There'll be a brief message underneath stating that the chords are being calculated, and then a fairly cramped set of chord blocks will appear. When you load in an MP3 source track, a waveform graphic appears in the top section. It's like Guitar Hero for realįirst under the microscope is Chord Viewer, which is activated by clicking the appropriately-marked third tab in the middle section of the user interface. With Riff Builder, you can grab sections of a song and create your own custom backing tracks to play along to. It can also isolate and remove guitar parts from a song, so you can take the lead, and gives you control over the pitch, to allow you to jam in a key that you're familiar and comfortable with. Jam Master allows you to slow down the music so you can practice your newly-learned solo at more manageable speeds. The Chord Viewer auto-detects a song's chords and displays them in real time under a scrolling audio waveform graphic, while simultaneously providing diagrams to show you where on your guitar neck your fingers need to be placed, and when. Gizmag takes a look at what this software has to offer.

Irish company Sonic Ladder has now released some interesting software called Riffstation that gives you the opportunity to break out your much-neglected guitar and play along with your favorite bands to onscreen prompts. Interest in learning to play a real guitar also blossomed, but many found the transition from guitar-shaped controller to actual instrument a difficult one, and perfectly good axes have been gathering dust ever since. Not too long after its launch in 2005, you'd be hard-pushed to visit any friends without being challenged to a round or two of Guitar Hero.

How accurate is riffstation