Do those video games such as Rocksmith really teach people how to learn guitar? Are they effective?

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cannonball

I have been playing guitar a long time and I was just curious to see if these types of games are effective guitar teaching tools.

Answer
First, sorry for my english :)

For people answering "no way a 5 buttons plastic guitar will teach you anything", I agree. But you should have actually checked what Rocksmith is about. It allows you to plug in ANY guitar (with a 1/4" jack). In fact, it is the only way to play the game, you cannot use a plastic guitar controller.

That being said, from a beginner point of view (never ever played guitar before), I think the "game" is a GREAT starting tool. It gives you a lot of advices, and gives you a way to practice which is fun, so people might stick to it, when they would have given up on tablatures, scales, and this kind of boring stuff (I'm not saying it's not a great training nor necessary, but let's face it, it is actually boring).

You can practice songs at your own pace: the game adapt its difficulty on the fly to your level. If you're doing good, it's gonna become harder. If you cannot deal with what's coming, it's gonna become easier. It always expects you to do "a little more" than you're able to, which is great.

There are also those mini games, like shooting ducks or killing zombies, which let you built some muscle memory, or learn chords, without even noticing it. This is awesome.

So, do this game help me learn to play guitar? Yes, definitely. I've been playing it for a few days, and I can play a few riffs, some chords, and I've enjoyed it a lot (even if my fingers hurt :) )

Does it replace a real teacher? No, it does not. The game cannot tell you if your position is good for example.

But it is really a great tool to practice with fun, and when you stop playing, you've actually become better at your craft.

(for more experienced player, it's also a nice way to play around with amps, pedals and stuff. a lot are included in the game, and you can spend hours playing with your sound in the "amp mode" of the game)

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How to record Guitar on a Fast Track USB not pro on pro tools 8.?

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Jamal

I have recently bought a Fast Track USB Interface not the pro one. And i'm having problems recording with my XR20 or guitar. Pro tools won't pick up any sound when I try to record it, Can you help.

Answer
I'm assuming you are new to Pro Tools. It seems a little tricky in the beginning because there are a few things to need to check to make sure you are recording. The obvious thing that still get me once in a while is that you can have the record button activated on the trace itself but, unless you also activate it in the Transport Window, you are only listening to the trace to check the level and the mix but, not actually recording. So, you need to have both the track and the Transport window (red) record buttons pressed to record. Aside from that, make sure you read the entire manual that came with your Fast Track and read through the entire Help file for Pro Tools to insure that you understand how to use all the aspects of the software. Of course you also need to be sure that you have assigned the proper input fro each track. You can have both record buttons pressed but, it Pro Tools thinks you are receiving input from channel one and you are plugged into channel two, you are not recording. Hope that helps. Pro Tools is GREAT once you understand how to properly use it. So, do your initial learning phase and you'll fall in love with it along the way.

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Question about recording guitar in Pro Tools 11?

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Mitchell C

Hey guys, I am very new to Pro Tools. I am a student at the Art Institute of Austin and I've gotten the Pro Tools 11 student version and I soon want to start recording my own guitar(s) into Pro Tools for some projects. I am planning on getting the Avid Fast Track Solo interface. My main question is guitar tone, do I have to have an amp simulator to get a distorted sound or any different sound out of my guitar for Pro Tools? Or does Pro Tools come with different options? I am quite confused on this and can't seem to find any answers around. Thank you!

Answer
I am going to answer your question about pro tools instead of waste time insulting your life choices.
Pro tools has an amp simulator or two. It is fine, but it really does depend on how high of quality you are looking for. There are many amp simulators out there. Many companies will give you free trials. Currently, most plugin companies are not supported on pro tools 11's AAX 64-bit platform, but it should be well covered in the next 4-6 weeks.
Start with "waves" audio at waves.com. They have many really good plugins and they usually have 15-30 free trials available.
Also, I am not aware of the optional plugins that come with the student edition. I am assuming they are the standard plugins.
Assuming it is the same, there are a few plugins from "AIR" that have distortion and one amp simulator. Again, not impressive, I would go a different route.
Note: if you are going to be using and interface and no preamp, you need an interface with a "true-z direct injection (DI)" in order to eliminate unwanted buzz and noise. Otherwise it almost sounds like a ground loop feed when you distort it.

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Do those video games such as Rocksmith really teach people how to learn guitar? Are they effective?

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cannonball

I have been playing guitar a long time and I was just curious to see if these types of games are effective guitar teaching tools.

Answer
Edit: Woops, that'll teach me to reed a bit better ROFl. but still, Like I said, you want to stay away from such games for the most part, as a Learn or Teaching Tool. They are great to have a bita fun, but 9/10 times, all they do is build bad playing habits, or are simply not very effective.

I'd op away from any game that claims to "teach" you how to play guitar, more so for Rock ones, as Rock in general is not a very good style to learn for someone with little or not experience. If anything, learn country or blue grass, they are a tad hard to start out with as well, but they'll teach you everything you need to know. After that, it's just finding what you like the best. There ARE several "games" that can help you learn the basics, but their result vary widely from person to person. Here's a quick list of some of the more popular ones.

http://guitar-lesson-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

The best bet to learn ANY instrument though is to be taught by a real life living person; If you are still in school, see about joining the band (it's a long shot, but some school's allow Guitar), or if not, check your local community College (a possibility even if you are still in school).

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How can I learn to play the acoustic guitar?

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Liz

I have been wanting to learn how to play the acoustic guitar however I don't have the money to pay for classes. So how can I begin? How can I learn to tune my guitar( i own a guitar)? Do you have any suggested youtube channels, anything? Thanks:)

Answer
As much as I think the other answer is great, I honestly think he could have been more specific, so I'll try to do so.

So being a beginner in the 'music world' is always difficult, with dedicated practice, you'll get much better. Like Jesus stated, or whatever his SN is, you need to start with your basic chords. He wasn't very specific as to what those were. Basic chords mean your open-position chords, or in other words, chords that aren't being barred. Barre chords are chords that you place one finger over more than one string at one time. Avoid those for maybe a month because you need to build finger strength and get calluses so you don't feel pain when you play anymore. (It's normal, don't worry about it.) Your basic, open-position chords will be chords like: A Major, A Minor, C Major, D Major, D Minor, E Major, E Minor, G Major, and some variations like Dsus4 or stuff like that, but those are chords you can learn on the side when you learn songs. When you see chords on chord charts or tabs, they'll probably just say A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, and G. Obviously the 'm's' stand for minor. So that's that for you. Once you learn those and feel confident on those, then learn barre chords: F, B, Bm, etc. You'll see the difference and there are different ways to play each chord on the guitar. Some guitarists just use barre chords and some open-position and some use a variation of some power chords. You pick what you like.

To tune your guitar, you will need to know what notes to tune your guitar to, obviously. Standard tuning for a guitar is EBGDAE or EADGBE, however you want to look at it. EBGDAE would the strings listed from highest in pitch to lowest in pitch. In other words, if you were to think about this for position on the guitar, the strings that are lowest on the guitar/the strings that are closest to the ground are the ones you would tune first. EADGBE would be the opposite and if you are confused by explanation, I apologize greatly and I'm sure you can look up on google or YouTube 'standard tuning on a guitar' and someone will be able to explain it better than me. If you need to learn to tune your guitar, I would either buy an app on your iPod Touch/Smart Phone/iPhone. Don't get any free ones. Those are really bad and they're slow and they're honestly very annoying. If you buy an ultimate-guitar tools app, it has a tuner and even a chord chart and it's a very helpful app for guitarists. Anyway, if you don't want to do that, then buy a chromatic tuner. Some tuners are 10 dollars and some can be up to 40 dollars depending on what features the tuners have. 10 dollars is fine but I'd recommend maybe something between 20 and 30. Tuners break so it's nice to have a nicer one so they can last longer. In addition, there are tuners for guitars that you can clip onto the headstock, but you decide what you want.

If I were you, I'd start with a book and start with YouTube and maybe even charts that you can find. When I started, I started with a song because I was way too eager, but I actually started with a book and I learned how to play a basic song by picking the notes and not learning chords, but you can choose. Books are a great tool and so is the internet. If you need tabs, I'd use ultimate-guitar.com. If you need to learn songs and you don't want tabs, then I'd use either Marty Schwartz or yourguitarsage (just YouTube them). youguitarsage has MANY beginner acoustic guitar tutorials on songs that you may want to learn and Marty Schwartz has both acoustic and electric tutorials and some are more challenging and he even has tutorials on some scales. Mahalo.dom or just Mahalo has tutorials for both acoustic and electric guitars and they have different teachers for their company and you can switch between all of them and decide which one of them you like most and see which teaching style helps you.

I hope I've been some sort of help! Good luck and have fun and don't forget to practice! You don't need to learn any instrument during summer, by the way. I learned guitar during spring break and still played during school. Just keep practicing and don't get discouraged. Everyone has troubles. I know, I did and gave up for like. . . a month or two.

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How can I learn to play the acoustic guitar?

guitar tools image

Liz

I have been wanting to learn how to play the acoustic guitar however I don't have the money to pay for classes. So how can I begin? How can I learn to tune my guitar( i own a guitar)? Do you have any suggested youtube channels, anything? Thanks:)

Answer
As much as I think the other answer is great, I honestly think he could have been more specific, so I'll try to do so.

So being a beginner in the 'music world' is always difficult, with dedicated practice, you'll get much better. Like Jesus stated, or whatever his SN is, you need to start with your basic chords. He wasn't very specific as to what those were. Basic chords mean your open-position chords, or in other words, chords that aren't being barred. Barre chords are chords that you place one finger over more than one string at one time. Avoid those for maybe a month because you need to build finger strength and get calluses so you don't feel pain when you play anymore. (It's normal, don't worry about it.) Your basic, open-position chords will be chords like: A Major, A Minor, C Major, D Major, D Minor, E Major, E Minor, G Major, and some variations like Dsus4 or stuff like that, but those are chords you can learn on the side when you learn songs. When you see chords on chord charts or tabs, they'll probably just say A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, and G. Obviously the 'm's' stand for minor. So that's that for you. Once you learn those and feel confident on those, then learn barre chords: F, B, Bm, etc. You'll see the difference and there are different ways to play each chord on the guitar. Some guitarists just use barre chords and some open-position and some use a variation of some power chords. You pick what you like.

To tune your guitar, you will need to know what notes to tune your guitar to, obviously. Standard tuning for a guitar is EBGDAE or EADGBE, however you want to look at it. EBGDAE would the strings listed from highest in pitch to lowest in pitch. In other words, if you were to think about this for position on the guitar, the strings that are lowest on the guitar/the strings that are closest to the ground are the ones you would tune first. EADGBE would be the opposite and if you are confused by explanation, I apologize greatly and I'm sure you can look up on google or YouTube 'standard tuning on a guitar' and someone will be able to explain it better than me. If you need to learn to tune your guitar, I would either buy an app on your iPod Touch/Smart Phone/iPhone. Don't get any free ones. Those are really bad and they're slow and they're honestly very annoying. If you buy an ultimate-guitar tools app, it has a tuner and even a chord chart and it's a very helpful app for guitarists. Anyway, if you don't want to do that, then buy a chromatic tuner. Some tuners are 10 dollars and some can be up to 40 dollars depending on what features the tuners have. 10 dollars is fine but I'd recommend maybe something between 20 and 30. Tuners break so it's nice to have a nicer one so they can last longer. In addition, there are tuners for guitars that you can clip onto the headstock, but you decide what you want.

If I were you, I'd start with a book and start with YouTube and maybe even charts that you can find. When I started, I started with a song because I was way too eager, but I actually started with a book and I learned how to play a basic song by picking the notes and not learning chords, but you can choose. Books are a great tool and so is the internet. If you need tabs, I'd use ultimate-guitar.com. If you need to learn songs and you don't want tabs, then I'd use either Marty Schwartz or yourguitarsage (just YouTube them). youguitarsage has MANY beginner acoustic guitar tutorials on songs that you may want to learn and Marty Schwartz has both acoustic and electric tutorials and some are more challenging and he even has tutorials on some scales. Mahalo.dom or just Mahalo has tutorials for both acoustic and electric guitars and they have different teachers for their company and you can switch between all of them and decide which one of them you like most and see which teaching style helps you.

I hope I've been some sort of help! Good luck and have fun and don't forget to practice! You don't need to learn any instrument during summer, by the way. I learned guitar during spring break and still played during school. Just keep practicing and don't get discouraged. Everyone has troubles. I know, I did and gave up for like. . . a month or two.

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What tools would i use for this kind of guitar design?

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Lewis

Id love to get into some more advanced guitar design. Ive done a few paint jobs with lots of different experiments. Now im looking into messing around with cutting into the wood itself.

Here is an example of what i mean.
aftertheshow.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/art-nouveau-guitar.jpg

What tools would i use to do this kind of thing? Im assuming a router would be in there somewhere.

Answer
A router would be cool if you wanted to add some contour to the outer front edge also a good bandsaw you could do some real radical changes

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How much would it cost to fix a guitar with fret buzz?

How to tune my guitar Tool style?

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Joe V

I need to tune my guitar to Vicarious by Tool but it's like a crazy tuning and I don't know how to tune it that way. Can you give me directions to tune it correctly?

Answer
Vicarious is drop D, hardly a crazy tuning considering what Tool are used to :-P

Tune your lower E string down to D. And that's it. Can you identify the D note without a tuner? If not, I'll show ya somethin that might help.
Record your lower E note (or find a recording of one, whatever you want). Then hold the E string on the 2nd fret and tune that string down until the note matches the E you recorded (while you hold it at the 2nd fret!). When you take your finger off, that string will be a note lower.

:o)

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How much would it cost to fix a guitar with fret buzz?

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Adam

How much would it cost to fix a guitar with fret buzz? I looked online on how to do it myself, and it told me to sand down the frets, it solved the problem for the specific fret but then created a new fret with the same problem. Im pretty sure i must have screwed up the neck of my guitar, is it still possible to fix my guitar now?

Answer
Yeah, it's possible. Google "how to adjust truss rod" and buy an appropriate-sized allen key or a guitar multi-tool in case of other future problems.

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How much would it cost to fix a guitar with fret buzz?

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Adam

How much would it cost to fix a guitar with fret buzz? I looked online on how to do it myself, and it told me to sand down the frets, it solved the problem for the specific fret but then created a new fret with the same problem. Im pretty sure i must have screwed up the neck of my guitar, is it still possible to fix my guitar now?

Answer
Yeah, it's possible. Google "how to adjust truss rod" and buy an appropriate-sized allen key or a guitar multi-tool in case of other future problems.

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How to tune my guitar Tool style?

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Joe V

I need to tune my guitar to Vicarious by Tool but it's like a crazy tuning and I don't know how to tune it that way. Can you give me directions to tune it correctly?

Answer
Vicarious is drop D, hardly a crazy tuning considering what Tool are used to :-P

Tune your lower E string down to D. And that's it. Can you identify the D note without a tuner? If not, I'll show ya somethin that might help.
Record your lower E note (or find a recording of one, whatever you want). Then hold the E string on the 2nd fret and tune that string down until the note matches the E you recorded (while you hold it at the 2nd fret!). When you take your finger off, that string will be a note lower.

:o)

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How to tune my guitar Tool style?

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Joe V

I need to tune my guitar to Vicarious by Tool but it's like a crazy tuning and I don't know how to tune it that way. Can you give me directions to tune it correctly?

Answer
Vicarious is drop D, hardly a crazy tuning considering what Tool are used to :-P

Tune your lower E string down to D. And that's it. Can you identify the D note without a tuner? If not, I'll show ya somethin that might help.
Record your lower E note (or find a recording of one, whatever you want). Then hold the E string on the 2nd fret and tune that string down until the note matches the E you recorded (while you hold it at the 2nd fret!). When you take your finger off, that string will be a note lower.

:o)

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How do I attatch a pickguard to my guitar?

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marvel5kni

I have a SG electric guitar and I want to put a pickguard on it because it looks too plain. I want to screw it on but to do that I would have to screw some holes into the guitar with a tool and that might damage the guitar. I've been told to glue it on but I don't know what kind of glue to use or how long it may last. I would got to a shop but they would make me pay too much for it. Please help!!!

Answer
Chances are you will damage the guitar no matter what. Pickguards are primarily attached with small screws that go right into the wood of the guitar. Glues and adhesives will absolutely damage the surface finish etc.. as well as just not hold to the guitar.

If it is a gibson I recommend that you DO NOT DO THIS! it will lose almost all of its value if this is done, and gibsons are pretty expensive. if it's a knock off $300 epiphone or other, who cares.

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