Real Guitar Hero?

[hsncorrosion]

I have seen a mod which you can mod you real guitar and use it to play guitar hero. But this requires permenit damage to the guitar and it'll never be more than a toy.

I have been looking for a program that will allow me to plug my guitar into my mic/line in jack and have it teach me how to play certain songs.

Almost like how the newer electric keyboards have light up keys to show you how to play a song and has you memorize it to learn.

I have been taking classes and practicing but want to be able to play something even if just the main riff of a song, I will continue with my lessons but finding something like this would be a big help.

I've also been looking for something that can emulate a guitar fx pedal, I've found a few but none of them are free, just a few demos and trials, nothing I could use long enough, I do plan to buy a guitar fx pedal but thats for when I get better.

Also if any of you play guitar my friend says that he took lessons and just didn't get it but tabs came to him easy, my guitar teacher said that i'll never learn anything with tabs yet my friend can play songs that I could only dream of playing (example: Stuff by lamb of god) What do you think?

I'm actually trying to learn something and willing to take the time to do it, please help me out.

[digip]

I never took lessons, and can't read sheet music. Anyone can read tabs, but it is up the the individual on what thy prefer. I just play along with something until I can play it. Even Paul McCartney has said that he couldn't read sheet music, and the Beatles have sold millions of records with a ton of hits.

I don't care how much sheet music you can read, if you have no rhythm and soul, what are you going to be able to play other than like a robot repeating what someone else showed you.

Lessons are good to get really technical and learn the hard things like arpeggio sweeps, but nothing makes you better than practice. Practice, practice, practice and then some more practice. It's like hacking, you have to do the homework before you will learn anything, and lessons (to me) are only a small part of the learning experience. Trial and error, observation of other guitar players, and practice are all just part of the process.

I have been playing since I was 15 and still not the best technically, but it's not about 100mph speed scales for me. I just love to play and play from the heart and that is all that matters.

For lessons at home, youtube has a ton of instructional videos and weekly lesson plans. They also have lots of music videos of just guitar solos from songs and lessons from top players. I woudl just play along with some of these when practicing. Pop in a cd of your favorite band and just spend the day trying to pick out the notes and then build on it from there.

As far as software for guitar processing, there are a ton of pc related guitar software and mutil tracking programs. Some free but most are limited shareware or trial software. Best thing to do is just play straight through your amp until you can save up for some pedal effects or multi processor. Invest in the equipment is a must for any gear heard. And learn about how to tweak your stuff. I have met many people over the years who were just starting out and never new their amps could give them distortion. If you have a seperate gain and volume control, you can change your amp from simple clean tones to full on distortion by turning the gain alll the way up and starting with the volume around 2 on up. A lot of lower end amps have this feature but do not have a channel switcher to go between distortion and clear tone, so most kids never know that they can do it manaully right on the dials.

There are probably some free guitar effect programs out there, but most of the pass through, or play through effects I have seen are not so great and have a delay from when you hit a string to when you hear it come out of the speaker. Make sit difficult to play and try t hear the note 3 seconds after you hit it. High end programs that take VST plugins are the way to go, or even something with one effect written as a stand along program just for playing along with and not recording would be best. A beefy machine is needed for any recoding that uses built in effects and multi-tracking recording.

A light weight free multitracker program that isn't too hard to learn is Krystal Audio Engine. It's probably the best free multitrack and effects recording program you can find for just starting out. http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index.php?section=download

Runs on windows only. If for some reason the link does not work: http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/digip/KRISTAL_AE_Setup.exe

[hsncorrosion]

Thanks for the help.

And as for my amp its a low-end First Act. It does have a distortion switch bass/gain/tone/etc.

Thanks again, I'm taking a look at the software now.

[VaKo]

If you want to get good at the guitar, practice as much as you can. Spend your weekends doing nothing but practicing, and when you can't practice, listen to music. Get to know other people who play, and jam with them when your not practicing. But, this all means nothing if your hearts not in it. Just don't start playing heroin hero until you can afford rehab.