The Sims 3 Skill Guides:
Tips and FAQs | Athletic | Charisma | Collecting | Cooking | Fishing | Gardening
Guitar | Handiness | Logic | Martial Arts | Nectar Making | Painting | Parenting | Photography | Writing
The Sims 3 Guitar Guide - Learn the Skill, Play for Tips and Make Friends
Why Guitar?
The Guitar skill in the Sims 3 can serve many roles. It can help make money by playing for tips. Your Sim can get a bit of fun out of playing, and others have fun listening. The skill doubles as a powerful social tool because Sims who listen to your guitar will gradually become friends. We all love those who bring joy to our lives, and for many music is a source of happiness so it flat makes sense that it works this way.
Setting up the Guitarist
Good Traits to Choose:
Party Animal: The Party Animal trait fits the rock star lifestyle, and helps the Sim to throw better parties. You can throw truly awesome parties and gain multiple friends by being good at guitar and inviting a large number of guests. Serve up some grub for the guests, then take your spot playing for the partygoers. Everyone should have a good time!
Artistic: It provides a natural boost to the rate you learn guitar, but doesn't do much more than that.
Virtuoso: Not only do you learn the guitar skill faster with this trait, you also get more in tip while playing.
Loves the Outdoors: This is the only one here that's not so obvious. Your Sim will likely go to a public place like the park to play guitar for tips, and will get a boost to mood for being outdoors.
Guitar-related lifetime wishes
Rock Star: This wish has the Sim desiring to be at the top of the rock musical career track.
Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers: A Sim with this lifetime wish seeks to gain level 10 in both charisma and guitar, a quite easy feat to achieve.
Master of the Arts: Like above, but with Painting and Guitar
Hit Movie Composer: This Sim really wants to ascend to the top of the symphonic musical career track. Logic will also come into play here.
How to Play for Tips:
Upon reaching level 5 in the guitar skill, Sims can begin playing for tips. Do this by putting the Sim's guitar in his or her inventory, then going to a public space such as the park. Look for a good spot where Sims pass by and go to the inventory screen. Select the guitar and choose 'play for tips'. Your Sim will start playing. He won't hook everyone's attention who passes by, but people who get enthralled by music will leave a tip.
The Sims who listen to your music don't usually leave only one tip either, you're like a regular Pied Piper as the Sims surrounding you are mesmerized and regularly drop money in the guitar case. I was impressed with how much money I could get with my master guitarist. It's easy and very common to make 1000 Simoleons a day. This is some serious money and enough to support an entire family.
The best part about playing for tips is that you get to choose your own schedule, but must generally play during the day time when plenty of people are around.
Tips are based on the number of performances your Sim has initiated. This means you can get massive tips by cancelling a performance over and over to raise your total. Unless this is fixed in a future patch it makes guitar the single highest mone-maker in the Sims 3.
Making Friends with Guitar
The Guitar skill in the Sims 3 is an amazing way to make friends. I think it may be the best I've found thus far. The relationship bar of Sims caught up in the music will gradually rise. You can befriend the entire populace if you spend enough time out in public playing. This works just fine when you're playing for tips as well, so you don't have to worry about turning it off -- you'll still make plenty of friends!
Mastering the Art of Guitar: Mastering Guitar is a cinch, it will eventually reach level 10. Additionally, you'll be happy to know that every book you need to master every song can be bought in the store. The others come with skill levels. Pursue opportunities that appear from time to time to make some nice cash in a short amount of time. The Guitar-playing Sim can make an awful lot of money, but it will take some regular work to get it.
The Sims 3 Skill Guides:
Tips and FAQs | Athletic | Charisma | Collecting | Cooking | Fishing | Gardening
Guitar | Handiness | Logic | Martial Arts | Nectar Making | Painting | Parenting | Photography | Writing