I'm a decent rhythm guitarist, and I wanted to improve my skills. This is not the way to do it, for a few reasons:
1) The pitch detection is super tricky to calibrate. It's not just the volume of the guitar -- it's the tone. If your guitar and/or pickups produce a tone it wasn't designed for, it simply doesn't work. I bet they have a list of "recommended guitars" somewhere; but really? That's not how music works. I play the guitar I have because I like its tone, regardless of the opinion of the designers of this software. Ugh.
2) The teaching methods are linear. During profile setup, it asks you current level. And then doesn't actually use that information. You still have to start at the very beginning of the lessons, which is pretty annoying if you already know how to play.
3) The teaching methods are rigid. Hitting 100% of the notes (when you can get the system to detect them) shouldn't always be the goal. People have different styles and techniques. Sometimes, it's better to learn a song to a reasonable level and come back to it later. Sometimes, you pick up new elements of style through experimentation; a good teacher would encourage a little of that. But this system doesn't work that way, and it's very discouraging. It's like... well... learning something from a robot.

Yousician works WAY better. Seems like it was designed by actual musicians; this game feels like it was designed by committee.

I have been playing real guitar for over 15 years, so I bought this game not to learn, but to see if it was everything it was cracked up to be. I won't deny that it CAN teach you to play real guitar, but there are a couple issues I noticed.

1.) Remember Guitar Hero? After you memorize five buttons, it's not too hard to play with some precision and skill. With Rocksmith, you have to memorize the location of six strings and 22 frets, presumably without looking, if you are to be able to get better at the game.

2.) When playing, I found it difficult to remember what I had just played, because I was too focused on looking from TV to guitar, TV to guitar, etc. to make sure I was playing the right notes. I found that when I would replay the song, it was like playing for the first time, because seeing the notes was more of a fleeting glimpse than something I could commit to memory.

Bottom line: If you want to learn real guitar, then I suggest using chord books, video and in-person lessons, and YouTube.

Love the lessons, songs and games on there! There's even nonstop play where you can just jam out to songs for however long you desire. You get tons of trophies and little rewards. I haven't figured out how to use them all yet and I've had it for 2 months. I have completely improved from being scared of even touching a guitar to not feeling embarrassed to show what I know. I'm using this in conjunction with apps and YouTube to get a fuller learning experience! In one weekend game sesh I improved dramatically. You get to work on building your calluses without it feeling like a chore. Its fun and a great builder in your level and it helps you discover new ways to play as you go. Each song has numerous levels that you can build on as you notice yourself and other people playing. Its great! I haven't had any training from another guitar player but I've caught up to someone who pays.

The game is great when it works. However, the real tone cable is terrible. I have gone through five cables and they all break after a few months no matter how much I baby them. The game is really fun when it works but it is very frustrating when the cable breaks. The cable breaks all the time so the game really isn't worth it. It is always just a matter of time before you plug the game in and it doesn't work anymore. Also, you can't just go to the store and pickup a new cable. You have to buy them online and wait for them to ship. It also sucks having to constantly sink money into this game buying new cables all the time. Since you HAVE to use the UbiSoft real tone cable, there is no work around for this problem. My most recent cable stopped working all of of a sudden (like all the others) and this time I'm not bothering to replace it. This game will probably end up in the trash.

I bought this game for my spouse for Christmas, along with an Electric Guitar set. This game has by far exceeded our expectations as well as the expectations of all of our friends and family that have seen it. The game starts with the basic introductory courses - learning how to tune, learning how to strum and pick. Then you can move onto the songs. The database of songs available is impressive, the selection is great, and the packs they offer for additional bands as an additional purchase are of a reasonable price too. I like that you can buy and download a pack and it will always be saved in your game, so you will have it forever. You can't do that with sheet music, lol. After every song you will get your rating, suggestions, and mini-classes to take based on your weaknesses through that play. It completely tailors the learning experience based on what you miss and don't miss. Not to mention, taking those mini-classes will also unlock additional features (we haven't gotten that far yet). My spouse is really loving the playback option right now, where you can choose a specific number of bars, and repeat them over and over again to get the chords down. He has multiple songs under his belt now, and it's only been about two weeks. Well worth the investment!!