Month: July 2018

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve had a music theory teacher come over to our house two times a week for music lessons. These music lessons are mostly on the theory since most of the time I just play without actually knowing how the music was made or why it was made the way it was. First, I’ll write about what I’ve learned from the lessons, then I’ll write about what I think about my teacher and the methods of teaching he uses.

So far, most of the things I’ve learned are pretty basic like how to find the key of a song, the different chords, and scales that work in the same key, and how to identify chords on paper. In addition to the note theory, I’ve also learned more about recording music and how to enhance audio to make it sound better in different ways. We haven’t really gotten into anything too complicated though and I’m just experimenting with different effects and tools to see how they change the way the audio sounds.

My teacher, Sean, has done a good job of teaching me how to analyze music in my opinion. He asks me questions to make sure I understand what we’re doing as well as answering any questions I have. He tries not to make things boring and to make sure I’m at least somewhat engaged in something we’re doing. Work to do in between lessons is also given, but it isn’t too much work to do given the amount of time. Depending on how much I know, he tries to keep explanations to my level of understanding which makes things easier for me.

Overall, I feel like these lessons are useful in some way or another without being boring or hard to comprehend. The way things are taught is also engaging since I am able to choose songs I like to work on as well as ask questions.

A few days ago I downloaded a new game called osu! which is free to play and can be downloaded here. It’s a rhythm game where you have to click circles to the rhythm of a song. You could also use your keyboard instead of clicking.

There isn’t much to the game besides clicking/tapping a single circle, click/tap hold and drag, or click/tap hold and spin. Those are the main movements of the game. This way, beatmaps (basically levels) can be mapped in different difficulties. A lot of players use a tablet instead of a mouse since it uses more fine motor skills using a pen. I’ve only been playing for a few days, so I’m not sure whether or not I may want to consider purchasing one. However, it is something I have in mind. osu! is the first rhythm game I’ve played on a computer, but I’ll say that I enjoy it a lot. Since the game has a large community, you can go to their website and find a variety of different songs. Sometimes they might not have a song you’re looking for, but most of the time you can find something enjoyable.

So far, I’m not very good at the game compared to the average player, but it’s been an enjoyable experience from when I started even after seeing players that are way better. Although after seeing a player do better than you might make you feel bad, I feel like in osu! it just shows you that you can always improve. The game is very simple in its core mechanics, but things can get complicated quickly.

I’d recommend this game to anyone that’s looking for a rhythm game to try out or someone who’s looking for new games to play. If you’re interested you can download the game from the osu! website.

This past week there’ve been lots of new items, changes, and the Playground LTM. I’ll be writing about what I think is interesting as well as what I feel will affect my playstyle.

First, I’ll go over the new weapons which are the Stink Bombs, Drum Gun, and Dual Pistols. The Stink Bombs were the first of the three to be added. They’re also the only weapons I’ve gotten a chance to use. They are a type of grenade that when detonated produce a cloud of gas that deals five damage to health every half a second. The cloud lasts for nine seconds which can deal 90 damage to player’s health. Which will either kill them or leave them at low HP. From my personal usage, you can use them to push an opponent out of a 1×1 if they’re trying to heal or you could trap them in your own 1×1 and throw a Stink Bomb to try to kill them.

The Dual Pistols were second after the Stink Bombs. The Dual Pistols are two pistols that use medium ammo and when you click once it shoots twice. Each bullet does a base damage of 41-43 damage depending on the rarity. For comparison, the Legendary SCAR does 36 base damage. There is no first shot accuracy which is kind of the only big downside. If you ask me, I think that these pistols do way too much damage per bullet. If you land two headshots and one body shot you could kill a player with full shield and health in just two clicks.

The Drum Gun looks a lot like older versions of the Thompson which is a real weapon that was made decades ago. It uses medium ammo and can hold 50 bullets in the magazine. The Drum Gun has similar fire rate to an SMG with a base damage of 26-27 depending on the rarity. I feel like this is another weapon that you’ll just pick it up to use a few games and then not use it ever again unless it’s the only gun you have. Compared to even a grey AR which does 30 base damage it’s better for overall use. The only thing I see the Drum Gun going for itself is the fire rate and the magazine size.

All shotguns’ damage to structures was reduced by 50% for the pump and 25% for the tactical and heavy. From my perspective, it will make build fights less fast-paced since you now have to switch to another weapon if you want to break down a wall or ramp fast. If you were using a pump you’d have to use two shots to destroy a wood wall that’d just been placed, but now, you have use four shots instead.

Another big thing to mention is the fact that when you edit a wall or floor you can no longer see through the grey pieces that you click on. This makes seeing people through your walls a lot harder. The “quick editing” to get an accurate shot on a player standing on the other side of a wall will now be harder to do since you can’t really see too well while editing.

These past updates are pretty interesting since lots of new weapons are coming out as well as changes to damage of weapons that are kind of dominating in usage. I think that playing the game after these updates will be different especially with the new editing change.