Back during the DLC, RBN and later C3 days of Rock Band 3 I often found myself using the new releases as a way to discover new music that was fun to play each week. Now with the advent of the customs database there is now an enormous number of songs available, and lately I’ve found myself mostly downloading customs of songs by artists I really like or authored by authors I know very well. It feels like I’m missing out on a lot of fun songs simply by virtue of there being too many.

There haven’t been many recommendation threads on this forum either, so I thought this could perhaps be a fun way to try and get the ball rolling. For each instrument that you play regularly, I want you to name one song that you would consider your favorite to play. Easy or challenging song, it doesn’t matter, just make it one that you’ve found yourself returning to play over and over for any reason.

And so, here’s my recommendations:

Guitar: Thousand Leaves – Reve of Mirrors

A Touhou metal song consisting mostly of two guitar solos. The solos have you playing fast scales up and down the frets a lot, and it’s simply a blast to play. The pace is pretty brisk, but if you’re an experienced RB guitar player it shouldn’t be enough to make your fingers too tired. Also personally I love the melody the song is based on, so even the parts where all you do is playing along with the melody are really fun to me.

Bass: Skrillex – The Devil’s Den (ft. Wolfgang Gartner)

A dubstep song featuring glitchy sounding bass and 3 (THREE) long bass solos. The glitchly strumming parts surprised me at first but they aren’t too bad once you get the hang of them, and they’re also really fun to play once you do. None of the solos are too difficult but are varied enough that they remain really fun to play, and as someone who freaks out whenever I see a bass solo, getting to play three of them in a single song is really awesome.

Drums: Dream Theater – The Dance of Eternity

A prog metal song featuring perhaps the highest density of time signature changes you’ve seen. While the drum part is highly complex and would no doubt take a lot of time to learn to actually play on a drum kit, it surprised me how doable it is in Rock Band when you have the note lane as your guide throughout. There isn’t any part that feels unfairly difficult in anyway, although a few sections require some pretty good limb independance in order to nail. I’d recommend listening to the song a bit before playing it because the rhythm changes a lot throughout the song and will most likely catch you off guard on your first playthrough otherwise. All in all however this is one of the most varied drum charts I’ve ever played with something always happening.

Pro Keys: Hiromi: The Trio Project – Spark

A piano driven jazz song in 9/16 with a lot of complex patterns. Since I first discovered this song I just can’t get enough of playing it. There is just so much going on in this song that it will take some major practice to get it down, but once you do it’s nothing short of amazing to play. The song never reaches a note density higher than 16ths except during one short part, and so it feels very fair to play in the engine while a lot of the faster pro keys songs often end up unfun to play because the engine is just too strict. There is some downtime after the first piano solo while the drums get their solo but really it’s just nice to get a break after the highly complex solo. This is by no means an easy song to play but if you’re experienced enough to take it on it’s highly worth it.

Vocals: Eir Aoi – Sirius

An energetic anime opening song from Kill la Kill. Without a doubt vocals is the most subjective instrument in many regards, not in the least when it comes to what songs are fun to sing. And so this makes my number one spot simply because I have such a fun time belting out the chorus of the song. When I watched the anime with my friend we used to sing along with the opening at the top of our lungs even though it sounded horrible, and now I get to do the same thing in Rock Band. If you like the song you should definitely try your hand at singing it, and if you haven’t heard it, well give it a listen, it’s by all means a good song.

Now it’s your turn! Give me your best recommendations and I’ll be looking forward to playing any and all songs that get mentioned! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_biggrin.gif” />