Mods - please move if I've posted in the wrong place, but the intention was to see how my progress is "measuring up" against the Rocksmith Championship players, rather than everyone else, in general.

 

Myself - I had acoustic guitar lessons as a child, probably about five years worth, between the age of 8 and 13 approximately (the memory is painful, therefore I try to erase it from my memory :) ).  I never "got on" with it - never enjoyed the songs I was supposed to be learning (La cucaracha, Mull of Kintyre, etc - nuff said), never really practiced...

 

Twenty odd years later I bought an electric guitar, and played this for a couple of years, on and off, before losing interest, never having learnt to play a song, or any chords for that matter.  A long time passed… ;)

 

Last Christmas I was given a bass (after dropping enough hints).  I didn't actually get it until January, then Rocksmith followed in February, and I've been playing pretty much every day, for on average, I'd say an hour a day.

 

I'm pleased that 10 months later, I can play quite a few songs (as long as I have Rocksmith firing the notes at me), and even remember a few riffs (I find Rocksmith quite bad for actually "teaching you the song").

 

So, Rocksmith Championship players, what's your learning experience been like?  Or shall I just cut to the chase and ask "how long have you been at it?" lol.

I am 35 now, started playing at age 13 when I moved to Puerto Rico and an aunt gave me a beat up old acoustic she had lying around because I said I wanted to learn to play. I got a few friends to teach me a bit of what they knew like chords and learned a few songs like La Bamba and Hotel California (Rhythm path lol). For the next 2 years after that I played pretty much every day but only played simple songs and practiced chords. After that I lost interest as I moved Back to New York and lost the friends I had that knew how to play guitar. Never took any lessons as I didn't have money for that. During the years that passed I maybe picked up the guitar 2 to 3 times a year when I had the time and motivation but never kept up with it throughout the years.

 

Fast forward to 2012 when I first found Rocksmith. I tried it out and played around with it for maybe a month but the original Rocksmith sucked because it forced you to re-tune after every song and the Riff Repeater it had back then left a lot to be desired. So even though there was a vast library of Customs available I just could not keep playing with it. Fast forward some more to 2013/2014? when RS 2014 was released and then the customs started being released for it and I haven't looked back. I Started joining in the championships back at Smithy Anvil and loved every minute of it, then Smithy exploded and we ended up here. I have played RS at least 4 - 5 times a week since that time and am extremely happy about it. 

I started playing when I was 20 (just turned 30), bought a cheap acoustic from a friend and became obsessed with everything that made noise. Guitar, bass, synth and a whole mess of noise makers that sounded cool. Unfortunately I just kind of sucked at guitar, I'm terrible playing anything more than double stops and eventually it dwindled down to playing Black Bird twice a year. Never really took the time to learn more than a couple of sloppy bass lines, I was an armchair musician.

 

So Rocksmith shows up and I think I finally have the perfect tool to get good at guitar. :rolleyes:. Started losing interest again until the bass expansion came out, completely hooked me and I actually started improving. 2014 came out and I doubled down, got better. Sobered up last winter and spent 3-4 hrs a day playing instead of boozing. My Xbox took a shit 6 months ago so I started playing to customs on youtube. Upgraded my computer for Christmas and here we are.

so now i have to find time to play and create....hmmm

 

I started the "create" bit, and managed to produce a couple of CDLCs, but never published them, due lack of finishing the projects properly.

 

I just haven't the time to create and play - thanks to this place there are already too many good songs out there!

"rodman - arent we one great bunch of grandpa and ´mas..." 

 

thats why i like the championship, it makes me play stuff i wouldn't normally look at, and if i turn it up like the kiddos, i don't need me hearing aids ;)

 

actually if i can get to a point where i'm playing on your level, i'll be happy.  who am i kidding, i'm happy now when i'm playing, just always looking for that little bit extra

 

btw happy birthday rodman

I got an acoustic Guitar as christmas present from my wife when I was 29 years old. Now I am 31 years old. I Didn't find any good books or structured way of learning the guitar online that I liked before I discovered justinguitar.com . I have been following justinguitar on and off for 2 years. Sometimes it was hard to keep motivation up and I had periods where I played everyday and other times when I didn't play at all for 3-4 months. I'm at beginner course stage 6 now. I have tendencies to quit or give up things I start with after a while, so I'm glad that I have still stuck with it. I always wanted to try out rocksmith 2014 but didn't have a electric guitar.

 

1 month ago I  bougth a cheap electric guitar and got rocksmith right away. It is a fun way to practise and keep motivation and it compliments justinguitar in some way. I just heard about the championship and it sounds like a good idea for keeping motivation and getting better.

Figured I'd add my story here.

 

My brother, who's three years older than me, started playing guitar in middle school and taking it more seriously in high school. We share a similar taste in music and eventually thought it would be fun to try to play things together, so I started playing when I was... I don't know exactly, probably 12 or so. I kept up playing through my graduation from high school, but never joined any bands or anything, and stopped when I got to college.

 

Then I didn't really play at all through college, or the first few years of grad school. I had lent my brother my bass in the meantime, and sometime last year I went about taking it back, and picking my amp up from my parents, though I still didn't play a ton. This winter was pretty terrible in the northeast USA, so since I couldn't spend as much time outside indulging in my other hobbies I started playing the bass again more regularly. I started looking into a new bass to get, and ended up deciding on a 6-string (another thought was a fretless, but that would probably have been a disaster with my fretting hand and ear. It might have also served to make me much better on those skills, but I figured in the short term it was more likely to discourage me from playing rather than encourage me. I'll probably still try out a fretless at some point in the future).

 

Once I'd started playing more regularly and getting back into bass "culture" a bit more, I heard about Rocksmith, and started learning about it, and thought it would be a great way to encourage still more playing, and also probably encourage more focused practice and a more diverse set of things I'd try to learn. While researching I eventually heard about CDLC and found this place and have been here ever since. 

 

Thanks for creating such a welcoming community that unites players from all over the world!

nice I guess this answers my question on live video tournament with backing tracks and songs completely memorized... :) FRom all the answers here rocksmith does teach us how to play except the memorization part should be a conscious effort. but that's ok cus the hard part is getting your hands  fingers faster and more efficient and synchronized.

I started playing guitar 2 years ago, it was some old acoustic that were played by 3 or more people long ago, everyone of them get boried. I thought I will stop playing that dull thing (it has a plenty of deffects, buzzing and other), you know that it is popular to play it only on first 5 frets with fingerpicking and 3 chords. But that soviet made guitar has pickup like this installed:

 

http://media.music123.com/is/image/MMGS7/ACS-Acoustic-Active-Soundhole-Pickup-System/580353000000000-00-750x750.jpg

 

That was what I want, and I want to play metal like things. And I always try to make a computer to help my learning, and I found a Rocksmith. After half of year I have bought new guitar, and started feeling like a god, my speed increased twice (old guitar has centimeter gaps between strings and frets).

 

But there are the things rocksmith can't teach on my opinion:

1. memorize easy stuff that you usually read from display, memorize songs entirely and play them without rocksmith and backing track

2. play while somebody whatching (I get really nervous),

3. hear yourself - you can see how some rocksmith players try to get more points, but it often doesn't mean play better /me remember how I'm playing raining blood by slayer first time and scored a good 80-90 (didnt tocuh guiatr at solo)

4. Sometimes playing along a backing track, you are missing a rhytm (there is no visual hits)

5. Somebody tells you: "If you are learning so much, show something" and you realize you can't show something without rocksmith :))

nice I guess this answers my question on live video tournament with backing tracks and songs completely memorized... :) FRom all the answers here rocksmith does teach us how to play except the memorization part should be a conscious effort. but that's ok cus the hard part is getting your hands  fingers faster and more efficient and synchronized.

I think if youre a high intermediate/lower advanced player, Rocksmith is like steroids for your skill, because you learn techniques that are being shown right in front of you.

I also think age plays an important factor as well, us younger people(Im calling ~22 young btw) learn easier and better than older folks (lets say 40, is that nice?)

I've been around music all my life, so sight reading is a skill that I know I have well, and Rocksmith is great for me on that.

Do I think Rocksmith can have the same effect for everyone? No, a lot of what I know on guitar comes from my skill and knowledge on a piano.

 

 

How good you play and sound makes my sick 

-My Boss

 

But there are the things rocksmith can't teach on my opinion:

1. memorize easy stuff that you usually read from display, memorize songs entirely and play them without rocksmith and backing track

2. play while somebody whatching (I get really nervous),

3. hear yourself - you can see how some rocksmith players try to get more points, but it often doesn't mean play better /me remember how I'm playing raining blood by slayer first time and scored a good 80-90 (didnt tocuh guiatr at solo)

4. Sometimes playing along a backing track, you are missing a rhytm (there is no visual hits)

5. Somebody tells you: "If you are learning so much, show something" and you realize you can't show something without rocksmith :))

 

1 doesn't work on Rocksmith because Master Mode just isn't clever enough. 

2. I had, or in fact still have the same problem, but started posting videos on Facebook to bore all my "friends" with… and I'm not half as nervous now as I used to be.  This makes it sound as if I actually perform in front of people, but I don't.  However I can now at least sit in the corner of a room full of people and happily make a racket along to Rocksmith without feeling self conscious about it.

3. Again recording yourself on video helps for this, especially if you turn up your sound and reduce the others in the Mixer.

4. Yep.  Master Mode isn't clever enough...

5.  :D

I believe that you just need to understand how good you really are. I'm playing for 1.5 year, and I know that I'm still really crappy. If someone would ask me to show something outside of RS, I would play few riffs and said that I'm not good enough. Rocksmith needs your dedication, and that's you who's pushing yourself.

 

If you play one song one thousand times in RS, I'm sure you'll learn to play it without RS :D

Ladies and Gentleman, old and young and the airhead (that's probably me) [emoji46] [emoji100]

Not even funny, i know right...

 

Anyways, i've been playing guitar about 1 yearish.. probably...

And i have no idea of nothing, that's good to know.

So i never played or even touched a guitar, bass, drums. Well didn't touch any kind of instrument in my past 21 years tho.

I don't know about you guys, but when i bought the rs14 bundle with the epiphone les paul junior in it, it was like my birthday or christmas and kinda felt like i was holding "the holy grail" in my hands. Well that was just how my mind was blown away by just holding a guitar. Kinda was depressed after few weeks of happiness, when i saw the guitar on the box and mine. They were similar but no shiny things on my guitar at all.

But anyways after playing rs14 on ps3 it kinda became boring to play, mainly because 90% of the starter songs i didn't even know about, expect Muse, Arctic Monkey, Def Leppard, Avenged Sevenfold..

So yeah after some months i watched some videos on youtube and found out about customsforge, but first i thought it was kinda dubious (nailed it) and maybe illegal/greyzone in some way to download those cdlc's.

Then i bought my new beast pc after my old was so freakin slow (8 years old pc). I payed too much anyways, but whatever i don't buy every year a new one.

So yeah discovered rs14 on mmoga just for 10 bucks. Bought it for pc and started playing again, but my favorite songs then.

And it made so much fun, the first day i broke my pinky, didn't even recognize that at first. After i made a break and i felt some weird pain in my pinky... Looked at my hand and my pinky was curved like a banana. It's so weird to describe it in english.... pain in the pinky. Get it ? [emoji38]

Anyways, yeah after getting the hang of some techniques and learning those songs. I still sound awfuly bad, when i turn down the background music [emoji85]

And to compete with you guys makes it even more fun and motivating in the championships. I want to beat you all so bad, i want to show myself that i have some little mirco pontential. That's my goal even tho you guys are owning the championship... Makes it hard to keep up [emoji28]

 

 

If you play one song one thousand times in RS, I'm sure you'll learn to play it without RS :D

 

That'll be "Stir It Up", then? :)