Mikesterx

The beauty of Rocksmith as a teaching tool is that it takes the most "tedious" and important mechanical aspect of guitar playing - the practice - and turns it into a video game with points, progression, and all the engaging reward systems games offer. Rocksmith's strength is in developing and honing what's called "automaticity" through practice. Muscle memory is part of this system, and it's where you do a motor sequence so often that the brain develops a unique map for that sequence and it no longer requires conscious awareness, it becomes automatic. Easy, obvious examples: most of us can walk or drive a car without having to think about it, gamers can "press x to not die" reflexively without thinking or looking at the controller, and we can type quickly without looking at the keyboard. The same is true for instruments, after doing it enough times your hand can instinctively make an Am chord or F chord, you just "know" where the frets are and where the strings are, and the more you play the less you have to think about the mechanics of what you're doing. While Rocksmith excels at building the mechanical/motor skills of playing guitar, it doesn't teach you the underlying concepts of music theory, scales, etc.. Rocksmith teaches the "how" but not the "Why." To play in a band and write your own songs you need both, you need the innate "sense" and muscle memory of the guitar, but you also need to know how music works. A good one on one teacher is irreplaceable there.