Thursday, July 21, 2011

Obsession: Rock Band



It all started last summer.

My buddy David had just returned from a year in Spain last July and was heading up to Montreal for a  music fest so he decided to stop in Philly to visit for a night on his way there. What made this visit different was David had brought his Playstation 3 and his Rock Band kit. I had heard of Rock Band and see photos of friend playing but had never played myself. I tried Guitar Hero once with my son and hit 24% of my notes on the one song I did. This was different though! You could sing? Oh this was something I was gonna love. Karaoke in my living room!!! David and I stayed up til the sun was coming up drinking and playing his library of tunes. When he was returning home from his trip he stopped over with the Rock Band again and this time I got to experience Beatles Rock Band for the first time. Hooked. 100%.

This was something I had to have.

Fast forward a few months to Xmas and my awesome boyfriend got me the Beatles Rock Band kit - which was awesome - black n white marble swirled drum kit, Paul McCartney's Hofner Bass guitar controller, a mic AND a mic stand, oh yeah I was getting my Rock Star on. In the beginning we didn't play it very much. I got to thinking it would really only be something that was done if we were drinkin' and such. Then we discovered online play and played with our friends Corey and Sam in Denver. That was fun. Playing as a full band with friends all the way across the country? I stuck to vocals mostly. And played on Hard. Expert scared me. Then I wanted to start playing around on the other instrument conrollers. I tried bass on Easy. That was ok. I wasn't very good but I always liked the bass. Then I tried guitar and decided chords were never gonna happen. The drums were fun but with my bad foot and able made the kick pedal impossible. Easy was as far as I was ever gonna get with that. So I kept at the bass using the John Lennon Rickenbacker as in about 2/3 months I was playing on expert. EXPERT! I was proud of myself. I moved up to expert on vocals which really isn't hard if you know the song and can stay in pitch. BOOM! I started playing guitar on Hard and sometimes even Expert? Crazyness.

BOOM! Game conquered.

Fast forward to now. I have been at it for about 7 mos. I have taken my peasley little  83 song library and turned it into a 579 song library of awesomeness. I play with people online that I have met through the Rock Band 30+ group on RockBand.com and Facebook all the time. I love knowing there are other thirty and forty-somethings as into this game as me. They are so much better than I am but they make it so fun. It sure makes playing this game more enjoyable when ya have others to play with. Crystal, Freddy, Rhonda, Chuck, Alex and all the rest - you rock!

So yeah expect to see occasional posts related to the game on my blog.

I am Tracy and I am Rock Band addicted.

So yes - this is my obsession.

Cheers,

T.R.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Oh, here it goes again.

I am so bad at following through on this damn blog. You have no idea how many things I start to write that I never finish and just end up deleting. Well I am gonna try and change that....again. Here goes it again!