Unpopular Opinion: Rocksmith 2014 Remastered from Steam is a good way to learn guitar. Let me tell you why.

595

•

My main issue with Rocksmith was, originally, the song selection, but the customs forge has solved this issue.

If you download D3DX9_42.dll, then you can use thousands of song files (psarc) for free from every genre and the selection only gets better with time. I have made many .psarc files and I maintain a collection of about 5,000 songs from MoTown to Country to Reggae to Classic Rock to Classical and everything in between.

I customized my version of Rocksmith to show me the notes on the fretboard and the sheet music, as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61mz8sqGog&feature=youtu.be

Personally, I hate Minecraft. So, when the kids beg me to play Minecraft or any other video game, I insist they play Rocksmith, instead. It's like free guitar lessons. Occasionally, I even plug the piano into it. Usually, I will have one kid plug into the computer and another into the amplifier, so they can play together.

The main hurdle in learning guitar is the motivation required to put time into it, in the beginning. It is frustrating to learn music theory and train your fingers at the same time. Rocksmith allows you to bypass a lot of the headaches and I guarantee, if used correctly, it will teach you faster than any teacher... at first. Eventually, you will want to play with chordify, other musicians, real tablature, and, eventually, real sheet music. Rocksmith will expose you to a ton of music that you would, otherwise, never be motivated to learn and play and no self respecting musician would play with you... like Stairway to Heaven or Margaritaville or Hotel California or any other number of overplayed classics that people won't stop asking me to play for them.

What is the fastest way to learn? Start with both bass and guitar. This will train your brain to see the same song in different ways where you will soon be able to visualize song structures a lot better than most other students. Even before you know what the notes are, you will start to develop a keen intuition for guessing which notes are good to play in any given moment. Playing both the bass guitar and normal six string guitar will drastically improve your strength, endurance and precision.

If you are serious about learning to play, you are going to have to spend a little money.

Guitars ($200ish)
Amp ($100ish)
Software ($35ish)

Cheap Squire guitars are a great place to start, but guitars with active pickups work best on Rocksmith. I have a lot of cheap (under $100) guitars that I get from craigslist or pawn shops. This way, I don't have to constantly tune guitars. I just have a guitar in every tuning. I have one decent guitar for shows and one very nice guitar for doing recordings. The rest are expendable. The truth is that technology is such that really good tone is easy to get even with cheap guitars. A really nice guitar in front of a loud amplifier gets an ethereal quality to the sound, where the strings and body of the guitar vibrate with the loud volume and become a bit more alive, but almost everything is able to be mimicked digitally, these days.

A cheap bass amp or keyboard amp works best with Rocksmith. I use a small Ampeg with an auxilary in. Even the small ones will shake your house. In the mixer, turn the music down to 50% and leave your guitar volumes all the way up. This will allow you to hear (and feel, if you got a decent amp) your playing very well, which is imperative to being able to correct your technique and smooth out your playing.

Rocksmith will also provide you with an opportunity to try out all types of gear and experiment with sounds. Guitar Rig 5 is a better version of this feature, for when you start to graduate to playing outside of the video game. Gear is a skill every guitar player needs so noticing how every "Authentic Tone" is configured is important. Once you have your head around it, you can use Audacity to record your guitar playing and then run it through Guitar Rig 5 to make it sound like any style you want.

The easiest song to start with is Lonely Boy by The Black Keys.

My advice is, if you want to learn to play guitar, the manipulated version of Rocksmith to allow custom content is the easiest way. Once you get it set up and working, all you have to do is follow the instructions and the game will gradually walk you through games, lessons and songs at your own pace. Even if you are severely ADD and refuse to follow instructions, you can just play hundreds of songs and it will all start to sink in.

My main issue with Rocksmith was, originally, the song selection, but the customs forge has solved this issue. http://customsforge.com If you download D3DX9_42.dll, then you can use thousands of song files (psarc) for free from every genre and the selection only gets better with time. I have made many .psarc files and I maintain a collection of about 5,000 songs from MoTown to Country to Reggae to Classic Rock to Classical and everything in between. I customized my version of Rocksmith to show me the notes on the fretboard and the sheet music, as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61mz8sqGog&feature=youtu.be Personally, I hate Minecraft. So, when the kids beg me to play Minecraft or any other video game, I insist they play Rocksmith, instead. It's like free guitar lessons. Occasionally, I even plug the piano into it. Usually, I will have one kid plug into the computer and another into the amplifier, so they can play together. The main hurdle in learning guitar is the motivation required to put time into it, in the beginning. It is frustrating to learn music theory and train your fingers at the same time. Rocksmith allows you to bypass a lot of the headaches and I guarantee, if used correctly, it will teach you faster than any teacher... at first. Eventually, you will want to play with chordify, other musicians, real tablature, and, eventually, real sheet music. Rocksmith will expose you to a ton of music that you would, otherwise, never be motivated to learn and play and no self respecting musician would play with you... like Stairway to Heaven or Margaritaville or Hotel California or any other number of overplayed classics that people won't stop asking me to play for them. What is the fastest way to learn? Start with both bass and guitar. This will train your brain to see the same song in different ways where you will soon be able to visualize song structures a lot better than most other students. Even before you know what the notes are, you will start to develop a keen intuition for guessing which notes are good to play in any given moment. Playing both the bass guitar and normal six string guitar will drastically improve your strength, endurance and precision. If you are serious about learning to play, you are going to have to spend a little money. 1. Guitars ($200ish) 2. Amp ($100ish) 2. Software ($35ish) Cheap Squire guitars are a great place to start, but guitars with active pickups work best on Rocksmith. I have a lot of cheap (under $100) guitars that I get from craigslist or pawn shops. This way, I don't have to constantly tune guitars. I just have a guitar in every tuning. I have one decent guitar for shows and one very nice guitar for doing recordings. The rest are expendable. The truth is that technology is such that really good tone is easy to get even with cheap guitars. A really nice guitar in front of a loud amplifier gets an ethereal quality to the sound, where the strings and body of the guitar vibrate with the loud volume and become a bit more alive, but almost everything is able to be mimicked digitally, these days. A cheap bass amp or keyboard amp works best with Rocksmith. I use a small Ampeg with an auxilary in. Even the small ones will shake your house. In the mixer, turn the music down to 50% and leave your guitar volumes all the way up. This will allow you to hear (and feel, if you got a decent amp) your playing very well, which is imperative to being able to correct your technique and smooth out your playing. Rocksmith will also provide you with an opportunity to try out all types of gear and experiment with sounds. Guitar Rig 5 is a better version of this feature, for when you start to graduate to playing outside of the video game. Gear is a skill every guitar player needs so noticing how every "Authentic Tone" is configured is important. Once you have your head around it, you can use Audacity to record your guitar playing and then run it through Guitar Rig 5 to make it sound like any style you want. The easiest song to start with is Lonely Boy by The Black Keys. My advice is, if you want to learn to play guitar, the manipulated version of Rocksmith to allow custom content is the easiest way. Once you get it set up and working, all you have to do is follow the instructions and the game will gradually walk you through games, lessons and songs at your own pace. Even if you are severely ADD and refuse to follow instructions, you can just play hundreds of songs and it will all start to sink in.

(post is archived)