History Repeats Itself? Not Exactly

Spyderbyte | 4/29/2008 9:20 am | Game On

In my younger days, it was quite common for me to go to school by day, come home, and practice my piano while my mother or father would prepare us dinner.

In a manner of telling, history repeated itself this past weekend. Ok, so what if the cook in question was a microwave reheating a delicious homemade casserole prepped for 3/4 of our Game On crew by Amethyst the night before? So what if the school I happened to be attending by day was Gekkoukan High by way of my latest addiction, Persona 3:FES? And so what if my instrument of choice was not an aging piano but rather a plastic Fender Strat? Other than those minor details, the story is just about identical, no?

As I had hoped, most of my weekend was filled with trips into the wicked world of P3, but I have an ongoing challenge I'm working on in between my tower climbs; that of chipping away at Green Grass and High Tides on Expert in Rock Band. It's the last track (or so I believe) in my solo campaign before quote-unquote beating the game. I have a standing practice when I visit Erik and Amethyst of trying that song at least once each time I load up the game. I don't set out to beat it - rather I set a goal of getting a little farther each time. A few weeks ago, I was at about 37%. Two weeks ago I was in the mid-60s. As a group two weeks ago, we did manage to work together as a full band and crawl through the song (talk about an adrenaline rush!) but I've yet to finish it by myself.

So, this past weekend, on a break from P3, I tried GG&HT once more. I was excited to land an 80% on a cold run through. Hooray! But wow, did my hand ache. I decided to sing for awhile, and finished up the last three songs in my Medium solo tour. Cha-ching! A few new achievement points for my collection. Then I put the game away and went back to school.

But thoughts of glory stewed inside me throughout the day and into the next. On another break from class and shadow slaying, I tried again. 85%. But this was one of those "mostly luck" moments. You see, there is this particular part of the song (that if you hadn't guessed sets in at the 80% mark) where a roller-coaster cascade of triplets perpetually knocks the wind from me. Yellow-Red-Green-Red-Yellow-Red-Green on and on and on - it's truly wicked. A well-timed Overdrive launch along with a fraction of well-struck notes saved me from failing that section this time, but at 85% right when the Overdrive disappears, what happens? In fine musical form, it repeats. Ouch.

But I will not be denied, dear Readers. I do what any respectable musician would do - I enter Practice Mode and isolate the section of the song that is consistently destroying me. Over and over again (as Erik's poor ears will sadly attest to) I tried to perfect that section. At one point, I had what could have been a revelation if it weren't for the fact that no matter how it's played, it's still quite difficult, but it's worth noting that this section, if played right, is a continual hammer-on/pull-off which could be played with one hand and no strums. I was playing it mostly with one hand, save the strums needed to try to get back on the track when I'd miss a note. But on the Rock Band guitar (something I didn't think of until mid-practice - duh!) one can play the smaller frets near the body of the guitar without strumming on the solos. So I started practicing that way. I think my best one-handed score in Practice Mode for that section was 97%. Oh, wait, that was at 70% speed. At top speed it was more like 42%. I could get in the 60% range at 90% speed.

I tried a few more times, next switching my strategy to playing the entire song with the buttons near the guitar body so I needn't concern myself with relocating my hand during the solos. I would consistently get 80% and occasionally 85%, but that is where I had to stop because fingers were getting sore and I really wanted to get back to school.

Wait a minute, what am I saying? I wanted to stop playing music because I longed instead to return to high school? History revising itself? Maybe. History repeating itself? I don't think so.

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P.S. Here is a YouTube video of someone who either is a Rock Band natural or who has put in even more practice hours on this track than me. Enjoy!