[Editor’s Note: Be sure to join IGN and Harmonix for the world gameplay premiere of Rock Band 4 in our live stream on Friday, May 15 at 12pm PT/3pm ET/7pm GMT. That's 5am AEST on Saturday.]

Rock Band: Sessions entered development shortly after the conclusion of Rock Band 3. Harmonix canceled its excellent concept -- a Rock Band game where you make music instead of matching other artists’ notes -- shortly after the team completed a playable prototype. But the game still exists inside Harmonix, and the team was brave enough to let IGN make some music in a game that will never release.

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“It didn’t work for a number of different reasons,” Product Manager Daniel Sussman told IGN. “But Rock Band Sessions was really interesting to work on, and really exposed a lot of strains to us, and made us think about how musical expressivity in the format of a Rock Band game. And it actually informed Rock Band 4 Rock Band: Sessions, like Rock Band proper, involves a band of friends playing plastic instruments to hit colored notes. In Sessions, you’re creating the audio track for each instrument -- with pre-authored bass/drums/vocals/guitar of varying speeds and styles filling in the gaps if you so choose. In that case, “You are rolling into a studio where three or four parts are written,” Sussman explained, “and it’s up to you to fill out the bass line, or fill out the guitar line, or whatever that may be. So that turned into this interesting prototype we developed around Rock Band sessions.”IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey and Zach Ryan played drums and bass, respectively, while I took on the guitarist role in Sessions. Our first attempt to make music was an unmitigated and embarrassing disaster. We sounded like a teenage garage band jamming to different songs, with no coordination or regard for our sound. My frantic and out-of-time chords had no synergy with Zach’s bassline, or Ryan’s rhythm [Editor’s Note: This implies I have rhythm. Which I don’t]. If Sessions had a game over screen, this is how we would have found it.“With four people trying to build their own thing, but also have their thing be connected to what someone else is trying to build at the same time, it quickly devolved into chaos and anarchy,” Sussman said. “That’s not so fun.” Harmonix eventually “constrained it to a single-player experience, mostly because it was a way to organize an experience.”We started over, waiting for a drum beat first, then matched the guitar to the bass rhythm, and actually made something I sort of loved. When we played the song “in full,” Rock Band Sessions organized our brief, crummy tune into something that was fun to play in a Rock Band game. I felt satisfied having made a little song, with an intro verse and a chorus, that harmonized well with my coworkers. Sessions isn’t quite the same as playing music with friends in the garage or on the couch, but there’s a special feeling to making something that sounds not-awful -- and, if you’re good enough, like a real song.Sessions is a fascinating experiment, and something we enjoyed tinkering with, but isn’t the sort of game Harmonix wanted to sell for $60.Sussman explained, “What we found was that the content for Rock Band sessions had to be created for Rock Band Sessions, that this wasn’t a gameplay mechanic that could apply to the vast catalog of licensed material that we already had that you would need to support in a future Rock band.”Harmonix sees Sessions as a solvable problem, though -- just not one that necessarily needs to exist inside Rock Band 4. “I think a lot of the ideas baked into Rock Band Sessions could be presented in the context of a viable product,” Sussman said. “What I think a lot about is the degree to which Rock Band is very focused and particular.” Rock Band 3’s Pro mode, for example, fractured the player base but ultimately ended up a worthwhile endeavor for the team. Sussman continued, “What I think is really important for me is that we continue to develop experiences that are consistent to the fantasy fulfillment of Rock Band; this performative simulation of rock music, that you are onstage, playing a song, and that it is fun and awesome.”It’s admirable that Harmonix not only had the guts to make something as different as Sessions, but to cancel it and admit that a good idea isn’t always something that can be executed well. Rock Band 4 retains the soul of Rock Band Sessions, which acted as an almost necessary bridge to getting where we’re at now. Sessions was entirely about expression, with minimal involvement in the actual Rock Band game we’ve come to love. Rock Band 4’s strongest new features draw heavily from this philosophy -- match beats, as always, but with your own stamp this time around.For more on what you may have missed on this month’s IGN First, check out Everything You Need to Know About Rock Band

Mitch Dyer is an Editor at IGN. He hosts IGN Arena , a podcast about MOBAs. Talk to Mitch about Dota 2, movies, books, and other stuff on Twitter at @MitchyD and subscribe to MitchyD on Twitch