I remember an IM conversation with my brother last year about him having attended a Journey concert. I was like "Ok cool, they're a great band." That got me thinking though. How in the world did he become such a great fan of the band that he even attended their concert? Is it because a fellow country man, Arnel Pineda now serves as their vocalist? As far as I can remember, both of us only knew one epic song from Journey, and that was their power ballad "Open Arms". Other than that, I don't really know any other good song from them. Something changed or happened while I was away finishing college. Now I'm back and I know what brought about that change; Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, as the sequel to Rock Band. It is the second title in the Rock Band series. Rock Band 2 allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular rock music songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums parts to songs with "instrument controllers", as well as sing through a USB microphone. Players are scored on their ability to match scrolling musical "notes" while playing instruments, or by their ability to match the singer's pitch on vocals. -- Source: Rock Band 2 Wikipedia

Now before you start bashing me on this article about Rock Band 2 being just a mere video game, I ask you to think this through. What is the best way to learn about music? What is the best way to increase your music repertoire? That's simple, you have to listen to lots and lots of different kinds of music. If you want to be a good song writer and composer, you have to build up your music repertoire. Rock Band 2 lets you do that and even lets you play along with the music.

I have found from my own experience that playing along with the music, instead of just listening to it greatly increases your appreciation for music. Playing along with the music; watching a particular song's bass lines flow, matching that song's drum beat patterns and trying to perfect that crazy guitar lead solo is such a learning experience. It sort of gives you a different way of appreciating and learning music, and one that's more effective than just listening to music.

Another argument that could be raised here is that no real instruments are used. True, the guitar controller used in the game isn't a real guitar, its just a controller with buttons that look like a guitar. The drums controller is more of closer to the real thing and you can actually learn a bit from it, but really, in terms of experience, playing on a real drum set is still different. I never said though that you can learn how to play the real instruments by playing Rock Band 2. The point I'm drilling at here is that Rock Band 2 offers a different and more interactive way to learn music, especially rock music.

A lot of the chord patters that we hear in contemporary music today have all been played before. It might sound different to you, but that's just because they are played in different keys. Take for instance the really common chord pattern G, D, Em, C. That is simply equivalent to C, G, Am, F. Even if you find a rare chord pattern being played in music today, chances are that it has been used in another song decades ago. (Try to check some songs from the Beatles, they're a great source for chord patterns)

The drum patterns in music today, not all of it are new. If you listen to classic rock songs, you'll definitely notice how similar the drum patters are to today's music. The best song writers and composers know their music history. They take the stuff the previous generation created, imbue it with their own musical flare and create new music. That's how its done ever since.

Play Rock Band 2 and you'll know what I'm talking about. Playing along with the music highlights parts of a song that you may have overlooked before. Like really tricky guitar lead scales and really cool drum pattern transitions. If you're a big rock music fan, this game is made for you. If you're a gamer, this game will enlighten you to music you may not have appreciated before.

With regards to my brother, he is now a big classic rock fan. He listens to Journey, Boston and other popular classic rock bands. That is an addition to the usual alternative rock songs that we are fans of. Don't misunderstand me though, Rock Band 2 is not just about classic rock. You'll certainly find songs in the game that will cater to your favorite rock music genre.

My favorite song so far is Taking Back Sunday's "Make Damn Sure". The drum patterns are not for the faint hearted (I mean those who never played drums before). Playing the song on Hard mode leaves me with a numb right leg after (damn those double base beats), it's a great learning experience though. I never tried the song on Expert mode, my brother can successfully finish it even with all the triple base beats the song uses.

Check out some of the cool Rock Band 2 videos I found on youtube below. The first one is my favorite song "Make Damn Sure" on expert mode with the guitar and drum part. The second one is a new downloadable song from the band Queen, yes Queen, the band who sang "Bohemian Rhapsody". This one is "Under Pressure" by Queen, which actually is where the bass line from a popular Vanilla Ice song is taken from (I didn't know this until I listened to the song in Rock Band 2, now that's learning music right there).

Last Updated on Saturday, 07 November 2009 20:53