great question. that sounds like a thread all on it's own.
i love drums. i can do the easy-peasy livin after midnight or ac/dc kinda beat, but nothing complicated. i wish i could play fills like on pantera's "13 steps" or holy mackerel's "delicate tendrils"

My friend's little brother played rockband drums non stop for over a year and now he has had a drum set for less than a year, and has amazing timing.

^That has nothing to do with playing Rockband. Drummers either got it or they don't. He apparently does.


People who actually play drums have more of a likelihood of being good at Rockband...but it doesn't work the other way around. A real drumset responds a lot differently.

that's actually the exact opposite reaction to everyone i know.

the few real drummers that i jam with have a really hard time with the game, either because of the layout of the pads and reduced size of the 'kit', or they want to play more notes than on screen. one of them graduated from PIT so he's not exactly a slouch on the skins either.

rockband has EVERYTHING to do with building up your timing skills. all you're really doing is playing along to a very colourful metronome that also provides a better soundtrack that tic, toc, tic, toc.

i've sat on a kit before i know it's not the same thing AT ALL. then again playing the guitar in the game is not at all the same as playing the real thing. that doesn't mean the finger exercise is lost when you switch from buttons to strings. in essence the game is ALL about timed patterns.

for the original question - whenever I play a new song or try something new, I always do a few scales to warm up my fingers first. It's a good habit to get into.

I've been doing everything suggested and practicing every day and I've improved heaps! Pretty much back to my original standard. The tips of my fingers are getting harder too, haha.

yeah, when that happens, you could stck a pin in there and not get any blood, haha