So these regularly updated blogs didn't really stay particularly 'regular' huh?

...no.

What happened?

Well, I started a new position at my job and have been very busy. When I get home, I'm tired and don't feel like typing. When it's the weekend I need to make up for all I didn't do in my personal life during the weekday. And the pattern continues on and on. So though I was keeping up with Rocksmith and playing guitar and didn't do a good job letting all of you know that.

So can you play guitar?

It depends on how you define 'can you play'. I would probably consider myself an average player now. I can play rhythm well if the chords aren't too complex. I can do barre chords but when they require more then two fingers +the index for the barre I can't do it. I can play most regular chords unless they require me to stretch my fingers across four frets. But other then that, with practice, I can play the rhythm sections of most, but certainly not all, songs on electric and acoustic. Prior to Rocksmith I wouldn't have been able to say that.

It has also taught me a bit about improvising and creating my own songs, though indirectly. By reading music and seeing how so many different songs are composed and playing them out it makes it easier for me, when just messing about on my guitar, to see how to pattern a good melody and think about song structure. I've already written 2 songs since playing Rocksmith. It's also shown me, through brute force, how to adapt after making a mistake while playing a song.

Are these things that are exclusive to Rocksmith or could you learn this elsewhere?

It's probably not exclusive to Rocksmith. But it's nice learning with Rocksmith because, at any time, I can throw in the disc and start practicing and what is in there is good for a novice to learn.

You sounded like there were some caveats with the 'can you play' question...

Yeah. The thing is the lessons in the game are really good at introducing techniques. Many of these techniques I had never heard of. But it isn't so good at correcting you when you mess up those techniques while practicing or, at times, recognizing when you do the techniques perfectly. Here's an example. There's a whole lesson on palm muting. Which I'm not good at. But the game can't distinguish between a palm muted note/chord and a regular note/chord. So I have a perfect rating on this lesson but if you asked me to play a song with palm mutes in it I would be sunk.

The lessons also highlight where my blind spots are. I'm a terrible lead. I can't do tremolo. I'm only average with bends and can't put slides in my songs and still get to the position I need to be for the next measure with much ease. I would have hoped that the lessons would help me with these problems and sometimes they do. But more often then not they don't and that's really disappointing.

Would you recommend it?

If you want to learn how to play guitar and don't have an awful lot of free time then, yes, I would totally recommend it. Some might say it is better to work with someone and, seeing how the lessons work in this game, I might agree. But this game is certainly a good method for training as well.