Week 13

In my final week of game play, I decided to test out the cheat codes for Rock Band. The first place I went to look for these cheats was a reliable video game cheat website I have used since I was about ten years old, and it is called gamewinners.com. Here I found out that there is only one main cheat for this game. If you quickly press Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Red, Yellow, Blue at the title screen when "Press Start" appears on the guitar or drum controller, you can unlock every song. This turned out to be a great cheat considering I never unlocked every single song to the game. I then played these new songs until I had mastered them like the rest. So while there is only one cheat for this game, I did find out that there is a great deal of unlockable content, through achievements in the game. For instance you can unlock a gold drum kit by completing the career mode on drums under medium or high difficulty. I also was able to earn XBOX Live Gamerscore points through many achievements in the game. An example of this was when I finished the guitar portion of the career mode as a beginner; this helped me to gain 20 points for being a String Shredder. There were about 15 other accomplishments I experienced during this semester and all of these points add up to make me a well ranked gamer in the XBOX Live world. Overall, I truly enjoyed playing Rock Band and learned that this game can definitely be used as an educational tool in school systems that teach music. I would recommend this game to students next semester and hope they learn as much as I have in the past 13 weeks.

Week 12

This week I experimented playing another game called Guitar Hero. This game is very similar to Rock Band, except you only play the guitar, rather than having the option between the guitar, bass, drums, and singing. I noticed the game play was a little different and it made my transition difficult as a result. In Rock Band the colored notes are dashes versus the circles that are present in Guitar Hero, which threw off my timing. I also noticed that Guitar Hero has a better music selection than Rock Band. Yes, these two features are just my personal preference, but I also feel that Guitar Hero is slightly more challenging than the Rock Band songs that I have practiced on and been used to. One disadvantage of Guitar Hero is that you cannot have a whole band playing, like in Rock Band, but you can challenge your friends in a guitar rock out, which is cool in a different sense. While these are two games that promote playing and learning music through active participation, I feel that Rock Band has more to offer from an educational viewpoint. Overall, I like Rock Band better than Guitar Hero because it gives you more musical freedom to choose your instruments, is a more beginner friendly game, and provides players with the true feeling and experience of playing in a band.

Week 11

One nice feature of Rock Band is that it encourages me to learn on my own. After I play the game, I am curious to hear other songs by these bands, or look up general information on song artists. For example, after playing songs by the Rolling Stones, I can use the internet to research their other songs and group history on a few websites. Not only does this increase my knowledge of rock music, but it also shows that there is a motivation for external learning outside of the game. Other games, such as Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart are fun to play, but do not have the research capabilities that Rock Band has. In my research, I have discovered a few new bands that I like. Before playing the game, I had never listed to Weezer or Nirvana, but after enjoying the game play of their songs, I decided to research their other music. As it turns out, I recently bought the Weezer Green Album from iTunes and I have enjoyed it a great deal since my purchase. Because Rock Band encourages studying music in one's free time, outside of the game, it provides a great learning opportunity for its players and students everywhere. Every video game should model Rock Band and motivate people to study in their free time by creating a solid and creative theme for their game.

Week 10

After my 10th straight week of playing Rock Band, I have decided to change up my playing style. Instead of the traditional career mode or just playing songs I like, I have decided to open the game up to the true band mode. I have played more often with my friends, creating our own band called the Jammerz. We all alternate positions, but I enjoy playing the guitar most. Yes, I have become pretty experienced on all of the instruments, but I still feel the most comfortable on the guitar. As the Jammerz, my friends and I have actually challenged other bands as well. My XBOX 360 has an online feature and we have had the opportunity to challenge other bands from across the world, using the online gaming mode. While we become very competitive, both our band and the bands we play against enjoy the musical challenge and the friendly atmosphere we create. Rock Band creates a social interaction between players, that most games could only dream of. Thanks to XBOX Live we have been able to experience rock competitions that rival a battle of the bands competition and this aspect of the game is completely different than the one player mode. This could be used in classrooms to give students the opportunity to collaborate and compete in rock music competitions. The social aspect of this game is not one to miss and while it is different from the one player career mode, it offers different features and can teach different social interaction skills to its users.

Week 9

As I play Rock Band more and more, I realize that this is a game that could be used in classrooms. Rock Band could be used for music classes to teach students about rock music itself, playing the music with instruments, and how to decipher different parts of music. Also, this game provides many other positive forms of learning that are similar to other video games. For instance, this game fosters social interaction through the use of multiplayer and online play. Furthermore, this game teaches people about specific characteristics of history. For instance, this is a great tool for students to learn about classic rock bands and projects can be created around the history of music or rock music specifically. Also, when students learn about this classic rock they can do projects on the comparison to modern rock or rap and explain the similarities and differences between the different forms of music. Overall, Rock Band is a great game that has a lot to offer students. Not only is this a new form of active learning, but there is a lot of potential for students to learn a lot of extraneous information. By making research projects revolving around rock music and playing instruments, the learning will evolve to a new level and for this reason, technology is a great aid in classrooms around America.

Week 8

Recently I have noticed that Rock Band has given me new confidence that I did not have before. Specifically, I feel more confident as a singer and when I play this game. Not only am I more confident when I sing songs, but I feel that my singing has actually improved from playing this game. One thing I noticed about this game is that as you progress the levels get increasingly harder. Furthermore, there is strategy that must be used later on in the game that was learned in the beginning of the game. In the game, you start off on a small stage, with a small audience, but as you move on, the stage and audience become increasingly bigger and harder to please. This has been a difficult challenge to compete with and I play my best to avoid getting booed by my audience. I have not had the chance to attempt playing the guitar, but playing the drums has gone well and I hope to increase the amount I play in the near future.

Week 7

Over break I played plenty of Rock Band. In my seventh week, I have progressed deeply into my career mode and have noticed it is becoming increasingly harder at each stage of the game. One of my friends has a drum set at his house and this game motivated to learn from him. I asked my friend to teach me how to play a real drum set, instead of the plastic one that has been a part of my virtual reality. After actively practicing the drums for two days straight over the break, I realized it is much harder and different to play a real instrument, than the ones provided in Rock Band. On a real drum set there are more drums to be played, different pitches depending where you hit the drum, and you definitely need a sense of rhythm. While Rock Band has definitely improved my hearing for music (increased awareness of rhythm and tones) I am not nearly experienced enough to play the drums yet. I am glad that Rock Band inspired me to try out a real drum set and experience true active learning, but I will need a lot more practice if I wish to truly become a rock star. I plan to play my friend's drums for the rest of the semester, with his guidance, in order to improve my musical skills and appreciation for this instrument.