Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas (Bass in Rocksmith)
I’ve warned everyone that this blog is unpredictable and can contain just about anything. In the spirit of self-improvement, I’m tracking my improvement in several hobbies. A couple of those hobbies involve guitar and bass. I am a decent bassist, a marginal lead guitarist, and an absolutely wretched rhythm guitarist. Is that going to change for the better? I sure as hell hope so. I’m going to experiment with Rocksmith (music learning software) for an extended period of time and see if it works successfully as a learning tool.
Overview
Starting on the bass path in Rocksmith, I went ahead and started with Blue Christmas because I guessed it would be extremely easy.
Song Review
Coming into this song, it already has several strikes against it:
- I don’t really go for the slow, saccharine 1950s stuff
- Extremely apathetic toward Christmas music, with a couple exceptions
- I was not alive for Elvis Presley, so I don’t really have any feeling or nostalgia toward Elvis
That’s not to say I dislike every single Christmas song, though. There were four Christmas songs in this Rocksmith Christmas pack. I bought the pack specifically for Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and both Run, Rudolph, Run and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are both marginally listenable. Blue Christmas feels like the ugly duckling of this group. I would have preferred Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You over this one (extremely unpopular opinion). This song gets a solid D.
Hey, but upside – Bill Black played bass on this
Bass Track Review
The extremely slow pace of this song, combined with the straightforward aspect of the track sheet, make this an ideal starting point for bass guitar neophytes. I realize that a lot of people suggest options that just plow root notes, like Pour Some Sugar on Me, but you have to take speed into account. The slower the song and the simpler the track, the longer a new player has to make string and fret changes.
I think a complete rookie could theoretically come into this song and do pretty decently. I went into the song, sight unseen, and got a 95%. Had I not flubbed the small unexpected run of notes at the end, I would have likely gotten a perfect 100%.
How Did I Learn It?
Just jumped directly into song without preparation, given that I wasn’t expecting anything particularly challenging.
The Details
Played on: Fender Jazz
Difficulty: Easy
Approx hours to learn: 0
My final accuracy score on Rocksmith: 95%
