OK, as a mid 40's beginner I expected this to be very hard, and I was right.  I expected to to fully understand music theory at first (if ever).  What I didn't expect was the wide variant between Rocksmith and say Youtube lessons or even sheet music.

 

This wasn't a part I would thought to be difficult to understand and hopefully I am just missing something obvious.  For the record this would not be the first time in my life I missed something obvious that was right in front of me.

 

 

Let's take "Knockin on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan.  If I look up any Youtube video on how to play that song or even look up a guitar tab it pretty much shows the intro to the song being played with the following chords:

 

G, G, D, D, Am, Am, Am, Am

G, G, D, D, C, C, C, C

 

 

But if I turn on Rocksmith I get none of that.  I get a bunch of chord shapes with individual notes needing played.  Why the vast difference?  Why is this not all pretty much the same across the board?

It's probably just that the youtube videos and tabs that you've been looking at are showing you simplified versions of the song - teaching you how to strum along, but lacking the intricacies of the picking pattern. Alternatively, it could be that the youtube/tabs are showing you the rhythm guitar part, whilst you're playing the lead part on Rocksmith...

For Knockin on Heaven's door, you are playing the lead guitar which is composed of arpegios of the actual chords that people use when writing txt tab or doing youtube lessons. The thing is that RS have a weird way of indicating this if you are not playing at 100% difficulty.

 

Playing the Rythm part on RS will be (almost) the same as what you can see on most of the tabs.

 

RS is useless concerning music theory, it might give you some little thing here and there but that's not is goal.

If you're really serious about learning to play guitar, start taking lessons from a real teacher. Rocksmith is great for practicing, it's great for improving your technique, and once you already know a bit about playing guitar, it's great for playing songs you'd really like to play. But it really sucks as a teacher, and using it as a beginnner requires a lot more time and dedication than taking lessons will.

Like th op, I'm 42 and started learning with Rocksmith. Trying to figure out the different learning tools like YouTube, dedicated online traing sites etc. has become part of the learning for me. Rocksmith has inspired me to take lessons (started a couple months ago) after 2 years of playin the video game. Maybe I'm stubborn, silly or both, but rocksmith taught me enough to gain confidence to go get lessons. Sounds silly to younger guys maybe, but I felt kinda foolish starting lessons at such a late stage. I felt RS gave me a head start on the lessons and made me a little more than a complete beginner.

 

Having said that, I will agree that in-person lessons is the way to go. It has been the best way to learn so far. Before or after RS...I probably wouldn't have taken lessons at all was it not for the game.

Like th op, I'm 42 and started learning with Rocksmith. Trying to figure out the different learning tools like YouTube, dedicated online traing sites etc. has become part of the learning for me. Rocksmith has inspired me to take lessons (started a couple months ago) after 2 years of playin the video game. Maybe I'm stubborn, silly or both, but rocksmith taught me enough to gain confidence to go get lessons. Sounds silly to younger guys maybe, but I felt kinda foolish starting lessons at such a late stage. I felt RS gave me a head start on the lessons and made me a little more than a complete beginner.Having said that, I will agree that in-person lessons is the way to go. It has been the best way to learn so far. Before or after RS...I probably wouldn't have taken lessons at all was it not for the game.

 

Oh, there's a lot more people like us than you think -- I started taking lessons at about the same age, after many years of hacking out the same old chords. Wish there'd been Rocksmith when I was a kid though!

 

The learning process is different when you're older. My son started lessons a few months back and he's perfectly happy working on just a few simple riffs from various songs. This wouldn't work for me -- as an adult, I need the challenge of working immediately on full songs, which my teacher recognized (I was a beginner when I started though). And I was willing to practice a couple hours a day.

 

Of course, my son can learn in five minutes what it takes me an hour to learn!

 

But he still needs ME to drive him to his lessons. Ha!

I'm not 40 but close enough :P Anyway, After 3 months in Rocksmith it was obvious for me that I will need some music theory and someone to show me how to actually play. So, I subscribed to one online professional guitar lessons and now I know all the notes on 1st five frets, how are chords created, and a bit of scales (i'm into it atm). In short, there's thousands of vids covering every aspect of guitar, from theory to gear. I would advise anyone, if they are financialy able to ofcourse, to take some kind of lessons. Because, if you watched some cool vids about some guy or girl destroying the guitar while jamming... well,, you wont be able to that without some theory behind it. At least it would be a lot easier for you.