i MUST defend my new favorite video game. there are reasons i do not play a 'real' instrument - well all the reasons relate to how bad i am at it.

a) in school band for many years i always STUNK real bad at the exciting clarinet. it's hard-i couldn't get the high notes to sound right.
b) my mom tried to teach me piano(keyboard) and i was awful at it when you add the left hand.
c) in elementary school, when assigning instruments, the mean music teacher let each of us play the drum set once and try to do some test beat or something and i must have stunk at that because i was not allowed to play drums. (she also wouldn't let people play flute unless they could make a sound on it the first try - very mean - must have been ingrained in me from then that if you aren't great at an instrument the first try, don't bother?)
d) i poked around at my mom's guitar for a couple weeks and lost interest (she never learned to play it either so i had no lessons)

so in conclusion - it's sooo much more fun to play the drums and sound good (through the magic of video games ) than play real drums and stink at it because i'm guessing i wouldn't be able to keep a beat (based on mean 4th grade music teacher) actually i tried to pick up drums in hs but couldn't get a drum roll down after practicing for a couple weeks and gave up.

so for all of us who are not talented at playing instruments but enjoy it anyways, it's fun. like paint-by-numbers for people who stink at art but enjoy playing w/ the paints.

I have the same line of thought as Sam and I actually included it in that essay of how I'm different. Not too many kids in my school go around knowing how to play three instruments. I only know of one other, but I know a few that play two instruments.
You only waited a couple of weeks before quitting? I waited at least two years and I did that because I didn't like them. I played piano for six years, I've been playing violin since I was ten, and I played flute for two years. You could learn to play an instrument. My sister is currently teaching her friend, who is twenty, how to play the piano. She's a math whiz so she understands the concept of rhythms. Maybe you just picked the wrong instrument for you. I LOVE string instruments and sounds like you didn't actually get to learn how to play guitar, so maybe you should try to pick it up again, or maybe even that trombone that you think is so hard. You could even pick up a violin. You said that you were good at math, right? You've got a heads up on the competition then! Maybe I'll end up going to school in Connecticut and be able to drill some scales and chords into your brain. It's just an idea if you want, but I'm not the best teacher.
About the flute thing, I couldn't get it on my first try. Okay, my first try was a few years before I actually started playing it, but the rule still sounds unfair to me. My sister could barely get a sound and then she went on to get a 99/100 on a level 6(hardest) piece for NYSSMA(like all county, but there's no concert that you have to practice for).
Does that encourage you to go out and play an instrument? Who knows, maybe you'll like it more than Rock Band.

i think rock band is actually starting to inspire me to want to play drums for real because it's so fun in the game. but i don't think it's realistic for me to buy a drum set and play alone at my house. although our new place WILL have enough room for them... hmmm nah not going to happen!
i asked my husband to give me a guitar lesson (he has an elec and an acoustic and plays occasionally and i wouldn't say he's awesome but he can get through a few songs) but we packed the guitars up to sell our condo so i'll have to wait.
i can read music pretty well, so you'd think that would give me a head start too but it hasn't helped me all that much. i wish rock band displayed the music like sheet music - that would really be more realistic i think.

there is a jazz band at work i have a friend in it, but i'm not interested in playing any of those type instruments (don't think they have drums). had enough of band-band in my school days (i was a band geek who wasn't even good at band - hence the color guard)

zany wrote:i can read music pretty well, so you'd think that would give me a head start too but it hasn't helped me all that much. i wish rock band displayed the music like sheet music - that would really be more realistic i think.

That would be awesome! It'd also be awesome to be able to compose your own music on there like on Mario Paint, but maybe not with the annoying little characters.
What clef do you read in? I read in treble and bass, but there are others.
Have you ever played Donkey Konga? It's really fun, to me at least, to play! I know that I said that I don't like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, so I'm being a bit of a hypocrite, but in my defense there are animals! A bad excuse, but I'm sticking to it. Actually, I haven't played it in years, so that's a better excuse I guess.

philipgar wrote:Oh man, good luck trying to beat me at sucking at all these games. I have absolutely no sense of rhythm. I can't even tap my foot in beat to a song, and if people are clapping along at a concert I tend to be off unless I've gotten so far off I'm clapping with everyone else again.

I remember in college playing donkey konga, and all my friends would laugh... even the ones who were pretty bad at it enjoyed seeing me play as I managed to do even worse. With guitar hero, I can occasionally get into it, and have played a handful of times. If i've had a few beers I can sometimes get into it and start trying to jam, but then I end up getting ahead of the notes or something. I can't seem to stay on the beat, and my hand eye coordination sucks (my dad, who was my T-ball coach, had me playing pitcher and catcher as they were the positions I was least likely to get hurt in).

Phil

So who would be the more "entertaining" dancer? You or Pirner?

mystic_spiral_3 wrote:
So who would be the more "entertaining" dancer? You or Pirner?

hmm, probably Dave, as my jeans don't have quite as many holes in them (I've recently retired the ones where a hole in the crotch was forming). Plus.... good luck getting me out on a dance floor .

Phil

hmm but the fact that you even had jeans that got that far - sounds like it might be a close competition.



nicole - i only remember my treble clef stuff. if i had to i might remember bass. and no - never played donkey konga. never liked most video games except original supermariobros, sonic, NHLhockey'92, and rock band.

Since there is at least some talk of other videos games that are not music related, I was just wondering if anyone else here wanted(not necessarily is going to get) the new Nintendo DSi that's coming out in November in Japan and in April in other countries?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DSi
I probably won't get it, but it sounds really cool. My sister brought it up yesterday while she was searching for yesterday's news for the crossword puzzle. My sister is of course the video game buff, which would be why I hadn't heard of it, but really, has anyone else here heard of it?
Zany, you have got to try Donkey Konga. Do you have a Gamecube or a Wii that you could play it on? It is one of the few games I don't suck at, plus it's easier than Guitar Hero so it's really easy to get perfect scores after just a little practice. My dad could even do it and he doesn't have a clue as to how to play any actual instrument!

yeah we have a gamecube but not that game. but i don't think i'll try any more video games i hate them! (except rock band)

has anybody seen that movie King of Kong? it was entertaining.

nope not planning on getting the DSi... husband has PSP which he's modified to play all sorts of old games on it from all systems. it still seems cooler than the DSi - i don't get what's great about it? what's the camera for?

That story doesn't seem to have everything my sister told me about. You see, according to my sister it has internet access and you can download games from the Wii onto the DSi. The camera is for taking pictures, I guess. You can download pictures from your computer onto the DSi and from your Wii. Also according to my sister, it has an MP3 player. I don't know whether my sister has it perfectly, but you can't always trust Wikepedia either.