Just as Rocksmith+ makes it easier and more fun to learn music and play your favorite songs, it now also includes Sheet Music for Piano! This is a powerful feature and a great opportunity to develop your musical skills to the next level.
Reading Music can be Hard!
It's a story we've all heard and many of us have experienced. "I took piano lessons but I could never read music." "I just copied my teachers hands and pretended to follow along with the notation." "I can play a few things from muscle memory but I can't sightread at all..."
Learning to read sheet music can be really hard, and sometimes people even cite this difficulty as the reason they gave up learning an instrument. Enter Rocksmith+! The Rocksmith+ Noteway shows you exactly where and when to play each note on piano, guitar or bass, without needing to learn sheet music. This means you can dive right into actual songs by your favorite artists---and Rocksmith+ lesson practice tracks---to build your skills while immersing yourself in the music instead of getting frustrated by a piece of paper.
For Guitar & Bass: The Noteway AND RS Tab
For guitar and bass, Rocksmith+ also offers RS Tab, so players can practice with standard tablature in addition to the immersive and intuitive Noteway experience. I say "in addition" instead of "as an alternative" here, because both ways of looking at the music can be helpful to players in different ways. While the Noteway shows guitarists and bassists fingerings and finger motions with much more precision and expressive detail than tablature, RS Tab is an effective view for seeing numerical patterns in the music and carefully analyzing the music backwards and forwards. Plus, being an expert tablature reader is also a handy skill to have out there in the wider world of music. We want our players to be empowered to thrive as musicians both inside and outside their Rocksmith+ play time!
For Piano: The Noteway AND Sheet Music!
Likewise, there are many benefits to learning to read standard sheet music for piano. Imagine being able to walk into any music store or library and grab a book of sheet music, take it home and just start playing it. Spoiler alert: there are thousands and thousands (millions?) of songs with published sheet music from the last several hundred years. Being able to read---even better, sightread---sheet music gives you access to all of it. Being comfortable with sheet music also helps you study music theory and composition. Write out sheet music parts for other musicians, whether a fellow pianist, a violinist, trombone player or drummer! Piano sheet music in Rocksmith+ is your ticket to this world of exciting possibilities.
Learning Sheet Music is EASIER with Rocksmith+
A big part of the challenge of learning sheet music from a piece of paper is that the page is static black and white, unable to interactively coach and guide you out of your confusion. With sheet music in Rocksmith+, you get helpful real-time guidance, such as the scrolling playback line so you know exactly where to look in the music, and the piano keyboard lighting up at the bottom of your screen as a reference to remind you of the name and exact location of any note.
Because the playback line is in exact sync with the music you hear, Rocksmith+ helps you read sheet music rhythms perfectly and keeps you moving forward, without getting stuck on a flubbed or visually confusing note. This is one of the most important disciplines learners need to master when practicing sightreading---keep going!---and it's almost impossible to develop this skill without a real time coach keeping you honest; aka Rocksmith+! But you don't need to constantly be pushing the speed envelope and forcing ahead. This is just one type of practice you'll want to challenge yourself with.
In order to master sheet music, it's also important to slow down the tempo and build up from a comfortable speed, or even note-by-note, with Rocksmith+ waiting for you to find and play each correct note on your own time, isolating one hand at a time, looping individual sections... You know, all the unique practice features Rocksmith+ offers in Riff Review. Combine these with sheet music, and you'll develop your sightreading effectively in no time!
The Sheet Music Adapts to the Current Difficulty Level?!
Check out the three versions of Mozart's "Rondo ala Turca" below. This is a piano classic but is extremely advanced and not a song a beginner could readily attempt outside of Rocksmith+. As you know, however, Rocksmith+ allows you to adjust the difficulty level of any song, from 1% to 100% difficulty, both manually and using Adaptive Difficulty. Whenever you do this, Rocksmith+ sheet music rewrites itself automatically to match the difficulty setting!
100% Difficulty - A lot of notes to read!
50% Difficulty - The sheet music changes automatically. Fewer notes and easier to play.
10% Difficulty - Even a beginner can dive in and start playing this Mozart classic!
Professional Quality Sheet Music
Rocksmith+ sheet music has been meticulously designed to match the look and standards of professionally published sheet music. Staff and system sizing and spacing, symbols such as clefs, key signatures and time signatures, rhythmic spacing, the notes themselves and all common techniques are accurately represented; from pedal and octave markings to grace note, trill, roll, accent and staccato articulations and more.
This means you'll be able to benefit from the hundreds of years of evolving standards of sheet music that make it as easy as possible to read today---it's already challenging enough but it would be impossible to read sheet music if the system was just a random mess. Plus, you'll be able to take the sightreading expertise you gain in Rocksmith+ and immediately apply it to reading any other professionally produced sheet music.
For players already comfortable with traditional notation, Rocksmith+ sheet music will be immediately familiar and easily legible to you. Check out some of these notation examples:
Nothing to Fear!
Sheet music is a powerful tool for learning and understanding music and Rocksmith+ is here to make it easier and more fun than ever before. Treat yourself to the most flexible and personalized interactive music learning experience anywhere today!
About the author
Dr. Capital is a musical artist, educator and YouTuber. He earned his doctorate in Guitar Performance and Music Education from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and subsequently taught music theory, ear training, digital music production, music notation, songwriting, ensemble and other music courses as a full-time professor at Musicians Institute, USC and the University of North Texas. Dr. Capital currently lives in Osaka, Japan, where he contributes as Lead Musical Contents Creator for Rocksmith+ at Ubisoft. He is a published author of books and articles on music, and a regular columnist for Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
Everyone can try Rocksmith+ for free by either downloading the mobile app for iOS and Android, or by downloading it on PS5, PS4, or PC. New mobile users can also try a free 7-day trial with all songs & lessons included when they sign up for a 12-month subscription. Check out the full song library for more songs from your favorite artists. Rocksmith+ is available on PC through the Ubisoft Store. For more on Rocksmith+, check out the official site.
