Can Rocksmith Make You Better At Playing Guitar?

I have known of Rocksmith for a while, but the base setlist for the game had absolutely no appeal to me. I never saw the point in paying full price so I can play 5 songs that I kinda liked. Having recently discovered that CDLC exists on the PC version of the game, I quickly changed my tune. I can have almost any song I want and for free! This sounds like a no brainier now. Having bought the game on Steam, I have messed around with it to see how it works. I am now asking myself, can Rocksmith make you better at playing guitar?

Of course the answer is yes, but will it be possible to play the songs from memory, without the game? Also, how good will it help you become on the guitar? I played the guitar when I was younger, but I gave it up years ago and never really got back into it. I was never great at learning songs, but always wished I was. This seems like the perfect opportunity for me to get back into it. I am going to put the game to the test and see how well it can actually teach me to play the guitar.

I have to admit I am not going into this with a completely blank slate. I have mediocre abilities already. I can badly play a few songs and wiggle my way through a few solos before my hand cramps. I do not know any chords, can’t read music and I do not know 1 single song from start to finish. So the real goal here, is to see can Rocksmith turn a bad guitarist into a good one.

I won’t set any fixed goals for myself just yet. For the moment I am going to aim for 20 hours (based on the Steam count) of game time. Once I have hit this target I will have a better idea of the game and be able to set a more realistic and defined goal. For now, lets just say the goal is to. “Learn a bunch of songs without needing the game to play them”. Seems like a reasonable goal. What point is learning from this game if I am unable to recite any of the songs without the screen in front of me.

Based on what I have seen of the game so far, I don’t think this is going to be too difficult. It is going to require a lot of time though. Being able to see some on-screen progress (and earn achievements) is going to make this much easier. So, It’s time to get the ball rolling. Time to see if Rocksmith can you better at playing guitar!