Rock Band Drumming Blisters

My buddy Jeff has PS3, and recently bought Rock Band. I had heard of the game, but had never before seen it nor played it. Since I own a drumset (it's a crappy piece of crappy crap drumset, but it's a drumset), I thought it would be fun to try my meager skills with Rock Band.

It's not just "fun," it's musical videogaming heroin.

I played three or four songs on the "easy" level at Jeff's house, then turned the Rock Band drumset over to our friend Jerry. He's an accomplished drummer, and it was a blast seeing him knocking out song after song on the "hard" level.

Jeff was going away for a few days, so he let me bring it home to play with my younger son Joe. Yesterday morning at about 10:00 Joe picked up the guitar and I ensconced myself behind the drumset. We played for hours and hours.

I have a fresh blister on my right thumb. Apparently I grip the sticks differently when I'm playing the Rock Band drumset than when I play a real kit. Those previously calloused areas on my fingers either didn't bother me at all, or they weren't used.

By 4:00 yesterday afternoon Joe was playing the "hard" level guitar in the high 80% range, and I was scoring 95%+ on the "medium" drums. I tried "hard" on a couple of songs, but was embarrassingly tired by the time I felt competent enough with the songs. Now I really can understand why even the world's greatest drummers never play rock and roll for six hours straight. I was soaking wet, my back was killing me, and I was having a hard time holding onto the sticks during fast sections.

This morning I saw a story on G4's Attack of the Show, entitled "Are Rock Band Drums Like Real World Drums?" Based solely on the title, I thought there was no way it's accurate. Well, well, well. Imagine my surprise when the host, "who regularly gets 98 to 99 percent on expert drums in Coheed and Cambria’s Welcome Home, put that theory to the test... He met with Coheed and Cambria and substituted for the real drummer!"

The host knocked the song out of the park. I wonder if I could convince Aerosmith to let me sit in for Joey Kramer on "Train Kept a Rollin'?"

Disclaimer: No, this is not me playing. To see how hard this gets, fast forward to around the 3:40 mark. I can play this poorly on the "hard" level (around 83%), but this guy is playing nearly perfectly on "expert" level.