Yesterday evening, I became perhaps that last drummer in the world to sit down and play the video game, Rock Band. Some friends invited us over to their house for dinner and a "concert," and I was keen to give this a try after reading an excellent article in this month's Modern Drummer by Andy Ziker about his students improving their technique by playing Rock Band at home.
My daughters were very excited for me to join them in this, which is interesting: I've tried multiple times to teach them the basics of the percussive arts to no avail. So, I had two primary objectives going into last evening's "tour":
- To see how well my daughters we able to play "the kit" in Rock Band
- To see how well I could play
The Non-Drummers Drum
I started by hanging back and letting the kids play a couple songs so I could get the hang of how everything worked. My eldest daughter sat down at "the kit" first and they were going to play "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer.
All in all, she did a really great job. The first thing I noticed is that Rock Band represents a new way to help build solid time-keeping skills. Anybody my age remembers sitting down at the kit, headphones squarely fixed over our ears, connected to a metronome pumping that incessant clack-click-click-click-clack-click-click-click while we are trying to play something musical to it. It was difficult, but it was the way we learned to develop our sense of time and, eventually, play to a click track in a recording studio.
Rock Band actually enforces the same kind of rigid time-keeping as the metronome, but makes it fun and musical at the same time. As my daughter plowed through "Say It Ain't So," I watched her carefully (this particular song in the game has a lot of eighth notes on the "hi-hat" and snare hits on 2 & 4, more closely mimicking the actual groove of the song) and she was keeping good solid time and, consequently, racking up a huge score in the game. We've worked the metronome at home many times and not enjoyed the same success.
The other interesting technique-builder in Rock Band is independence. Several of the songs, especially when you get into the higher skill levels, require you to work the hands and the "kick drum" simultaneously. And again, because it's a game, the real song is playing in the background and there is a bonus score to consider, I watched my daughter nail that Weezer song in a way that she probably would not have been able to do studying with me in my studio.
I certainly don't think that Harmonix Music Systems (the production company for Rock Band) intended to create an educational game for drummers but, in a way, that's exactly what they've done. I didn't observe the same level of rudimentary skill building Mr. Ziker writes about in his MD article, but Rock Band definitely can help new drummers learn time-keeping and independence in a way that is fun and appeals to this new generation in a way that the "old school" methods simply won't.
Old School Meets New School
Then it was my turn to sit down and try the kit. Expectations were high. Most of the people in the room had heard me play live with a band before, so it was expected that I would crush any song that was selected. I mean, after all, it's just a game, right?
My wife grabbed the guitar and we selected "We Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who. One of my very favorite drummers of all time, Keith Moon, and a tune that I've play a hundred time on stage. I was going to kill at this game...
Long story short, it was a debacle. Being fair and self-critical, this was the wrong song to start with. As free as Moon was with the groove on that tune, it didn't translate well to little colored bars streaming toward me on the screen. In effect, I was lost and thrashing around "the kit" like a newbie. It was embarrassing, but I got a nice round of applause when me managed to make it all the way through the song and not get booed off the stage.
I decided it was time to try something a little more straight ahead, so I picked "Foreplay/Longtime" by Boston. I made it through that tune pretty well (and kudos to our friend and the host of the party, Carol Garrett, on laying down the beautiful vocal line on a tough song). However, it was not without troubles.
Let's step back to the time-keeping aspect of the game. I can play very well to a click when need be. That being said, I'm definitely more of a "feel" player. Steady time is important, but so is letting the music "breathe" to achieve the right emotional connection with the listener. Rock Band will have none of that. If you get even a little bit off those eighth notes on the "ride cymbal," the drum track in the song stops and your start losing points and street cred very quickly.
The other thing I struggled with is not playing the "kick drum." I've been playing for so long, playing with only the right and left hands felt strange to me. I have a reputation for a heavy right foot, ala Chad Smith of the RHCP. It was everything I had to keep my right foot still. However, my left foot, pedal-free, was happily bouncing up and down on the off beats, creating a very funky groove for which I received no bonus points in the game.
Good For You, Good For Me
Overall, I think there are worse video games for kids to play than Rock Band for sure. I don't think anyone is going to be the Joe Satriani from playing the guitar in the game, but the role of the drummer is well represented and does teach some of the basics of the instrument to non-drummers and new students.
Though I didn't perform very well, it was an interesting challenge for me to play the game. When you've been playing for as long as I have, you get set in your ways and I think it's healthy for something like this to come along and kick you in the butt.
As I've told every student I've ever taught: "You get better by doing three things: Practice, practice and more practice."
Looks like I'm off to Best Buy this weekend.