Tale of an Amateur Guitarist: First Days With Rocksmith

As I’m typing now, my left shoulder is killing me because I’ve been playing my guitar for hours while standing. Obviously, this isn’t a good thing, but I’ve come to love playing guitar so much that I just can’t stop.

Of course, when you start getting shoulder pain, that is a time to put it away. Also, when my fingers burn and ache like nothing I’ve ever felt. No, I haven’t quite gone all Bryan Adams and played it “till my fingers bled,” but I’ve come insanely close to achieving that. By now, I believe my fingertips have permanent indents in them.

So Rocksmith. It’s a great game, but an even better teaching tool. Not only do I feel like I’m learning something important by playing, I’m having fun while I do it. I’ve only been at it for I believe three days, and already I’ve learned several power chords, I’m getting quicker at fret-switching, and the muscle memory for where my strings are is improving. Of course, I go beyond their recommended “hour a day” goal (many hours beyond it), but the time just melts away with the instrument in my hands. It’s so satisfying and rewarding to see myself getting better in just a few days. In a couple of months, there’s no telling what I’ll be able to achieve.

However, I’m not planning to go my entire guitar-playing career using only Rocksmith. There are lots of amazing videos and tutorials and tabs online to help guide me when I start getting better, and I plan to utilize every last bit of information out there to succeed. I’m not quitting, or giving up until I sound like a pro.

With that said, I have some miniscule advice for anyone else who is new to Rocksmith.

1) Play the Guitarcade. Play, play, play the Guitarcade. I can’t stress this enough. After learning a few of the lessons provided in the game on how to play frets and use other techniques, I went straight to the games before trying any song. If it’s one thing I feel improves my technique, it’s the games. On top of that, they are so insanely fun. Learning songs is fun, too, but I’ve found that after spending a good amount of time playing the mini-games, I was better at playing the songs.

2) Don’t press your strings too hard. It may sound good coming off the guitar itself, but it registers as a sharp note in the game if you do it. It’s a good way to train you to ease up on that pressure and relax. And you need to in order to play a song.

3) Don’t play for hours on end like I do. Ow.

If you can, get the PC version. That’s the version I have, and for PC, you can install custom songs, which you can get from Customs Forge.
Learn how to install custom songs Here.
Search for songs to download Here

You can install customs on Xbox and PS3, but it’s a lot harder if you’re not accustomed to modding.

The more I play Rocksmith, the more I’ll have to say. Stay in tune!