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nineismine says:

The greatest guitar training tool I have ever encountered. For about 2 years in my twenties I played the guitar every day. I learned a few chords and a couple songs. I loved it but as things go, life moved on and I put it down never to pick it back up. Enter RockBand / guitar hero. Playing those games I could sometimes get close to the feeling that I would get from playing guitar back in my twenties. I played a ton of Rockband over the last 5 years and I love that game dearly.When Rocksmith one came out, I played it and thought it was pretty neat. After a week or so I was done though. I felt like the gap between starting a song and then playing chords or even lead notes(Something I have really never been able to do) was just too large. When RockSmith 2014 came out I had recently been longing to pick up the guitar again, so I bought it. (Fully expecting to be disappointed)I have been playing nearly every single day since I got it and I often find myself intending to play for a half an hour but getting stuck for hours. I can’t accurately list all of the features that have changed since the last iteration, but it sure seems like they put in a great deal of time to ease you along and help you make constant progress. Its easy to jump into a song, it is easy to manually turn up the difficulty or slow down the speed of a riff, and it is dead simple to just riff repeat a portion of the song until you master it.It is ABSOLUTELY amazing to me how quickly I have come back up to speed on playing, but even more so how I am effortlessly learning concepts I always wanted to master on the guitar (and struggled with for those two years) in DAYS. I have been going back and fourth in my head trying to understand what has changed. Because I have crushed through barriers in playing that I spent months on back in my twenties.When I sit and try to consider what the magic is I have to acknowledge my own background as part of what have helped me. Playing so much RockBand defnitely helped to prime me for falling notes type gameplay. Knowing the basic power cords, the standard four finger Barre chords and the handful of standard chords has helped me to pick things up as well. That all being said, I have to give even more credit to the absolutely phenomenal job they did on this “game”.As you play a song on RockSmith they give you a small set of the notes to play, do well, and the next time that riff comes around you might get more notes. You will find yourself quickly advancing through a song and then when you are finished, the game will give you three recommendations for the song based on what you are having trouble with or what is coming. As an example, the game might tell you to go look at a chord that is coming in the chord book, or if you are having trouble with a specific concept it might point you to the tutorial. If you are just doing poorly at a riff, it might suggest that you Riff Repeat it. These recommendations come in the form of direct links to the content so you can go do the exercise and then come right back to the song.Along with all of this RockSmith is constantly giving you little tasks to do. Go try out a phase or wah pedal, go play the session mode with a specific type of band. These tasks will lead to suggestions and will often lead to little video clips where they explain some musical elements as well as the technical ones. These tasks teach you about the game, how to navigate the interface and even better they teach you things about music and the tools that guitarists use. During these educational portions I never feel like they are going on too long and I often get something out of watching them.Oh yeah did I mention that in addition to showing you fret numbers, they managed to add in fingering notations too. I learned today that the D Chord I learned fifteen years ago can be played in an easier manner with different fretting.RockSmith has found a way to tap into that guitar hero vibe but at the same time has packed in TONS of games and lessons. All of the little things they have you doing are incrementally helping you to build a bridge to not just knowing how to play a couple songs but REALLY knowing how to play the guitar.My personal success may have a little to do with having some exposure to the guitar (No lessons or anything formal though) in my earlier years. Whatever portion that is of my success, I can not say enough great things about this game. I firmly believe that it is the best guitar trainer you can POSSIBLY find and in the few short weeks I have had it I am not just parroting portions of songs, I am playing full songs but I’m also making music and improvising over them. This game is fun, informative and awesome on so many levels. If you know someone who wants to play the guitar or used to but wants to get back into it, just go get it for them now.All of this is due to what I have learned in the last couple weeks. I cannot wait to…

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