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Further Rock Band notes
Dec. 6th, 2007 09:08 amThis one was just floating around in my head and I had to share. I will shut up about this eventually.
Most Necessary for a Good Time: Vocals
I was a little surprised by this, but my experience has borne it out. Rock Band with just drums and guitars seems a bit flat-- you really need someone belting out the tunes at the top of their lungs to complete the experience. They don't have to be good, thankfully for me, but if they're enjoying themselves loudly everyone else will be too.
Most Necessary to Keep Everyone from Screwing Up: Drums
I suppose this is obvious to people who actually play in bands, but you really do need a consistent drummer to keep everyone else moving. It's fun to do the flashy fills, but the meat-and-potatoes rhythms are the absolute foundation of the music. When the drummer drops out everyone else's parts get 30% harder.
Most Necessary for a 5-Star Score: Bass Guitar
Surprise! Bet you thought this was going to be Lead Guitar, didn't you? It isn't. A good bassist can keep that 6x multiplier going... and knows when to deploy Star Power to bump it to 48x. In my experience when people were playing in their comfort levels, Bass was Top Scorer something like three times in four.
Most Necessary to Keep People Alive: Lead Guitar
On the flip side, Lead Guitar isn't all about the ripping solos. It's about that too-- it's hard to beat a good guitar solo for sheer coolness factor. But the scores you can potentially get with Lead Guitar are counter-balanced by the fact that the parts are significantly harder. On the other hand, the Energy phrases are fast and furious on guitar and you can deploy them whenever you need to-- which means you can buffer failing members easily or bring them back to life if you have to.
Also worth noting, you really want to have at least four people to make the game really good. We had something like ten people the other night, and it was awesome. People were singing along from the back, clapping, doing whatever they could to participate-- and of course waiting impatiently to get back in and play. Which really helps. :)
Most Necessary for a Good Time: Vocals
I was a little surprised by this, but my experience has borne it out. Rock Band with just drums and guitars seems a bit flat-- you really need someone belting out the tunes at the top of their lungs to complete the experience. They don't have to be good, thankfully for me, but if they're enjoying themselves loudly everyone else will be too.
Most Necessary to Keep Everyone from Screwing Up: Drums
I suppose this is obvious to people who actually play in bands, but you really do need a consistent drummer to keep everyone else moving. It's fun to do the flashy fills, but the meat-and-potatoes rhythms are the absolute foundation of the music. When the drummer drops out everyone else's parts get 30% harder.
Most Necessary for a 5-Star Score: Bass Guitar
Surprise! Bet you thought this was going to be Lead Guitar, didn't you? It isn't. A good bassist can keep that 6x multiplier going... and knows when to deploy Star Power to bump it to 48x. In my experience when people were playing in their comfort levels, Bass was Top Scorer something like three times in four.
Most Necessary to Keep People Alive: Lead Guitar
On the flip side, Lead Guitar isn't all about the ripping solos. It's about that too-- it's hard to beat a good guitar solo for sheer coolness factor. But the scores you can potentially get with Lead Guitar are counter-balanced by the fact that the parts are significantly harder. On the other hand, the Energy phrases are fast and furious on guitar and you can deploy them whenever you need to-- which means you can buffer failing members easily or bring them back to life if you have to.
Also worth noting, you really want to have at least four people to make the game really good. We had something like ten people the other night, and it was awesome. People were singing along from the back, clapping, doing whatever they could to participate-- and of course waiting impatiently to get back in and play. Which really helps. :)