I worked on playing guitar for 2 years and threw in the towel after being frustrated with my progress. I was traveling a lot, had a travel guitar and used the Learn and Master Guitar program a series of DVDs. It is good from the standpoint of teaching you to read music, but the problem with it is that it was not focused on teaching good motivating songs imo. They have tried to remedy that with a supplemental program. So after 2 years not playing guitar, this program seemed like it could be fun and possibly spark my interest back into guitar. A side note, I see the value of lessons with a real player, for feedback... but that cost money.
For Rocksmith, I've got the proper connection gear, (see the second post) a 1/4 male to dual female RCA coupler, an Xbox component cable, and a 1/4 female to female coupler to connect to the amp. If you could find a 1/4 femal to dual RCA coupler, then you'd just need a guitar cord to go from that to the amp. The Rocksmith instructions show the ideal setups for the program. If let audio go through your TV, there is the possibility of audio lag. I've found out that the setup I described will work through a guitar amp coming from the xbox. A real guitar is plugged into the xbox via the included cable (with a 1/4" jack on one end and a USB connector on the other).
Just started with this program, but have not yet used it enough to rate it. It has a built in guitar tuner, which is handy and it starts with some basics, and gets you into playing guitars songs quickly if you want to, or you can work with the basics section which I recommend especially if you are new to it. There are chords that can be referenced, but for playing a song there is no learning of notes, just rote memorization of what fret, string to hit. Maybe it's there some where, but the intent is to get you playing fast. Learning notes, slows you down.
It starts out slow, with just hitting main notes in a "real song", very much like Guitar Hero, and as you progress it gets more demanding, requiring you to hit more new notes that are displayed, but it won't do that until you progress and do better with the basics. The difference here is that you are playing a real guitar, not a toy. Of note, the song selection is decent, but limited. I have not yet checked to see what content is downloadable and how much it costs.
There is no "position one learning" (at the top of the guitar neck), immediately you are moving up and down the neck and I imagine if you've not played any guitar this will be challenging along with hitting clean notes, although the program does look for this and tells you when your messing up. What is really annoying is it's tendency to say "great job" when I am at 75% accuracy. I know... it's motivating me.
The first thing you have to get the hang of is getting used to moving your hand up and down the neck and hitting the proper strings. In recognition of this, there are controls to slow the song down, because what you end up doing is looking at the screen for the next note, and then finding that note on your guitar. Muscle memory will develop fast, but until it does, you'll mess up lots, at least I do. Some previous experience with guitar playing is a definite plus. For a novice i imagine this to be challenging, but not impossible. Dedication for guitar playing is required regardless of the method of learning.
And my fingers are sore as hell, but that will get better if you stick with it.
Btw, you should stop when your fingers hurt. You don't want to develop blisters.
Anyway I'll forge on for now and will report back later after I have mastered a song. Looking online
Jam Play seems like it has potential, but it is $20 per month...
