Piano, Drums and Bass Skills — The Sims 3 Late Night eGuide

Late Night allows you to further indulge your Sim’s musical talents and learn three new instruments (piano, drums, and bass) in addition to the guitar.

These additional instruments allow Sims to form bands, which can then tour Bridgeport, play gigs, earn Simoleons, and achieve fame.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before the cash, before the adoring fans, there’s practice—and lots of it. Developing skill with an instrument is essential for a successful career in a band, and that takes real time.

But the rewards of mastering an instrument are plentiful...

Acquire by: Taking class, practicing on specific instrument

Development tools: Piano, drums, bass

Development Benefits

Developing skill with each of the new instruments unfolds almost exactly like the Guitar skill from The Sims 3 base game. When you first acquire an instrument, your Sim is pretty bad at playing it.

Piano keys are plinked. Drum beats are uneven. The bass sounds decidedly un-groovy. But that changes with time.

With each level you achieve, you get a little better. The music sounds tighter. Fewer mistakes are made. And you learn new songs to play.

One thing that is critical to note right away is that each instrument must be learned and developed separately. All four instruments operate independently of each other.

Skill levels earned on the piano, for example, do not translate to skill with the drums. Even if you reach level 10 of the piano, you must start from scratch with the bass.

This is why it takes so long to master all the instruments, making the One Sim Band Lifetime Wish such an achievement.

Playing the piano

Slapping the bass

Hammering the drums

Strumming the guitar

Once Sims know how to play an instrument, they only have a few available compositions. Only by leveling up the skill does the Sim learn more music and eventually reach a point where they can buy sheet music from the bookstore and really play some impressive tunes.

As the skill improves, the Sim also gets better at playing music and makes fewer mistakes. Here’s the level progression of the instrument skills:

Levels 1–4: Sim learns at least two basic practice-level songs per level. These are fine little ditties, but nothing spectacular.

Level 5: Sim earns three new compositions—real songs that other Sims enjoy listening to. Level 5 is particularly important to this skill.

At this level, the Sim stops just noodling around with the Play interaction on an instrument and moves up to the Perform interaction.

Other Sims get the Enjoying Music moodlet if around a performing Sim at level 5 on a specific instrument.

Levels 6–10: Sim learns at least one new composition per level and performs it without fail. The songs learned while achieving these skill levels are especially popular and enjoyed by other Sims.

When a Sim achieves a higher level in the skill, they really get into their music. Check out these moves.

Instrument-playing Sims can also Play for Tips in public locations. This is not the most lucrative activity, but it does add some extra Simoleons to the household bank account.

It’s also a good way to keep cash in the pocket of Sims starting out with a band and not yet playing high-level gigs.

(For more of gigs, see the New Careers chapter, which breaks down how bands work as careers.) The higher your skill, the more you make in tips. The more compositions your Sim knows and plays, the more they make, too.

Sheet Music

To round out your library of compositions, you cannot just rely on those learned by developing the skill. You must acquire new music by purchasing sheet music at the local bookstore or earn it from opportunities.

To learn from sheet music, select the music from the Sim’s personal inventory and choose the Learn interaction. The Sim starts playing the song over and over.

When the meter is full, the Sim knows the song by heart and can perform it. Use the Perform interaction and then select the name of the learned composition from the available list.