Hello Rocksmith fans, and welcome to another TRR Community Chart Spotlight! This series focuses on the incredible work done by the Rocksmith+ Workshop community and gives a closer look in to why they choose certain songs, how they approach charting, and some tips ‘n tricks for those of you who want to explore creating your own charts.
This time it’s the turn of FFFunk. FFFunk is another regular in our Rocksmith discord and to date has submitted over 150 charts to the Workshop. You may have already played their terrific Mercyful Fate, Krokus or Triumph charts, and that barely scratches the surface! Today, the spotlight is on Reckless by Morgan Wade. Take it, FFFunk!
For my 100th chart milestone I’ve chosen to chart an artist I didn’t know about before Rocksmith. Firstly because I have discovered a lot of artists through Rocksmith, the original one, 2014 and Rocksmith+, and there are some of them that I listen to on a daily basis now. Secondly because I think that’s a great thing to do in order to improve my ear and my playing at the same time.
What I usually do when I’m out of charting material is browse the workshop website looking for songs without arrangements that I might like, listen to the preview, sometimes listen more on Deezer to have a better idea of what it’s all about, especially from artists I don’t know, and I download them by dozens to put them in my WIP folder.
This time I found an artist called Morgan Wade, a Pop/Country singer that made a recent album called “Reckless”. It happened that 2 songs from this album had been charted by the Notetrackers, but the rest of the album had not, including the self titled song “Reckless” that I thought had a great dynamic and a very nice solo. Enough for me to start working on it. 🙂
My process is almost always the same:
- A first listen with the tempo map view and the metronome to check if everything is correct. Spoiler : it usually is, but when it’s not, damn how painful it is to correct… (hasn’t happened for a while now so I’m hopeful it was just an issue with the first charts released)
- Another listen on the tab view in order to create my initial phrases (which can evolve a lot during the charting process, depending on a song’s guitar work complexity)
- A playthrough of each part in order to “try” and see the general feeling of the song, chords, tuning, positions…
- Transcribing each part one by one and adding a determined color depending on which section it fits in : verse in pink, chorus in orange, solo in green, etc. I add the colors only when a phrase is “finished” so I can have a clear view of what’s remaining to do on a song (I can work on multiple songs at once sometimes). It also helps a lot with songs that have the same patterns for their chorus / verse, you can copy paste sections and focus on the details changing if required afterward.
- Tempo map verification
As mentioned above, there are fewer and fewer issues with the tempo maps, most of them are already “verified” by the Rocksmith team and I have not had any issues since the beginning of 2023 if I remember correctly. However, this phase can still be a good start to have the dynamic of the song, understand the phrasing and the transitions.
- Tab view to add phrases
My favorite part. Listen. Cut. Add phrase. Listen again. Cut again. Add new phrase. Space bar / Space bar / Ctrl+P. Rinse and repeat.
- Phrasing done
My ACTUAL favorite part. <3
The fun begins here! I add sections, I experiment with different positions for each phrase, see how it matches with the previous one or the next one, make some tests with the music, find it’s awful, rewrite everything again, play with the mix, find alternatives, haha I love it ! I’m actually having more fun charting a song than playing it when it’s done! (just kidding… am I?)
This song was quite “easy” to transcribe though, as the guitar is almost always clearly earable, I had to play with the mix a few during the solo but that’s it really. Sometimes everything is mixed up and it ends up almost impossible to clearly ear what’s played, so you have to guess and see if it fits during play tests.
- Finished song
When the song is finished, I add the tones (one of the most difficult parts in my opinion). I chose to put only 2 tones (could have been 3) for this one : a little clean crunch for the whole song and a more overdriven one for the solo.
Overall, this whole process took me around 2 hours (but it can be much, much longer … some charts took me weeks), and you can now play “Reckless” by Morgan Wade on Rocksmith+ !
