Someguy gets gold star for "Good Mourning/Black Friday"

Check out this amazing video!

Out of all the RB1 and DLC songs available before the launch of RB2, there was only four I couldn't pass on Expert drums ("Burn", "Good Mourning/Black Friday", "My Last Words" and "They're Red Hot").

Getting a gold star for arguably the toughest of the 4 is very impressive. Someguy also got an FC for "They're Red Hot"...

Exercising the drumming muscles - part 2

A few weeks ago I mentioned that rock climbing was a great complimentary workout to drumming (since it works out your forearms). Well today I found another sport that will exercise the other muscles we use a lot, the dreaded foot-pedal muscle group!

What could it be? Well, it is none other than curling!

I started curling the day before our Rock Band session this week. And let me tell you that I really felt it while drumming... My leg and ankle were killing me during the whole session. Usually I am fine to play for a good 4 or 5 hours before I feel something, but not this time...

For those who think curling is a relaxing sport for your body, think again! Talk to me after you have played a game... I didn't even finish one game and I felt the effects.

For those of you who are having problems with leg muscles when playing Rock Band, try it out and it might help your endurance!

Drumming techniques

Hi all, today I will share with you a technique that has helped me get good scores for fast songs.

The basic drum pattern in the game: hi-hat with alternating bass pedal + snare on every 2nd note. Pretty easy, right? How about keeping it up at 200BPM for 3 minutes (ex: any Ramones song...)

Well it all depends on how you play it. Most poeple I see playing keep the same technique whether the song is 70 PBM or 200 BMP: hit all hi-hat notes (yellow pad) with the right hand. Although I do recommend this method to build up endurance, when you just want to have fun and play, this will kill your right arm pretty quickly.

Therefore I say why not use both hands to hit the high hat? We do it in the rolls so why not in that beat? Sure it could be a bit confusing at first but I urge you to try it out.

You can start with the drum trainer in Rock Band 2 at the lowest speed and concentrate on using both hands to hit the hi-hat notes (yellow pad). Keep increasing the speed and you'll pick it up in no time. Plus your style points will increase! :)

I started doing this a few months ago and I berely ever get tired now. I use this trick on almost every beat now.

I wonder if the real drummers do this too?

Infinite Setlist Drumming Marathon

See this page for a live stream of "Someguy913", one of the best Rock Band drummers (member of #1 superband "Here Comes a New Challenger"), doing all 373 Rock Band songs in a row (RB1, RB2 and DLC)!

His amazing journey started yesterday afternoon and will end sometime tomorrow...

Exercising the drumming muscles

As I play more and more I can notice my endurance increasing at a very good rate. Obviously we can think of the "practice makes perfect" speech but I am sure there is more than that.

What muscles get tired for you when you play real/RB drums? In the usual case there is:
- the ankle
- the forearms

Sure practicing will help develop the muscle you need but what else could help?

Well if you read a bit about my profile you will notice another major activity that interests me: Rock climbing.

What mucles do you need for rock climbing? I'd say pretty much all of them but forearms is a big one. Since I go rock climbing twice a week, pushing myself further and further, these muscles develop at a significantly faster rate than if I just played drums (for the ankle, I have no tips for you :p)

I am certain there are specific exercises that can focus on exacly the right mucle to workout, but why not have fun and try something different instead of just lifting weights? :)

Burn baby burn

Well, that wasn't long.... After a good dozen tries of the DLC "Burn" by Nine Inch Nails, I finally succeded. I will talk about the difficult part here.

In practice mode I tried to find a simplified pattern that would give me a good percentage of notes. I found one pattern that got me a 60% success rate and decided to try it out:
-Hit the red notes at half pace
-Hit all foot pedals
-Hit all yellow notes

....Not good enough. The meter was going down just too fast in the first "difficult pattern (break 1?)" and I wanted to keep my overdrive as an arm relaxant for the outro. :)

Then I decided to stop chickening out and work those arms. I tried a few holding positions until I found one that could keep my meter constant!

I was holding the drumstick at the middle VERY lightly with my thumb on top. The bounce between the pad and the thumb was so good I was able to keep up. Of course timing the bass pedal is crucial and almost every one should be hit.

FYI, if you save your overdrive for the outro, it is safe to use it on the third overdrive section (it will take you out of the insane part).

I wonder if I will ever reproduce this success? :)

Run to the Hills

I just thought I'd take the opportunity and post that I recently finished Run to the Hills on Expert Drums. OK... Its still at 3 stars but It still feels good :)

Maybe now we can tackle the endless setlist? Maybe when we have reached the top 6